First of all cyanogenmods.org is different than the actual Cyanogenmod.org site that used to host most popular Android custom ROM run by known and all credible developers. But yes, it is true that the later was the inspiration for the former.
Cyanogen Mod(s) was born with the most popular and credible custom ROM of the time CyanogenMod. I have been working on Custom ROMs since the days of Android 2.2 Froyo and CM7 based on Android 2.3 Ginger Bread. I started publishing custom ROM how-to guides on my own blog infysim.org (which does not exist anymore for public) starting 2011 or so.
Cyanogenmods.org site was registered on 8th February 2016 to and continued the journey of InfySim.org and hosted several easy to use Custom ROM installation, bootloader unlock, Rooting guide etc.
Why was this started?
I have been tinkering my Sony Ericsson w550i phone since 2007 with the help of several online forums such as Howardforums, Esato etc. Some of you might not even heard of this! That same habit of playing with my phone continued and started again with Micromax Andro A60 but this was on XDA forum.
XDA was the only biggest forum for Android development work but most of the guides were developer written and the documentation (the how-to guide) was not easy for a naive user or a beginner to follow! This is where I thought to create my own blog and write easy to understand step-by-step guide which can be understood by many new-to-tech users. That’s only the first part of the story!
The second part continues…
2010 when I started working in an Embedded Systems domain as a Software Engineer; when I used to search for an answer on the internet it was always found after assembling information from multiple sites and hardly found on a single site as I was expecting!
Out of this born an idea to provide every information related to a topic in a single page and there I named the idea as Information Simplified whose short form I kept as InfySim. That’s on1 part!
The work on InfySim continued on this new site cyanogenmods.org from 2016.
Who is running this site?
It is obvious to know who is running this site and how much credible are these information published on this site. While I cannot judge it by myself about the credibility of the information which depends on the reader’s knowledge and perception, but I can confidently tell who I am and you can judge if I qualify to write what I write!
I am Sibananda Sahu, a Software Engineer by profession with an experience of more than 14 years in the Embedded Systems Engineering domain. Here is my LinkedIn profile that will give you an idea of my education and professional background.
I have worked with several big tech companies like HAL-Edgewood (A joint venture of HAL – Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, INDIA) TOSHIBA, LSI (now Broadcom Limited), Cypress, SanDisk (Western Digital), Cisco etc. on many cutting edge technologies.
I have worked on Linux Device Driver, Board Bring-up, PCI driver, SSD firmware, Wifi firmware, Networking Switch and few things here and there.
I started my Android custom journey with XDA and my first query was posted on 21st March 2011. Here is my XDA profile if you want to know more about my activities on XDA.
Along with custom ROMs, I publish about compatible GCAM APK ports for several Android phones.
How Authentic are the Files Hosted or Shared on the Cyanogenmods.org site?
All the companies that I have worked for, the quality of code or documentation or any work that I deliver is reviewed by many experienced developers and that has become the standard in my life. And the same is what I try to deliver to this site’s audience as well.
Everything you find on our site, be it a custom ROM, TWRP, GCam port APK or any other APK file hosted on this site or even a reference that is linked to; are taken from the original developer(s) either shared by themselves on public forums, their personal sites or social groups etc.
Every file we host on our site will have exactly same checksum with the source if you check and compare it manually.
I hope this covers all your questions related to authenticity or legitimacy of content. If you still have a question that you think needs to be answered from us, then please write to us on the following e-mail id: info (at) cyanogenmods (dot) org