It’s almost time for another Hacktoberfest. I participated for the first time in 2017, its third edition, and things has changed since: now it requires 6 PRs to be done, and if you want a t-shirt you must be among the first 10,000. I don’t think I’ll be one of them, because I have a lot of work to do.
Hacktoberfest 2025 is approaching. I’ve already participated from 2017 to 2020, then discontinuously in the next years, and I think I’ll do my best this year as well. I can exclude to be among those who will get the limited edition t-shirt (I have three from the past). I’m too busy.
I think Hacktoberfest is one of the best open source contribution events so far. I also think that the organizers did not anticipate that the event would reach such proportions: swags have disappeared for years, then they’ll come back in 2025, but for a limited number of participants.
Contributing to open source has nothing to do with getting a free t-shirt, but we all love swags. I do understand that they have a price: the point here is that they should be for everyone or for no one. Otherwise, there is a risk of encouraging people to send insignificant contributions in a hurry.
Then, starting from last year I decided to focus on quality: I don’t mind to get digital badges or swags, but I want to contribute only to projects that really matter. I think I will send some PRs of documents translation, since I don’t know if I have time to code. Never say never.
Anyway, Hacktoberfest 2025 will be sponsored by Digital Ocean and Major League Hacking: for some years now, it has been possible to send pull requests in GitLab—initially it was limited to GitHub. You can get several digital badges for joining and completing accepted PRs.
It’s an open event everyone can join. If it’s your first time, I suggest you to look for issues tagged with either good-first-issue or first-contributions to have more chances. This is valid all year round, no matter the Hacktoberfest. Even though I already have years of experience, I tend to look for them as well.
First contributions welcome issues are a great way to meet other developers and join new projects. I don’t like to send request to people I don’t know: it’s legitimate, but it seems to me like an invasion of other people’s space. The situation is different when it comes to multinational projects.
Top comments (0)