I was just thinking about that yesterday. I write my own projects so that I don't have to dance the political dance and make my colleagues happy. My own projects are for exploring my own ideas. Advice is always appreciated, but if someone wants to dictate how I write code in my own projects, they better damn well pay me (a lot).
To the OP: Don't let people bully you. Many people have strong ideas and will want you to do things their way. You aren't going to make everyone happy, though. Somebody will be pissed off no matter what you do (if you are popular enough -- normally people won't pay any attention to you ;-) ). "Because that's what I want to do" is a completely valid reason for any decision on your own project.
