I noticed just now that I've finally hit the 800 'thanks' mark here on TMO, and, as well as saying thanks for the thanks, I thought it'd be nice to do a little reflection on why I'm here, what I've done, and what I'm doing - a little soul searching, if you will.

Where I've come from
My background before Maemo was not that of a mobile enthusiast. Quite the opposite. My phone was ancient, I never really paid attention to tech news, and I was quite happy. I was still an open source hacker then, though: amongst many other things, I used to be a developer on what I'd nowdays say were quite boring things like InspIRCd, an internet relay chat server.

Gradually, my interests shifted towards other things - amongst many others, I started to experiment with Qt.

Some years ago, that started to change a little, though, as I was introduced to Maemo by Stskeeps (who I've known for many years now). This was (I think) around the time of the n800s, possibly n810s. It caught my interest a little, but I didn't want "yet another device", so I drifted away off onto other things again for a while. Until August, when the n900 was released...

...when I preordered ASAP and proceeded to go insane with geek lust until I finally got my device early December.

Arrival
So, I got my device, I started experimenting, playing, and loving it. PyQt, PySide, Python, C++, I played with them all a bit, and I still do whenever I get the chance now - increasingly often releasing the stuff I toy with too. (http://github.com/rburchell/). Sooner rather than later I started to get increasingly interested in the wider Maemo community - and the Qt community (since I was already there) and started helping out with random things for random people, e.g. application developers when I could.

Partly as a result of my changed interests, I changed jobs after some months, to start working in the area of mobile devices for a great company with some great people, at Collabora.


Today
I won't say I'm perfect, but I'd say I've helped out a fair bit and I'm aiming to do more moving towards the future, through things like the MeeGo developer engagement work - i.e. helping other developers, as well as writing lots of random bits and pieces of code which have proven useful to myself and hopefully many others.

I plan to keep getting involved, to keep helping others, and to keep spreading the knowledge I have - for both my own enjoyment, and so that others can help spread that further.

The Future
I plan to continue my development work, my evangelism and education work, and I'm really looking forward to getting my teeth into the MeeGo handset UX release - hopefully not long to wait on that one. I have grown to love Maemo, MeeGo - both the people and the ecosystem.

Thanks for listening. I hope I haven't bored you all with my brief history and braindump.

... So, what's your story?

Ok - I won't even try to approach this level of detail. But I was never a mobile enthusiast before getting an n95 several years back and getting a glimpse of what the future could be like. I then replaced it with an n900 and started messing around with Xterm and Linux. My primary reason for buying the n900 was the community. I knew that despite its shortcomings I would love it b/c of the discussions and constant desire for improvement here.

What have I contributed so far? Far less than w00t and the other talented developers around here.. But I try to help out wherever I can, whether its pointing a new user in the right direction, sharing knowledge with an experienced user, or testing apps and providing feedback. Above all, I try to promote a positive and productive environment here.

I do plan to attempt some development at some point when time permits, but I haven't done any coding since C++ and Visual Basic in high school so it should be interesting

You're a very bright spot in what is increasingly a very gray and depressing community.

Thank you.

Glad to hear it.

(MeeGo news kind of distracted me, so I forgot to reply to this.. I have some time while m-i-c sits and swaps in my VM though, so here goes. )

And... are we worth it?

More seriously: do you enjoy your time hacking? your device? I know I absolutely love it.

I'd like to jump on this and put things back to equality: I'm by no means what I'd call great. I'm a talented amateur. I enjoy tinkering with things and making them better - and that is something that I truely think that anyone with the right effort and mindset can achieve.

Exactly the thing we need. Thank you!

Keep an eye on the MeeGo Developer Engagement stuff. I (or the others) would be more than willing to help provide you with a support network. IRC/forums/email etc are all full of very helpful people happy to help

Anyone else want to share their stories? This could be an interesting perspective exercise, so..

Thanks for the praise -- I just hope I can keep living up to the reputation.

@ w00t yes, the community is 100% worth it. Even on the darker days, it is always entertaining. And loving the hacking/modding I've done so far. I was a Linux n00b (well still am I guess) prior to the n900 and am actually rather enjoying learning Xterm. Methinks Python is next.

Another thing, I can post a question/issue and get 5+ helpful responses within minutes. I have never experienced that in another forum so thank you all!

I've never seen a community so ready to pounce on a newbie asking the wrong question. I've posted very little here but I've been reading alot here since I got my n900.

Depends what you're saying and how you're saying it.

Obviously, in a community full of Maemo enthusiasts, criticism that isn't phrased in the right way (for example) won't tend to go down well.

That having been said, there *is* a lot of negativity, and it isn't going to get better without those with a more upbeat view picking up the slack.

So, get posting. What are you waiting for?

Well, I have always been somewhat an enthusiast in the mobile area - although I haven't and still don't consider myself a "fan" nor a "fanboy" of anything.
A few years ago when I took a look at the then-new (deleted since then) nseries.com site, I spotted an interesting thing - the N800.
Actually I didn't purchase one at the end, because I couldn't find good use for it at the time. In the end, I just bought an N95 and had a good time with it.

After using the N95 for a few years, I haven't felt the need for anything new - the N95 was such a brilliant device at the time that it could do anything. When the touchscreen hype came, most of the products were rather bloatware than actually useful or better in any way.
Although, when I saw the first articles about the N900 on the net, I immediately knew that I'm going to have one!
I waited till I could acquire one for a fair used price. I'm rather a practical person, so I don't mind if a device have been used by someone else if I can get it for 2/3 of the new price.

Nah, at first I just wanted the N900 to do generic stuff.

You know, music, multimedia, web browsing, MSN/Skype, and so on.
But I'm also a software developer who is infinitely curious - so, I started to do some little research about development.
Since Qt was "the next big thing" at Nokia, I started off with that - now I also use some more platform-specific libraries alongside Qt.

I also very much like this community.

In august, I came here and read quite a few stuff - everything was very interesting. I definitely wanted to be part of the community.

I started off with a learning project that is still not complete. In the meanwhile, my first usable app (Sticky Notes) has just been released last week.

I also must say a very big thanks to w00t - without his help, I would most probably still be stuck with the basics.
He is a good person who just helped with every random question I had. I also admire his patience and the fact that he didn't get pissed off even when I bombarded him with questions on IRC all day.
I can only hope that I can return the favor sometime in the future.

To my surprise, the app was found useful than more people than I expected - also there are great ideas flowing in from the users.

I pretty much like my users and it is a great feeling for me to create something that can be of use to others, or make their lives (even if just a little bit) easier.

All in all, I pretty much enjoy being part of this community and I definitlely hope that it will still be present for a long time.

Side note:
The only thing I don't like is trolls here.
However, I learned to live with them - I help out newbies if I can, while still figting against trolling in an educated, polite manner.

This post got a little long - sorry for that.