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Discussion on: Hacktoberfest Starts in Six Days 🎃🎉

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johncarroll profile image
John Carroll

More than a little surprised that the official rules require PRs to be on Github...a platform which isn't open source. Why aren't, for example, Gitlab PRs eligible? Is Github a sponser of the event? They aren't listed. Why was this decision made?

To qualify for the official limited edition Hacktoberfest shirt, you must register and make four pull requests (PRs) between October 1-31 (in any time zone). PRs can be made to any public repo on GitHub, not only the ones with issues labeled Hacktoberfest.

Separately, how do these rules apply to maintainers of open source projects? Do PRs count if they are made by a maintainer of a repo? The rules don't seem to indicate otherwise.

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downey profile image
Tim Downey

In the past the event has been clearly sponsored by Github. It is less clear if is is or not this year.

github.blog/2018-09-24-hacktoberfe...

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johncarroll profile image
John Carroll

Gotcha. I imagine they are involved in some official capacity this year as well then.

It is strange to see Github attempting to "own" open source in this way though. Very antagonistic to the spirit of open source. Many of the projects I use are not hosted on Github, so this is an unfortunate decision (Ruby, Wordpress, Chromium, Firefox, Drupal, etc). Though it makes sense when viewed as an ad campaign.

I guess what annoys me about this is the branding as an "open source" event. I don't see it as an open source event, I see it as a Github event which happens to help open source. The github equivalent of a retailer donating some-percent of a purchase to charity.