It brings me no joy to say that now that I am on the maintainer side of some OSS, Hacktoberfest is a fear inducing event where people would just submit junk PRs just so they could get a T-Shirt...
We're so far from the original spirit of the event.
netsharc · 3h ago
Is there still a t-shirt?
If someone had money to burn (come on cryptobros..), they could make a t-shirt that says "This T-Shirt earned by not participating in Hacktoberfest 2025"...
I suppose people who are familiar with the t-shirt fiasco might not want to avoid association with any further fests, I can't imagine someone wearing the t-shirt proudly, and if they bragged about it in a job interview it might even be a negative..
Edit to add: the prospectus PDF says sponsorship applications were in previous months, and August 2025 is the launch of the site. Sponsorship earns you a mention on their site.. so, since the site doesn't mention any other brand than DigitalOcean, were there no takers? Why is there still a form to enquire about being a sponsor?
And yes they're still going to have t-shirts... So will clothing made in Bangladesh go halfway around the world to end up in their neighbour country?
We're so far from the original spirit of the event.
If someone had money to burn (come on cryptobros..), they could make a t-shirt that says "This T-Shirt earned by not participating in Hacktoberfest 2025"...
I suppose people who are familiar with the t-shirt fiasco might not want to avoid association with any further fests, I can't imagine someone wearing the t-shirt proudly, and if they bragged about it in a job interview it might even be a negative..
Edit to add: the prospectus PDF says sponsorship applications were in previous months, and August 2025 is the launch of the site. Sponsorship earns you a mention on their site.. so, since the site doesn't mention any other brand than DigitalOcean, were there no takers? Why is there still a form to enquire about being a sponsor?
And yes they're still going to have t-shirts... So will clothing made in Bangladesh go halfway around the world to end up in their neighbour country?