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🎃 HACKTOBERFEST 2026 SPECIALGLOBAL CELEBRATION • FIRST PR TO UPSTREAM COLLABORATION🌐 In-Person + Stream

Hacktoberfest 2026: Open Source Contribution Marathon & PR Sprint

Celebrate the world's largest open source festival with The Penguins Club! Join a high-energy, full-day sprint where mentors help you find beginner-friendly issues, master Git branching and conventional commits, submit meaningful Pull Requests to Linux and FOSS projects, and earn exclusive stickers, badges, and booklets.

Date & TimeSaturday • 11:00 - 18:00 BST
Location26/18 Gulshan Badda Link Road, Dhaka 1212 & Global Virtual Discord/Telegram
Admission100% Free • Open to All
COUNTDOWN TO GATHERING
BST (UTC+6) • Live Real-Time Ticker
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Attend via TelegramDownload .icsGoogle Calendar
📖

About This Event

October is Hacktoberfest — the month-long worldwide celebration of open-source software! Every year, hundreds of thousands of developers contribute to open codebases, documentation, and translation projects.

The Penguins Club is hosting a dedicated, hands-on Contribution Marathon in Dhaka with full virtual streaming. Our goal: zero spam PRs, 100% genuine value. We believe your first open-source pull request should be an empowering milestone, not an intimidating hurdle.

Whether you are fixing a typo in markdown manuals, writing tests in Python or Go, improving accessibility in web apps, or translating Linux documentation into Bengali, our experienced maintainers will pair with you from fork to merged commit.

✨

Key Highlights & Activities

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    🚀 Zero to Merged PR: Complete walkthrough of forking, branching, rebase workflows, and clean commit etiquette.

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    🏷️ Curated "Good First Issue" Depot: Pre-screened issues across Bangladesh open source tooling, Linux mirrors, CLI helpers, and upstream software.

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    🤝 1-on-1 Maintainer Mentorship: Get instant reviews and actionable feedback before you hit "Create Pull Request".

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    🎁 Limited-Edition Swag & Stickers: Receive custom 2026 The Penguins Club x Hacktoberfest laptop stickers, pin badges, and Linux booklets.

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    🏆 Live Contribution Leaderboard: Watch merged PRs roll in on our live projector dashboard throughout the sprint.

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    🌐 Full Hybrid Experience: Participate either in our physical Dhaka lab or remotely through our Discord & Telegram sprint rooms.

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Event Schedule & Agenda

Timeline and sessions for the day (BST Dhaka Time)

11:00 - 11:30

Opening Kickoff: What is Hacktoberfest & Open Source Etiquette

Maintainer Panel

Introduction to ethical contributing, avoiding spam, understanding repo contributing guidelines, and Code of Conduct.

11:30 - 12:30

Workshop: Git Mastery, Conventional Commits & Clean Rebasing

Core Git Mentor

Interactive terminal walkthrough of git remote, feature branches, interactive rebase, squashing, and signing commits.

12:30 - 13:30

Issue Triage: Picking Your Good First Issue

Project Mentors

Browse the issue board, match with project maintainers, claim tasks, and set up local dev containers/environments.

13:30 - 16:30

The Great Contribution Sprint (Pair Programming & Coffee)

All Attendees & Mentors

Three hours of intense, collaborative coding, doc writing, translation, and live code reviews with mentors.

16:30 - 17:30

Live Upstream Pull Request Submissions & Show-and-Tell

Sprint Participants

Cheering on participants as their PRs are pushed upstream! Brief presentations on interesting bugs discovered and solved.

17:30 - 18:00

Swag Distribution, Leaderboard Awards & Group Photo

Community Team

Handing out Hacktoberfest sticker packs, booklets, and wrapping up with the community group photo.

🧠

Prerequisites

  • Basic familiarity with code or markdown, and a free GitHub or GitLab account.
  • A desire to contribute to open-source software — all experience levels (beginner to veteran) welcome!
🎒

What to Bring

  • Your laptop and charger (Linux, macOS, or Windows with WSL).
  • Git installed on your system (`git --version`).
  • SSH key configured with your GitHub/GitLab account (mentors will assist if you need help).
👥

Facilitators & Hosts

Open Source Mentors Team

Open Source Mentors Team

Maintainers & PR Reviewers

Active contributors to Debian, Arch Linux AUR, Go libraries, Python packages, and web standards.

github.com/the-penguins-club
❓

Frequently Asked Questions

I am a beginner who has never used Git before. Can I attend?

Absolutely yes! This event is specially crafted for you. The first morning session covers Git basics, and mentors sit with you to ensure your first contribution is smooth and stress-free.

Do non-code contributions count?

Yes! High-quality documentation, fixing broken links, translating software interfaces into Bengali, and writing tutorials are all deeply valued open-source contributions.

Can I join virtually if I am outside Dhaka?

Yes, this is a hybrid event. We host live pair-programming voice channels on Discord and Telegram, complete with virtual mentor desks.

How do I register?

Join our Telegram channel @penguinsclubnetwork and confirm your attendance in the pinned event announcement.

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