I don't see how it's bad to put some time in something you like... I'll take my personal example: when I was 16 I spent all my evenings on IRC, that's the only thing I wanted to do, it cost me a lot of money at that time (internet is not cheap in France), I did nothing else but I was having fun! the result? I met a girl that you know under the nickname Fraisie and I'm still with her now.
Since then I've put a lot of efforts in developing softwares... my first public important release was IRC Log Viewer, I was very happy of its little success. With the time, I've improved my skills, and now, without any real diploma, I have a good job as a Team Leader in my company. Also, I think you won't complain on the fact that I've put ALL my time for the last monthes in Messenger Plus! 2... you know, as simple as this kind of software may seem to be, it takes a big amount of time to go from "litle tool" to "great software". It seems that I've reached my goal if I trust the comments I see on this forum.
WDZ, me and the others of the same kind are the people who make all the other's life more enjoyable. Why we do this? not to be pretentious, but because we love what we do and we think we can share this passion with other people. Without WDZ this forum wouldn't be as it is today and I wouldn't write this post. The only thing you should say to him is Thank You
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Patchou.