Hacktoberfest 2017 - Part Two
In a previous blog post, I excitedly talked about the upcoming event “Hacktober”, in which programmers band together in a frenzied month of contributions to open source software. Now we’re over halfway through the month and I have completed my four pull requests (earning myself a snazzy Hacktoberfest t-shirt), I thought I’d write down some tips and tricks about getting involved.
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First thing is first - know your git etiquette! I myself had to read up around contributions, flagging issues, and leaving my git history nice and tidy. While this is mainly for the sake of the repository administrators, it is also good to know as a developer (or even a curious layperson) as it promotes good practise and also improves the chances of your code being merged!
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Secondly, know how to claim a piece of work. Floods of issues were tagged “Hacktoberfest” in the first few days of this month, and while this tag is great because it pushes the issue to the community, many people struggled to find issues that were not already taken. There are, thankfully, a few ways to let other GitHub users know that a feature is being worked on or fixed up! These range from opening a WIP pull request (very neat) to simply posting on the relevant issue asking for it to be assigned to you (let me get on and code)! This is a lifesaver when it comes to really popular repositories on GitHub, as there is nothing worse than finding out someone beat you to the punch - especially after you’ve torn your hair out over that one last bug…
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The next thing I would suggest is to find a community that you have some vested interest in - it could be the group around a massive, vital tool you use daily at work, or the lastest hacky project your friends are working on. Either way, by having an interest in the system you are helping develop, you’ll have more of a sense of ownership and ensure your development is top-notch.
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To go hand in hand with an interesting project, a supportive and welcoming community is just as key when it comes to open source. If the people maintaining the project are kind, welcoming, and provide good feedback, you’ll feel a lot more welcome when contributing. I was lucky enough to find a set of repositories with some great admins that would provide constructive criticism and allow me to bounce ideas off of them when adding fixes. This improved the quality of code I wrote, and encouraged me to contribute more!
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Finally, take sensible size pieces of work. If you are a novice, diving in for the first time (like I was on the 1st of October), pick up a small fix. My first contribution was a documentation fix! While it isn’t as cool as some of the bigger pieces I saw contributed, it is still important, and was a good way of dipping my toes in the water before I took the plunge. As the months, weeks and even days go by, your experience will grow and you’ll be contributing larger and larger pieces of work.
Hopefully, you’ve found this list useful (I know I wished for something like this when I first looked at Hacktoberfest)! If you want to discuss anything further, or agree/disagree with anything I’ve said, get in contact with me - I’d love to hear from you! Lastly, keep an eye out for my final Hacktoberfest post due later this month, where I tell you about my personal Hacktoberfest experience.