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Now that registration for Hacktoberfest 2024 is open, let’s talk participation. Hacktoberfest is a celebration of all things open source. Participants in Hacktoberfest come from all over the world and represent thousands of unique skill sets that can each benefit open-source projects of all kinds. While performing coding tasks for open-source projects is the main way people participate in Hacktoberfest, there are other ways you can support open source and the people who maintain projects.

First, the rules of Hacktoberfest

Here’s the long and short of what you need to know to participate and complete Hacktoberfest 2024:

• Register any time before October 31

• Pull/merge requests can be made in any GitHub or GitLab hosted project that’s participating in Hacktoberfest (look for the “hacktoberfest” topic)

• Aim to submit four high-quality pull/merge requests between October 1 and October 31, with project maintainers accepting your pull/merge requests for them to count toward your total

• You’ll unlock a digital badge (hi, Sloane the Sloth!) when you register for Hacktoberfest, and level it up with each of your four pull/merge requests accepted during Hacktoberfest

Okay, you’re square on the rules. Now let’s dive into the what and how of participating!

Code, baby, code

Coding is the most common and, for most, the easiest way to contribute to open-source projects. Many project maintainers do so out of their own passion for a project and deeply appreciate quality coding help when they can get it—which is what most Hacktoberfest participants are here to do!

Whether you’ve got years of experience coding on Git or if Hacktoberfest 2024 is your first foray into it, consider yourself encouraged to pull up GitHub or GitLab and get coding!

Some resources to get you started:

• Introduction to GitHub and Open-Source Projects

• How to use Git

• 5 things for your first time contributing

Maintain a project

If you have a project in mind that can benefit the open-source community for the long term, you can start that project now to participate in Hacktoberfest 2024! Maintaining your own project in GitHub or GitLab is for folks with a bit more experience in open source—and only for those committed to open source now and into the future—but there’s no reason you can’t get started maintaining a project now. Read up on How to Maintain Open-Source Software Projects right here on DigitalOcean.

If you already maintain an open-source project, there’s a few steps you can take to prepare your project for contributions this month:

• Add the “hacktoberfest” topic to your repository to opt-in to Hacktoberfest and indicate you’re looking for contributions.

• Apply the “help wanted”, “good first issue”, and “hacktoberfest” labels to issues you want contributors to help with in your GitHub or GitLab project.

• Choose issues that have a well-defined scope and are self-contained, so that new contributors can have a go.

• Add a CONTRIBUTING.md file with contribution guidelines to your repository.

• Adopt a code of conduct to create a greater sense of inclusion and community for contributors.

• Be ready to review pull/merge requests, accepting those that are valid by merging them, leaving an overall approving review, or by adding the “hacktoberfest-accepted” label.

• Reject any spammy requests you receive by labeling them as “spam,” and any other invalid contributions by closing them or labeling them as “invalid.”

Low- or no-code ways to participate

Hacktoberfest is all about encouraging more people to participate in open source and help to enhance the software driving our world today. Open-source projects benefit a lot from community contributions, and there are many ways to get involved that don’t involve coding skills at all. Whether you’ve got technical expertise or not, your professional skills can support open-source projects.

Here are just a few examples of low-code and non-code contributions you can make to open-source projects:

• Technical documentation

• User experience testing

• Technical blog post or tutorial

• Case studies

Or, if you’d rather not code at all, here are even more ways to contribute without typing a single bracket (okay, you might type a bracket or two!):

• Writing

• Translating

• Copy editing

• Talks or presentations

• Event organization

• Podcasts

• Social media

• Blog posts

• Video production

• Graphic design

Maintainers: You might need to set up an activity log to allow contributors to create PR/MRs that Hacktoberfest can track for low- or no-code activities.

A note from Cloudflare, a sponsor of Hacktoberfest

Hacktoberfest wouldn’t be possible without the incredible passion of the open-source community nor without the support of our sponsors, like Cloudflare.

“Contributing to open source takes many forms. Maybe you’re building with an open-source framework or LLM, maybe you’re answering questions from people just getting started, or maybe you’re maintaining or contributing to an open-source software (OSS) project. As Cloudflare’s mission is to help build a better internet, we’re glad you’re helping drive these programs forward. We launched Project Alexandria earlier this year to help open-source projects crucial to the growth and innovation of the internet. We’re thrilled to be a sponsor of Hacktoberfest, we’ll be hanging out in the Discord to answer any questions you have about Project Alexandria or Cloudflare’s involvement in OSS.”

Register for Hacktoberfest 2024 and start contributing!

No matter which way you contribute, Hacktoberfest is all about good open-source vibes. Bring that eager energy to open-source projects, respect maintainers and their projects, and commit to solid commits and you’ll help make Hacktoberfest a huge success.

Registration is open! Get your four pull/merge requests rolling today!