This is a submission for the 2024 Hacktoberfest Writing challenge: Contributor Experience
Here's the corrected paragraph:
Ah, Hacktober โ the month when the air smells like pumpkin spice, open-source contributions, and birthday parties because, yes, I was born in October :). This time, though, I found something special: a Hackathon that gamified open-source contributions, oss.gg, and also had crazy prizes. It was perfect because I wanted a new PC, and one of the prizes was an M3 MacBook. Just like that, I found myself a birthday gift ๐.
How it started
It all started pretty casually. I signed up for the Hacktober Hackathon with simple goals: submit a few PRs, open some issues, and make sure I had at least 4 PRs merged to collect my badges. So, in late September - early October, I started searching for goodfirst-issue
PRs to get started, and then I found the formbricks.com repo, where they were talking about oss.gg. Just seeing the prizes was enough to get me to fork their repo. And thatโs when it took off ๐.
The projects I worked on
In the beginning, I wanted to maximize my chances of getting those 4 PRs merged, so I started with quick fixes in smaller projects. But then it hit me: if I was serious about that MacBook, I'd need to focus my efforts. By the end, I had tons of PRs merged, but I'll just highlight the ones that truly mattered to me.
Computer science: The first PR that got accepted was a doc translation. This one was pretty big since the entire repo is dedicated to explaining computer science concepts.
Year in progress: In another contribution, I added features to a small project that provides an API for generating a progress bar of the current year (or for a custom date range).
Unkey: Another doc PR that was needed for the
@unkey/nextjs
npm package page.Another Unkey PR: Then came a request to create a template using one of their tools thatโs showcased on their website. I made this ๐ Link to my template
The fun part ๐
- oss.gg side quests:
The special touch of the oss.gg Hackathon was their side quests. You could submit no-code PRs, engage with the community on X and LinkedIn, and really get to know the projects. These side quests actually turned me into a more consistent technical writer and introduced me to some amazing, talented people along the way โจ.
- Code PRs Became a Daily Habit:
I can confidently say that this month, I opened at least one PR, issue, or pushed some code every single day โ and that was just wild for me! Well, except for that one tiny day when things went way too fast to keep up. My mornings turned into โWhat can I ship today?โ moments ๐.
- Side Projects:
I started building side projects โ mini-apps that used the functionality of the projects I was working on, mostly inspired by the oss.gg side quests. This sparked a real ship fast mentality in me, and now I just want more projects to build ๐. Here are two of the ones I made if youโd like to check them out: ASKIQ and To don't App.
Wrap Up:
In the end, what started as a plan to submit โa few PRsโ turned into one of my best months in open source. I learned, built, shipped, wrote, and connected in ways I didnโt think were possible in just a few weeks. Hacktober had made open source not just accessible, but addictive and rewarding. And now, here I am, with a refreshed GitHub and a ton of articles.
Whatโs the takeaway? Sign up for a Hackathon, contribute in any way you can, and you just might discover youโre capable of more than you thought โ and probably meet some epic people along the way โญ๏ธ.
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