Virtual Coffee:
Hacktoberfest Initiative

Virtual Coffee is gearing up for Hacktoberfest 2024 and we want our Virtual Coffee members to join us!

Our plan is to harness the power in our community to help developers become excited about contributing to Open Source Software, and to contribute to some of our favorite Open Source repositories along the way.

Join us for Hacktoberfest:

*Choose as many roles as you like. Mentorship only guaranteed if you're a Virtual Coffee member who registers before September 28th.
Contributors

Are you a Virtual Coffee member interested in participating in Hacktoberfest (or open source in general), but don't know where to start? Or are you an experienced developer looking to complete Hacktoberfest as part of the Virtual Coffee Community? We'd love to help! Come join our Hacktoberfest Initiative and get the support you need to complete the challenge.

  • Learn OSS essentials

  • Complete Hacktoberfest Challenge

  • Join a great community of developers

Maintainers

Are you an open source maintainer who is interested in participating in Hacktoberfest? We're looking for some OSS maintainers to partner with in order to provide a welcoming environment to our contributors as they start or continue their open source journey.

  • Find some excited contributors for your project

  • Grow your community

  • Join a great community of developers

Mentors

Have a few pull requests under your belt, and are looking for ways to give back to the community? Virtual Coffee's Hacktoberfest Initiative is a great place to provide high-impact help to a few early-career contributors.

  • Give back to the community

  • Have some fun

  • Join a great community of developers

Questions:

What is Virtual Coffee?

Virtual Coffee is a supportive community of developers at all stages of the journey. Our mission is to be a welcoming tech community that allows room for growth and mentorship at all levels, and to create meaningful opportunities for learning, leadership, and contribution for everyone. We do a little bit of everything, which includes a thriving Slack group, special events, twice-weekly meetings, a podcast and newsletter, and good people. All new members are invite only from our active volunteers.

What is Hacktoberfest?

Hacktoberfest is a month-long virtual event encouraging and supporting open-source contributions sponsored by DigitalOcean. Open Source Software (OSS) is code the public can view, contribute to, and use. A contributor can complete Hacktoberfest by registering and getting four pull requests (PRs) accepted by maintainers in repositories with the "Hacktoberfest" topic or labeled "hacktoberfest-accepted" between October 1-31.

What is a Maintainer?

Maintainers are the owners of the open source project. They keep track of the work, review incoming PR requests and issues, and make sure things get merged. They keep the project up to date and when possible connect developers to issues. Good maintainers aren't necessarily the best coders or reviewers, but they help others navigate the project and anticipate and remove difficulties when they can.

What is a Contributor and what do I need to get started?

A contributor is someone who submits code or documentation to an open source project as a pull request on GitHub but usually does not have the ability to merge their contributions. Contributors can find issues to work on in open source repositories. To get started as an open source contributor for Hacktoberfest, all you need to do is to sign up and have/create a Github account.

Why should I partner with Virtual Coffee for Hacktoberfest?

Our goal is to provide support for contributors and maintainers. We want everyone to have an opportunity to contribute, regardless of their experience. Likewise, we want to provide maintainers with support to create projects that are contributor-friendly and will lead to repeat contributions beyond Hacktoberfest. Our goal is to make tech a friendly place for everyone.

What type of support will there be?

Because not everyone will need the same level or type of support, we're working to accommodate as many needs as possible. This could include 1:1 mentorship, access to private Slack channels, a group coding session, a review of the project you're using for Hacktoberfest, or general community support. We're also here to cheer you on throughout the month, whether on social media, through our events, or Slack.

How many roles can I take on?

The short answer is as many as you want! If you want to be a maintainer, mentor, and contributor, you can. But we know that this can be really time consuming, so we ask that you carefully consider how much you can take on, especially as a mentor and maintainer who will be supporting others.