Last year, I was overwhelmed with joy of collaboration with strangers during 2025's Hacktoberfest. As expected, my Java Demos project went on hiatus with only a few occasional submissions during the year. I did technical update to Java 26 and later to 27, prepared issues for new JEPs and I was counting days towards October 2026.

Then the reality hit me hard - Hacktoberfest 2026 will be different. No more open-source code submissions, folks. You'll use AI anyway, so it is pointless (not said, but I assume that). We will force you to meet each other instead. We'll push you into unsolicited socializing. You'll pretend you like it, because we will make you earn badges for it. That's cool, right? You're happy, right?

Well, no. I am not happy. As an average grumpy introvert dev, I wanted another round of collaboration through code. Again.…