This is my first HacktoberFest, and I don't know what to feel.

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

Let me explain further. I do recommend reading this in full since I am a critical guy lol. If you want a short answer, I enjoy this HacktoberFest, but there are somethings that could be better based on my experience of a guy rarely participating haha. Take it as a grain of salt because of that lol!

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.

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 regardless, 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.

When the event ended, I have mix feelings about it and I can't really pinpoint it really. Here are my thoughts.

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. It was a rational decision for sure and I can understand why. I feel bad for those who genuine make good Pull Requests at that time. It's basically our fault that there are those who ruin the fun for everyone.

To be fair, before the announcement, 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 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 INCLUDING Stickers. 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. It would be a nice alternative instead of just building projects.

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 mostly empty because of how easy it was to get stickers by simply checking into livestreams and completing the basics to get Completionist.

You maybe asking, "what about projects?".

I didn't really feel conformable signing up to services that I won't use after the event. This is on me lol. I would have wish to negate my OCD for me to use these services freely, but I was pretty limited.

Note: Initially, I talked about how AI is not accessible because of hardware and cost in general regardless of free promotions you can claim. Also talked about how the projects are AI integrated focus and not building projects in general, with or without AI. I removed that chunk of the section because it's mostly a me thing and some things I was just completely wrong about. Just leaving a note here for transparency.

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 his 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 (if you win of course). That makes much more sense. Maybe I am greedy idk lol, just comparing to previous events where you get more than just stickers haha

What do I Wish for Next Year?

It's hard to say. There isn't really much because the team did what they could and they delivered! 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. Bring in volunteers to review PRs and determine if it's valid. Both the Contributors and the volunteers get a reward for doing so.

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. To be fair, I rarely participate in the event and my opinion would have change A LOT if I participate further. Though again, this is just based on my experience so far from a guy rarely participating lol.

Regardless, I had fun in this HacktoberFest! Even though PRs didn't count, I still contribute to Open-Source and got some PRs merged on Forem. Thanks @ben for reviewing them as always! To leave on a positive note though, here's my Sticker book if anyone is curious! :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 since I am a bit critical in this event. Though I don't dislike it lol.

See you next week! :D

Disclaimer: This post is HEAVILY edited because there were some parts that came off wrong, parts that I am wrong, thoughts that came out wrong in writing, etc. Also, some good grammar fix ups after a few hours of posting lol.