Beyond Hacktoberfest🚀
Tags: hacktoberfest, opensource, novu, hacktoberfest23
Published: 2023-11-03 11:39:43


Ahoy There!
For the past month & a half I've been diving into Open Source.
This year I concluded my first ever Hacktoberfest!
I also learned so much more than expected! 
Let's get started!

## **HACKTOBERFEST LORE**

![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/pr1190j224lyr12bfjqs.png)


[Hacktoberfest](https://hacktoberfest.com/) is DigitalOcean’s annual event that encourages people to contribute to open source throughout October. Much of modern tech infrastructure—including some of DigitalOcean’s own products—relies on open-source projects built and maintained by passionate people who often don’t have the staff or budgets to do much more than keep the project alive. Hacktoberfest is all about giving back to those projects, sharpening skills, and celebrating all things open source, especially the people that make open source so special.
This was the 10th Edition of Hactoberfest. And saw the highest number of participating Open Source Contributors!

I successfully got my first 4 PRs merged & was among the first 50k people to complete Hacktoberfest! As my first time it was a big deal!
I also got the Tree Plated badge & got a tree planted in my name in Tanzania😂
Got so many cool badges too!
Made some cool chatbots for ILLA CLOUD using their AI Agent Maker!
[Check out my AI agents!](https://cloud.illacloud.com/workspace/8137314aa3b14a194df55b65112509a4/ai-agents)
My badge collection:
[![An image of @shatilkhan's Holopin badges, which is a link to view their full Holopin profile](https://holopin.me/shatilkhan)](https://holopin.io/@shatilkhan)
That's not all, I also got some cool Rewards pack for completing Hacktoberfest!

![rewards](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/sslfefsi04lpr1hpllt5.png)
The Rewards Kit consists of offers from DigitalOcean, AppWrite, Amplication & many more!



## Going Beyond
Little did I know, that completing Hacktoberfest was just the beginning. The real fun started when I kept making contributions. I firmly believed that if I kept doing something consistently the results would surely be far more impactful.

## Novu

I came by the Novu Hactoberfest event by accident to be honest. I was a bit sad that there was no T-shirt. Then I stumbled upon Novu's Hacktoberfest event. 

![novu](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/lohfmjyk5vqn47ndez67.png)
Sounds delicious! So I got into making PRs for Novu. I got 4 Accepted PRs for Novu!
[Checkout the Issues I worked on](https://github.com/novuhq/docs/issues?q=is%3Aissue+assignee%3AShatilKhan+is%3Aclosed)
I finished at 10th Place on Novu's official Hactoberfest Leaderboards


Now comes the real Banger!

## HackSquad

![HackSquad](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/8gakgba9uhb6sqrds6qm.png)
[HackSquad](https://www.hacksquad.dev/) is a Global event that spans around Hacktober. Here you can make your own squad to bring out the most of your Hacktoberfest experience.Usually, teams make PRs that give them points & a place in the leaderboard. I am so greatful to my team mates @nabinbhatt @biplobsd @shelar1423 & @kritik-j 
Our Team Vortex secured 8th Position on the Global Leaderboards!
This was my first Global event, it was made so much better by these guys.


## Layer5
I have been a member of [Layer5](https://layer5.io/) community since September. I have been continually making contributions to the Meshery repo as well as Layer5 repo. As a recognition for my contributions I receievd the Hacktoberfest badge from Layer5!

![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/6sbl89aifrc1o46oc959.png)

## Quine 
@quine_sh  has been an immense help & has played a BIG part in my Open Source Journey! Since I started I focused on improving Myself daily & Finished off Hactober with 54th Position on Quine's Global hacktoberfest Leaderboards (by number of "Hacktoberfest labeled PRs")
I had a total 14 Hacktoberfest labeled PRs merged as well as a 10 other non-participating PRs merged.

![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/9hn9qkeqjn49fggqdodo.png)

It's so rewarding to see my github stats light up too!
And with the Halloween Vibes🎃

![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/0hweax59xjr97esp9k2g.png)

Check out my Github to see more of my work!
{% embed https://github.com/ShatilKhan %}

 All in all Hacktoberfest has been a great experience & I honestly got more than what I could ask for. Here's to more contributions & more Open Source!

Happy Hacking! 🎃


![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/e8o07gpm32t9e4qitpji.gif)