Hacktoberfest 2023

Marek Mazij — Tue, 31 Oct 2023 13:04:30 +0000

Intro

Hacktoberfest 2023 is almost over. I took part in it as a novice developer. I have not participated in Open Source projects before.

Highs and Lows

What did I like? The great feeling that comes with accepting PR. It is truly uplifting.

What did I like less? The crowds. Popular repositories were besieged, every free issue was quickly seized. Waiting times for PR accreditation could also be long - understandably so, but still worrying because Hacktoberfest is a race against time.

Less popular repositories were quieter, but I lacked confidence that they would actually meet Hacktoberfest requirements.

Because not everyone who declared they met the requirements was actually accepted by Hacktoberfest. There were some large repositories that collected arbitrary code, gathered a lot of traffic and easily accepted PR. The only way to check if there is a problem is to find the issue, as long as someone published it.

On the other hand, repositories that had solid code requirements, such as the existence of tests, typical naming of commits, thorough quality checks - their participation in Hacktoberfest was a sure thing.

Rule of thumb - if there is a crowd, low initial expectations of the code, and no critical comments to accepted PRs - such repositories are better to avoid.

Prize

Hacktoberfest has given up sending the famous T-shirts. So all you get is satisfaction and a set of virtual stickers. For the fastest - a tree planted in Africa (yes, I have one). But most of all, a start in the new adventure that is Open Source.

DEV Community: Marek Mazij

Hacktoberfest 2023

Intro

Highs and Lows

Prize