Hack the October with Hacktoberfest!
What is Hacktoberfest?
Hacktoberfest is a month-long celebration of open source software run by DigitalOcean in partnership with GitHub and other organisations. Hacktoberfest is open for everyone whether it be developer, designer, content creator or anybody in our global community!
Participating in Hacktoberfest can make you win cool swags and t-shirts and more than that it will encourage and motivate you to contribute to open source and learn a lot.
Let us find out what it takes to participate in Hacktoberfest?
Here are a few simple steps that you need to follow to get going
Step 1: Must have a Github account
If you are a developer then you might already own a Github account for hosting your projects. But if not that it’s time to create one, as the first and foremost basic requirement to participate in this event is that you must have a Github account.
Just hop on to http://github.com/ and signup.
If you are wondering what Github is then it’s just a cloud based version control system which lets you host, organise and share your code.
Step 2: Register for Hacktoberfest
Now you have to register yourself with Digital ocean and link your Github account to their organisation, so that they can track your progress and this way you will be officially registered for the event.
To register yourself just visit https://hacktoberfest.digitalocean.com, there you just have to click on Start Hacking and this will automatically redirect you to Github login page where you need to allow them to track your activities.
All set, now you will be able to see your PR progress.
Step 3: Create 4 legit PR
Great, you have come so far now all you have to do is create at least 4 legit Pull Request between October 1–31 in any time zone
But, there are some guidelines which you need to follow:
- Pull requests can be to any public repository on GitHub
- The pull request must contain commits you made yourself
- If a maintainer reports your pull request as spam, it will not be counted toward your participation in Hacktoberfest
All other rules and guidelines can be found on the resources page of the event.
This was all about Hacktober fest and how to register yourself for this month-long event. Remember, all you have to do is contribute to any open source project hosted in Github and open at least 4 legit pull requests. You don't need to be an expert in programming or master of any framework/language, these can also be minor bug fixes or even a documentation correction (only 1 typo correction PR is entertained).
By doing this you are making the world a better somehow and promoting opensource, and don't forget you can win a limited edition t-shirt and some cool swags by giving back to the community (This year, the first 70,000 participants will get a T-shirt).
Recommended Reading
New to open source, wanna learn git and version control? A Beginner’s Guide to Github can help you get started.
