Hello beautiful people! It's been a long time since I wrote a blog. I hope you all doing great. So, I am writing this blog to share my experience to you on my first Hacktoberfest ✨ I hope you enjoy it! 😊

🌐 What is Hacktoberfest is all about?

The most awaited event during the month of October for open source enthusiasts is the Hacktoberfest! Hacktoberfest is an annual event by Digital Ocean that encourages people to contribute to open source. It isn't about just contributing to different projects, but it is also about collaborating and meeting different kinds of people who you can share interests with and learn from.

To participate in the event, you must register between September 26 and October 31; submit at least four pull requests (PRs) to a GitHub or GitLab project; and then participants can get prizes for their contributions to open-source projects if their four pull/merge requests are accepted. The first 40,000 participants whose 4 pull/merge requests are accepted have the chance to pick either a tree named after them or a Hacktoberfest 2022 t-shirt. Of course, it's not just about the prize; it's about helping those open source projects significantly.

🎊 My Experience in Hacktoberfest

📌 Discovering Hacktoberfest

My experience at Hacktoberfest was incredible. I feel all the excitement, anticipation, nervousness, and confusion. I first learned about Hacktoberfest in July 2022, when I began contributing to open source in EddieHub, and I learned about it from Eddie Jaoude. At first, I thought it was all about hacking. Because you know, 'Hack'toberfest. So, I just dismissed it since I don't know anything about hacking. However, as time goes by, I keep on seeing Hacktoberfest. My curiosity kicked in, and I started my own research. I felt amazed and motivated by what I discovered, as I see this as an opportunity for me and everybody to learn more about open source. Seeing that this is an annual event, it made me realize what impact open source has brought to people. That's where my open source journey begins.

Open source connects people all around the world.

📌 Journey in Open Source

My first GitHub interaction was last February, 2022. I first learned about Git, GitHub, and Github Desktop from Coder Coder. However, I still don't get how things work, so I did nothing for a month on GitHub. Then, after a month, I started to work on a project and I was using GitHub Desktop. This is where I started to learn Git since I find GitHub Desktop slow and I don't find it productive. I learned Git workflow from The Net Ninja and Kunal Kushwaha. These videos really helped me conquer the terminal because I was really afraid of it. I started to put my projects in my GitHub. At first, I just put them in, but afterwards, I learned that README.md is important in your project. This approach has really helped me to strengthen my project value as well as improve my contributions to the project. Then, I started to learn what is fork, pull request, issues, code review and hosting your website in GitHub.

If you are new to open source, you can start with this repository by Pradumna Saraf. Everything about Open Source, Git, and GitHub can be learned here. You will also be able to contribute to your first open source project. I am proud to say that I am one of the contributors to this project. Please give support to this awesome project 💯

📌 Hacktoberfest Experience

As soon as the registration opened for the Hacktoberfest, I immediately registered for it. I was very excited and I can't help but look at the website constantly. The UI of the website is so beautiful. Kudos to the one who made it. 👏 On the first day, for the first time in a long time, I slept late around 3 am. I usually don't sleep later than 12am. That day, I was very busy finding projects where I could contribute and learn more. I was able to make 4 PRs that has been approved by the project maintainer on the 3rd day of October. I know it was crazy but it was not a smooth ride. I have 2 PRs was excluded along the way. Fortunately, I was able to contribute 3 more. Thus, it is important to review a project very well before contributing to it.

I also have many struggles with hacktoberfest. It's like a roller coaster ride. I have my ups and downs. Since I still lack proficiency on any programming language, I can't contribute to code projects which I eagerly look forward to. However, contributing to open source does not happen only during October so I still have time to learn.

Most of my contribution in hacktoberfest are low code and non-code contributions. I wrote a blog and fixed some documentation and some features in the website. I also raised some issues as well to the repository that are excluded so people will be aware of it. Since I'm in school, I wasn't able to contribute to a lot of projects. But like I said, contributions don't only occur during October. Let's contribute to open source even after Hacktoberfest ends.

📌 Hacktoberfest Result

I have 7 out of 4 PRs that were accepted. It was a little bit disappointing for me since I think I was able to do more if there were no assignments. But I'm still glad I was able to contribute and help others with their concerns regarding their first experience with open source.

I was able to receive swag. I picked the tee because it's my first hacktoberfest! Additionally, I will also plant a tree on my own here on my birthday. I also received a DEV badge as well. But the best reward that I received from this event is having a community that will support you and the collaboration that lets you meet amazing people.

I have met amazing people like Som, with whom I share my experience of Hacktoberfest. I was also able to help him with his inquiries about the event and I was able to recommend good projects that he could contribute to Hacktoberfest. Of course, I got to know a lot of amazing people who were full of hard work in their lives, and of course I got to know the realities of working a tech job. I also got to talk about different topics aside from the event, which was fun since there are really a lot of perspectives for every issue or topic.

📌 Lesson Learned

• Be patient when contributing. Be patient when finding a project. Learn how to properly ask for help and also be patient when asking questions.
• Open Source is not only about code. Through this Hacktoberfest 2022, they promoted that open source also have low code or non-code projects which you can contribute with.
• Before contributing always read and follow CONTRIBUTING.md
• Check the issue tab because some are raising an issue that the project is excluded for the Hacktoberfest 2022 or review the repository if it is really included
• Open source is not just all about swag. It is a great way to connect with people around the globe. It lets you meet new people and have friends globally. It lets you learn more, land a job, or earn money with it.
• Open source is all about collaboration and collaboration makes learning easy and fun.
• Be kind to all the maintainers because it is not easy to maintain many issues and pull requests at the same time. They have their own lives too.
• Every contribution is valuable. Correcting typos or grammatical errors is still valuable. Translating and helping with the project's documentation is valuable. Code contributions are not the only thing valuable.
• git commit -m "Happy Hacktoberfest Everyone!"