Early Beginnings in Web Development

I started tinkering with web development around 2008, when I was about 13 years old. My first real project was a fansite for a video game I used to play, back when fansites were a big thing. What started as a small project quickly grew into one of the largest fansite for that game, with 1,200+ members, and it was even referenced on the official game website.

It ran on a phpBB2 forum, with a sister website written in PHP, all tested locally on WampServer and hosted on some shady free hosting website. Back in the days, we had no options for free stuff. I also had a personal website. Everyone had a Skyblog so I used to think I was flashy by making my own website/blog from scratch.

Server hosting and 2nd community

Between 2010 and 2012, I ran a Minecraft server with a community of around 1,000 members. Despite being a teenager with no job, I managed to fully self-finance the server and even generate some income through donations and an in-game shop. The mistake I made was using the server hoster’s shop system, which meant that the money people spent went into my wallet on their platform and could’nt be withdrawn to real money. But, as a result, I was able to purchase servers from that hoster for the next five years! That was the first time I made money online on my own and it taught me a lot about infrastructure, managing communities, and responsibility.

Professional Life

Those early projects pushed me to pursue studies in Information Technology. Today, I work professionally as a Windows Server Administrator for a large financial company. Outside of work, I still enjoy programming, experimenting with new technologies, and running my own home lab.

Philosophy

I’m anti-SaaS and a big advocate of self-hosting. I always try to find an open source alternative for every product I’m using. I enjoy understanding how things work under the hood and keeping control over my own tools and data.

I work as a Windows Sysadmin in a big corporate, which is pretty much the opposite of open source, but I guess it keeps me balanced.

This Website

This website is where I share my projects, ideas, and experiments, IT-related or not.