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I'm a participant with 2 PRs merged so far. I totally support the opt-in mode, but at the same time discouraged from continuing further (contributing to repos w

I'm a participant with 2 PRs merged so far. I totally support the opt-in mode, but at the same time discouraged from continuing further (contributing to repos with the hacktoberfest topic, not open source in general). 1. I think the opt-in should have been there at the start. Repo maintainers should have been informed, and given ample time to decide if they want to participate or not, so that participants are likely to have a wider range of repos to choose from. From the organiser's POV, it will help them to measure the impact of this event on open source events. However, this doesn't seem to be planned at the start (didn't happen in the past years either?) The explanation I can think of is that either they didn't have a nice talk with GitHub to get their support, or like many ppl have said, it's more of a publicity stunt. 2. It could have been done with better communication. If not for this HN thread, I wouldn't have known the change in rules. No email sent. Even the official website still has rule sections that say any public repo will work. 3. I'm discouraged to participate further. I do love the t-shirt. I'd be lying to say that I wasn't motivated by the shirt from the start. I also wanted to beat the crowd by making PRs early by sacrificing my time for other hobbies/work. However, I made PRs that are welcomed and the maintainers were happy to merge. But now I feel the shirt will only bring me the suspicion and disgrace of potentially being a spammer. 4. I don't have many choices of repo to contribute now. In the hacktoberfest topic, there's 0 repo in my preferred language. The first repo I see with the highest number of stars is some algo repo. The 2 repos I've contributed and likely to contribute again are not qualifies anymore. There are still good things from my experience. I have made PRs before, but I'm not actively contributing. I'd rather spend my free time on other hobbies. But now, I do see that I can find joy in open source. I'm likely to contribute to repos that interest me again in the future.

bblough 6y ago
You're not alone. I understand why this change is needed - jerks often ruin things. But I hope that DO will refine the approach a bit, as opt-in-only will probably kill Hacktoberfest for me. The intersection of projects that I use or care about, the projects that are in a language that I'm interested in using (or even learning), the projects that are on github, and the projects that will actually opt in even after the events of the last few days, well... I'm guessing that set is going to be pretty small. Quite frankly I don't want to spend more time searching/scrolling through github trying to find contributions to make than I do actually contributing. Of course, none of that probably matters, as I realize I'm not the target audience for Hacktoberfest: I regularly contribute to open source projects. Whether or not I get a t-shirt won't change that, but I'm not going to lie - I've enjoyed getting the shirts (and stickers!), and wear them often. They can be good conversation starters, and it's also nice to have a tangible reminder of my contributions, since so much of what we do in this field is completely intangible. Though, to your point, the potential implications of the t-shirts going forward may change my feelings on wearing them. And I completely agree w/r/t to communication. Earlier today I made a PR and refreshed my Hacktoberfest profile to make sure it picked it up, only to see it marked as not valid due to not being in an approved repository. So I went looking for an explanation and eventually wound up in this thread. As you noted, there was no mention of it on the site, no email, etc. There also doesn't appear to be a contact email listed anywhere on the Hacktoberfest site.

bblough 6y ago

You're not alone. I understand why this change is needed - jerks often ruin things. But I hope that DO will refine the approach a bit, as opt-in-only will probably kill Hacktoberfest for me. The intersection of projects that I use or care about, the projects that are in a language that I'm interested in using (or even learning), the projects that are on github, and the projects that will actually opt in even after the events of the last few days, well... I'm guessing that set is going to be pretty small. Quite frankly I don't want to spend more time searching/scrolling through github trying to find contributions to make than I do actually contributing. Of course, none of that probably matters, as I realize I'm not the target audience for Hacktoberfest: I regularly contribute to open source projects. Whether or not I get a t-shirt won't change that, but I'm not going to lie - I've enjoyed getting the shirts (and stickers!), and wear them often. They can be good conversation starters, and it's also nice to have a tangible reminder of my contributions, since so much of what we do in this field is completely intangible. Though, to your point, the potential implications of the t-shirts going forward may change my feelings on wearing them. And I completely agree w/r/t to communication. Earlier today I made a PR and refreshed my Hacktoberfest profile to make sure it picked it up, only to see it marked as not valid due to not being in an approved repository. So I went looking for an explanation and eventually wound up in this thread. As you noted, there was no mention of it on the site, no email, etc. There also doesn't appear to be a contact email listed anywhere on the Hacktoberfest site.