Hacktoberfest means different things to different people. The short of it is that Hacktoberfest was created for good intended purposes. However, like most things, good things can quickly go wrong when exploited.
I enjoy coding but I don't get to code that often. Hacktoberfest gives me that opportunity to keep my skills relevant. As the old cliche goes: Don't use it, you loose it.
Sadly, however, I attempted Hacktoberfest last year, and found that that every project I contributed to, was excluded. I was fairly annoyed because I had spent some time writing code with a focus on a fun outcome. I ended up just giving up. It is really frustrating to put some time in and then find your time was worth nothing. Surely the Hacktoberfest team created a page with 'excluded projects' on it??
This year, I decided to give it another go. Once again, I am faced with 'excluded'. No once, but several times. Of course, some of the projects you question. You think to yourself: "Is this a trap". After a while you think all of the projects are a trap. And when I say trap, I mean the projects that ask you to add a photo, add your personal information etc.
This year, before I committed to any project I completed a quick background check. Some of them have been on GitHub for some time. Their profile was very well crafted and it left me thinking: "Surely not". But sadly it was "Surely: yes".
I am not sure about you, but it is frustrating. If you found a project which fits all the Hacktoberfest guidelines and PR requests are acceptable which ultimately makes the 'waiting list', could you share in the commentary below.
Top comments (5)
Got my first accepted PR last week, (and it's in the waiting list status on hacktoberfest web).
visit this repo. the maintainer in there are very nice. and also people in there is welcoming a newbie too! very recommended
That looks good. I just got the news that another PR was excluded. That just blows my mind because I created a fun caeser cipher in python. It makes it hard to participate because Digital Ocean does not publish a page of projects that have been excluded. The reason is also vague: "it does not follow the values of the event". I tried to understand what this mean, but could not identify the true meaning. If I knew what to look for then I would probably not have wasted time in contributing to a project which is using hacktoberfest to collect work. It really gives Hacktoberfest a bad rap.
On top, I made sure I only contributed to projects with 'hacktoberfest-accepted' and/or "hacktoberfest' as instructed. Maybe I am missing something. @digitalocean_staff
Badges, aknowledgements and t-shirts be damned - the real treasure is the friends we made along the way.
truee
i made another PR today for a repo that has "hactoberfest" tag, but it still says my PR is excluded. don't know why