For this quick Hacktober update, I'll just share a quick task along with an overall Hacktoberfest observation, as the month comes to an end. As I continue took a look around GitHub issues, I did some searching using the Hacktoberfest label. Filtering by "Good First Issue" has provided some interesting projects to browse through, although I am finding that there is a large divide between very minor issues that take just a minute to correct and significantly larger issues that require a great deal of examination of source code and often are well out of my skill range to tackle.
In hopes of working on some projects that had the official Hacktoberfest recognition I used that label to filter issues. This made it a bit easier to find some tasks of a middle-of-the-road difficulty level. That being said, I was quickly reminded of some of the advice previously received in regards to the various types of Hacktoberfest associated projects out there. While it's pretty cool to see a huge number of GitHubbers getting involved in Hacktoberfest, I think the amount of coding practice projects that have been posted makes it really difficult to find issues related to more substantial and purposeful projects.
Not to throw shade on coding for the sake of coding, but as my comfort level with open-source contribution is growing, I am realizing the value of finding projects that I would like to take more time to study and contribute to progressively over time. In many cases it takes significant effort to get set-up and familiar, so dedicating more time to fewer projects over the long-term seems to be a more productive approach.
I found a project that required a substantial initial time investment, but also required significant communication and clarification as I tackled an open issue. With some of the time between communications, I went back to the Hacktoberfest label for a quick challenge. I was motivated to work on in JavaScript, as it's a personal favourite of mine, but also something I need to sharpen.
And so, with that goal in mind and despite all that I have said, I revisited a little challenge that I remember exploring as I first learned React a few years ago. This Tic-Tac-Toe project, while not a functional, long-term project, did present some opportunities to revisit JavaScript functions in a Hacktoberfest sanctioned repo. I was able to add some requested sorting functionality as well as provide some css formatting enhancements.
It seemed like a good project to return to for some JS practice, but at the end of the day, the PR review process wasn't ideal and I am getting a clearer picture of what I am looking for in finding issues and projects to engage with.
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