On the topic of pull request (PR) spam originating due to Hacktoberfest, here is some useful information from Hacktoberfest FAQ [1]:
"As a maintainer, how should I handle spam pull requests?
We dislike seeing spam pull requests just as much as you, so please give them an invalid or spam label and close them. Pull requests that contain a label with the word invalid or spam won't be counted toward Hacktoberfest."
It is really quite easy to follow. The 'invalid' label is available by default already, so flagging spam is as simple as selecting that label and closing the PR. See also Hacktober's recent update on reducing spam [2].
It’s still work, though. I assume for most people it’s not a big deal, but I have heard of maintainers of many popular projects being inundated with spam-which they, not DigitalOcean-need to deal with.
"As a maintainer, how should I handle spam pull requests?
We dislike seeing spam pull requests just as much as you, so please give them an invalid or spam label and close them. Pull requests that contain a label with the word invalid or spam won't be counted toward Hacktoberfest."
It is really quite easy to follow. The 'invalid' label is available by default already, so flagging spam is as simple as selecting that label and closing the PR. See also Hacktober's recent update on reducing spam [2].
[1]: https://hacktoberfest.digitalocean.com/faq/
[2]: https://hacktoberfest.digitalocean.com/hacktoberfest-update