First Time Participating in Hacktoberfest

First Hacktoberfest Experience😌

A couple weeks ago, I participated in the #hacktoberfest challenge and had my first PR merged.

Throughout the last months while I was working as a Software Developer Intern and on my my ssg repo, I was hardly ever touching front end. I missed working on front-end a lot, so as my first PR for the #hacktoberfest challenge, I decided to take on a small issue related to front end.

The repo I was working on was Telescope, which is a web application that collects all the blogs related to open source development in Seneca college.

When I read the issue, I thought that it would be a great first issue related to frontend and probably very easy to resolve. I also like creating small features for the frontend, so I thought "why not?"

However, since it was my first time contributing to Telescope, it took me some time to figure out what was happening in the code base. Getting to know the repo and getting PR approved by both reviewers took longer than writing implementation itself. I had to look for the files and instructions how to run Telescope when contributing for the frontend part.

The issue was about creating a small icon besides the version number on the web app, that when clicked is going to redirect you to a page with all the Production API Statuses. I was also asked to update the README file somehow so that it also redirects to production and development API status pages.

Never Underestimate Small Issues🙅‍♀️

I learned was that even if an issue seems small and something that you can handle, it doesn't mean you will not learn a lot out of it. During the process, I learned about a handy open source repo that helps to generate badges to make README files look prettier. And a cool tool that has all the emojis you need for your frontend.

The most important thing I learned about open source was definitely communication. Without communication, you wouldn't be able to clarify what the owners of the repo expect once the issue is resolved. I also learned that while the issue may seem not complicated, the reviewers may keep asking to make changes to your PR, and it may take a while for it to get approved and for you to finally understand what was being asked.

Overall, I really enjoyed contributing to Telescope and can't wait to contribute more very soon!😁