All About Hacktoberfest 2020

 

Hacktoberfest 2020: My Journey as a contributor

What is open source? 🤔

The term open source simply refers to something people can modify and share because its design is publicly accessible.

What is open source software?

Open-source software is software with source code that anyone can inspect, modify, and enhance.

Benefits of contributing to open source?

• Contributing to open source can be a rewarding way to learn, teach, meet people who are interested in similar things, and build experience in just about any skill you can imagine,

• Working with others on a shared project means you’ll have to explain how you do things, as well as ask other people for help. The acts of learning and teaching can be a fulfilling activity for everyone involved.

• By definition, all of your open source work is public, which means you get free examples to take anywhere as a demonstration of what you can do.

• Whether it’s coding, user interface design, graphic design, writing, or organizing, if you’re looking for practice, there’s a task for you on an open-source project.

If you’re a new open source contributor, the process can be intimidating. How do you find the right project? What if you don’t know how to code? What if something goes wrong?

Not to worry! There are all sorts of ways to get involved with an open-source project

What is Hacktoberfest?

Hacktoberfest 2020 is a month-long virtual festival event to celebrate open source contributions presented by Digital Ocean, Intel, and DEV. It is the easiest way to get into an open-source!

During the entire month of October 2020, all you have to do is contribute to any open-source projects and open at least 4 pull requests. Yes, any project and any kind of contributions. You don’t need to be an expert in programming or coding. It can be a bug fix, improvement, or even a documentation change! And win an awesome T-shirt and awesome stickers.

But, it’s not just about t-shirts or stickers. It's about supporting open source. It's about celebrating open source and giving it back. If you’ve never contributed to open source before, this is the perfect time to get started because Hacktoberfest provides a large list of available contribution opportunities (and yes, there are always plenty for beginners too).

So how did I get to know about hacktoberfest?

I heard about hacktoberfest from YouTube, after that I was curious to know more about it, so I just went to google and read some of the blogs from medium and watched some of the YouTube videos to have indepth knowledge.

📚 How Can I Contribute?

First, you need to get yourself registered for Hacktoberfest. Signup at the Hacktoberfest 2020 website below.

Link : http://hacktoberfest.digitalocean.com/

After signup, you can log in with your GitHub account

NOTE

• Read the guidelines before doing any contribution 👇

Link : https://hacktoberfest.digitalocean.com/hacktoberfest-update

• Read the rules carefully before the contribution, there might be a chance that the rule gets updated so keep checking the website.

Your Pull request gets counted only if you are following these criteria

PRs count if:

Submitted during the month of October AND

Submitted in a public repo AND (

The PR is labeled as hacktoberfest-accepted by a maintainer OR

Submitted in a repo with the hacktoberfest topic AND (

The PR is merged OR

The PR has been approved

)

)

So how do we find the repository for contribution? 👀

Just go to your github homepage and search on any topic on the search bar which you can find on the left hand side.

Go to one of the repositories, ask maintainers to assign the particular issue, after project maintainers assign you the issue then only you can elect to contribute. Also, you can directly contribute to it if it is auto assigned.

Steps for contribution 👇

• Fork the repository

Fork this repository by clicking on the fork button on the top of this page. This will create a copy of this repository in your account.

NOTE:

The process I am guiding you is the simple and shortcut process but make sure to learn about Git and Github so that it will be easier for you in the near future for many open source projects. 

• After forking, you can now add your files to the particular repository by clicking at the Add file

After that, now you can easily add the projects as per the requirement after reading the readme file or documentation of the project.

 

Now submit the pull request.

Soon project maintainers will merge all your changes (if and only if PR is valid) into the master branch of this project. You will get a notification email once the changes have been merged.

That's how you can complete all 4 valid pull request and you get a chance to win Hacktoberfest t-shirt and swags 🎉

📈 How Can I Check My Status?

To check if you have made at least 4 pull requests, and eligibility for your contributions, you can check the Hacktoberfest’s own website below:

What after successful completion of the hacktoberfest challenge?

After successful completion of the 4 pull request, then wait for the review period, after the review period is over which takes approximately 10-12 days then you will be notified through the mail that you have successfully completed the Hacktoberfest challenge

Hurrey 🎉, you have successfully completed the Hacktoberfest challenge

Now, go to your profile, you will see something like this 👇

There you will get a link, just copy that link and open it in the new tab and fill up the form for the shipping of the gifts.They won’t charge you anything so it's all free. 

I hope, I have given enough information related to the hacktoberfest challenge if you have still any doubt related to hacktoberfest, feel free to contact me 😃