This is a submission for the 2024 Hacktoberfest Writing challenge: Contributor Experience

Here's the corrected paragraph:

Ah, Hacktober – the month when the air smells like pumpkin spice, open-source contributions, and birthday parties because, yes, I was born in October :). This time, though, I found something special: a Hackathon that gamified open-source contributions, oss.gg, and also had crazy prizes. It was perfect because I wanted a new PC, and one of the prizes was an M3 MacBook. Just like that, I found myself a birthday gift 😂.

How it started

It all started pretty casually. I signed up for the Hacktober Hackathon with simple goals: submit a few PRs, open some issues, and make sure I had at least 4 PRs merged to collect my badges. So, in late September - early October, I started searching for goodfirst-issue PRs to get started, and then I found the formbricks.com repo, where they were talking about oss.gg. Just seeing the prizes was enough to get me to fork their repo. And that’s when it took off 🚀.

The projects I worked on

In the beginning, I wanted to maximize my chances of getting those 4 PRs merged, so I started with quick fixes in smaller projects. But then it hit me: if I was serious about that MacBook, I'd need to focus my efforts. By the end, I had tons of PRs merged, but I'll just highlight the ones that truly mattered to me.

• Computer science: The first PR that got accepted was a doc translation. This one was pretty big since the entire repo is dedicated to explaining computer science concepts.

• Year in progress: In another contribution, I added features to a small project that provides an API for generating a progress bar of the current year (or for a custom date range).

• Unkey: Another doc PR that was needed for the @unkey/nextjs npm package page.

• Another Unkey PR: Then came a request to create a template using one of their tools that’s showcased on their website. I made this 👉 Link to my template

The fun part 🎉

• oss.gg side quests:

The special touch of the oss.gg Hackathon was their side quests. You could submit no-code PRs, engage with the community on X and LinkedIn, and really get to know the projects. These side quests actually turned me into a more consistent technical writer and introduced me to some amazing, talented people along the way ✨.

• Code PRs Became a Daily Habit:

I can confidently say that this month, I opened at least one PR, issue, or pushed some code every single day – and that was just wild for me! Well, except for that one tiny day when things went way too fast to keep up. My mornings turned into “What can I ship today?” moments 😂.

• Side Projects:

I started building side projects – mini-apps that used the functionality of the projects I was working on, mostly inspired by the oss.gg side quests. This sparked a real ship fast mentality in me, and now I just want more projects to build 😂. Here are two of the ones I made if you’d like to check them out: ASKIQ and To don't App.

Wrap Up:

In the end, what started as a plan to submit “a few PRs” turned into one of my best months in open source. I learned, built, shipped, wrote, and connected in ways I didn’t think were possible in just a few weeks. Hacktober had made open source not just accessible, but addictive and rewarding. And now, here I am, with a refreshed GitHub and a ton of articles.
What’s the takeaway? Sign up for a Hackathon, contribute in any way you can, and you just might discover you’re capable of more than you thought – and probably meet some epic people along the way ⭐️.