The Hacktoberfest maintainer wishlist:

Picture this: you’re a developer who has decided you want to start contributing to open source.

Hacktoberfest, a month-long celebration of open source software that encourages OSS enthusiasts and beginners to contribute projects, seems like the perfect opportunity... but what are some ways you can add to a project while you’re still learning?

In this webinar, Tidelift ecosystem strategy lead Josh Simmons and maintainer Isabel Costa sit down to discuss this topic. Josh shares some stats from a recent maintainer-only survey about the areas where maintainers need help most. Spoiler alert: it involves documentation. Isabel shares what sorts of pull requests she’s most likely to merge.

Josh and Isabel also discuss ways maintainers might be able to make Hacktoberfest a success for their projects: What is the definition of a meaningful contribution? What are some good first steps someone can contribute? What areas do maintainers most need help with?