Do this before you write any code. The hours you work before Hackatime/Lapse is installed can't be counted, and that's the most common way people lose a week. ## 1. Sign up for CloudFALL Use the join button in the header. It takes you to the program's welcome page, where you'll sign in with your Hack Club account and get added to program. If the button isn't there, the ysws isn't open the header shows the status, and the sidebar panel says what happened. ## 2. Join the Slack channel Everything happens in [**#ysws-CloudFALL**](https://hackclub.enterprise.slack.com/archives/C0BMV3W7Y05). Ask your questions there rather than in DMs we're a community here and like to help each other out If you've never used Hack Club Slack, sign up at [hackclub.com/slack](https://hackclub.com/slack) first. ## 3. Install Hackatime Hackatime is how your hours get counted. It's a plugin for your editor that reports what you're working on. 1. Sign in at [hackatime.hackclub.com](https://hackatime.hackclub.com) with your Hack Club account. 2. Follow the setup for your editor VS Code, JetBrains, Neovim and most others are supported. 3. Write some code, wait a minute, and check that time is showing up on your Hackatime dashboard. > [!IMPORTANT] > Untracked time cannot be counted, and it can't be added back later. If you > notice your editor stopped reporting, say so in the channel _while it's > happening_ rather than at submission time. ## 4. Check what counts as your project Hackatime reports a project name, taken from your folder name by default. Keep your CloudFALL work in one folder from the start, so the hours line up with the repo you eventually submit. It won't stop you from reciving rewards for your work, but it will make rewarding you harder ```bash # Fine: one folder, one project name, hours all in one place. ~/code/jukebox/ # Painful at submission time: work spread across three folders that # Hackatime reports as three unrelated projects. ~/code/test2/ ~/Downloads/jukebox-old/ ~/Desktop/final-real/ ``` ## Then what Pick something to build. [Pick a project](/cloudfall/pick-a-project) is a list of subscriptions and the open-source thing that replaces each one, including the port it listens on which is a surprisingly good way to tell whether a project is real yet.