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Cover image for Hacktoberfest - through a different lens. 🌳

Hacktoberfest - through a different lens. 🌳

Vaibhav Khulbe on October 09, 2020

Setting the premise There is an upcoming wave of (not coronavirus) young tech enthusiasts and geeks who are ready to learn to code. They...
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Simon Shine

Already got some tees prior to this year? Choose the "plant a tree" option.

What if I want the t-shirt and I already planted trees?

How many trees should I plant before I can legitimize getting new clothes?

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vaibhavkhulbe profile image
Vaibhav Khulbe

That's up to you!

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Simon Shine

That's up to you!

Thank you.

But my questions intend to challenge your opinion:

But if you have already participated enough, and are good at an open-source thing and still you're making invalid/spammy or not-needed PRs just so that you can get a free T-shirt, then I'm sorry you definitely need to change the outlook of your thinking.

When have you already participated enough?

When are you good enough at open source?

My first pull request this october was changing a "13" to a "17" here. If this were the only type of commit during Hacktoberfest, I would disappoint myself. In 2019 I received 9 PRs to my own projects. In 2018 (my first Hacktoberfest) I submitted over 20 PRs. This year, I don't know what my goal should be. I've contributed to some C# code for the first time. But the most important code I make this October is either in projects that are still closed, but will be opened, or committed to master, so no t-shirt trigger.

So how do I get a t-shirt to remind me of my month in Switzerland, which happened to coincide with Hacktoberfest? What if all I manage to show for my Hacktoberfest efforts is the bare minimum? Do I feel guilty over textile manufacturing? This would be the third t-shirt I have ever owned that contained print that I chose. I never bought or owned any "merch". Suddenly I find that I want to be part of this global community of people who give their work to each other for free, and I want to let everyone on the street know that it exists.

I am not "getting a free t-shirt". I am spreading the word.

In short, I think that guilt-tripping others over the economy is neither productive, conductive, inductive, or kind. :-)

As for planting trees, I already do that: via Ekofolio and via Isha Foundation. "T-shirt vs. tree" is just a case of whataboutism: You can actually get a t-shirt from Hacktoberfest and plant any number of trees you like without cynical, mutual exclusion. :-)

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Carlos V.

I was looking forward to an article like this (actually I got it from a Google search).

I got two tees in the past and this year I think I won't be getting any. But if I can decide, I was going to choose the tree.

Maybe the whole T shirt was a good idea at the beginning, but due to the recent spam, I think that planting trees should be the only prize for upcoming hacktoberfests.

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Vaibhav Khulbe

Yes! This is why I wrote this article. I hope this reduces spam.

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CarlyRaeJepsenStan

This is awesome! It's an undeniable fact of life that after us coders spend so much time in front of our screens, greenery is a nice change of scenery 🌸.

But, the ocean makes more oxygen than trees. I wonder if next year you can opt to culture plankton or fund the removal of plastic from the seas?

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Vaibhav Khulbe

Yes! That's a brilliant idea and an undeniable fact that oceans are suffering so much! Thanks for putting this point forward.

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Junxiao Shi

I have received five tees so far this year but I would still get a sixth tee because it looks nice.
I've been removing plastic from local rivers so that they don't go into the sea.

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Vaibhav Khulbe

Hell yes! That's exactly what we need to do 🚀

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JavaScript Joel

Great article. I am hopeful that next years Hacktoberfest will be much better after all the lessons learned in this one 👍

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Vaibhav Khulbe

Thanks, Joel! If you like it, then can you share this article?

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JavaScript Joel

Sure👍

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aman-sagar

Okay, this was my first hacktober fest participation, was eager to choose plant a tree option, then my 4 pull requests got approved and passed the review period today. And then I thought of requesting a t-shirt, you know the craze of a hacktoberfest t-shirt, right? Then, i tried finding alternatives, found some, but then I thought of finding the some inspiration to plant a tree, I cam across your post, read it, and right away chose the plant a tree option.
Thank you for inspiring me to plant a tree!!!......

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Vaibhav Khulbe

This is so good to hear! Thank you for caring about the planet. Hope you had a great Hacktoberfest. 🎉

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Vaibhav Khulbe

Woah, already? On the first day of Hacktoberfest! Did you receive an email regarding this?

 
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Vaibhav Khulbe

Great job then! I'll wait for mine to come :)