My Road to the Hacktoberfest 2024.

#devchallenge #hacktoberfestchallenge #hacktoberfest #opensource

This is a submission for the 2024 Hacktoberfest Writing challenge: Contributor Experience

As I look back on the days of October, I find it to be an incredible journey of learning, coding, and contributing to the open-source community. This year, I had the privilege to work on a variety of projects and successfully submitted four PRs/MRs that were accepted. However, like any journey, it had its ups and downs.

Projects I Worked On

Hacktoberfest gave me the opportunity to collaborate with maintainers and contributors on diverse projects. Here's a brief rundown of the accepted contributions I made:

Updated the UI - https://github.com/SaumyaSubham/Foodie
I focused on enhancing the overall UI to improve user experience. This
PR challenged me to align my design ideas with the existing theme of
the application.
Added Send Icon - https://github.com/SaumyaSubham/Chatbot
This simple yet important PR involved adding a new send icon for the
chatbot interface. It was a minor UI update, but attention to detail
matters, and I was happy to contribute.
Hover Effect on Footer - https://github.com/SaumyaSubham/Dev_Profiles
I introduced a hover effect on the footer to make the website more
interactive and engaging. This change taught me how subtle design
improvements can significantly impact the user experience.
Updated README.md - https://github.com/SaumyaSubham/WildGuard
Documentation is an integral part of any project. I revamped the
README.md file to make it more informative and user-friendly. This
contribution reminded me that even non-code contributions are crucial
for project success.

Not every contribution I made was accepted, I was faced setbacks also along the way. For instance:

Fix iOS Safari Scrolling Issue - https://github.com/SaumyaSubham/DocsGPT
I worked on resolving a scrolling issue in the iOS Safari browser
within the conversation component. Unfortunately, the PR was not
accepted, but the experience taught me a lot about mobile-first
development and troubleshooting browser compatibility issues.
Updated OnboardingModal.tsx - https://github.com/SaumyaSubham/electricitymaps-contrib
My PR for updating the OnboardingModal in an open source project wasn't
accepted either. While this was disheartening, it pushed me to reflect
on where I can improve, especially in adhering to project guidelines
and maintaining code quality.

Participating in Hacktoberfest is not just about getting your PRs accepted; It's about the learning process. Here I got to learn that:

Attention to Detail Matters:
Working on UI/UX improvements made me realize how every small change
can enhance user experience.
Not Every PR gets accepted:
Rejection is part of the process. It's essential to stay motivated and
keep learning from feedback.
The Power of Open Source:
I've always admired open-source projects, but Hacktoberfest allowed me
to truly immerse myself in the community and see firsthand how
collaborative coding can lead to innovation.
Importance of Documentation:
Contributing to documentation updates helped me understand how vital it
is for project accessibility and user understanding.

And I also got some badges from Holopin while completing each PR/MR.
Here's the Screenshot:

I think these badges are there for symbolizing your efforts and your moral values during your participation.

Final Thoughts:

Hacktoberfest 2024 was a journey filled with growth, learning, and the joy of contributing to something larger than myself. Even though not all my contributions were accepted, I walked away with invaluable experience and a stronger understanding of the open-source ecosystem. I'm proud of the PRs I made, and I look forward to continuing my open-source journey.

To anyone considering participating in future Hacktoberfests, I highly encourage it. You'll grow as a developer, collaborate with talented individuals, and become part of a community that truly embodies the spirit of "OPEN-SOURCE".

Until next time, Hacktoberfest!

Thanks for reading, and feel free to check out my GitHub for more of my contributions in here: https://github.com/SaumyaSubham

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