DEV Community

Cover image for Hacktoberfest just changed its rules
neoan
neoan

Posted on • Updated on

Hacktoberfest just changed its rules

Dear contributors,
in case you are wondering why your pull-requests show 14 days maturity while the faqs & rules tell you otherwise:

The github repo of hacktoberfest digitalocean/hacktoberfest gives us more info.

Until (PR-605)[https://github.com/digitalocean/hacktoberfest/pull/605] is approved, many of us might be in teh dark about the rule-change.
While I do understand that spam is an issue, I personally don't like the fact that rules change during this event. What do you think?

Top comments (13)

Collapse
 
Sloan, the sloth mascot
Comment deleted
Collapse
 
sroehrl profile image
neoan

You can just keep on submitting. Just because you already qualified does not mean you have to stop. Your PRs will show up in your profile as well. From the perspective of Hacktoberfest, it just means you are done and can wait for the maturity period to be over.

Collapse
 
Sloan, the sloth mascot
Comment deleted
 
sroehrl profile image
neoan

Yes, that's what they mean. However, I am a little concerned about the fact that when the rule change happened, my former commits started the new maturity period then, resulting in a total maturity time of 16 instead of 14 days. So let's hope everything works reliably.

Collapse
 
avasconcelos114 profile image
Andre Vasconcelos

I welcome this change, though it should have been made much sooner.

I always found it odd that the rules could be so easily abused in the past, I guess this has always been a ticking time bomb

Collapse
 
sroehrl profile image
neoan

Right. I don't dislike the content of the new rules rather the fact that they change them already "in the race" and fail to communicate that change effectively.

Collapse
 
avasconcelos114 profile image
Andre Vasconcelos

Definitely agree on that

Collapse
 
jikuja profile image
Janne Kujanpää

Thanks for information. Warning incoming rant!

Digital ocean's communication and behavior are unacceptable.

I joined today, did my PRs and rules/FAQ does not state anything about hacktoberfest topic. In the hidden post: hacktoberfest.digitalocean.com/hac... they are telling

We will honor all valid pull requests prior to this change, and as of October 3, 2020 at 12:00:00 UTC – and October 3 in all time zones – pull requests will only count toward earning a T-shirt or planting a tree if they are submitted in a repository classified with the ‘hacktoberfest’ topic.

Therefore rules and FAQ is just a lie. I would trust my money or business to be handled such a company.

Collapse
 
sroehrl profile image
neoan

Well, I somewhat agree but also realize that the Hacktoberfest page itself is OS. So in a weird way it nicely shows the hurdles of a community changing a running system.

Collapse
 
nfrankel profile image
Nicolas Fränkel

it's rules

its rules

Collapse
 
sroehrl profile image
neoan

Jep! You are right

Collapse
 
theodesp profile image
Theofanis Despoudis • Edited

As always it's because people trying to game the system that we end up with what we have. Sad.

Collapse
 
sroehrl profile image
neoan

From what I hear this was a problem in previous years as well. There was and is a lot of discussion around it. I guess the question is also how to make sure the reputation of event in general doesn't suffer.