Hacktoberfest 2021 Guide and Resources!
Tags: hacktoberfest, opensource, beginners, help
Published: 2021-10-04 13:31:00

In this article I am going to explain you everything about Hacktoberfest like **what is Hacktoberfest?**, **why it started**, **who can take part or who are eligible**, **what should we do in this program**, **how it can be beneficial for you** etc...

Also, I will provide you some guidance or resources which you can follow in our journey.

So, let's begin...
## What is Hactoberfest?
[Hacktoberfest](https://hacktoberfest.digitalocean.com/) is an annual month-long event hosted by [Digital Ocean](https://www.digitalocean.com/) @digitalocean_staff. This is held every year in the month of October. 
The aim of this program is to encourage developers to contribute to the open-source projects and give back to the community.
Also, it encourages newbies to learn about open source and help to start their journey towards the open-source contributions.

In my personal opinion If you are new to open source and want to explore or dive deep into it, then it is the best time for you to start.
Via this you can collaborate, learn, interact and network with many people around the world

Who don't know about open source ... can follow this([I am assuming if you are completely new](https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/what-is-open-source-software-explained-in-plain-english/)) 

## How Can you take part in Hacktoberfest?
First, [go](https://hacktoberfest.digitalocean.com/) here and register yourself.
After registering, you will be able to see your profile in this section.
![Screenshot (357)](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/srv6pmdbtqxxta65txuh.png)

## How to contribute as participant?
Participant means you registered yourself as a participant in Hacktoberfest event. And can contribute to the open-source project out there as mentioned the label `hacktoberfest` and `hacktoberfest2021`.
Here, your task is to make at least 4 valid and accepted PRs to successfully complete this event. Doing so, you will get some exciting swags and learning opportunity.

## Guidance for beginner 
- After registering yourself, find some projects on [GitHub](https://github.com/topics/hacktoberfest) and choose wisely according to your skills and interest.
- Explore some projects,  try with your own local machine,  find some bugs, errors or also if you want some features.
- Rise the issue with proper explanation about features/bug etc.
- Then if maintainer assign you that issue, start working on that and make a pull request. 
- After submitting your PR maintainer might be requesting for some changes, so do that as well.
- If your change is valid, then maintainer will merge your PR into the main project.
- Congratulations, you completed your 1st PR 😀

[Completely new!! Don't know how to do this, don't worry, follow this link!](https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/how-to-make-your-first-pull-request-on-github-3/)

## How to contribute as maintainer?
In this event if you want to contribute as maintainer that means you have an existing project, and you want to open source them so that, participant can contribute and make some PRs.
And you are the owner of the project who maintains everything like review the PRs, merge the PRs and other maintainers work.

## Why participate in Hacktoberfest?
Although receiving a free t-shirt is always cool, but also there are more important reasons to participate in Hacktoberfest. Whether you are a maintainer or a participant, you will surely learn and benefit a lot from Hacktoberfest

## Do's and Don't's
> - Hacktoberfest is about making a positive impact on open source projects. Please keep this in mind when you're making PRs. Repositories that encourage folks to make a quick PR to win Hacktoberfest, such as simply adding their name to a list or creating collections of algorithms and data structures (DSA) etc., do not follow our values and will not be counted. Hacktoberfest is not about winning a t-shirt, it is about giving back to open source in whatever capacity you can. You can report repos that don't follow our values at https://hacktoberfest.digitalocean.com/report.


> - Hacktoberfest remains opt-in this year and maintainers must add the hacktoberfest topic to their repository if they wish to participate and for contributions to count. PRs that are made to those repos must then also be accepted by a maintainer to count, either through having an approving review, being merged, or having the hacktoberfest-accepted label added. View the full details at https://hacktoberfest.digitalocean.com/resources/participation.


> - We also want to focus on maintainers this year and show some appreciation for all the amazing open source work that they do. As part of this, we're offering swag packs to active maintainers during Hacktoberfest, similar to how we reward contributors that make valuable contributions through PRs. Maintainers will need to complete 4 or more actions against PRs in a participating repo to be eligible for a swag pack. View the full details at https://hacktoberfest.digitalocean.com/resources/maintainers.

## Some resources which might be helpful to you
- [Learn git](https://git-scm.com/video/what-is-git)
- [Find good projects](https://hacktoberfest-projects.vercel.app/repos/html)
- [Some best practices](https://docs.github.com/en/github/collaborating-with-pull-requests/addressing-merge-conflicts/resolving-a-merge-conflict-on-github)
- [Tips Beginner to open source](https://blog.shahednasser.com/tips-for-beginners-to-open-source/)
- [Watch this might help to get started](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amz-rJ28IOo)
- [Join us in our Open-source community](https://github.com/EddieHubCommunity)

### *Thanks for reading, if you want anything to add, find any mistake or want to give any suggestion please comment it down. I will be happy to see your comments:)*

*Also, don't forget to mention your projects with your experience about Hacktoberfest which you are interested in.*

## Happy Hacking!🧡