Develop Bugs

New Questions and Answers section: great idea, really poor implementation

Can anyone explain to me the new policies started in the new Q&A section?
Has anyone seen this? Apparently, you have to jump through hoops to open a new thread in the new Questions and Answers section.
From RULES - Must Read Before Posting Sticky in Q&A
ALL QUESTIONS WILL BE POSTED IN SEPERATE THREADS. IF YOU WISH TO OPEN A NEW THREAD FOR YOUR QUESTION, PLEASE DO THE FOLLOWING: If you wish to open a thread, you must PM me with the name of your thread, and the page number where it is located. IF YOU OPEN A THREAD, AND DO NOT SEND A PRIVATE MESSAGE TO TWEAKMAN, YOUR THREAD WILL BE DELETED. There will be no exception to this. You must send the message to have your thread open!!!
ANY NEW THREAD, NOT OPENED BY A MODERATOR WILL BE REMOVED IMMEDITALEY: If you have a question you would like posted, you will not be turned away. This is only done to ensure that your question doesn't become lost in the pages as this section grows.
TO SEND A PRIVATE MESSAGE TO REQUEST YOUR THREAD DO THE FOLLOWING:
1:GO TO THE TOP LEFT SIDE OF THIS POST AND CLICK ON USER NAME "TWEAKMAN"
2:ONCE ON THE NEW PAGE, GO TO CONTACT INFO
3:SELECT THE OPTION TO SEND A PRIVATE MESSAGE (NO OTHER FORM OF MESSAGE WILL BE ACCEPTED)
4:INCLUDE ONLY YOUR QUESTION
5:YOUR DONE!! YOUR QUESTION WILL BE POSTED IN A NEW THREAD FOR FURTHER HELP AND DISCUSSION!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can think of three really good reasons not to do this:
Nobody reads the stickies.
Especially newcomers to the forum. People are just going to post new threads and wonder why they keep getting deleted.
It isn't very convenient.
What happens if I have a problem when Tweakman is asleep? Or on the toilet? I really feel sorry for that guy if he is going to have to publish every question anyone asks.
It is unnecessarily difficult.
The creation of this section was to help the Development and Hacking section get rid of general question posts. But if it is easier to make a new post in Development and Hacking, then people are just going to keep on doing that. Like this guy.
And then there is this:
ALL NEW QUESTIONS WILL BE REMOVED AFTER 7 DAYS: Once a thread is opened with your question, it will be left standing for a total of 7 (seven) days. If your question has not been answered at that time, you may repost your question as many times as needed. Again, this is to ensure that your question doesn't become lost in the pages as this section grows.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't get this either. What's wrong with the system as it is? Why can't we just leave the questions so that people can search for answers before they post? (Okay, granted most newcomers don't search either, but some do.) If people aren't getting answers, they can just bump their thread.
Am I wrong?

I agree, great intentions, but the whole idea is poorly conceived, just like the original thread in Development and hacking...nothing got answered, and if it did, how do you navigate to it to find it? Is anyone going to dig through this crap to answer someone else's question. I think not.

Give it time.
The kinks will be worked out.
Don't be so negative.

it will be open for all to post soon...... they are working on a team to keep the thread organized once fully opened

joel2009 said:
it will be open for all to post soon...... they are working on a team to keep the thread organized once fully opened
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sounds good. I hope lots of people pitch-in to help.

Q&a Section Now Open For All To Post

[Request] allow original poster to close his own thread and delete double posts...NOW

Please allow posters to close their own threads and delete double posts. It's ridiculous not to have this feature!!!
What is so harmful about us closing our own threads?
I think it is beneficial, for example:
1) OP feels harassed: closes thread
2) OP learns that there was already another, more prominent thread of the same issue: closes thread
3) OP wants too closes his upcoming software update but doesn't want to read other's post issues that he has fixed on the next version.
etc...
Why can't we close our own threads? Delete our own posts?
For ***sakes look at these threads:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=4120834#post4120834
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=535393&highlight=deleted
If you aren't going to implement this then atleast tell us why in the world we can't delete our posts!
Here is my previous thread posted at the wrong forum:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=535157

After reading Mike´s post it is clear that the best and easyest way is to click on the red button asking an experienced Mod to do the action, otherwise it can be a democratic chaos...
Just my opinion.

mikechannon said:
It sounds obvious that you should be able to delete your own posts. However, it can cause chaos! Once you create a thread you do not own it, particularly if other users have contributed posts to the thread.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree, Just because you posted a thread, doesn't mean it's your thread. This is a community with no personal ownership of posts or threads.
mikechannon said:
Deleting the first post in a thread deletes the whole thread. This could be a long running thread with many posts and pages. To allow this thread to suddenly vanish because the OP deletes the first post can upset many contributing users.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mike Speaks from Experience here.
mikechannon said:
However, it's relatively easy to have the odd post removed by clicking on the report post (red triangle) that appears on all posts. All you need do is say something like "please delete my double post" or "delete my post it's in the wrong forum" etc etc
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Once again I reinforce Mike's statement. The Mods are here to assist you, please make use of our services.
mikechannon said:
There are also a couple of other fiddly reasons why it's best for a Mod to delete posts - one is that a Mod can also move the post to Trash. You may not know that deleted posts are still visible to Mods and leaving them kicking around forums makes things look very messy to Mods even if other users see a nice tidy board. Another reason not to allow user delete is that a very few users could use this to cover up "provocative posting" or just to cause trouble with other members. (You can imagine for example, that a ROM thread suddenly disappearing because the cook is bored with it could lead to lots of frustration amongst users and extra work for Admin and Mods.)
Just use the report icon or contact a Mod - quick and easy
Mike
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just basically report to mods is the summation here.

Got a question about deleting a post:
Once a post is deleted, then all posts after it in the same thread will be changed a post#. E.g, if post#2 is deleted, then post#3 became #2, #4 become #3 etc. But if the original post#3 is cross-linked to another thread using the 'view single post' function. In such a case, will the cross-link url address be updated accordingly?

The link will be to the deleted post, no re-shuffle will occur.
The URL is showpost.php and p=4153097 ("p" is the post number, not the thread number, that will be "t").
Here is one I deleted from this thread : http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=4153097&postcount=6
As a moderator, I can see deleted posts. Try that URL above
Dave

In the above case, seems you deleted the whole thread.This is the url you pointed:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=4153097&postcount=6,
And I can not access these:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=4153097&postcount=5
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=4153097&postcount=7
My question is for example in this thread we are talking in,
if you deleted this post: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=4121794&postcount=3.
But I already crosslinked this post (next one to the deleted) with this url: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=4132664&postcount=4.
So my above url will become this post, is that right?
BTW, sometimes I can see the contents of deleted post from a google search result.
Edit: Ok, seems I got it, you said no re-shuffle. That means if #3 deleted, , #5 is still #5, so there is no influance on crosslink address of posts. Thanks.

Links post here in XDA

Hello.
How can I contact a right moderator?
I would like to occasionally post a few Appz / Games with download link.
Of course, only if it is extremely good programs and is freeware.
I've seen that were left in this forum posted by me.
Would like to set these things in the future itself.
When I try to set something comes a message
me that a moderator must be enabled.
I post no spam
Best regards

Welcome to forums
You need to arrive to certain number of posts so all XDA features can be unlocked.
Keep posting and you´ll get soon.

Suggestion to reduce spam questions :)

Hi
I see some nice work has been done to reduce spam posts
I just wanted to put an idea out there to try and reduce spam within a post.
How about having a question repository in the thread when every question asked is collected and put in order for the dev to answer. The q and a's are then posted just as a sticky at the top of the thread.
I know the basic problem is people refusing to read but if it is easily available and right there it might reduce most of it.
Anymore ideas?

Huh?
Im sorry i dont quite get what u meant.

omarbenjdida said:
Why the ad.fly is spam?
Sent from my GT-I9000 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ad.fly is a pay per click link service which is not allowed (as are all pay per click services) here on XDA.
It's in the forum rules.
Which you should have read when you registered
@ The OP.
The prevention of unessential posts is something that are always looking at and while your idea is a nice one, this would require someone to keep on top of all the questions and compile them into order etc etc...
Unless someone volunteers to do that in a particular thread, which does happen occasionaly, this isnt possible.
Rest assured though, the great thinkers of XDA are always looking for new ways to cut down on the spam postings

I have been an admin/owner and also a moderator on my own and other forums and I'm afraid that spammers and their posts will always be a problem no matter what systems are in place. The only sure fire way to stop them is by using our eyes and sadly time to find the spam posts and report them (there is a thread for this ) so that they can be removed.

Unable to post threads on XDA

I recently built DerpFest OS unofficial for Redmi 6 pro and wanted to upload it in development section ,as I made thread and hit upload, it prompted me with "To prevent spam, you must have a higher post count in order to make a new thread in this development section.�But feel free to make new thread in the non-development sections like General, Q&A, etc. Thanks for your understanding!"
So I gone to General section and thought to upload there. Still it gives me this:
"To prevent spam on the XDA forums, ALL new users prevented from posting outside links in their messages. After approximately 10 posts, you will be able to post outside links. Thank you for understanding!"
Now what should I do XD