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

FrancisTRᴅᴇᴠ on November 02, 2026

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...
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Ayesha Mashiat •

I share your disappointment regarding the removal of PRs. I was looking forward to them in this year's one as I couldn't contribute to open source in the previous years. But I genuinely enjoyed this year's one as well. The themes were fun and allowed me to think through my skills and issues. AI reviewed PRs are already being used in many places and it's only going to evolve from here (hopefully). Hacktoberfests in the future could probably bring AI and PRs together create more fun and exciting events like this.

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FrancisTRᴅᴇᴠ •

Hey Ayesha! I do hope they bring back PRs but make them more restrictive. I am glad that you enjoyed this Hacktoberfest this year as well as you learning!

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Anmol Baranwal •

i've never shared this story publicly but around 4 yrs back when i was contributing to hacktoberfest for the first time, i made a couple of PRs for the code of conduct & guidelines (since there was none in the repo). the maintainer was toxic & marked it as spam PR instead of guiding even if there was no guidelines in the repo... well, i don't blame him since maintainers already have a lot of stuff. in the end, my account got banned & unbanned next yr lol. that was the unfortunate start of my journey in open source, I learned a lot and made lots of amazing PRs to nice repos later on!!

When I became maintainer of a repo, we ended up guiding people instead of marking it as spam PR without explanation. most ppl are new to open source & don't really know what is wrong, what is bad.

personally i believe true open source is contributing without asking for anything in return. so never contributed to hacktoberfest again. you should try GSOD!

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FrancisTRᴅᴇᴠ •

I think your perspective is the main reason why the remove PR's. I can understand if that was the case.

I never got into GSOD before (though I was thinking about it for a while). Maybe when they are open :)

Thanks Anmol!

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Amara Graham •

I'm not in the open source space right now, so I really appreciated your perspective on this year's Hacktoberfest!

In previous years, before AI was reshaping the whole industry, it was really hard on maintainers to reviews PRs based on the sheer volume some would get, low effort or otherwise. Lots of noise and chaos.

But it's super cool that you participated this year, even if you aren't really an events guy! Definitely a great opportunity to talk about on a resume and in interviews.

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FrancisTRᴅᴇᴠ •

That's fair. I was hoping they could bring it back but more controlled in a way. For example, maintainers can apply for the HacktoberFest to be part of it and the one way that the PR can be valid is if they contribute to a repo that is "HacktoberFest Verified". That way, it's easier to keep track and maintain. There is probably already something like that now I think about it...

A good opportunity to talk about it in the interview Amara! Can't wait for next year!

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Paweł Świątkowski •

For example, maintainers can apply for the HacktoberFest to be part of it and the one way that the PR can be valid is if they contribute to a repo that is "HacktoberFest Verified".

This was already the case for last few years. Only pull requests to repos tagged with #hacktoberfest were counted (or a maintainer could be putting a tag on an individual PR). This already killed the large part of the vibe, as there was very few repos tagged outside of JavaScript world.

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Dhruv Jani •

Here's mine! It was a great month, really!

Have A Great Day!

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FrancisTRᴅᴇᴠ •

Glad you had fun Dhruv! Thanks for sharing!

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Dhruv Jani •
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Thomas Bonnet •

Yaay!

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FrancisTRᴅᴇᴠ •

Good Stuff Thomas!

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Earl Grey •

Had.a.blast!

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FrancisTRᴅᴇᴠ •

Glad you had fun Earl! Thanks :D

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Anna Villarreal •

I thought I was going to participate more, but my store needed alot of attention. I didnt want to participate just to "participate" and I want to hold myself to a higher standard than submitting something AI created. I was excited to participate where I could, as it was my first hacktoberfest I've participated in. I did alot of other cool stuff during this time, things that needed to be done. ✨️

hacktoberfest badges

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FrancisTRᴅᴇᴠ •

Great stuff Anna. I thought so as well, but was busy this October lol.

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Peter Vivo •

Grat! Where I found this stickers?

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FrancisTRᴅᴇᴠ •

You would go to "hacktoberfest.com/my/" and scroll down to see your sticker book. You should be able to share there.

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Peter Vivo •

This is fare from your activity but at least I also make a work
week 0 :: a sandbox TS+|> terminal with AI mentor
week 2 :: a small animation for android pad after-flash
week 3 :: a programming language hexaw
week 4 :: a card game Singularity News CCG

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FrancisTRᴅᴇᴠ •

Nice!

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Jyanthi •

I never considered joining Hacktoberfest, but your article has certainly sparked my interest! You may have inspired a new participant for next year. 😊 What advice would you give to someone taking their very first steps into open source?

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FrancisTRᴅᴇᴠ •

Hey Jyanthi! You can actually do open source right now if you want to!

My advice is don't be afraid to make small changes. Small changes tends to be merged and it's a good first step for you to understand why the repo is built that way. Hope that helps!

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Jyanthi •

Thank you for the encouragement! You're right, small steps can lead to bigger contributions. Truly appreciate the advice!

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Klaudia Grzondziel •

I just dropped by to say hi – long time no see! 👋🏻 😃

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FrancisTRᴅᴇᴠ •

Hey Klaudia! Yes, long time no see! How you been?

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Klaudia Grzondziel •

Getting better, thanks! Recently, I've been spending a lot of time in nature and doing creative things, which is why I was away for a while. How about you? I see you keep yourself busy! 😁

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FrancisTRᴅᴇᴠ •

You know me, same old same old. Posting Consistently, commenting and such xD

I have been busy with work, though I am getting by surprisingly. Any plans on posting on DEV?

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Klaudia Grzondziel •

Congrats on getting a job! 🎉 I remember you were still a student until recently, no? Or is my memory failing me?

You know, I have ~3 articles almost ready to publish; they just need final touches. But I somehow feel shy about finishing and publishing them after so much time 🙈

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Takefumi Ono •

Really enjoyed the honesty in this one, especially the transparency note about the section you removed. That’s rare.

About your idea of AI plus human reviewers for PRs: from my work in AI training, I think you’re right that the human part is essential. AI reviewers have the same habits I wrote about. They can approve a bad PR with total confidence. So AI could help sort the pile, but your volunteer reviewers would still need the final say.

And about your reply to Amara: something like that did exist! In 2020, after the spam problems, Hacktoberfest became opt-in. Repos added a “hacktoberfest” topic, and PRs only counted if they were merged, approved, or labeled “hacktoberfest-accepted” by a maintainer. So your “Hacktoberfest Verified” idea is very close to what they tried.

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FrancisTRᴅᴇᴠ •

Hey Takefumi! I would expect something like this happen back then in previous events. I was hoping to make it more "restrictive" in some way. Maybe collaborate with GitHub on an implementation for the event maybe? idk lol.

Thanks again :D

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Takefumi Ono •

True, the 2020 version still let a lot through. A more restrictive idea: a PR only counts if it fixes an issue that a maintainer specifically labeled for Hacktoberfest. Then maintainers decide what work is needed before anyone starts, instead of cleaning up after. Thanks for the fun discussion! 😄

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Fayaz •

Great recap. 🥰

  • I'd like it more if the DEV challenge topics and criteria were less restrictive.
  • making it only AI related didn't help.
  • PR should've had a part, even if they were in a more restrictive way.

That said: overall, the way I see it, something like Hacktoberfest is what you make of it. Nothing to lose, and even if you gain a little, that's valuable.

What is more valuable though, is the community connection we make through it. In that age of AI, that's very important.


The most significant achievement I gained from this Hachtoberfest is the following project I've built. God willing, I'm certainly going to do a lot of work on this, as I myself will use it for sure: 🥰


I didn't care much about the stickers and completions. So here's mine:

fm's sticker pack

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FrancisTRᴅᴇᴠ •

Thanks Fayaz!

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build996 •

Your suggestion to reward volunteer reviewers raises a different question from whether AI can spot low-quality PRs: who checks the reviewers' decisions? A reward per reviewed PR could recreate the volume incentive on the other side of the queue. I'd rather let maintainers specify a small set of wanted changes and cap incoming contributions when review capacity is full. Would a single contribution with a real review conversation have given you more of the accomplishment you wanted than another completion sticker?

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FrancisTRᴅᴇᴠ •

Hey Build!

who checks the reviewers' decisions?

I was mainly thinking the maintainers review them, so that they make the final decision on the PR in question.

A reward per reviewed PR could recreate the volume incentive on the other side of the queue. I'd rather let maintainers specify a small set of wanted changes and cap incoming contributions when review capacity is full.

Makes sense. Though it's an idea and I haven't really flesh them out.

Would a single contribution with a real review conversation have given you more of the accomplishment you wanted than another completion sticker?

It would because it indicates that I am growing. A sticker would be more of just a sign that I did it than anything. Depending on the PR, communication is important when it comes to collaborative work and if there is a PR that shows that work (co-authoring, reviewing and make changes, etc) instead of a small change that means nothing, I would take it. That would be the dream, though it seems impossible at a large scale. If they can pull it off, I would be surprised lol.

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build996 •

Keeping the final decision with maintainers makes sense, though it means volunteer review only helps if their summary saves the maintainer time. A small pilot could ask contributors to leave one review explaining a proposed change, then let the maintainer say whether it helped them decide. That would recognize the communication you value without requiring a merge or counting review volume. Would reviewing someone else's contribution feel like meaningful progress to you too?

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FrancisTRᴅᴇᴠ •

It depends on the PR. Regardless, it's a useful skill to have by reviewing someone's work!

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John Peters •

I submitted an article to Hacktoberfest and didn't get anything of value back from the team. Shoot I don't even know if they looked at it. Was it too much, did I not follow the rules, was it not worthy? This was the submission. dev.to/jwp/hactoberfest-and-ai-1pm

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FrancisTRᴅᴇᴠ •

Hey John. The team doesn't provide feedback to anyone in general as they are busy. To be fair, it would be impossible to provide every single submission feedback, with or without AI, without having into getting into issues on how that feedback was given and received.

Even if I am on the DEV team, I don't think I am obligated to give feedback on your submission as I am not aware of the DEV/MLH process of judging. @jess Still waiting on Volunteer Judge coming back btw.

Hope this helps and sorry if this is the answer you are not looking for. I would wish for feedback as well, but it's not a thing an official team of any setting will give. You could try asking as I pinged Jess here in the meantime, but keep your expectations low.

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VidhiDixit2000 •

I completely agree about the PR part. It gives you a real sense of accomplishment. By the way, this was also my first hackathon where I built something independently. Before this, I'd always participated in hackathons as part of a team of 2–3 folks (who happen to be friends, apparently 😂).

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FrancisTRᴅᴇᴠ •

Hey Vid! Glad this was also your first hackathon and hope you had fun in this event! Do you usually participate hackathons in person or online? How often?

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VidhiDixit2000 •

I mostly participate in online hackathons, but I'm open to offline ones too, especially if there are interesting events happening nearby. And well, if someone happens to arrange flight tickets, I'm not complaining! 😂 I'm always open to teaming up with others as well.

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Naveen Alavilli •

This resonates. I maintain a couple of open-source projects myself, and the PR-count era of Hacktoberfest always put maintainers in a bad spot — reviewing is real work, and "free stuff for PRs" quietly turns that work into a cost center for volunteers. Dropping the count removes the easiest attack surface, but I like the idea some others mentioned here of a lighter-weight verification layer (maintainer opt-in + some AI-assisted triage) instead of swinging all the way to "no PRs at all." The goal should be protecting maintainer time without making genuine first-time contributors feel like the event has nothing for them anymore. Congrats on the Completionist++ run either way — getting PRs merged on Forem itself is a solid flex!

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Elliot Brenya sarfo •

The Hack Day sticker bit made me laugh. You basically found the bug and reported it yourself lol.

I like the volunteer reviewer idea. Paying the reviewers too is the part that makes it work, because nobody wants to go through 200 spam PRs for free.

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Priyanshu Patel •

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FrancisTRᴅᴇᴠ •

Great work Priyanshu! This is the most I have seen by far!

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Priyanshu Patel •

Thank you

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Felipe Inoue • • Edited

I plan to participate too good luck 😀

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FrancisTRᴅᴇᴠ •

If you are talking about this year, it has already ended. Though next year you could!

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Felipe Inoue •

oh I misunderstood, I thought it was Global Hack Week: Builders Week haha.

But okay, I'll try next year then, ty

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FrancisTRᴅᴇᴠ • • Edited

Fair enough. Any global hackweek I am excited to join :D

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AheadKit •

The Completionist++ bit got me — getting the sticker for a Hack Day in your city without actually going is the most honest review of a gamified event I've read all year. Like, congratulations on the sticker, but also... you were at home. Your idea of bringing back PRs with volunteer reviewers is genuinely good though, way better than the current "check into a livestream, collect sticker" loop. First Hacktoberfest and you're already redesigning it, respect.

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Elmar Chavez •

Didn't participate in this year's HacktoberFest but I'm glad a lot of people did. I think you did what you could and that's already more than enough even if you expected it differently. What's important is you contributed. Speaking of PR's, that got me to thinking of creating a very simple project and making people contribute to it, just to see how to be an open source project maintainer. But that would be for the future. Anyways, congrats on the successful event everyone!

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FrancisTRᴅᴇᴠ •

Hey Elmar. Thanks! I couldn't wait to see you make a project Open Source for everyone :D

Keep me posted!

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James Ngandu •

keep going i trust you, hacktober fest is so fun
we used to enjoy these badges holopin badges

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FrancisTRᴅᴇᴠ •

Thanks James!

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James Ngandu •

welcome Francis

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Steven Mock •

Really appreciate the honest take here. I agree with bringing PRs back, but with real criteria — a small, useful fix that a maintainer actually reviews feels like a much better test than volume. That review conversation is where most of the learning happens anyway, especially for someone doing it the first time. The stickers are fun, but a merged PR you can point back to carries a lot more weight.

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Tomás Herrera •

Thanks For Sharing!

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FrancisTRᴅᴇᴠ •

No problem! Thanks for reading :D

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Abhisek Roy •


Here is mine. Really exiciting month waiting for tuesday for new challenge

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FrancisTRᴅᴇᴠ •

Good work Abhisek. Can't wait for GHW for me :)

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DevOps Daily •

Did you have a chance to try the special event we organized at devops-daily.com/hacktoberfest?

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FrancisTRᴅᴇᴠ •

Thanks! I haven't look at the special event for your hacktoberfest. I can take a look when I have time :)

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Melwin Siril Joel V •

And here is mine

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FrancisTRᴅᴇᴠ •

Nice! I heard there is only around 500 Completionist++ around the whole. Nice seeing you got it Melwin :D

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RIDHAM POKIYA •

It mostly happens to all of us, so don't worry and stay calm.

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Anshika Guleria •

I joined in at the very last week, even though I was the one waiting for it the most. Due to personal reasons, I wasn't able to participate as much 😗. Removal of prs did confuse me a lot.

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baturhan •

👍

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Sean Lewis •

Thanks For Sharing🥰

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FrancisTRᴅᴇᴠ •

Anytime Sean :D

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Karima Kharkhache •

Great and honest feedback about the experience

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FrancisTRᴅᴇᴠ •

Thanks Karima!

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Dotblazer •

Nice

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FrancisTRᴅᴇᴠ •

Thanks for reading :)

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Azariah M •

i was late 😔

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FrancisTRᴅᴇᴠ •

There is always a next year Azariah!

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Bradley D. Thornton •

I opted not to participate this year, for the first time since the beginning of Hacktoberfest. It had a Big Silo managed feel and much less grass roots than previous Hacktorberfests, Looking at the sponsors over the years and how things have shifted just left many a bit ambivalent toward participating.

This was a grass roots effort to "Introduce" people into coding with revision control systems - emphasis has ALWAYS been on the revision control, in the form of GitHub - it's the most fundamental aspect of working with FOSS and contributing publicly, and the aim of the Hacktoberfest program was to show n00bs just how simple it can be, introducing those concepts and reinforcing them with the simple task.

There's plenty of Hackathons out there, every day, every week, and every month of the year. This was something different; this was something rudimentary; most of all, this was something accessable, and no longer is that the case.

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Jaxson Krouse •

don't worry, I don't even know what it is!

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Sᴛᴀʀ⭐ •

I love open source bro please tell me your GitHub official link.

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Muhammad Ali Siddiqui •

Relatable! Taking that first step into open source or community events always feels like a mix of excitement and confusion, but it's totally worth it. Keep building!