Nowthat we’ve looked at what open source is and why one should contribute, let’s look
at the different opportunities in store for the aspiring contributors out there and what’s
better than to start with Hacktoberfest.
Hacktoberfest, arranged by DigitalOcean, is considered to be one of the most reputed
open-source events. Starting from 1st October, various companies, organizations,
developers, and contributors all around the world come together to celebrate the spirit
of open source. Along with gaining experience in open-source contributions, you get a
chance to win a cool pack of swags! Moreover, your solutions will be forever useful
making the technical world a better place.
This event truly captures the essence of open-source development. Anyone across
the globe is eligible to contribute as well as put forth the projects to get their issues
resolved. It’s not always about bug fixes or programming but you can also contribute as
a software tester, help with documentation and also provide innovative solutions to the
problems.
You can be apart of Hacktoberfest in one or more of the following 4 ways:
- Contributor- Participants working on the open source projects.
- Maintainer- They host repositories that can be taken up by contributors.
- EventOrganiser-Hosting events such as mentorships and code collaborations.
- Company- TheyuseHacktoberfest as a platform to increase their visibility.
This blog will primarily focus on participating as a contributor and helping first-timers
navigate their way through Hacktoberfest.
As abeginner, “Hacktoberfest” may seem a bit overwhelming at first, but don’t let that
feeling get to you! Any person with a basic experience of working on GitLab/Github and
a determination to contribute can be a part of this celebration. It provides equal
opportunity for every participant, challenging them to put their abilities and skills to the
test. Hacktoberfest has also provided many resources and guides to help the
participants every step of the way on their official website.
Once you go onGitHub or GitLab and search for "Hacktoberfest" you will find different
repositories to contribute to. The details of the project will be described in detail in the
Readme. mdfile in the repository. Remember, only repositories with the topic
‘Hacktoberfest’ or issues labeled under the same name are officially part of the event.
Make sure to register on the official Hacktoberfest website before contributing as only
the Pull requests of registered candidates for eligible issues will be considered valid.
The PRs are assigned on a first come first serve basis. At a given point in time, one PR
is assigned to only one person. Hence you don’t have to worry about competition and
don’t need to work in haste. However, continued inactivity can result in the PR being
reassigned to someone else. A time period will be allotted to work on every PR with its
duration depending on the maintainer. You are required to have at least four of your PRs
merged into original projects to be able to earn swags and goodies.
There are many open source events throughout the year but Hacktoberfest is a perfect
platform to start as a beginner. Participating will not only give you a unique open-source
experience but also help in your career and will surely be an impressive addition to your
resume!
As said before, earning swags & goodies should not be the main purpose of
participating. Thus one should not make spammy pull requests. GitHub/GitLab and
DigitalOcean have developed mechanisms to detect such spammy PRs and it may lead
to getting banned from contributing to Hacktoberfest in extreme cases. As correctly
mentioned on the Hacktoberfest website “The quality of pull requests is paramount; The
quantity comes second”. The maintainers can also report a PR as spam. Hence it's also
expected from participants to take care of the code of conduct and cling to the
essential rules against online harassment and bullying. Hence one can ensure a
memorable experience not only for themselves but for their peers too.