Most of you here probably know me by now. You know me as "JBlaze the SMF Customizer" or something similar. Well, I just want you all to know that I wasn't always "Mr. Know-It-All". So here's a little story for those of you who think you "will never be as good as 'them'".

Now, I'm sure you all have had your experiences with MySpace. You know that you can customize your profile with a little bit of HTML/CSS knowledge, or just copy/paste some templates you found from online. Well, this is where the wonderful world of website creation caught my eye. I saw these people making money and getting popular just for creating some simple templates for others to use. I wanted to be just like them.

So, I started to play around with HTML and CSS. Memorizing some things here and there, and getting the general gist of it all. I started creating some templates for my own profile, and pretty soon, I was feeling confident enough to start posting them to a website that I had started (for free of course). This was the time when sites like freeservers.com, angelfire.com and maxpages.com were the hottest ticket in town for a free website. I'm sure you all remember the mysite.iwarp.com and other crazy domains out there.

Anyways, from there, my desire grew to move onto bigger and better things. So I started a real website. I had moved on from little HTML/CSS edits on MySpace and had moved on to full-sized web templates. Learning as I went, I grew even more hungry for knowledge of what I could do. At this point, a friend of mine had asked me about creating a website for him. And thus began my journey into the world of dynamic web content.

Roughly 2 years ago, I was looking for a website software that was free and easy to use. I was setting up a site for a gaming clan that I was a part of, and we needed somewhere to start. Like most people, I preferred to use something that is already pre-made and ready to use out of the box. I wanted to play around with it and see what it did and how it did it. This script was called PHPNuke. It was a CMS and forum all wrapped into one. It came standard with phpBB as well. Now, keep in mind, I had no PHP coding knowledge at this time. I just opened it right up and took a look at the innards to see how they worked. It was all Chinese to me.

A little over a year ago, I started a new website. It was originally on phpBB, but due to some major security vulnerabilities at the time, I was looking to convert to something else. I found SMF. I spent hours searching on how to convert everything without losing what I had. I found it so easy to convert it was ridiculous. It instantly won me over. Next thing was the package manager. And that was it, I was dead set on choosing SMF.

Now, around February '09, I registered for an account here at simplemachines.org in order to get help with a mod installation (yes, that is my first ever post here...). From then until about March 18th '09, I lurked around, reading random topics, soaking up knowledge, looking for information about SMF. I spent a good 10 hours a day doing research. Then on March 18th, 2009, I made my first support post. And from there on, the rest is history...

Now, this story is meant to show you folks out there who think it is impossible to learn how to code your own things, or even just soak up enough knowledge to be able to navigate your way around your own forum, that nothing is impossible. You just need to take the time to do it on your own.



- JBlaze

From tiny acorns, mighty seeds doth grow! It's an incredible amount of learning in what is almost your first year, nicely done!!

I started something similar to what you did JBlaze. However, I started with Blogger and from there, I learned HTML and CSS. And before I go deeper into my history, I'm just going to end it right there for me. lol.

Anyways, I took a somewhat similar path as you did, and I just want to say excellent job, and what an inspiring story!

Woah! 10 hours is a lot, JBlaze! But I guess, looking back on it, it must be worth it, huh?

It's nice to know that all of the code geniuses started out just like normal people. Though, i'm still convinced that most of the staffers were genetically created to have 98% awesomeness at SMF HQ. =P

Nice going and nice reading, JBlaze

Quote from: Cassiel on January 16, 2010, 12:35:46 PM
Though, i'm still convinced that most of the staffers were genetically created to have 98% awesomeness at SMF HQ. =P

110%, actually.

Blast! 12% slipped through our testing! Um....I mean.....our resting. Yeah, resting. We figured it out while we were asleep. >.>;;

Thanks for your story, really interesting!
And of course compliments!!

Quote from: JBlaze on January 14, 2010, 06:53:31 AM
Now, around February '09, I registered for an account here at simplemachines.org in order to get help with a mod installation (yes, that is my first ever post here...).

Wow. That was a really good read JBlaze. Really makes me want to expand my knowledge further.

But I think you posted in the wrong area, you should of posted at the mod dedicated topic. :p

Quote from: Kill Em All on January 22, 2010, 09:57:21 PM
Wow. That was a really good read JBlaze. Really makes me want to expand my knowledge further.

But I think you posted in the wrong area, you should of posted at the mod dedicated topic. :p

Thanks! I hope someone can take this and learn from and maybe give them some inspiration to learn!

As for the topic, at the time, I didn't know mods had support topics

QuoteWell, I just want you all to know that I wasn't always "Mr. Know-It-All".

Who ever said you were?

Quote from: SlammedDime on May 03, 2010, 02:17:17 AM
Who ever said you were?

I did