What Not To Do This Hacktoberfest!

How not to turn the world's biggest celebration of open source into a nightmare

Tomorrow is October 1st, a date that may not resonate with some of you but causes either sweet dreams or horrific nightmares for open-source contributors. Yes, it is the launch of this year’s edition of Hacktoberfest, the largest celebration of open-source software and developers worldwide. While the intention behind Hacktoberfest has been to create more awareness around why open-source tech is excellent, we see both misguided beginners and bad actors rush into the initiative every year. Unfortunately, many of these folks (by circumstance or intention) end up pushing a barrage of non-beneficial contributions to project maintainers, substantially decreasing their productivity, adding unnecessary workload, and generally increasing frustration and burnout in the community.

Therefore, I am sharing a series of “don’ts” to consider if you plan to participate in Hacktoberfest this year.

Don’ts for Hacktoberfest 2024 ❌

There are many intricacies to consider when it comes to Hacktoberfest and open source; however, these are some of the most important points to remember before submitting pull requests (PRs) over the next month.

1. Don’t try to contribute to every project you come across

Too many people rush into every random project they find on GitHub to get their minimum PRs for the Hacktoberfest prizes. But that doesn't help anyone. Hacktoberfest is all about getting open-source projects the visibility and support they need. The best way to make an impact is by selecting projects you use, are genuinely interested in, or align with your skills and passion. Contributing to projects you care about will be more fulfilling and increase the quality of your contributions.

2. Don’t rush to contribute before understanding the project

Take the time to thoroughly read the documentation, understand the project’s purpose, and explore the codebase. Many repositories have contribution guidelines in their README.md or a CONTRIBUTING.md file to clarify the project’s tech stack and processes. This will help you contribute more effectively and avoid mistakes.

3. Avoid low-quality or spam PRs

Following the previous point, please avoid submitting PRs that add no objective value to a project. The way to differentiate between objective and subjective contributions is whether they create value for everyone in the community or just a specific group. For example, fixing grammatical mistakes in documentation is objectively valuable, but forcefully adding comments to a code file is not.

4. Don’t target larger issues before tackling smaller ones

There is no point in taking up the largest issue in the project as your first issue, confusing yourself along the way, and giving up on open-source contributions if you're new. If you're new, start by fixing simple bugs or documentation improvements. Many projects will have issues labeled “good-first-issue” for this purpose. You can find these on goodfirstissue.dev or up-for-grabs.net. Once you're comfortable, you can move on to larger, more complex contributions.

5. No AI-generated PRs, please!

Now that LLM tools such as ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, etc., are freely accessible, some developers solely use them to generate PRs automatically. Such PRs often contain mistakes that could have been mitigated with a single review and only waste the maintainers’ time. Using AI tools is usually all right, but please ensure that you also review the output of these tools and make edits wherever necessary before pushing them forward.

6. Don't barge into issues assigned already

Many projects have issues that have already been assigned to someone else. Before starting work on an issue, make sure to check if it is available and comment to be assigned (otherwise, you could end up repeating someone else’s work). Remember, there’s plenty of work to go around for every person in the community, whether around code, documentation, maintenance, etc.

7. Don't disregard feedback sent your way

The beauty of open source is that you could end up collaborating with people from drastically different places, walks of life, or knowledge levels. You never know whether the person you’re working with is a freshman student making their first contribution or a veteran software engineer who wrote their first code before you were born. If someone gives you feedback on your pull request, respond to the same humbly and make changes accordingly.

8. Don’t submit PRs to ineligible repositories

In the last couple of years, a Hacktoberfest opt-in/out mechanism has been created. If you’re contributing to a repository primarily for Hacktoberfest, check if the repository has the “hacktoberfest” topic or if the issue has the “hacktoberfest” label to confirm eligibility. Please do not expect or force the maintainers to make a certain PR eligible if you contributed to an opted-out project/issue.

9. Don't participate solely for the rewards

This is the most important point, in my opinion. Hacktoberfest is about meaningful contributions, not just receiving a free digital badge or any other piece of swag. You have a chance to support some of the most heavily used and impactful software in the world! Aim to contribute to open-source projects where your input makes a difference rather than rushing PRs for the sake of a reward that you will forget in a few weeks.

Going forward 🛣️

These were some of the points I wanted to remind folks about before they make their contributions to OSS this Hacktoberfest. I wish you all the very best for the upcoming month!

P.S., I am organizing a Hacktoberfest hackathon for the Appwrite community, which is open to anyone interested in learning about Appwrite and building a cool project. If you support an organization in its Hacktoberfest initiatives, please share them with our community.