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description: Summing up Appwrite's participation in Hacktoberfest 2023.
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date: 2023-11-01
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cover: /images/blog/hf-2023-journey/cover.png
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timeToRead: 5
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author: aditya-oberai
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category: hacktoberfest
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---
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**October** is our favorite month of the year because it brings with it **Hacktoberfest**, the largest celebration of open source in the world! And this year, we returned to support DigitalOcean and **Hacktoberfest 2023** as a sponsor to invest in the upliftment of the open-source world and to rejoice the 10th anniversary of this wonderful initiative. Hacktoberfest brought moments of nostalgia seeing developers from different walks of life join in to take their first steps in the open-source world.
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We had an absolute blast interacting with all the new contributors and hosting all the events throughout the month! Our **[Discord server](https://appwrite.io/discord)** was full of **AMAs** and **PR Review parties**, which enabled us to demonstrate our PR review workflow and allowed the community to really appreciate the work that goes into maintaining open-source projects. We were also able to educate new contributors on various facets of open source, usage of tools like Git and GitHub, the process of submitting a PR, communication best practices, and so much more!
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Not only did we see multiple virtual events, but we also hosted an [in-person Hacktoberfest Kickoff meetup](https://photos.app.goo.gl/n5YQjK56CCgqyrj68) in collaboration with DigitalOcean in Bengaluru, India. Overall, this Hacktoberfest was one of the most wholesome and fulfilling experiences for our team, and we cannot wait to share our highlights from this edition.
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## Our history with Hacktoberfest
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Before we jump into some amazing open-source contributions from Hacktoberfest this year, we would love to share why our participation in Hacktoberfest matters far more to us than we can express. **Appwrite was first released back in September 2019** with one mission, to make software development accessible and enjoyable for all. **Hacktoberfest 2019** was truly a game-changer for us, as we saw **over 200 contributions** from some lovely members of the open-source fraternity that October. The stars on our project doubled that month and entered the 4-digit range for the very first time.
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That one month truly enabled us to lay the foundations of a budding organization with the sole purpose of helping developers build faster and better. And for that, no thank-yous will ever be enough to express our gratitude for this amazing open source community that chose to carry us on their shoulders at our inception. This year, as a sponsor of Hacktoberfest, we set out with the mission to **uplift the ever-growing open-source community** and **enable more newcomers** to step in and grow in this ecosystem.
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## Some of our favorite contributions
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This Hacktoberfest, we focused on collaborating with our contributors to make impactful contributions. Some of them really stood out to us, and we thought to share them here for you to check out too!
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- [Security Scans in the CI pipeline using GitLeaks](https://github.com/appwrite/appwrite/pull/6492)
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- [Functions template to implement Sync with MeiliSearch in Kotlin](https://github.com/appwrite/templates/pull/234)
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- [Messaging adapter for Postmark](https://github.com/utopia-php/messaging/pull/26)
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- [Storage adapter for IBM Cloud Object Storage](https://github.com/utopia-php/storage/pull/90)
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- [Unit tests for the Android and Kotlin SDKs](https://github.com/appwrite/sdk-generator/pull/729)
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The Appwrite team also participated in a number of livestreams throughout the month.
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- [Open Source Friday with Appwrite](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJvawxeUhN4) by GitHub
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- [Learn healthy contribution practices with Aditya Oberai!](https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1947516149) by GitHub Education
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- [Building Appwrite Functions](https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1953276802) by MLH
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## Milestones achieved so far
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Together, we made a lot of noise during Hacktoberfest, leading to some amazing results for the Appwrite community!
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- **135+** Hacktoberfest issues
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- **65+** accepted Pull Requests
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- **30+** new GitHub contributors
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- **8** Hacktoberfest PR Review Parties
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All these achievements were made possible through the strong collaboration and active participation of the community through a variety of contributions, spanning **adapters**, **function templates**, and more!
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## What’s next for Appwrite
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We have a lot of exciting features that we’re working towards as we gear up to make **Appwrite Cloud** generally available. Appwrite Cloud is the hosted Appwrite solution managed by our team, so developers like you can focus on building their applications. We’re currently running Appwrite Cloud in Public Beta, so [sign up and start building](https://cloud.appwrite.io/register) as soon as you can!
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Besides that, this Hacktoberfest, one new product that we saw a number of folks contribute to is **Appwrite Messaging**. Stay tuned for more information on the same.
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## How can you contribute after Hacktoberfest?
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Hacktoberfest may be over, but you don’t have to stop contributing! We have **lots of open issues** that you can find on our [GitHub repos](https://github.com/appwrite/appwrite/issues). You can also **write articles**, **create tutorials**, or **build demo apps** and add them to our [Awesome Appwrite repo](https://github.com/appwrite/awesome-appwrite) and the [Built With Appwrite website](https://builtwith.appwrite.io). There are always new ways to support the [community](https://appwrite.io/community), and we truly love all the contributions you make. If you need help with Appwrite or would like to explore some interesting ways to contribute, join us on our [Discord server](https://appwrite.io/discord) and connect with the Appwrite community.
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Thank you so much once again for joining us during Hacktoberfest. We hope you enjoyed contributing to open source as much as we do, and we can’t wait to have you all with us next year!
@@ -17,60 +17,60 @@ In the context of open-source communities, **community health** refers to the ov
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A healthy open-source community typically has the following characteristics:
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- **Active participation** and **continuous engagement**
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- An **inclusive** and **open environment** for everyone, regardless of their backgrounds, skills, etc.
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- **Effective communication channels**, such as mailing lists, forums, or chat rooms
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- **Transparent decision-making** about the project's direction, priorities, and governance
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- **Strong leadership** to guide the community, set the vision, and help resolve conflicts
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- A well-defined **code of conduct** to establish expectations for behavior
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- Well-maintained **documentation** for the project and its processes
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- **Recognition** and **appreciation** of contributors' efforts
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- **Collaboration** and **teamwork** among members
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- **Opportunities** to **learn** and **grow** as a professional
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- Active participation and continuous engagement
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- An inclusive and open environment for everyone, regardless of their backgrounds, skills, etc.
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- Effective communication channels, such as mailing lists, forums, or chat rooms
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- Transparent decision-making about the project's direction, priorities, and governance
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- Strong leadership to guide the community, set the vision, and help resolve conflicts
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- A well-defined code of conduct to establish expectations for behavior
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- Well-maintained documentation for the project and its processes
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- Recognition and appreciation of contributors' efforts
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- Collaboration and teamwork among members
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- Opportunities to learn and grow as a professional
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While some of these characteristics, like strong leadership, transparent decision-making, and creating a code of conduct, are responsibilities primarily held by maintainers, most of these are shared between maintainers and contributors.
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## Building a healthy set of contribution practices
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Having discussed what community health means, it is necessary to then discuss what contributors can do to improve the community experience for everyone involved in the contribution process. Here are some practices I recommend from my experience as a contributor and maintainer:
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- **Wait till you’re assigned** an issue
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- **Wait till you’re assigned an issue**
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The majority of open-source projects have processes of selecting what issue is necessary to work on and who works on what issue. This is why it is important to ensure that your raised issue is either selected or you’re assigned to work on one. Not doing so before you start contributing may cause you to repeat someone else’s work.
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- Make **objectively valuable** contributions
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- **Make objectively valuable contributions**
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When making a contribution, it is important to ensure that your contribution is objectively valuable and not subjective. Only then does it create value for everyone in the community and not a specific group only. For example, fixing spelling mistakes in documentation is objectively valuable, but changing a paragraph from active to passive voice is not.
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- **Focus on quality** rather than quantity
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- **Focus on quality rather than quantity**
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Rather than making too many contributions quickly and carelessly, it is better to focus on a smaller number and ensure they’re in the best shape possible. This way, your work leads to lesser maintenance debt and more positive value addition.
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- **Review** previously merged contributions
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- **Review previously merged contributions**
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Looking through past accepted contributions gives you a better idea of the project's development practices and communication processes. Better clarity on these makes it much easier for you to integrate within the operations of the projects.
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- **Don’t call dibs** on issues
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- **Don’t call dibs on issues**
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There’s plenty of work to go around for every person in the community, whether around code, documentation, maintenance, etc. Let’s make sure we don’t end up adding more barriers in the process by spamming requests to get assigned on every issue we find.
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- **Wait for a couple of days** before you ask for an issue to be **reassigned**
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- **Wait for a couple of days before you ask for an issue to be reassigned**
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When contributing to open source, it is necessary to remember that most people participate here outside of their day-to-day lives. With everything else in our lives, with work, academics, families, etc., sometimes people can’t prioritize open source immediately. A little patience here goes a long way for everyone.
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- **Communicate your progress** with the maintainers
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- **Communicate your progress with the maintainers**
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After you are assigned an issue, it’s good to update the project’s maintainers at regular intervals. This way, everyone in the process can track progress and challenges, thus keeping transparency for the community.
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- **Be patient** with the maintainers
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- **Be patient with the maintainers**
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Most open-source work is unpaid and voluntary. Maintainers do it out of their love for the technology and community. And as lovely as maintaining their project can be, as the communities around their projects grow, it can very easily become overwhelming. Therefore, if your contribution has been under review for a while, patience goes a long way.
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- **Help** with Pull Request **reviews**
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- **Help with Pull Request reviews**
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Most open-source projects tend to have a much higher ratio of contributors to maintainers. Therefore, once you know what maintainers look for in changes, you can leave appropriate feedback for the project to help make life easier for everyone.
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- Give and accept **feedback** **constructively** and **humbly**
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- **Give and accept feedbackconstructively and humbly**
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The beauty of open source is that you could end up collaborating with people from drastically different places, walks of life, or knowledge levels. You never know whether the person you’re working with is a college sophomore or a veteran software engineer. Giving constructive feedback means that you enable others to learn and grow from your experiences. Accepting it with humility enables you to achieve the same.
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