Hacktoberfest is always an exciting time for the open-source community! It’s a whole month where developers from all over the world come together to contribute to projects, and it’s a great way to get involved and give back 🎉.
I’ve been taking part in Hacktoberfest for a few years now, and every time, I’m amazed by how much the community can achieve together. A couple of years ago, we wrote the 101 Linux Commands eBook entirely thanks to Hacktoberfest contributions. That’s something that shows what’s possible when everyone chips in.
This year, as a maintainer, I had the chance to help new contributors get started, review pull requests, and grow my projects. I've answered numerous questions on different communities and forums from new contributors getting started with open-source.
Why I Joined Hacktoberfest 2024
Open source is a big part of what I do, and Hacktoberfest is a perfect way to bring more people into the world of open-source. It’s a chance to help others get started, especially if they’re contributing for the first time.
For Hacktoberfest 2024, a few of my projects like Laravel Wave, LaraSail, and some of my open-source ebooks saw a lot of new activity. It’s always great to see people from all different skill levels getting involved and making improvements. It’s a reminder of why I love open source in the first place!
The Highs and Lows
Highs: New Contributors and Ideas 🚀
One of the best things about Hacktoberfest is seeing all the new contributors getting involved. We had a lot of first-time pull requests, and that’s always exciting! It’s great to see people learning and growing through open source.
A couple of years ago we worked on the 101 Linux Commands eBook. That project was completely powered by community contributions during Hacktoberfest, and it turned out to be something really great!
Lows: PR Overload 😅
Of course, with a lot of contributions comes a lot of work. There were times when it was tough to keep up with the number of pull requests, especially when balancing other projects and work.
For example a few years ago I had to review around 50 PRs per day which messed up my GitHub contribution graph 😂
But honestly, it’s a good problem to have. The more contributions we get, the more we can improve the project, so even if it’s a bit overwhelming at times, it’s worth it in the end!
What I Learned as a Maintainer
Here are a few things I learned as a maintainer during Hacktoberfest:
Having clear contribution guidelines made a huge difference. It helped contributors know exactly what to do, which saved me time and made everything go smoother.
Labeling “good first issues” helped new contributors get started. It gave them an easy way to jump in and make their first contribution.
Taking time to engage with contributors, answer questions, and provide feedback is really important. It helps keep the momentum going and builds good relationships with new contributors.
Open-Source Projects You Can Contribute To
If you’re interested in contributing to some cool projects, here are a few that I maintain:
Laravel Wave - A SaaS Starter Kit built with Laravel, Tailwind CSS, and more!
LaraSail - A CLI tool that makes it easy to set up Laravel on DigitalOcean.
Introduction to Bash scripting - An introduction to Bash scripting eBook that was trending both on GitHub and HN!
And there’s more! Check out this post I wrote recently on my open-source projects for Hacktoberfest:
Conclusion
For me personally, Hacktoberfest 2024 was an amazing experience! As a maintainer, it’s really rewarding to see the community come together and improve open-source projects. There were challenges along the way, but for me the positives outweighed the negatives.
If you’ve never taken part in Hacktoberfest, I’d really recommend giving it a try next year. Whether you’re a contributor or a maintainer, there’s something for everyone, and it’s a great way to get involved in open source.
If you have any questions or just want to chat, feel free to reach out to me on Twitter/X: @bobbyiliev_. Let’s keep the open-source spirit alive 🙌!
Top comments (1)
The top repos are great for maintaining imo, because there are no easy PRs.
A lot of people look for easy PRs, which is why Hacktoberfest is hated by some.
I had a bit of trouble last time for the same thing.