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Michelle Mannering
Michelle Mannering

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Hacktoberfest is here! How do you get involved?

It's here. October! And it's all about open source. This is the seventh year for Hacktoberfest, and it's bigger and better than ever. More maintainers are getting involved, more new contributors, and more events! So how do you get involved? Where do you start?

Getting involved in open source can often be a little daunting. There's so many projects and so much noise. So how do you filter it all out? How do you find something?

Some tips for finding good projects for first time contributors are:

  • does the project have a good Readme file?
  • are there good-first-issues?
  • is the community welcoming?
  • make sure you're passionate about what the project is doing

Finding a project actively looking for contributors is one of the best ways to get involved. Lots of projects now have good-first-issues, and even projects like Supabase have taken it one step further.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Supabase recently, and their Hacktoberfest project board is on point! Check out their board to easily see what skills they're looking for. You can even even filter between easy and hard contributions!

There's so many ways to get involved in open source, and you don't necessarily need to code. Projects are always looking for designers, writers, and managers. Whatever skills you have, you'll be needed. If you want to get involved, find a project you're passionate about and apply your skills to the project.

Find out more about Hacktoberfest and contributing

If you're still not sure where to start, or you want some ideas on what projects to get involved with, we're here to help. Join us for some deep dives. We'll be streaming over on the GitHub Twitch Channel every week of Hacktoberfest. We'll be walking you through all things Hacktoberfest, how to get your PRs submitted, projects to get involved in, and what to look for when contributing.

RSVP to stay in touch and up to date with the next event. If you have a Twitch account, you'll be able to engage with us and other members of the open source community. Looking forward to seeing you there, and can't wait for you to contribute to open source this October.

Top comments (1)

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Karen Efereyan

Nice. Thanks Michelle. This project board is amazing. I'll try it out and maybe I'll be able to share my experiences of using It with you and others