I have started a relatively ambitious project to re-work the wiki pages as well as create a central place for site management projects including the webpages, forum and wiki. Obviously since I am just one person and not even a moderator or admin I will be needing a lot of help from everyone.
The forum is still the ONLY place to make normal requests. These wiki pages will be edited as issues are posed in the fora, especially the "About xda-developers.com" forum for site, forum and wiki queries.
The SiteManagement wiki pages will be for admins, mods and active contributers to collect and identify work that needs to be done.
I have created these pages because there is a lot of disparate, yet excellent, work being done on the site. And at the same time there is an obvious lack of response in the forums to certain issues which need to be addressed. Coupled to this there is a underlying disconuity in the wiki pages making simple browsing tedious.
Enter the SiteManagement Wiki Pages!
Please all interested in helping the xda-developers.com project continue being the success it is take a look at this wiki entry and see where they can help. We also need people to scan through the About forum and collate all requests yet to be completed.
Lets get the pages act together, so we can better server others and ourselves and make this devmod site something to be proud of!
Marc
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Todo:
Flesh out the rest of the pages referenced.
Collect all requests outstanding.
Initiate Logo and Theme submissions/competition.
Get admin and influential user interest/buy-in.
Initiate Template discussion to get the best device template.
Initiate topic based sorting system for wiki.
Begin rewriting current pages in the wiki.
Get list of admins and maintainers together.
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Related
Hi
I haven't been round these forums as long as many, but I noticed the wiki was a bit out of date and through searching found that there was some intention to move to Mediawiki in 2006: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=267487
Unfortunately more searching only turned up 2 or 3 threads when users were asking how it was getting on. I think, with the nature of a wiki, we could open it up and run it like a community project when the scripts are there, to move pages from the existing wiki over rather than having one person do it all which could take a long time.
I'm no expert but anyone knows how wikipedia works so I think it's just a case of getting it done. Here's a brief guide http://www.siteground.com/tutorials/mediawiki/mediawiki_installation.htm
Anyway, to keep this thread concise:
- Where are we with the mediawiki (has it been shelved?)
- Would you be willing to open the project of migrating pages to the community to speed up the mediawiki
And errr, can't think of anything else, so I'll leave it there for now. If things do start moving along nicely, we could set up a thread to discuss specific areas that need work and get a team of editors together.
bumping for information
bumping to see if this is still alive?
Last update from Flar (site Admin) a few weeks ago when someone asked the same in the moderators forum was that moving from phpwiki to mediawiki is not as straight forward as they imagined initially, and also they first need to change the hosting server because of the extra added load from mediawiki (it's bit more server hungry than phpwiki).
Hi, I was wondering if there was any new development concerning this topic? I've been using the wiki more frequent lately, and it just lacks a lot of features and usability, which would be much improved by a move to MediaWiki.
p.s.: I've just donated a little something to help pay for additional hosting capacities.
Hey, I never knew this thread existed
I last PM'd Flar before I became a moderator at the back end of September with regards to this. I too would be very interested in see'ing an XDA MediaWiki.
She said that the person who is looking into is not always available, this is why there is a delay.
I will try and get and update on this, if I can.
Thanks
Dave
Why not just create a "Developer" forum usergroup for all the Android/Winmo developers who create ROMs/Mods/Themes and use that rank to filter out who is allowed to create new threads in the respective "Dev" forums of each phone? It's maddening to see so many [Q]'s among all the ROM titles and would REALLY clean things up, not to mention push all the other Q/A and help traffic into the forum sections they actually belong in, resulting in greater topic exposure, and by extension, potentially expedited help in dealing with problems.
Have a simple process of a message appearing when a non-dev clicks on the new thread button in the Dev section, and have it say "Sorry, you are not a recognized developer. Android/WinMo developers are the only ones allowed to post here, all questions and other discussion belong in the Q/A forum of this phone (Link here). To apply, simply PM (some moderator), tell that moderator you are a Dev, and you will be able to post.
You're not going to have to ask for proof from Devs who want to post, because since the majority of help threads created in the Dev sections are made by people who simply don't know better, are new, or don't understand the difference between forum sections. There won't really be censorship, because no user who needs help with xyz gps issue is going to go through the trouble of trying to fill out a Dev rank request forum when they suddenly realize they are posting in the wrong forum, and will move to the correct one.
It won't even be difficult to implement, just look through the dev forums and start granting people who are already android/WinMo developers the Developer usergroup. It's not even like they need extra permissions, the only extra permission they'd have is being able to post in their Development and Hacking forum.
Love XDA, Cheers!
+1 to this idea.
It won't be hard to implement, but it will be a constantly time consuming job for the Administrators to monitor the boards to appoint certain users to such a 'Rank'.
Along with this idea... why not a 'Community Assistance' rank for those who don't necessarily develop, but rather help users with issues they may have: answering questions, providing tutorials for help, sharing resources, etc..
[Q] "Request new forum rules" sticky or "Request new forum" forum?
Reading through all forum request posts and threads throughout this "About xda-developers.com" forum and "(requests) From the Users to the Mods & Admins" thread I wondered whether it's time to create:
a sticky with "Request new forum rules" (ie. a sticky that explains what needs to be achieved before a new forum request is honored, like amount of requestees, anount custom ROMs built, first hacks, rooting, modding, etc. done)
a "Request new forum" forum, so admins and ops can easily spot new forum requests without having to cleanout and check existing Q&A forums like this one...
Regards,
Nika.
Especially Android is a very fast-growing OS with new great devices nearly every week and many not-so-mainstream phones and tablets besides HTC and Samsung and the rest that really should get some attention.
But I would never be completely satisfied with a product w/o root or Custom ROMs simply because I know that the manufacturer won't support it as long as the community would or I can't use essential stuff like Backups.
However I'm not quite talented with all the hacking and development stuff, so xda is my prime source for that.
After a little bit more than 3 years passive reading I had a first request but found quite a mess.
It seems like nobody knows where to request new forums and even the Mods say different things where to post. The only thing they say in common is that these posts are in the wrong section and are therefore being ignored.
In short words: a central, easy to find (been trying to find the 'right section' for quite some time) place for these kind of requests would be great! Thanks for your efforts
btw: I don't mean to criticise the Mods/Admins or the forum itself. I just want to share what I experienced as a not so noobish and not so active user
The new thread is here:
[Requests] Ask for new forums here
Thinking of posting a new thread???
Use the search button on the top bar between "New Posts" and "Quick Links"
Threads posted in the wrong fora will be moved initially; however, for repeat offenders, the moderating team will look to take action to rectify the situation in a manner it believes is appropriate
WITHOUT FURTHER NOTICE.
It is the responsibility of all users to keep the fora organised and clean. We need you to do your bit to keep things orderly.
To the dedicated members that care to keep this forum, subforums included, clean and organized and grouped.
Please start reporting threads to the mods to take action. Please use the REPORT button to do so.
Thank You and happy easy searching.
Forum Searching | Posting | The Basics: (Make sure you've read them before starting a new thread)
Forum Rules - http://forum.xda-developers.com/announcement.php?f=642
Forum Search - http://forum.xda-developers.com/search.php
Google Forum Search - http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=304582
Advanced Searching - http://wiki.xda-developers.com/index...lopers Forum
XDA "Mantra" - http://forum.xda-developers.com/show...9&postcount=45
Post What Where:
General - general technical discussion items, news, anything else that does not fit into the other fora categories.
Q&A (Questions and Answers) - all questions, irrespective of type, get posted in here whether they be theme related, accessory related, technical, etc.
Accessories - any items to do with components and/or accessories relating to your device.
Rom Development - only meant for very advanced technical discussion directly related to ROM development activity and the delivery of actual ROMs and ROM components ONLY. Nothing else goes in here.
Themes & Apps - anything to do directly with the development of themes and/or applications. Nothing else goes in here.
BEFORE POSTING ANY THREAD IN THE DEVELOPMENT SECTION, PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING:
If you have developed a ROM, or are working with others to do so, the development forum is somewhere to discuss and share ideas, post useful feedback and logs or crash dumps, and to discuss a common goal developers are trying to achieve.
It is NOT the place to post your question because it gets higher traffic, or because more experienced users frequent it. Doing this just annoys those who are working on the device, and drives them away. Developers don't want to wade through 20 threads of "Help me urgently" to find their threads for porting and fixing camera issues etc. Similarly, if a thread is designated as discussion for developers say, porting a camera fix, please do not post in there asking "When will it be ready?", "Can I flash this yet?" etc. This is both completely disrespectful to those working on the project (you evidently haven't read the important posts in the thread), and also is making it harder for developers to find comments from other developers or testers when required.
Similarly, don't make loads of "Thanks for your work here" posts in an active development thread. It's just as annoying to developers as asking when something will be ready. If a ROM is complete, then go ahead and thank the developer if you wish, but don't go into threads for devs only, and interrupt it to post "thanks". It's basically spamming, and is treated as such.
If you are posting in development, you should have read every sticky and notice there, and should be actively developing or helping in the development of something. Developing isn't installing a ROM, or using a tweak, it's creating a ROM or other hack or tweak. If you haven't read for several days before starting out on XDA, you are likely about to ask something already solved. I registered on XDA when I first wanted to post, and that was to join in a discussion on something. Sure, join up and ask a question, but read the information available in General and Q&A first, as your question will have been asked before. Search is your friend here, become familiar with it.
Regarding when to post in development if you are not actually developing something, there is one occasion where it's acceptable. If you find a leak of a new ROM, which isn't already posted, and you verify it's legitimacy via either running it, or based on the source you obtained it from, then this is assisting in development, and should be posted in development. If you want to ask when a leak will be available use search first, then if not already in discussion, open a thread in general or Q&A.
If you have a problem flashing a ROM, this is NOT related to development. It's up to you to determine if it is specific to a particular ROM, and post useful information in that developer's existing thread for the ROM. If it happens on more than one ROM, and isn't a known issue (remember you should read several times more words than you post), then find out what you are doing wrong. Check guides written by others, try to repeat the problem and see if it happens every time. Something needs to be reproducible to be fixed effectively.
Once you have identified what you need help with go to the device Q&A forum (general if device lacks one), and make a clear, informative thread that explains the issue, and what you have tried doing to fix it. Did you re-download the ROM? Did you ask a friend to flash it for you, to reduce chance of user error? What steps (exactly) did you follow? What errors did you see (exact wording)? Did you double check all the steps? Did you do a wipe or hard reset?
If you make a clear, concise, yet detailed post, you will find help forthcoming, and should get the problem sorted very quickly. If someone suggests you try something, report back on what happened, did it work etc. Then, next time someone has this issue and searches, they will find this and have a verified and tested solution.
So remember... before you start a thread in development, ask yourself what you are developing. If you can't answer, then stop, step away from the post button, and think about where you are posting. Would it be better in General or Q&A, or is some more time with your best friend, search, required?
I would like to suggest an improvement. (I assume the subject is manually edited, rather than scripted.)
I suggest that first and pure mentions of devices in news articles link to their wiki page - lots of times I read of New Miracle Device X123 and click, expecting to gain info on what the device is - phone/tablet, looks, true manufacturer, etc. Instead I get linked to the forum and the standard subs - developer, apps, questions, etc that all devices have on the forums and learn nothing except that lots of people posted about it. It seems like a perfect place to use the wiki for a quick overview and picture.
Then, when there is a reference to a detail about the device, a project, configuration setting or such - then link to the proper forum or a particular thread.
Assuming I'm fairly normal, I find I click those 1st links right often expecting general data about a new or unfamiliar device - and always get that first forum - that I could have guessed existed - making the first link (to the top forum) fairly useless, as the detail link will usually be listed below in the article to the thread about the particular topic for the device.
Hope I made sense, thanks for listening!
The problem with that is unfortunately our wiki is horrifically under utilised with most device pages containing little to no information.
Sent From My Fingers To Your Face.....
conantroutman said:
The problem with that is unfortunately our wiki is horrifically under utilised with most device pages containing little to no information.
Sent From My Fingers To Your Face.....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My preferences change in wiki is not being saved even though it says it's saved.
Whom should i contact regarding wiki issues? Wiki admins?
--edit--
Looks like it's a known issue.
Bit of a bump...
It does seem that wiki is a great place for a first notice, and a first link.
While it's not really development, you have to know it exists, etc before you can develop!
Perhaps the first news team can be tasked with an initial entry form that becomes the first paragraph for wiki - manufacturer, release, expected OS, etc.
If news or development got to me I could rough out a form and start....