Maintaining a Hacktoberfest Repo - What I Learned

https://github.com/NiallEccles/Hacktoberfest-animations

Hacktoberfest is an annual event in October designed to encourage people to contribute to open source software. Early in my career, I was an active participant, contributing to projects and getting my first real exposure to open source.

It felt exciting being able to contribute to something bigger, collaborate with strangers, and see your work merged into real projects. But like many beginners, I also found it overwhelming. I didn’t always know where to start, or what a meaningful contribution looked like.

Hacktoberfest gave me a structured way into that world.

Getting started as a contributor

My approach was simple: I filtered GitHub repositories by labels like “beginner friendly,” “help wanted,” or “Hacktoberfest.” It worked well but I quickly realized I wasn’t the only one doing this.

Popular repositories were flooded with activity. Pull requests stacked up quickly, and it became harder to stand out or make meaningful contributions. I didn’t want to add noise or burden maintainers, so I deliberately sought out smaller repositories.

Instead of making trivial changes, I focused on style improvements, small features, or design tweaks. Things that felt more valuable than editing a README. I continued contributing this way for about two years.

Becoming a maintainer

By 2019, I felt ready to try the other side: maintaining a project myself.

I created a repository where contributors could submit and showcase animations. The idea was simple and approachable. Perfect for Hacktoberfest. The project started slowly but eventually gained traction. At the time of writing, it has nearly 400 forks and over 150 stars.

What I didn’t anticipate was how different it feels to be responsible for the project.

The reality of running a Hacktoberfest repo

During Hacktoberfest, the repository could receive 20+ pull requests a day. Combined with a full-time job, that quickly became overwhelming.

When you’re the sole maintainer in that situation, you either adapt quickly or risk the project falling apart.

I chose to adapt.

One decision I made early on was not to bring in additional maintainers. Not out of pride or a need for control, but because of the nature of Hacktoberfest itself. Many contributors are participating to complete the challenge. They contribute once and move on. It’s rare for contributors during this period to stick around long-term, and I didn’t feel it was fair to put that responsibility on them.

Managing contribution quality

Most contributors followed the guidelines and submitted thoughtful pull requests, which made things manageable.

But not all of them.

Some pull requests were clearly made just to count toward Hacktoberfest participation, with little intention of being merged. This was something I hadn’t really noticed when I was a contributor myself. I just wasn’t exposed to it.

As the number of pull requests increased each year, I had to become more direct in my feedback.

If a submission didn’t follow the contribution guide, I asked the contributor to revisit it. If it was clear that a pull request was low-effort or purely for completion credit, I closed it and marked it as invalid.

This wasn’t about being harsh, it was about protecting the quality of the project and managing my own time. At scale, clarity matters more than politeness. Vague or overly gentle feedback only slows things down.

At the same time, I made an effort to recognize valid contributions. For many contributors, this was their first pull request, and a positive experience can make a big difference.

What Hacktoberfest gets right (and wrong)

Hacktoberfest is incredibly effective at lowering the barrier to entry. It gives people a reason to try open source, often for the first time.

But the incentive structure can also lead to unintended behavior.

When the goal becomes “open X pull requests,” quantity can outweigh quality. Maintainers end up filtering noise, and contributors may prioritize speed over learning.

Having experienced both sides, my perspective has changed. As a contributor, Hacktoberfest felt like an opportunity. As a maintainer, it also feels like a surge you need to prepare for.

What I learned

Maintaining a Hacktoberfest repository taught me lessons I wouldn’t have learned any other way:

Set clear contribution guidelines early

The clearer your expectations, the less time you spend reviewing avoidable mistakes.

Be direct in feedback

Kindness matters, but so does clarity. Especially when dealing with high volume.

Protect your time

Not every pull request deserves extended discussion. It’s okay to close low-effort submissions.

Assume good intent but verify effort

Many contributors are learning. Others are optimizing for completion. Your job is to distinguish between the two.

Code review is a skill

Reviewing contributions at scale forces you to think about consistency, quality, and long-term maintainability.

Events like Hacktoberfest amplify everything

The good (new contributors, energy) and the bad (noise, low-effort PRs).

Final thoughts

Maintaining an open source project, especially during Hacktoberfest, is both rewarding and challenging. It pushes you to improve not just your technical skills, but your communication, decision-making, and ability to manage time under pressure.

If you’re considering maintaining a repository for Hacktoberfest, it’s worth doing but go in prepared. Set boundaries early, define your standards clearly, and don’t be afraid to enforce them.

And if you’re contributing: remember there’s a person on the other side of your pull request. Taking the time to make a thoughtful contribution goes further than simply ticking a box.

If you are interested in seeing this repo, you can visit it here: https://github.com/NiallEccles/Hacktoberfest-animations