> I talked to many maintainers in the first few years of it's existence who truly benefited from the contributions.
For sure, but the Hacktoberfest promotional website treats this as a second order effect, instead of the primary goal it really should be.
The primary motivation for participants is the free t-shirt, because that's the incentive that's being pushed. What is not promoted - and should be promoted - is the impact of contributing: making a change for the better, the social good, taking a step towards connecting with new people, learning opportunities, making a mark in the world with your name on, etc.
The problem OSS faces is not just finding enough contributors. It's finding contributors who are intrinsically motivated to actively engage with a project.
And so, the current campaign inadvertently targets loads of people who don't really care for the code or the projects themselves: they just want the exclusive t-shirt as a trapping and not much more.
I'm sure the campaign still attracts contributors who genuinely want to submit a good PR (I sure am going to do an effort). But frankly, if the campaign ends up devolving into a frenzy for t-shirts, it's hard not to feel demoralized: that's not the spirit of the campaign, and that's quite likely not what DO originally intended, right?