Reflecting on My Hacktoberfest 2024: A Contributor’s Journey

As I look back on my experience during Hacktoberfest 2024, I find it to be an incredible journey of learning, coding, and contributing to the open-source community. This year, I had the privilege to work on a variety of projects and successfully submitted four PRs/MRs that were accepted. However, like any journey, it had its ups and downs.

Projects I Worked On

Hacktoberfest gave me the opportunity to collaborate with maintainers and contributors on diverse projects. Here’s a brief rundown of the accepted contributions I made:

1. Updated the UI — M-ayank2005/Foodie#19 🍴
   I focused on enhancing the overall UI to improve user experience. This PR challenged me to align my design ideas with the existing theme of the application.
2. Added Send Icon — mahaveergurjar/Chatbot#31 💬
   This simple yet important PR involved adding a new send icon for the chatbot interface. It was a minor UI update, but attention to detail matters, and I was happy to contribute.
3. Hover Effect on Footer — Gyanthakur/Dev_Profiles#127 🖱️
   I introduced a hover effect on the footer to make the website more interactive and engaging. This change taught me how subtle design improvements can significantly impact the user experience.
4. Updated README.md — anuragverma108/WildGuard#254 📝
   Documentation is an integral part of any project. I revamped the README.md file to make it more informative and user-friendly. This contribution reminded me that even non-code contributions are crucial for project success.

Challenges and Unaccepted PRs

Not every contribution I made was accepted, and I faced setbacks along the way. For instance:

• Fix iOS Safari Scrolling Issue — arc53/DocsGPT#1322
  I worked on resolving a scrolling issue in the iOS Safari browser within the conversation component. Unfortunately, the PR was not accepted, but the experience taught me a lot about mobile-first development and troubleshooting browser compatibility issues.
• Updated OnboardingModal.tsx — electricitymaps/electricitymaps-contrib#7312
  My PR for updating the OnboardingModal in an open-source project wasn’t accepted either. While this was disheartening, it pushed me to reflect on where I can improve, especially in adhering to project guidelines and maintaining code quality.

Lessons Learned

Participating in Hacktoberfest is not just about getting your PRs accepted; it’s about the learning process. Here are some key takeaways from my experience:

• Attention to Detail Matters: Working on UI/UX improvements made me realize how every small change can enhance user experience.
• Not Every PR Gets Accepted: Rejection is part of the process. It’s essential to stay motivated and keep learning from feedback.
• The Power of Open Source: I’ve always admired open-source projects, but Hacktoberfest allowed me to truly immerse myself in the community and see firsthand how collaborative coding can lead to innovation.
• Importance of Documentation: Contributing to documentation updates helped me understand how vital it is for project accessibility and user understanding.

And I also got some badges from Holopin while completing each PR/MR.
Here’s the Screenshot:

I think these badges are there for symbolizing our efforts and our moral values during our participation.

Final Thoughts

Hacktoberfest 2024 was a journey filled with growth, learning, and the joy of contributing to something larger than myself. Even though not all my contributions were accepted, I walked away with invaluable experience and a stronger understanding of the open-source ecosystem. I’m proud of the PRs I made, and I look forward to continuing my open-source journey.

To anyone considering participating in future Hacktoberfests, I highly encourage it. You’ll grow as a developer, collaborate with talented individuals, and become part of a community that truly embodies the spirit of open collaboration.

Until next time, Hacktoberfest!