[General Topics] Calin:
Well, i read some of your stories and i must to say that i'm proud to be part of such an amazing community.

I started knowing XDA in early 2012 when i was struggling to root and flash a custom ROM for my old Galaxy S+ which i still own as my primary device.

At that time i didn't even know what a Custom ROM is, i was just folllowing the guide and that was the deal.

So after a few flashes i was a bit desappointed because the ROM itself was bad (Based on ICS with an implemented TW)

So after that i decided to get back to stock GB and sweared that i will never go back again to Custom ROMs.

But because i'am a maniac of customizations i couldn't resist it :D

So at the end of 2012 i made my first account on XDA, at the begining everything was unknown to me, but my first goal at the begining was to learn a bit Android because i always want to help people, even in real life, and because i study Informatic Technologies at school i known that Android will help me much and at the end it really happened.

On XDA i learnt many things not only Android Stuff but even Linux basics and commands to use.

Mostly i learnt for my own all the things i know now, and also with the help of many users and i also used to don't ask stupid questions here and to search them for my own on Google.

At the begining i made small personalizing stuff like Transparent status bar for JB but i was pointing to something bigger so,

after learning more codding stuff + a bunch of guides i finally made my first thread where i ported the new Galaxy S4 Touchwiz + some apps like S Health with the help of the fantastic guide made by the Lovins brothers (Don't remember now which of the two was). It became a big success to me because that port was used after also in different custom ROMs with propper permissions.

Then in the same year at the end of summer i had the idea to make my own ROM with an Xperia Based style with ported apps for the Galaxy S+.

So because before this i saw the zip containing files just a few times, i had to study the structure and how the ROM was made itself, and the firsts things i learnt to modify was of course the build.prop :p

So I and also with the help of Costinutz32 i finally reached to Make my first ROM.

The ROM had a incredible succcess, because i was contacted by many users which wanted to port the ROM also on other devices, and i felt like a boss at that time even now.

The ROM went through all these Android versions: (4..2.2/4..3/4.4/5.0.2) and it became one of the most maintained ROM of the Forum.

So, in early July 2014 i wanted to perfectionize my ROM knowledge so i wanted to build a ROM from sources, so by searching guides i found the perfect one which is This and i managed to build my first CM build from sources.

So because i became good at this i tried my luck to become a maintainer of the Resurrection Team and i did it :D

Now i'm an official maintainer of 2 devices (ancora && ariesve).

So at the end all these kind of stuff that i learnt in these years and also now, are not so difficult t o learn because we most of us were noobs where came here.

And even if now in this moment XDA didn't opened any doors in my career life (i'm still 17) by continue in this way i know something good will happen some day.

Even if i infringed an XDA Rule, the one of the Warez apps, i understood that here is no joke, and i knew that to became a serious Developer i need to build and work for my own, and to to use less the work of the others.

But by returning back to the questions...

I think that my biggest influence who made me go further in Android Development was the Developers of the Galaxy S+ Community.

What i'm doing now?

Well, because i learnt many things here i wanted to share those experiences also with other people.....

Last year i made a guide by how to install Apk Tool on Ubuntu and Derivates of it

So this year i will expand my knowledge in the ROM Cooking part, by explaining to the users how to develop their own ROM from scratch by including features to be included in the ROM sources with propper guide.

Currently it's WIP but i hope to finish it as soon as i can.

For who is interested you can find Here the guide.

When did you decide, "it's time to make a go of this"

I didn't decided to make a go of this yet but i'm thinking different opportunities.

Where do you feel Android can take you?

As long as i continue learning stuff everyday i think in a good place to work (i hope)