This is a submission for the 2025 Hacktoberfest Writing Challenge: Maintainer Spotlight
My hands were actually shaking.
I was staring at my first-ever pull request as a maintainer. Some stranger on the internet had found my little side project and wanted to contribute code.
My brain was screaming: "You're not a real maintainer! You just built a glowing dot that spins! What if you break their code? What if you mess this up?"
I'd created this project during one of those 2 AM coding sessions where everything feels either brilliant or completely insane. The idea was simple: what if Hacktoberfest looked less like a list of numbers and more like a galaxy?
So I pushed a single HTML file with one glowing circle, added a "good first issue" tag because that's what you're supposed to do, and went to bed fully expecting exactly zero people to ever see it.
And now... someone was here. With actual code.
I took a deep breath, clicked "Merge," and...
It worked.
That mix of terror and excitement? That's where our galaxy actually began.
Then Things Got Real
That first merge was like opening a floodgate. People started actually contributing to my little project.
Sai was first - he added these beautiful shooting stars that made our static galaxy feel alive. Suddenly we had comets streaking across the screen.
Then Mohit messaged me: "Hey, I added a little astronaut floating around your galaxy!"
I opened his PR and there it was - this tiny astronaut slowly orbiting through our digital space. That little astronaut hit me different - it represented all of us floating into the open source universe.
But the real "oh wow" moment came when Praful submitted a massive PR that added:
- Orbiting satellites with blinking lights
- A warp speed effect when you click the main repo
- "Code rain" that falls from contributor avatars
- Enhanced tooltips and animations
I looked at the "Files changed" tab and my jaw dropped. This wasn't my little weekend project anymore - it was becoming something real.
The Day Everything Broke
Here's the part nobody tells you about being a maintainer: sometimes you have to un-merge someone's hard work.
PR #8 added background music. I merged it. Then realized it was causing issues with other features. I had to run git revert - the scariest command in Git. It feels like you're deleting someone's contribution.
Then came the merge conflict from hell. Praful's massive PR #15 collided with my local changes, turning our index.html into a 1,400-line sea of <<<<<<< HEAD and >>>>>>> pr-15.
For two hours, my terminal looked like this:
CONFLICT (content): Merge conflict in index.html
Auto-merging index.html failed
git merge --abort
git reset --hard origin/main
Pure panic. I finally fixed it, but learned the real lesson: being a maintainer isn't about Git wizardry -it's about communication. A simple "Hey, can you pull the latest changes first?" would have saved me two hours of sweating.
What I Actually Do as a Maintainer
Turns out, maintaining an open source project has very little to do with writing brilliant code and everything to do with being a good host.
You're basically running a digital potluck. Everyone brings something different, and your job is to:
- Make sure they feel welcome
- Help their contribution fit with everything else
- Say "thank you" for every single PR, even the tiny ones
- Keep the lights on for the next person
Every "Looks great, merging!" comment matters. Every quick review might be what keeps someone coding when they're about to give up.
Our Galaxy Today
That single glowing dot I started with? Here's what the community built:
- 200+ twinkling stars with different animations
- Floating asteroids and nebula clouds
- An orbiting astronaut and satellites
- Shooting stars and comets
- Interactive features like warp speed and code rain
- Music toggle (we got it working!)
- Animated stats that count up
It's a living, breathing piece of art built by 7+ contributors from around the world.
Want to Add Your Star?
We've still got plenty of space (pun intended) for more contributors:
- Issue #19: Help refactor our massive HTML file into separate CSS/JS files
- Issue #16: Fix mobile responsiveness (it gets squished on phones)
- Issue #6: Fix typos or add comments (perfect first PR!)
- Or come up with your own idea!
Check out our open issues - there's something for every skill level.
The Real Magic
My first Hacktoberfest, I was too nervous to contribute. I thought my small fixes didn't matter.
This project proved me wrong.
Hacktoberfest Code Galaxy isn't just a visualization - it's proof that every contribution matters.
It's Sai's comets lighting up the sky.
It's Mohit's astronaut exploring new frontiers.
It's Praful's satellites orbiting the repo.
It's every person who showed up and said "Hey, can I help?"
We're not just writing code - we're building a constellation of collaboration. And that's way cooler than any single line of code I could write alone.
Special thanks to Sai, Mohit, Praful, and everyone who added their star to our galaxy 🌟
P.S. I want to sincerely apologize for the quality of the images. I tried multiple ways to enhance them, but they didn't come out as clear as I'd hoped. Thank you for bearing with me, I hope you were still able to see all the cool features the community built!
Repo: github.com/CourageCodeJourney/hacktoberfest-code-galaxy
Live Demo: couragecodejourney.github.io/hacktoberfest-code-galaxy
Top comments (0)