作者首次參加 HacktoberFest：期待與失落交織

When reading this title, this may sound Netural...

Let me explain further.

HacktoberFest is an event I have heard many times over the years, but haven't really got the chance to join. Mainly because I simply don't have time and never had the courage to do Open-Source.

Before going to this event, I had some expectations because I heard about how HacktoberFest became a "SpamtoberFest" because of people creating low-quality Pull Requests on GitHub, which annoyed a lot of people in the Open-Source space.

With that said, I was still excited into going into this event because I want to experience what it was like. I am not usually an event guy, but being part of HacktoberFest excites me.

However, when going into this event, my feelings were mixed.

To start, they remove Pull Requests count for this HacktoberFest. This makes sense because people are abusing the system of trying to make low effort pull requests just to get free stuff. Although this is a rational decision, it removed the fun out of it. I would even say we are at fault of removing the fun of it.

Going into this event, I was expecting some sort of "safe guard" where the team utilized AI and a human reviewer to review Pull Requests to determine if the PR is valid or not. Sure, it's a lot of work but I guess my expectations were a little too high since it would make sense to use AI in the process. However, seeing that they remove Pull Requests entirely is kind of disappointing because I want to get the feeling of making a PR, having that on my portfolio, and getting free stuff. That sounds like an accomplishment to me in this industry since it's important to showcase your contributions to recruiters to see you have work experience.

Instead, we got stickers and certifications. This is fine because it's at least something, but I would have wish there is more we can "double dip" on if that makes sense. Knowing that certifications in the industry doesn't matter, it makes me feel like I accomplished little to none.

Don't get me wrong, the current process is much better than simply pushing 2 PRs and you are done for this month. There was thought behind it and it allows developers to be more engaged by going into livestreams, building projects, etc. Though for me, it felt empty.

You maybe asking, "what about projects?".

Let me get to that.

Going into this event, I was expected to build any projects that uses AI in the process or building a project that has AI in it. Knowing AI has becoming a thing now, it would make sense for that kind of flexibility. It felt really restrictive when I see that you have to build a project that utilize AI in it, not part of the building process.

I was bummed out because I was excited to build anything that uses AI in the process. Instead, it is heavily restricted in that side of building a project that has AI in it. As AI has become more inaccessible, for me, based on hardware and cost and coming from a guy who relies on Ollama Gemma4 Cloud (which is no longer free btw), it was sad to see. It causes me to be demotivated gradually overtime because of seeing that requirement. My demotivation probably miss a detail of where this may not be true, but I am not sure.

With all said, I still had fun surprisingly in this event. I get to see a lot of projects being built such as from @thomasbnt on this DEV feed and @dj29 projects I see time to time. I also got some stickers as well and recently became a completionist++!

Although getting to that status was easy, I didn't like how easy it was. There are some flaws to it for some stickers. For example, there was a Hack Day event at my city, but I didn't attend in person but was able to get the sticker for it if you submit a project. I would have wished there were more safe guards to it since I was able to not only check-in but submit my project as well without having to go in-person. Thus, getting a sticker for it.

Another thing is that I would have wish that being in that Competionist status allows us to at least get one free thing from it instead of entering a raffle. Maybe if you complete Completionist or Completionist++, you get a free t-shirt and you enter a raffle to get an Arduino. That makes much more sense. Maybe I am greedy idk lol.

What do I wish for next year?

It's hard to say because the things I want tends to be a caveat, which I can understand. Though I do want one thing for next year that would make sense to me:

Bring back Pull Requests, but having some criteria to make the PR valid in some way. Like challenges on the MLH page, bring in volunteers to review PRs and determine if it's valid. Both the Contributors and the volunteers get a reward for doing so.

It would be nice to have at least everyone contribute to the event without having a restriction on "the project has to have AI in it". Instead, make it optional where if you did, you get bonus points or something.

Of course, there is more, but that's pretty much I can come up on my top of my head.

I do believe that HackToberFest will improve over the years. It's just that for this one, it was okay for me and would have wish for more in this event. Could it be a me problem? Yea and I don't deny it. Though, this is just based on my experience.

To leave on a positive note, here's my Sticker book! :D

If you participate in HackToberFest, feel free to share your Sticker book in the comments. I would also love to hear from your experience as well!

See you next week! :D