Hacktoberfest 2021: My Experience
Tags: hacktoberfest, opensource, github
Published: 2021-10-20 06:07:43

This year I participated in my first ever Hacktoberfest. Some of you who don't know what Hacktoberfest is, let me summarize it for you: 

>Hacktoberfest is a month long celebration of Open Source Software hosted by Digital Ocean for the 8th year in a row in partnership with GitHub and other companies. What I personally love about it is that it bring developers with the same mindset together from all over the world.

![Hacktoberfest 2021](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/34o5taiewh48jl3e4yhg.png) 

Back in 2020 I had learnt about this event and wasn't so sure about my skillset so I didn't participate, and this year I realized it was a huge mistake. The best part of Hacktoberfest is, there's something for everyone. You don't need to be a pro to contribute.🧑🏻‍💻

## How did I start? 🚀

Since this was my first Hacktoberfest event, I was also confused like a lot of you guys. I was terrified to be honest, will I be able to find a good project, will I be able to contribute quality code/documentation, etc., but when the event started I luckily found good repositories (one of which was **Appwrite**, official sponsor of Hacktoberfest) and started non-code contributions at first, like improving documentations, writing blog posts, adding Code of Conduct to repositories. This got me kickstarted in Hacktoberfest event.

![open source contribution](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/u9vct41uk1pmwkve23s8.gif) 

One challenge I faced was finding good repos, there were many spammy repos only merging PRs for the sake of free T-shirt. First time contributors, if you are reading this, **steer clear of those repositories**. You don't want your PR to be excluded right!!
I reported a lot of spammy repos, one thing that I'm proud of😌.

## My Contributions 📝

* [**Appwrite**](https://github.com/appwrite)

Starting off with non-code contributions, I found out about **Appwrite**, that's one of the best thing that happened during Hacktoberfest. Their idea, code, and repository is so awesome that a beginner can also contribute. They had 4 main beginner friendly issues on their repository:

* Writing a blog post to help other developers 

* Making a tutorial on how to use Appwrite

* Submitting a demo app using Appwrite 

* Translating their documentation to different languages 

I chose to write articles and publish them on **Dev.to**. If you haven't read them, check them out [**here**](https://dev.to/asmit2952/getting-started-with-appwrite-3oic)

Also joined their awesome [**Discord**](https://appwrite.io/discord) community. The community is awesome and right there to help you whenever you are stuck💯😍

I also re-designed Hacktoberfest Logo for their Discord server!!

![Appwrite Hacktoberfest](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/e6tavknhqzkwcb6mopq2.png) 

So overall, as a beginner, joining a huge community and being welcomed by them felt great. Checkout their [**GitHub**](https://github.com/appwrite) repo and join them, what are you waiting for?

* [**Embellish**](https://github.com/siddhi-244/Embellish)

Now coming to code contributions, I have strong hold on HTML, CSS and JavaScript fundamentals, hence I contributed to project Embellish. [**Embellish**](https://github.com/siddhi-244/Embellish) is a collection of awesome designed components or animations or components which can be added to any website to enhance the UI of your website. 

I contributed to this repository by making different CSS and JavaScript components. I had the satisfaction of knowing that this could benefit many many more people than just myself. It was fun and I got to revise my basic skills. Checkout that repository if you are a beginner and want to contribute a quality code.😉 

* [**Codedamn**](https://codedamn.com/)

And then I found out about [**Codedamn**](https://github.com/codedamn) repository. In this we had to submit a front-end project listed on their website and create a PR. I made a [**Hulu Clone**](https://asmit2952.github.io/Hulu_Clone/). This was fun as it turned out to be awesome🤩.

If you want to learn new skills by making projects, Codedamn is the platform for it. Go check them out!!

What added more fun in Hacktoberfest was **Local Hack Day** by MLH. Now this is a story for another day.  

## What I learned 👀

![Learning](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/mrow9lruv5m1o6izytle.gif) 

With each contribution I made, it felt **rewarding** giving back to the projects which I use personally. Working on a variety of projects also gave me some really welcome exposure to new development experiences. I had a very little knowledge about back-end development and documentation, I learnt about it through **Appwrite**, revised my front-end skills through **Embellish** and **Codedamn**. 

Most importantly, I realized that contributing to open-source projects isn't as scary as it might seem. The maintainers that I interacted with were **friendly and helpful**. You will find Open Source maintainers always welcoming people to make their codebase better.

Overall, October went great for me, **Hacktoberfest** is the best event for Open Source contributions. I met new people, made new friends, contributed quality code/documents and learnt new skills. I will continue to contribute to the projects I contributed this time and also can't wait for next year's Hacktoberfest.

![Eager](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/fa3a1m4p2ksuufxcnn4i.gif)

Until then, **learn** something new, **engage** with Open Source communities, and **expand** your network!!🌐

Connect with me on: 

* [**Twitter**](https://twitter.com/Asmit_2952) 

* [**LinkedIn**](https://www.linkedin.com/in/asmit-malakannawar/)

* [**GitHub**](https://github.com/Asmit2952)

Checkout [**Linktree**](https://linktr.ee/Asmit2952) for more social media handles.

**Happy Contributing!!😉✌️**