Hacktoberfest 2020 Rule Updates!

Stop the presses! Just mere days after publishing my Youtube comeback video on how to Signup for Hacktoberfest 2020, the event organizers have changed the rules. The rule changes have been brought on to reduce the number of spammy pull requests that often go hand in hand with past Hacktoberfests. These new rules, many of which are setting the tone for future Hacktoberfests, will carry the torch in the future.

This is important for anyone who plans to submit pull requests after October 3rd and expect them to count towards Hacktoberfest 2020. Let’s get down to brass tacks and review the situation.

Participation & Rules

I feel it is important to dive into the full set of both the participation details and rules to understand the expectations before partaking in the event.

Participation Information

• Hacktoberfest is available to all, no matter your experience. This means whether you just created your Github account or your 87th repository, you’re welcome aboard!
• Public Github repository maintainers can have their repos be a part of the fun by classifying their projects with the hacktoberfest topic as shown in this video.
• There are two conditions that your pull requests need to follow to count towards your four pull request goal. One condition is that your pull request being made to any Github repositories need to have a hacktoberfest topic (see above) to count towards the event. The second condition is the PR needs to be merged/approved by a repo maintainer or have the hacktoberfest-accepted label applied to the PR.
• It’s worth noting that any pull request with the hacktoberfest-accepted label applied to ANY public Github repository (with a hacktoberfest topic or not) will count towards your Hacktoberfest four pull request goal. Just be sure to sign up for Hacktoberfest 2020 before the end of October 31st. This video can help ;)

Rules

• Have four pull requests labeled with hacktoberfest-accepted or merged by end of day October 31st to receive a prize of either a Hacktoberfest T-shirt or tree planted in your name!
• PRs done between October 1st and October 3rd can be counted towards any public Github repository.
• After October 3rd, all pull requests have to be merged, labeled with hacktoberfest-accepted, or approved by repository maintainers. These have to be approved as valid pull requests to be merged!
• 70,000 prizes will be awarded to participants.

That’s it! Other than the newly added label constraints not much has been changed.

Have you found a Github project you’re passionate about collaborating on? Please share it below!

Want to find out more?

A general notice has been shared by Hacktoberfest in regards to these changes that can be found here.