So.. what is Hacktoberfest anyway? It is a month-long event that takes place in October that encourages Open Source contributors and developers worldwide to give back to the global tech community.
Hactoberfest accepts all types of contributions, from simple readme updates to complex backend and frontend contributions, which means you don't have to know a lot of technical coding to take part in Hacktoberfest.
Here I will tell you some key points that I have learned in my first Hacktoberfest journey.
1>Find an organization: First and foremost, one of the most important tasks is to find organizations or repositories to contribute to.I will suggest you find at least 7 repositories or organizations because not all your PR will be merged, and try to diversify your learning as contributing to these repositories will teach you to read code written by other developers and teach you various types of logic implementation and concept.
For me, my first repo is called Game_PLAYER. (https://github.com/divyansh-2005/GAME_PLAYER/issues/31) This was a simple website that contained games, and I did a simple description change in the front of the website.
2>_ Study the code structure:_ One of the first steps to contributing to anything opensource is to understand what you are even contributing to; that means the code structure, how the organization works there backend, frontend, database, deployment, document everything.
If you are first time contributing, I will suggest you visit their website or app. Try to get a feel of the overall structure and then deep dive into the backend code. Navigation and understanding the functionality of an organization before getting into the code helps you better understand the code.
like here after my first PR in Game_PLAYER. (https://github.com/divyansh-2005/GAME_PLAYER/pull/62) I understood the code structure and contributed to changing the overall frontend structure of a game.
3> Create an issue: There can be various types of issues you can work on, like adding a new feature, fixing a bug, updating the readme document, etc. You can check the label in the issue section in the repositories and read the code of contribution see what kind of issue the organization is accepting.
If this is your first time contributing, I will suggest you try to create your own issue. Because sloving already present can be overwhelming if you don't know a lot about coding and its concept, if you create your own issue, you will know how to solve the issue, and that will give you the confidence to contribute.
Like here in Rehabify, I really like the work and the overall code, so I proposed to create a feature https://github.com/Ratnesh-Team/Rehabify/pull/136, which I know I will be able to implement.
If you want to know more about opensource, you can visit Piyush Garg[] (https://www.youtube.com/@piyushgargdev/playlists); he is one of the references I have followed to start my opensource journey.
If you all have any more tips, let me know in the comments, and do share your experiences of taking part in the hackotoberfest.
If you want to know, do connect with me through my
github:[https://github.com/RabdeepKaur]
LinkedIn:[:https://www.linkedin.com/in/rabdeep-kaur-35a26925b]