Oh, this is really unlucky. I like Hacktoberfest and always get my T-shirt. Perhaps opt-in would be a great idea.

I can see why this happens, though. I've noticed that a whole bunch of projects have `good-first-issue` being something like "Re-architect module loading system" while most commits are like "correct typo". Like, jeez, man.

The participants are probably just pattern-matching against the commits available.

EDIT: Decided to go look at the spam that OSM got (a project close to my heart) and what the hell, man, look at this diff

      * Tom Hughes [@tomhughes](https://github.com/tomhughes/)
      * Andy Allan [@gravitystorm](https://github.com/gravitystorm/)
    +
    +
    + Made with Love

EDIT again: Whoops, guys, I didn't mean to cause more spam to the project. Removed the diff link. Jesus Christ, I ended up becoming the villain I was complaining about by linking it.

You may have missed it, but the article screenshots a similar example where the spammer added "### Great Work" to the front of the README.

I’ve heard of people spamming readme commits to get their github graph green... I guess if an employer is tricked by something like this they are kinda asking for what they get.

I once thought about making a script that automated git actions which would show you as active, but not actually do anything. Turns out theres too much real work to do to make it!

I came across exactly this the other day: https://github.com/aranair/go-kiasu