Hacked The Hacktoberfest š
Tips to get started with Open Source during Hacktoberfest
It's October, so as an Open Source Enthusiast I started contributing to Hacktoberfest. It was my first time contributing to Open source and the I was scared of doing something wrong. Eventually, I started making the process, I discovered new repositories based on my tech stack and started fixing beginner-friendly or good-first-issues. So finally I am done with my Hacktoberfest target but I did not stop contributing and that pushed me to a total of 8 total contributions. Before starting I had so many doubts like Open Source is only for Pro Developers and you have to know how to code to contribute but after this I know some things that might help you in your first open-source contributions.
- Use Filters in GitHub to find the repository you want to contribute to and what matches your tech stack and preferences.
- Search using labels like good-first-issue or easy if itās your first time
- Comment on the issue you want to work on and ask the maintainer to explain it to you, donāt be afraid to ask questions because most of the maintainers are super helpful and they will help you throughout the process of your contribution.
- Remember the maintainer knows you are a beginner, they donāt expect you to know everything so ask for help if you donāt what to do next
- Learn Git properly and learn how to read large codebases.
- Finally, enjoy the process and donāt stop after an event, do it throughout the year. All the best for this year and enjoy!!
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