We're halfway through Hacktoberfest, an excellent time to look back and see how much we have accomplished so far. It's also an opportunity to recenter ourselves for the next couple of weeks and conclude this event with a bang.

We're incredibly proud to share that, so far, we've merged 92 pull requests! We're baffled by our contributors' enthusiasm and involvement. We wish to extend a warm thanks to everyone who participated.

And to express our gratitude, we'd like to share our plans for additional Meilisearch swag and common goals, as we teased in our previous Hacktoberfest [blog post](/blog/contribute-hacktoberfest-2022/)*Meilisearch exclusive swag**
------------------------------

Last year, we sent reusable bottles and some stickers to our contributors. When it came to shipping, it was not all smooth sailing, but we learned a lot from it and have adjusted our strategy this year.

We had settled on reusable bottles in the spirit of eco-friendly and reusable gifts. These values are fundamental to us as we wish to offer goods people can reuse for a long time. Given that most  of our contributors are developers, we've considered that tech-related presents might be particularly appreciated. This is how we came to our current choice.

We're very excited to be able to give all participants a swag box containing a duffle bag, a webcam cover, as well as a touchscreen tool shield.

![Picture of the swag box products such as a dark duffle bag, a black webcam cover, a white touchscreen](https://unable-actionable-car.media.strapiapp.com/Untitled_design_6_1f6a37b53c.png)

(This isn't the final design of the goods you'll receive :) )

The touchscreen will ensure you won't have to touch public surfaces and keep your hands germ-free. The webcam cover will guard your privacy. And finally, you'll be able to put all your gifts in your snazzy duffle bag-both, a fashionable _and_ green choice.

If you've had one of your PRs merged or will get one merged before the end of Hacktoberfest, you're eligible to receive your box! Our maintainers will share a link to a simple online form where we will collect the information we need to start the redeeming process.

**Common goals** 
-----------------

As we did [last year](/blog/hacktoberfest-2021-recap/)e strive to not only contribute to the open-source community throughout Hacktoberfest but also hope to pay it forward. This is why we come back again with some collective goals to benefit a greater mission.

For Hacktoberfest 2021, we donated to open-source maintainers, climate activist groups, and groups that support diversity in tech.

This year, we identified local groups that might benefit from our contributions and with whom we hope to foster a closer relationship. We'd love to see how our donations -achieved thanks to you!- will impact their work.

These are the different groups we plan on supporting this year:

### **Group 1. Diversity in tech**

Diversity in tech is, now more than ever, a hot topic. We strive for a world where diversity isn't a debate topic but a simple reality. Within Meilisearch, we do our best to encourage inclusion and acceptance, and we are very grateful for the opportunity the diversity our mostly remote team offers us.

This is why we wish to keep supporting such topics through the following associations:

👩🏿‍🦱 [Women on Rails](https://women-on-rails.github.io/ressources/) - This LGBTQ+-friendly association works hard to support women that want to practice coding on Ruby and Rails, specifically.

👩🏾‍💻 [Ladies of Code Paris](https://ladiesofcodeparis.netlify.app/) - This Paris-based group supports women's careers in tech.

👥 [Becometech](https://becomtech.fr/en/why-support-us/) - Once again, this Paris-based group strives for inclusion and diversity in IT.

### **Group 2. Climate activism**

As a tech company, we are aware of our carbon footprint. To further our efforts in minimizing this impact, we wish to continue to support some climate activist causes such as:

🌊 [Seasheperd France](https://seashepherd.fr/) - This group works on protecting oceans and raises awareness against aggressive fishing practices.

🌏 [Teragi](https://www.teragir.org) - This association supports sustainability projects through five different active programs

🌴 [Reforestaction](https://www.reforestaction.com/nos-solutions-pour-les-entreprises) - This group pushes hard on reforestation efforts.

### **Group 3. Societal organizations** 

Finally, our third group this year tackles social issues. The members of Meilisearch hope to leave this world in a better state than we found it. In these uncertain times where it's so easy to feel divided, we wish to stand together and support the following groups:

👭 [MAS les Sophoras , Unapei Alpes Provence](https://annuaire.action-sociale.org/?p=mas-les-sophoras-130008402&details=caracteristiques) - This French, Marseille-based, association supports disabled adults throughout their lives by helping integrate them into society.

🇺🇦 [Urgence: santé des femmes Ukrainiennes](https://www.helloasso.com/associations/asf-actions-sante-femmes/collectes/urgence-femmes-ukrainiennes) - This group supports Ukrainian women's health who had to flee their country due to the war, especially with pregnancies.

👫 [Perce neige](https://www.perce-neige.org/) - This Marseille-based group works on supporting mentally handicapped adults. 

**How to unlock the donations?**
--------------------------------

This year, the sky's the limit! It will take 50 PRs to go from one stage to the other, meaning each merged PR represents 10€ of donation.

![Picture displaying the 4 goals we hope to achieve with the appropriate monetary donation next to each goal. ](https://unable-actionable-car.media.strapiapp.com/Goal_1_a57a68e5ff.png)

To calculate the total number of contributions, we will count the number of  Hacktoberfest-related pull requests merged in Meilisearch repositories at the end of the month. We will also consider any PRs tagged with the “Hacktoberfest-accepted” label but have not been merged.

As we mentioned, we've already merged 92 PRs we're happy to announce we've already achieved the first goal on our list! Each of our three groups will be receiving 500€, and that's thanks to your efforts! Let's work hard to bring these donations to the next level by smashing through the rest of our goals.

### **How to participate?**

You still have time to participate for a chance to get your hands on our exclusive swag box and help in achieving our common goals!

You can find all our repos accepting Hacktoberfest contributions [here](https://github.com/search?q=org%3Ameilisearch+topic%3Ahacktoberfest&type=Repositories); alternatively, all our Hacktoberfest-eligible issues are [here](https://github.com/search?q=org%3Ameilisearch+label%3Ahacktoberfest&state=open&type=Issues).

There is an issue for everyone, with plenty of [good first issues](https://github./blog/2020-01-22-how-we-built-good-first-issues/) for more novice contributors and more challenging topics for our seasoned devs.

Here are our suggestions for repos that contain some interesting good first issues:

*   If you're a language expert, you'll find many issues in [Charabia](https://github.com/meilisearch/charabia) that require your knowledge of the language to improve our tokenizers and make it easier for Meilisearch to process foreign languages. 
*   Our [PHP](https://github.com/meilisearch/meilisearch-php) integration also offers some issues you might be able to tackle without too much trouble if you're interested.
    

And, of course, if your PR is not associated with an issue, but gets accepted, we'll be happy to tag it as "Hacktoberfest accepted", so don't let that stop you!

### **Join our community!**

Our [Slack community](https://join.slack.com/t/meilicommunity/shared_invite/zt-1g4juofj9-FAc_X_A_Ka8EJ6hUMauQCA) is always open to new members! We have a #[hacktoberfest](https://meilicommunity.slack.com/archives/C02G1H43J2X) channel where both Meilisearch employees and fellow contributors mingle, so don’t hesitate to join us if you’d like.

We look forward to your feedback on yourHacktoberfest experience.

Hacktoberfest 2022: Mid-October update

October is finally upon us, and with it comes Hacktoberfest, a staple in the open-source community. Once a year and for a whole month, we all come together and contribute to open-source projects.

But this won’t be the first time Meilisearch joins the melee! We've been participating since 2020, and each time you consistently blew us away with your passion and hard work. Looking back on everything accomplished last year, we're so proud that last year we merged 159 PRs from 90 different collaborators. We're very grateful for your input which allows Meilisearch to grow and progress so quickly.

<Callout>
  **And now, we're back for more, ready with 37** [**repos**](https://github.com/search?q=org%3Ameilisearch+topic%3Ahacktoberfest&type=Repositories) **and 185** [**issues**](https://github.com/search?q=org%3Ameilisearch+label%3Ahacktoberfest&state=open&type=Issues) **eligible for the event!**
</Callout>

### **A little bit about us**

Meilisearch is an open-source search engine built in Rust. Both team and community worked hard to build integrations with most of the popular development languages, frameworks, and deployment options so that Meilisearch fits seamlessly into most developer workflows. Our goal: a simple and intuitive experience for both developers and end-users.

Our main repository, [meilisearch](https://github.com/meilisearch/meilisearch), handles the power of our core engine [milli](https://github.com/meilisearch/milli/) and other libraries it’s built on. These include  [Charabia](https://github.com/meilisearch/charabia/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md), our tokenizer, which allows us to offer optimized  support for space-separated languages (like English and French), Hebrew, Chinese, Japanese and Thai.

 Does that sound interesting? Why not consider contributing to our project this year?

If you're keen on knowing which [Meilisearch repositories](https://github.com/search?q=org%3Ameilisearch+topic%3Ahacktoberfest&type=Repositories) are eligible for Hacktoberfest, then the answer is… a whole bunch of them! You'll be able to support our efforts by improving the [Ruby](https://github.com/meilisearch/meilisearch-ruby) SDK, the [Python](https://github.com/meilisearch/meilisearch-python) or the [Rust](https://github.com/meilisearch/meilisearch-rust) wrapper, and even polishing [Swift](https://github.com/meilisearch/meilisearch-swift) or [JavaScript](https://github.com/meilisearch/meilisearch-js) clients for the Meilisearch API. And that's to quote only a few of them. You can contribute to whichever repository you're most comfortable with or, on the contrary, decide to challenge yourself with something less familiar. Hacktoberfest is a great time to experiment and push your limits!

![](https://unable-actionable-car.media.strapiapp.com/Frame_9_8c3e6d37fa.png)

### **Hacktoberfest guidelines @ Meilisearch:**

First, if you're keen on participating, why not look at our official guidelines right [here](https://github.com/meilisearch/.github/blob/main/Hacktoberfest_2022_contributors_guidelines.md). Following these ensures we can provide you with the best contributing experience, including efficient reviews of your PRs. In short, this is what the guidelines are all about:

*   Our official reviewing window is Mon-Thur worktime (CEST)
*   After our maintainers take the time to review your work, please make sure to address all their comments before requesting more feedback
*   We will not accept contributions to our documentation repo this year
*   We do not assign issues to contributors: instead, the team will approve the PR that best solves the problem at hand
*   We will not consider low-quality PRs. If you're unsure what we mean by "low-quality PR", take a look at how the Hacktoberfest organizers define it in their [participation guidelines](https://hacktoberfest.com/participation/#spam) 

We've tagged repos with the Hacktoberfest topic. All contributions to these repositories are eligible for the event, but we added the Hacktoberfest label to the issues  we feel  are the best suited for contributions. We hope this will also allow you to navigate our repositories more easily.

### **What type of contribution for Hacktoberfest 2022?**

Hacktoberfest is a time to celebrate everything open-source. Code-oriented contributions are more than welcome as always, but that's not all! The open-source community _is_ vast and multi-talented.

While the documentation repository is not taking part this year, you can participate in our [Awesome Meilisearch](https://github.com/meilisearch/awesome-meilisearch) repos by [adding new resources](https://github.com/meilisearch/awesome-meilisearch/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md). These resources have to be links to awesome blog posts, tutorials, demos, guides, talks, or just about anything else that teaches people how to do cool things with Meilisearch. You can also create videos if that's where your talent lies. Any demos and talks, use cases, or posts will be equally appreciated. 

### **Extra rewards and shared goals**

Last year, as a small token of gratitude to our contributors, we sent exclusive Meilisearch swag all over the world in the form of a reusable bottle and a few fancy stickers. Unfortunately, we faced dispatching and customs issues in some countries and not everyone received their package. We've learned from our mistakes and came up with  solutions that will allow us to circumvent similar problems this year. So, rest assured: we have  prepared new exclusive swag and this time we’ll ensure everyone gets it. These goods are additional rewards you can receive on top of the ones provided by the Hacktoberfest organizers.

In a similar spirit, last year we set common goals that, if reached, would translate into a monetary donation toward three families of organizations that strive for diversity and inclusivity in software engineering. As you might have heard, we smashed these  collective goals, donating a total of 4500 euros to nine different organizations, all tacking important issues ranging from inclusivity in tech, open source maintainers and climate activists. Motivated by last year's success, we will renew our commitment to creating common goals for a set of different organizations.

It's still too early for us to spoil the surprise, but be on the lookout for our future blog post sharing all the details of our goodies boxes and common goals.

### **Join our community!**

We invite you to join our [community](https://discord.gg/meilisearch) and our dedicated #[hacktoberfest](https://meilicommunity.slack.com/archives/C02G1H43J2X) channel where both Meilisearch employees and fellow contributors mingle. Hacktoberfest isn't only a good time to work on a project, it's also a fantastic opportunity to meet people passionate about open-source.

Questions? Doubts? Comments? We'd love to hear any feedback you may have concerning your Hacktoberfest experience.

###

Meilisearch returns for Hacktoberfest 2022!

For the second year in a row, Meilisearch participated in Hacktoberfest. Find below the recap of the event that was initially shared internally at Meilisearch.

We'll be part of Hacktoberfest 2022! And we hope to see even more contributors getting involved.  
  
Find below the slides of this presentation:

![](https://unable-actionable-car.media.strapiapp.com/Capture_d_e_cran_2021_11_29_a_12_12_49_2_717c3abd1c.png)

![](https://unable-actionable-car.media.strapiapp.com/Capture_d_e_cran_2021_11_29_a_12_12_51_2_7f1cc7df8d.png)

![](https://unable-actionable-car.media.strapiapp.com/Capture_d_e_cran_2021_11_29_a_12_12_52_2_ccaf431921.png)

![](https://unable-actionable-car.media.strapiapp.com/Capture_d_e_cran_2021_11_29_a_12_12_53_2_be872350aa.png)

![](https://unable-actionable-car.media.strapiapp.com/Capture_d_e_cran_2021_11_29_a_12_12_54_2_3_758dee7af0.png)

![](https://unable-actionable-car.media.strapiapp.com/Capture_d_e_cran_2021_11_29_a_12_12_55_2_99f306c4c3.png)

![](https://unable-actionable-car.media.strapiapp.com/Capture_d_e_cran_2021_11_29_a_12_12_56_2_0185e812be.png)

![](https://unable-actionable-car.media.strapiapp.com/Capture_d_e_cran_2021_11_29_a_12_12_57_2_0e9fb3fe26.png)

![](https://unable-actionable-car.media.strapiapp.com/Capture_d_e_cran_2021_11_29_a_12_12_58_2_4681a1e6c3.png)

![](https://unable-actionable-car.media.strapiapp.com/Capture_d_e_cran_2021_11_29_a_12_12_59_2_b411d671bc.png)

![](https://unable-actionable-car.media.strapiapp.com/Capture_d_e_cran_2021_11_29_a_12_13_00_2_dddb055c1e.png)

![](https://unable-actionable-car.media.strapiapp.com/Capture_d_e_cran_2021_11_29_a_12_13_01_2_6a3b6c6c8a.png)

![](https://unable-actionable-car.media.strapiapp.com/Capture_d_e_cran_2021_11_29_a_12_13_02_2_1_a9fe38de82.png)

![](https://unable-actionable-car.media.strapiapp.com/Capture_d_e_cran_2021_11_29_a_12_13_02_1_2_57b91edfaf.png)

![](https://unable-actionable-car.media.strapiapp.com/Capture_d_e_cran_2021_11_29_a_12_13_03_2_15497fbba8.png)

![](https://unable-actionable-car.media.strapiapp.com/Capture_d_e_cran_2021_11_29_a_12_13_04_2_fe4319c582.png)

Hacktoberfest 2021 recap

One of the main responsibilities of the developer relations team at Meilisearch is to help our open-source search engine reach as many developers as possible. This involves, among other missions, participating in conferences and events.

Conference organizers usually publish a Call for Papers / Proposals (CFP), which is an open invitation for speakers to apply to their event, usually with a title and an abstract at minimum. Over the last year, I’ve had to submit—or help colleagues submit—numerous talk suggestions to conferences. Being a novice in the field, I set out to discover some of the secrets to successfully responding to a CFP.

I read a lot of articles and even listened to an hour-long presentation about CFPs so you don’t have to 🙌 In this article, I’ll present what I’ve learned based on the most recurrent recommendations.

The abstract
------------

The abstract is your pitch, it’s what is going to be published. You should focus on this first as it is what helps people decide if they want to attend your talk.

### ✅ Do's

**Be direct and concise**

Put yourself in the evaluator’s shoes. If you have 100 submissions to go through, you’ll appreciate the ones which get straight to the point. You should make your abstract easy to skim-read.

**Target your audience**

You need to know your audience,  their needs, and interests. Are you going to talk to developers, designers, executives, or some other audience?

Ok, but if it’s your first time attending a particular conference, how do you get this information?

Well, sometimes conference organizers provide an audience profile. But if it’s not the case, here are some good tips by the great [VM Brasseur](https://twitter.com/vmbrasseur):

*   you can contact them and ask for it

If it’s too late for that:

*   check the sponsorship prospectus: there’s usually information about the audience
*   check the schedule and social media of past editions of the event

**Establish a challenge or a problem**

Your talk should be about something that interests you. It could be a problem you’ve had, or that you’ve helped someone with. It doesn’t matter so much if you have managed to solve the problem or not. You can share your experience and what you’ve learned from it.

It can also be a widespread opinion you disagree with, a tool that has helped you, or something you wish you had known when you started.

Don’t forget, people like hearing stories, so if you think it’s something worth sharing, go for it. If you're not sure, assume that your story may be interesting to others. So go for it, what's the worst that can happen? Either way, try to present it in a way that gets your audience's interest, that’s why it’s important to know who you are going to be talking to.

**Specify the format of the talk you are giving**

The potential audience wants to know what to expect: is it going to be a workshop, a case study, a live demo? We all have different learning styles. Knowing the format beforehand will help the conference participants select the right talk for them.

**Specify the background knowledge the audience should have**

Should the audience know a particular programming language? Is it suitable for beginners? Giving this type of information will avoid wasting the time of the attendees.

**List key takeaways for your audience**

There is a statement from Sarah Mei that stuck with me:

> _People don’t go to talks for the content. People go to talks because they think they’ll become more badass. So help them out with that!_

People want to know what they will learn from your talk, the specific benefits they’ll get from it, what they will be able to do after your talk that they could not do before.

### ❌ Don'ts

**Don’t pitch your company / organization / product**

Nobody wants to hear a sales pitch. Your proposal will be rejected if it looks like a commercial in the slightest.

If you want to talk about something cool your company does, focus on the problem solved.

A little trick is to do what the dotConferences organizers have named the _Steve test_. Imagine an attendee named Steve, seated at the front row. Steve is so stubborn you know he would never use your product. The challenge is to make your talk as engaging and insightful to Steve as to anyone else. It will only work if you focus on the technical insights rather than your product. You can include your product along with alternative solutions and present the benefits and downsides.

**Don’t be aggressive or condescending**

Please have your abstract reviewed by a colleague or friend, preferably a native speaker. Someone who might identify this kind of language or tone you may not have intended to have.

**Don’t present your solution as the perfect one**

Be humble. You may have a great solution, but it cannot fit every need and context. You don’t want to sound arrogant so talk about when your solution is appropriate and when it’s not.

**Don’t include identifying information (name, title, company)**

This information belongs in the bio, not in the abstract. A lot of conferences practice blind reviewing to ensure submissions are reviewed fairly, so if you don’t want your proposal sent back for modifications or rejected, it’s better to avoid sharing these details.

**Don’t deceive the participants**

Don’t make promises you are not going to fulfill. Maybe you will get more people to attend your talk, but at what cost? Leaving the audience with a feeling of disappointment?

#### Standard formula

If you are new to CFPs you may want to stick to the following structure when writing abstracts:

*   Start with a strong introductory sentence that grabs attention (why is your topic important or relevant)
*   Detail paragraph: specific points you are going to address, give people an idea of what to expect
*   List audience takeaways
*   Closing paragraph (if needed)

The title
---------

*   Write it at the end, once you have finished writing the abstract
*   Avoid jokes: you never know how they will be perceived
*   Be polite
*   You can go for clickbait, it works
*   Keep it short, less than 50 characters

In his 2016 “[_Three tips for getting a talk accepted at Fluent_](https://medium.com/@bentlegen/three-tips-for-getting-a-talk-accepted-at-fluent-9eff841efc54)”, Ben Vinegar, gives really good examples of how to modify titles to engage the audience and show your unique perspective:

> '_How to use Angular'_ can be transformed into '_How we use Angular at my organization'_.

> '_How to get involved in open source'_ can be tweaked to become '_How I got involved in open source and you can too'._

Points worth remembering
------------------------

*   You are trying to persuade people to spend X minutes of their time listening to your presentation
*   Bullet points and short paragraphs are your friends
*   Focus on the audience, use “you” sentences
*   People like real experiences about real people: tell a story, create a narrative
*   You don’t have to be an expert on the subject, but don’t suggest subjects you are not qualified to talk about
*   You are the expert on your own experience

Conclusion
----------

I hope you’ll find this article useful. Of course, there is no magic formula for your application to be accepted. There are a thousand reasons why your talk can be rejected, even if you have the best title and abstract in the world. But it’s always better to stack all the odds in your favor!

* * *

_Picture by [Etienne Girardet](https://unsplash.com/@etiennegirardet) on [Unsplash](https://unsplash.com/)_

CFPs: Writing Recommendations

It's the middle of October and more than time for an update on how Hacktoberfest is going at Meilisearch.

Shared objectives update
------------------------

[As mentioned](/blog/contribute-hacktoberfest-2021/)hen Hacktoberfest started, we're setting **shared objectives** that will **benefit everyone**. Upon reaching each objective, we will contribute to a few organizations or support people we think are doing great work.

### Open-source maintainers

We chose open-source for our project to share a high-quality search solution, accessible to all, no matter their financial means. Sharing is the basis of what we do. [Meilisearch](https://github.com/meilisearch/MeiliSearch) and [milli](https://github.com/meilisearch/milli) (Meilisearch's core engine) [have](https://github.com/meilisearch/MeiliSearch/blob/4bacc8e47d52f95a871028b0179b3dd4e2f9682d/meilisearch-http/Cargo.toml#L77-L81) [many](https://github.com/meilisearch/milli/blob/6e3b869e6a4d33bc814ebafe80d434035139e97d/milli/Cargo.toml#L7-L50) [dependencies](https://github.com/meilisearch/MeiliSearch/blob/4bacc8e47d52f95a871028b0179b3dd4e2f9682d/meilisearch-http/Cargo.toml#L24-L75), and most of them are other open-source projects. Their maintainers are not all part of large companies. By supporting some of these maintainers, we're contributing to open source and helping these developers to improve the projects we depend on.

These developers are the primary maintainers of:

*   [rust-sipash](https://github.com/jedisct1/rust-siphash) - [maintainer](https://github.com/jedisct1)
*   [vergen](https://github.com/rustyhorde/vergen) - [maintainer](https://github.com/CraZySacX)
*   [pin-project](https://github.com/taiki-e/pin-project) - [maintainer](https://github.com/taiki-e)

### Climate activists

We are aware that Meilisearch has an impact on our planet. We use servers, large datasets, computational power, all of which contribute to global warming. This is something we are not comfortable with, but it is an unavoidable aspect of being a tech company.

That's why we will support three organizations tackling the challenges of climate change:

*   [WWF](https://www.worldwildlife.org/)
*   [Surfriders Foundation Europe](https://surfrider.eu/en/)
*   [Reforest'Action](https://www.reforestaction.com/en)

### Organizations that promote diversity in tech

Meilisearch grows thanks to each team member's personality, skills, and experience. Having [different perspectives](https://www.welcometothejungle.com/fr/companies/meilisearch/values) in organizations leads to better decisions and is the only way to build a long-lasting company.

We will support three organizations that strive for diversity and inclusivity in software engineering:

*   [Black Girls Code](https://wearebgc.org/)
*   [Out in Tech](https://outintech.com/)
*   [Techfugees](https://techfugees.com/fr/)

### How to unlock the perks?

There are **three stages**. We will collectively reach them if the number of contributions to [Meilisearch open-source repositories](https://github.com/search?q=topic%3Ahacktoberfest+org%3Ameilisearch&type=Repositories) is high enough. Each stage will unlock a larger amount of money for these three groups we want to support.

![](https://unable-actionable-car.media.strapiapp.com/PR_a742efd3bd.png)

To get the total number of contributions, we will sum up the number of Hacktoberfest-related Pull Requests (PRs) merged in Meilisearch repositories at the end of the month. And we will add the last PRs not yet merged, but tagged with the `hacktoberfest-accepted` label.

In 2020, we had **49 PRs** merged during Hacktoberfest.  
This year, every 49 PRs merged, we will reach a new stage and **add 500€** to the financial support of each of the three groups.

We are already tracking the number of contributions: on October 20th, we had 114 PRs merged since the beginning of Hacktoberfest. Stage 1 & 2 have already been reached 🎉. We'll find a stretch goal later if we're able to reach stage 3 🤞.

A new way to contribute: Awesome Meilisearch
--------------------------------------------

To help you reach these stages, we're adding a new way to increase the number of contributions. You will still have to get a PR merged, but this PR does not have to close an issue.

We recently created the [**awesome-meilisearch**](https://github.com/meilisearch/awesome-meilisearch) repository. It contains a curated list of awesome Meilisearch resources, based on the [awesome list template](https://github.com/sindresorhus/awesome/blob/main/awesome.md).You can contribute to Meilisearch's Hacktoberfest goals by [adding new resources](https://github.com/meilisearch/awesome-meilisearch/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md) to this repository. These resources have to be links to awesome blog posts, tutorials, demos, guides, talks, or just about anything else that teaches people how to do cool things with Meilisearch.

All accepted contributions qualify for the shared goals count!

We're counting on you!
----------------------

Consider keeping on contributing to Meilisearch repositories once you have successfully participated in Hacktoberfest. If you increase the number of merged PRs, you will help unlock new perks that benefit everyone.

Mid-October Hacktoberfest update

What is Hacktoberfest?
----------------------

[Hacktoberfest](https://hacktoberfest.digitalocean.com/) is an annual event that runs over October. Instead of celebrating the Bavarian culture (and sometimes drinking too many beers), this event aims at **supporting the open source community**.

2021 marks the eighth anniversary of the event launched by [DigitalOcean](https://www.digitalocean.com/). Over the years, Hacktoberfest has had a seminal role: it has given enough confidence to many developers to become a part of the open-source community. In 2020, around 170,000 developers participated in Hacktoberfest.

Why should you participate?
---------------------------

There are many different reasons why you should [contribute to open source](https://blog.shahednasser.com/how-to-participate-in-hacktoberfest-2021/#as-a-participant). But Hacktoberfest is about joining the community in a mutual effort to drive the growth of open source.

Your contributions are very valuable to any open-source project. Some of our most used tools were born outside the Meilisearch team, and we could not be grateful enough for the efforts of our open-source contributors.

And if you need an extra push, both DigitalOcean and Meilisearch are sending gifts to the contributors.  
DigitalOcean is going to give a T-shirt and a swag pack to the first 55,000 participants of Hacktoberfest.  
Meilisearch will send reusable insulated water bottles to all those who successfully participated in Hacktoberfest and contributed to the [open-source projects](https://github.com/search?q=topic%3Ahacktoberfest+org%3Ameilisearch&type=Repositories) of Meilisearch (look for the repositories with the _hacktoberfest_ topic).  
  
We are also setting **shared goals** that all Meilisearch contributors can help to reach. These goals will unlock perks that will **benefit everyone**.  
We still have to define those perks and will update this blog post accordingly. Some of our ideas so far:

*   financial support to other open-source projects
*   supporting organizations with an environmental impact (like restoration of forests or ocean cleaning)
*   sponsoring organizations promoting diversity in software (like [Black Girls Code](https://wearebgc.org/)).

We would be happy to [hear your ideas](https://discord.gg/meilisearch)!

What happened last year at Meilisearch?
---------------------------------------

Last year, Meilisearch took part in Hacktoberfest [for the first time](/blog/hacktoberfest-with-meilisearch/)e encouraged contributions to the [core Meilisearch repository](https://github.com/meilisearch/MeiliSearch) and to most of the tools we maintain: API wrappers, framework plugins, SDKs...

![](/blog/content/images/2021/09/all-sdk-s.svg)

Started from the bottom...

It was a real success: we merged over fifty contributors’ pull requests. It was twice more than in September 2020.

This year at Meilisearch
------------------------

With around thirty pull requests from external contributors merged in September 2021, we expect more contributions at this year’s Hacktoberfest.

![](/blog/content/images/2021/09/Group-81.svg)

... now we're here.

We’ve made [more repositories available](https://github.com/search?q=topic%3Ahacktoberfest+org%3Ameilisearch&type=Repositories) for Hacktoberfest:

*   our [documentation repository](https://github.com/meilisearch/documentation)
*   the new tools that we’ve created: the [Dart SDK](https://github.com/meilisearch/meilisearch-dart), the [Ruby on Rails](https://github.com/meilisearch/meilisearch-rails) and [Angular](https://github.com/meilisearch/meilisearch-angular) integrations,  the [Gatsby](https://github.com/meilisearch/gatsby-plugin-meilisearch) and [Strapi](https://github.com/meilisearch/strapi-plugin-meilisearch) plugins

How can we help you?
--------------------

Contributing for the first time to an open-source project can be intimidating. That’s why we are happy to guide you step by step through this process. We have several [good first issues](https://github.com/search?q=meilisearch+label%3Ahacktoberfest+state%3Aopen+is%3Aissue&type=Issues) that can help you get started.

Feel free to ask any questions on the GitHub issues of [the corresponding repository](https://github.com/search?q=topic%3Ahacktoberfest+org%3Ameilisearch&type=Repositories), [GitHub Discussions](https://github.com/meilisearch/meilisearch/discussions), or on our [Slack workspace](https://slack.meilisearch.com/) (the [#hacktoberfest](https://meilicommunity.slack.com/archives/C02G1H43J2X) channel is the place to go, but you can also send direct messages to the Meilisearch team members).

We can’t wait to see your next commits 🚀

Meilisearch latest news and company updates

Hacktoberfest 2022: Mid-October update

Meilisearch returns for Hacktoberfest 2022!

Hacktoberfest 2021 recap

CFPs: Writing Recommendations

Mid-October Hacktoberfest update

Contribute to Open Source during Hacktoberfest 2021