How I Prepare The Hacktoberfest

In this post, we'll see how I prepare and organize my contributions for the Hacktoberfest. Be free to adapt this to your need.

First, What is the Hacktoberfest?

What is the Hacktoberfest

Hacktoberfest is an event for promoting open source. It starts on the 1st of October and finishes on the 30th of October. It encourages the community to contribute to open source by completing pull requests (4 PR at least), participating in events, and make donations. For more info, go on on the Hacktoberfest website.

To participate and complete four pull requests, we have to choose some projects to contribute.

Choose some projects for contributions

One thing to do, especially if it is your first contribution to open source, is to find some projects. In my opinion, it is great to choose some technologies and software you use every day. An example for me is my password manager, Buttercup (buttercup.pw). I love to contribute to it because it is helpful for the community. Moreover, it is a satisfaction to see and use my updates in the product.
So, the first thing to do is to list some projects you like, for example:

    * Buttercup desktop
    * Tldr
    * Github Cli
    * Ghost writer
    * NodeJs
    * Emacs
    * React
    * Redux
    * GraphQL

Note: try to prioritize the list. Here I will choose some issues on buttercup-desktop and tldr-pages first.

Now, it is time to choose some issues and organize them to participate in the Hacktoberfest.

Choose and organize your issues

When you know the projects you want to contribute to, let's search for some issues.

Note: If you don't have any projects, wait 1st of October, go to the Hacktoberfest website, you have a section with a list of available issues you can contribute.

Create a table to organize your work

The first step is to create a Trello (or any project organizer like Github project, Gitlab project, Jira) and create some columns to add your potential contributions like bellow:

I create five columns:

• Issues Backlog: the list of potential issues you want to resolve.
• In Progress: the in-progress work, you are resolving the issue
• PR Open: A pull request is open in the project repository and, the maintainers are reviewing your work.
• Done: the maintainers merged the pull request.
• Rejected: the issue is not opened for contribution anymore.

The next step is to add some potential issues to your backlog.

Choose some issues

Now, let's choose some issues. Go to Github on a project you choose. If it is your first contribution, choose any issue labeled with Good First Issue or Hacktoberfest (if it exists).

After you choose an issue, create a card in your backlog. Add at least the project name, the title and, a link to the GitHub issue. You can add additional notes if you need them.

Try to find between 8 to 10 issues for your backlog because some issues will not be available when you start the Hacktoberfest.

Now, you are ready to contribute and realize at least 4 PR for the Hacktoberfest event.

The last step is to wait until the 1st of October, register to the Hacktoberfest website with your Github account, and start the challenge.

Note: do not forget to add a comment to the issue when you begin to work on it. It permits the maintainers and other contributors to know if the issue is available.

Conclusion

I love the Hacktoberfest. It is a good event for promoting open source. I participate in it to lock some time at least one month per year for my contributions.

If you never contribute to open source, don't be afraid and go for it. The community will welcome you well and help you to make your first contribution. It was the case for me. My first contribution was on NodeJS and, the maintainers were super great with me.

I love to contribute to projects I use every day, like Buttercup desktop or TLDR pages.

So, Good Hacktoberfest 2021 to everyone. I expect we can help open source again this year ;)