Everyone talks about the Hacktoberfest event, but they rarely talk about what you actually get after winning it, right?
I've been joining Hacktoberfest since 2022. In the early days, all I could get was the participation badge 😉.
I joined the event again in 2023, but I still only managed to get the participation badge.
However, I learned a lot during all those events. Anyway, I joined the event in 2024 as well. Although I couldn't win, I created 4 PRs and got 4 badges.
But I still wasn't able to win the main event.
However, for Hacktoberfest 2025, I joined with a lot of planning. I was completely in the zone, finding repositories and issues days before the event started. I knew that with thousands of participants worldwide, getting my PRs accepted would be a race against the clock. 😌
I had created 5 of my PRs by the morning of October 1st, the very moment the event started. I quickly realized that winning a global event against such intense competition is incredibly challenging 😪. Anyway, by the end of the first two days, I had created all 6 of my PRs. But that was just the start. Just creating PRs isn't enough; the project maintainers need to review and merge them. And with the 7-day review window to check for spam or low-quality contributions, it’s a long, nerve-wracking process to get final acceptance.
Anyway, after 3 years of hard work and persistence, I finally managed to achieve the goal I set, winning Hacktoberfest event!
What did I get? 😎 More than anything, I learned a lot of new things. You gain a completely different experience when working on many diverse projects.
For winning the event, I received a tree as a gift from Hacktoberfest's tree plantation initiative 😋. I also received a limited edition t-shirt.
Reading this, you might think, "Well, you can buy these things with money."
But that's not the truth. With all this, we can learn new things and gain new experience. This might be a big deal for me, but it might be a small thing for you. 😌
I, too, would love to see more guys and girls contributing to open-source projects on social media someday in the future.
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