Hacktoberfest 2026

Copied from @dominicduffin1's original Slack post in #open-source (https://virtual-coffee-group.slack.com/archives/C0177374RK3/p1786992286562189)

I have a new project idea for the open source world I'd like to run through my startup. I'd love to get some feedback from some of you! The idea came about after I discovered that Hacktoberfest 2026 is basically a new event and no longer about making PRs.

The program would bring together:

• Tech communities whose members want experience contributing to open source.
• Companies that want to be involved in open source and/or give their employees public experience in open source.
• Maintainers looking for a controlled source of high-quality contributions (at all levels of experience).

The program model would be:

• Tech communities could participate at no cost in mutual benefit partnership.
• Companies, either looking to get their people involved as contributors, or looking to get contributions to their own repos, could participate in sponsorship-style paid partnership.
• Individual and small non-profit maintainers could participate at no cost in mutual benefit partnership.
• Maintainers would reserve issues for project participants.
• Issues would be assigned to contributors.
• Contributors would get swag for completing PRs.
• Companies would get highlights on the project website and social media for some of the contributions made by their employees.
• Unlike old-time Hacktoberfest, the program wouldn't be for just one month and would instead incentive high quality contributions instead of rushing out a set number of PRs to meet a one-month deadline.

The benefits I see from this model would be:

• Communities and companies that are serious about contributing to OSS would get access to a steady stream of issues.
• Maintainers would get access to a source of high-quality contributions without having to open themselves up to a flood of AI-generated PRs from people who may not even understand the work the AI did.
• Contributors who enjoyed old-time Hacktoberfest would feel some similar vibes, albeit that they would have to be part of a participating community or company.

What are some of y'all's thoughts?

Cont'd

TLDR, it is like old-style Hacktoberfest but different. Designed to avoid maintainer overwhelm by limiting to partner communities and companies. Intended to become a year-round project rather than concentrating activity in just one month. Swag for contributions retained. See above for the full version.

What I'd like to know is, if Virtual Coffee Hacktoberfest Initiative 2026 is done in partnership with OSSCollab, how many people would like to participate?

[meg-gutshall]

Decisions made as a result of the meeting on Friday, September 4th:

• HCLB Communities will be spearheading this year's Hacktoberfest initiative with Virtual Coffee playing a supporting role
• HCLB Communities will invite companies to sponsor the initiative and collaborate on open-source projects along with our communities
• Registration will run through the https://hacktoberfest.virtualcoffee.io/ website
  • Participants can register as a contributor, maintainer, and/or mentor and can choose multiple roles
  • Mentorships will be on an ad hoc basis, not assigned nor guaranteed
• We will use the #open-source Slack channel in place of the #hacktoberfest Slack channel
• We will use the #co-working-room for pair programming

See meta issue for more.

[dominicduffin1]

I'm just adding here for now that the broader HCLB Communities (my startup FYI) initiative is going to be called OSWeave based on inspiration from Meg.

[dominicduffin1]

To add a bit more context around my thinking to date:

• This autumn is going to be a pilot scheme for the initiative by HCLB Communities. Based on my conversation with Meg Virtual Coffee will be the main partner for 2026.
• We did discuss the possibility that the https://hacktoberfest.virtualcoffee.io/ site could be used to register external (i.e. non-VC) participants but after reflecting on how it works behind the scenes I think it would make the most sense to use the VCHI site only for VC participants as it is helpful to have the site connected to the data store the confirms sign ups come from actual members of the participating community.

I'll also write up some issues this week for content changes for the VCHI site.

[meg-gutshall]

We did discuss the possibility that the https://hacktoberfest.virtualcoffee.io/ site could be used to register external (i.e. non-VC) participants but after reflecting on how it works behind the scenes I think it would make the most sense to use the VCHI site only for VC participants as it is helpful to have the site connected to the data store the confirms sign ups come from actual members of the participating community.

We're actually not saving the answers to Airtable this year. They're going to a DB in Netlify and will be exported via a CSV file (probably in Google Sheets, we haven't pinned that down yet).

We can change the language on the site. Wouldn't it be easier to have all the participants use the same platform for registration? If you divide it among multiple sites, it may get confusing for everyone involved. We can give participants access to the VC Slack too so they can collaborate in the #open-source and #help-and-pairing channels and #co-working-room.

[dominicduffin1]

We can change the language on the site. Wouldn't it be easier to have all the participants use the same platform for registration? If you divide it among multiple sites, it may get confusing for everyone involved. We can give participants access to the VC Slack too so they can collaborate in the #open-source and #help-and-pairing channels and #co-working-room.

OK, if you're happy to do that it makes sense. I'll add VC as an Infrastructure Partner when I publish the page about the project on HCLB Communities side. I'll edit the issue to replace the Are you a member question with a dropdown list of partner communities and companies

[meg-gutshall]

Great! Sounds good!

We have the infrastructure pretty much set up already, might as well use it! 😁