Marius Masalar. I learned a lot about film and game composing just talking to him and listening to his work. He is an amazing sound sample technician and combined with his exquisite and practical musical taste I find almost every one of his compositions absolutely stunning. I wouldn't say he's really influenced me yet, but he has sparked in me a great interest in building a sample libary of my own one day and maybe poking my head into video game music one day when I have a steady income and enough time to devote to the effort. And just generally he's an awesome guy, always willing to help anybody out but know how to deal with annoying idiots when he has to. A real example for other members of the site.
Robin Jessome. I listened to jazz before I ran into robin, but not with nearly the diversity as after I started paying more attention to him. His podcasts were nice and his jazz masterclass shaded some light on a timeline that's difficult to pin down on your own, not to mention the numerous tunes he always posts in the shoutbox. Thanks to him I've really opened up my appreciation for jazz, especially the more experimental stuff. Plus, this guy is chill.
Tyler Hampton (Nirvana69). When I met this guy I thought he was some other stupid metalhead, but for whatever reason we got to talking and I realised he hates stupid metalheads too. In fact, we found so many similarities that for well over a year we were almost perfect doppelgangers and I rarely went more than a day without having some intellectual or philosophical conversation with him over MSN. Then his music tastes moved onward and mine pretty much stayed put. He's really become an aficionado on 20th century classical music, and if he isn't yet I have no doubt he will soon enough be qualified. He's brilliant, if he gets a few degrees I can easily imagine him a music history professor. One that actually isn't boring. He's really begun to open me up on 20th century works, stuff that before I knew him I would have skipped over and labelled as "modernist atonal scraggy". I've really acquired because of him a taste in more romantic ideals not bound to common practice rules - to really throw away what people have stuck to in the past and just experiment with new things personally.
Ron Ferguson (Rolifer). One of the first atonalist scraggy composers I ever really listened to. I found out his works were more than atonalist scraggy, I actually found I enjoyed him and he has a very consistent and original voice as a composer. It's quite an inspiration to see someone who is so devoted to creativity and originality that only composes as a hobby. Not to mention he's a mathematician. It's very interesting to see such a combination in an individual (likewise Bitter) and I just generally enjoyed him being around.
GMS (and his various aliases) and Corbin due to opening me up to the brutal reality of the music scene. They may have been loving annoying trolls at times, but because of them both I've made a point of being more aware about what's going around me.
I have these three to thank the most, I believe, but I could mention others if I really wanted to. Why I don't is because I really don't listen to as much of Young Composers works as probably most people. I always made sure to listen and review more works than I have comments on my own, but I haven't really been as exposed and in touch with the scene because of that.