One of rOpenSci’s aims is to build capacity of software users and developers and foster a sense of pride in their work. What better way to do that than to encourage you to participate in Hacktoberfest, a month-long celebration of open source software!

It doesn’t take much to get involved

Beginners to experts. Contributors and package maintainers welcome. You can get involved by applying the label Hacktoberfest to issues in your rOpenSci repo (or any project) that are ready for contributors to work on. You can find already-labelled rOpenSci and ropenscilabs issues here. A contribution can be anything – fixing typos, improving documentation, writing tests, fixing bugs, or creating new features. Who better to improve a vignette than the person who’s using the package?!

Consider opening beginner-level issues and label them beginner and Hacktoberfest. Remember, everyone had a first pull request so put yourself in their shoes, keep our code of conduct in mind and help open up the doors to our community!

Have a look at this great discussion on first-timers-only issues with pointers to other discussions and resources. Please chime in in the comments below with your suggestions below for ways to help newcomers get involved.

Everyone who signs up gets stickers, but make four pull requests between October 1–31 and you get a limited edition Hacktoberfest 2017 t-shirt.

Spread the word

Share this blog post and link to your issue or link to all the issues! #Hacktoberfest #rstats