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Dear Moderator et al,
It seems to me that it would be beneficial to have a forum where sofware applications get described, reviewed and rated only. This means no problem/solution discussion. Questions about which SW is best and what should I use, etc. get repeated and difficult for noobs to figure out how to search. It would be great if we could bury "keywords" in the thread to make it easier for them to figure out as well.
Just a thought..... Cheers!
tomsenna said:
Dear Moderator et al,
It seems to me that it would be beneficial to have a forum where sofware applications get described, reviewed and rated only. This means no problem/solution discussion. Questions about which SW is best and what should I use, etc. get repeated and difficult for noobs to figure out how to search. It would be great if we could bury "keywords" in the thread to make it easier for them to figure out as well.
Just a thought..... Cheers!
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See the General forum. It's there that all software reviews should be done. At least I post my reviews in there.
Menneisyys said:
See the General forum. It's there that all software reviews should be done. At least I post my reviews in there.
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Thanks for your quick reply. I guess my point was really a specific forum with a title "Software Reviews" or "Kaiser Software Reviews" (for specific platforms if that made sense). The "General" forum is too - well - general! If the Forum had Software Reviews as the name, it's clear. Then, a thread is dedicated to a specific application with people giving their opinion. The key words would help those who may not know precisely what to search for in that forum.
seriously, this one forum is cluttered with hundreds of threads about ROMs, Recovery, Root, Guides, and other off-the-wall stuff. Can we get subforums made specifically for ROMs, Recoveries, Root (and only Root-related discussion), and Guides? this will organize the forum more efficiently, and we won't have to sift through hundreds of threads and thousands of posts to look for what we need. thanks for the good work so far!
bump, seriously, the Evo Development forum is a mess! we really need some subforums to help keep it organized.
do u mean like this? ~> http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=709267
i feel creating a entire subforum will cause more harm then good. the wikis organize things a bit and are stickied to the top of every subforum in the EVO 4G section. these wikis can be maintained and updated by all users of the forum. also it makes it possible to organize the guides and roms by type and such. i do see ur point though and that is why i created the wikis in the first place. i thought about creating a new subforum for a while, but the truth is that it will end up cluttered just the same. at least with the wiki u can look on one page and see all the roms,recoveries, and guides that relate to our device, not having to sift through the most popular to fine roms that arent. at the same time u can see that some roms are development roms and therefor still worthy of the development section. i just know from working on the Sprint HeroC that the wikis were life savers. specially months into owning the device, with old roms no longer being supported and buried by new roms. i hope this helps resolve ur issues. please PM me if u have more to add. thanx for the suggestions as ideas are always welcomed.
i just think it would make the Dev forum look a lot cleaner and organized if all the ROM threads were in a "ROMs" subforum; all the guides threads in a "Guides" subforum; all the kernel threads in a "Kernels" subforum; etc etc.
wikis are nice, and are very helpful in organizing information, but they don't make the forum look neater or any less intimidating, and the forum is where most people go for the most up-to-date information on everything.
right now, everything is just thrown into a single place. It's the equivalent of having a single forum called "HTC Phone Discussion" that is flooded with 1000s of threads related to MyTouch's, Evo's, Diamonds, Dreams, Hero's, Nexus', HD2's, etc etc. it's really inefficient and hard to sift through because everyone's threads are getting lost in the forum. albeit, on a much smaller scale, but you get the point.
agreed
Yes, def be a big help...
I feel we do need to keep better control over the threads and make a few different sections.
yeah - would definitely make things easier.
I agree. At least group some threads, such as tons and rooting guides (there's plenty of those!) This would help make other threads a little easier to find. Not everything needs a subforum, but some things would fit naturally. With evo dev so hot right now many threads are getting buried faster then you can find them.
+1 on this, the Nexus One android development forum also has the same issue, it is full of Rom's (which is great) but you cannot find the actual development threads any more..
yeah, we dont need a subforum for everything. i think 2 will suffice: "ROMs/Kernels/Recovery" and "Guides".
+1 to this suggestion for N1 too.
bump.
do the admins even read this board?
cnstarz said:
bump.
do the admins even read this board?
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Of course we do! We'll have a resolution in the coming days. Sorry for the delay.
no worries. my thing is this:
why does xda have forums for every phone they support; why not just create a single wiki for every single phone? because having just one forum and wiki for 100 different phones is ridiculous. it'd be impossible to keep up with updates because everything would get burried. the same thing is happening to the dev forum.
I'm sure all of you are getting sick of the flood of questions that come in and the single question and answer thread is just too long to go through to find questions let alone answer them. Hopefully we can get enough people on board to let the moderators know that this is a welcome addition. Seeing as how many phones have highest number of threads in the Q&A section, I think it is a worthy addition.
Problems:
1) Lack of moderation - the volume of posts, especially from new users is higher than the what can reasonably be moderated by the current number of moderators.
2) Relevant threads containing real information are buried by new threads (many which are off topic or not posted in the correct forum)
3) The forum is disorganized, which exacerbates the issue of new users asking duplicate, off topic, poor, misinformed questions.
4) There is an incredible lack of information for new users on usage, which creates a contentious atmosphere between new users and senior members who re-answer the same questions over and over, most of the time about HOW to use the forum and search features.
5) User modifiable resources like the wiki are unknown or obfuscated from new and long time members alike, thus rarely used. (On a side note....we should all be using the wiki to push pertinent information, valueable posts, references and guides up so that noobs (and experienced users also) can find them easier.)
Proposed Solutions:
1) Create additional subforums to help organize posts into relevant categories. (I vote for at least Q&A. MOST popular forums on XDA have this, so there is certainly precedent.)
2) Better sticky posts, with clearer titles. "Hello from your moderator." is not as clear to a new user as "[MANDATORY README]-[FORUM RULES][QUESTIONS][INSTRUCTIONS][If you don't read this you will be flamed, harrassed, possibly shanked in your sleep!]" You are reading this thread because of the title...that or you saw the DVDA postfix...you sick sick bastard...either way I win.
3) More moderators. It is far too hard for Whosdaman to constantly update sticky posts with relevant info. It is up to everyone here to get that info out so we aren't bombarded with questions that have been answered a hundred times. Wiki anyone?
4) We have a great resource in user editable wiki. There is a lot of stuff that can be done BETTER on a wiki than in a 1000 post thread, like reference material, guides, and instructions. We need to make it obvious to ALL users that the wiki exists and get people on board with updating it. Threads are a great way to hash out possible solutions and have a group discussion, but a lot of times what people need is a reference or guide and they shouldn't have to search a 1000 post thread to pull the relevant information.
5) Original posters need to update their OP when new information is revealed or when there is misinformation in a post. Having a post that's title says your flash cell is about to explode only to have to read 600 posts to find out that this information is untrue helps no one. Discussion is GREAT. Misinformation is NOT, and only fuels the confusion and duplicate thread issues.
From The Front Line:
Thanks for the outpouring of support and ideas to help get the ball rolling. Several of our ideas have been recently implemented so I am really hoping for some good news next war update.
20110109: Woot! We now have Q&A. Thanks mods and supporters!
20110109: My social experiment of double entendre "sticky posts" has 2000 views in only a couple of days. I'm not going to call this one confirmed, but if it stopped even 1 bad thread it was worth it.
20110109: We have sticky wiki in all the subforums. Now we need to add content to the wiki before people stop using it.
One Last Thing:
There are very few things we can change with regard to how many new users visit this forum, or the knowledge level of these users. The only thing we CAN do is make what they need to do as obvious as possible to these users, so that we can spend more time coding and writing relevant posts, instead of redirecting people to the search button, or frustration flaming newbies.
+1 agreed. This is ridiculous, it's a clusterf**k in these forums. Q & A is exactly what we need.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
I will say yes to the q&a it will cause less clutter.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
No, Q&A IS the general forum. What is needed is a sticky in the general forum with a CLEAR and concise description of how to:
root
use Odin
use clockwork
flash themes
flash roms
battery saving methods
airplane mode trick
DRM services and how to stop them
and ANYTHING else that gets asked multiple times a day. I dont know if some sort of limited moderator status can be granted, but if so it would be nice for noobnl, Daemon and a bunch of others to have said status and be able to update this sticky at any time. I am sure there are a ton of people who would be glad to do it.
Then, what is needed is a sticky called FROYO SPECULATION, where EVERY thread that deals with speculation of the coming Froyo release is moved, and all discussion of that topic is directed.
muyoso said:
No, Q&A IS the general forum. What is needed is a sticky in the general forum with a CLEAR and concise description of how to:
root
use Odin
use clockwork
flash themes
flash roms
battery saving methods
airplane mode trick
DRM services and how to stop them
and ANYTHING else that gets asked multiple times a day. I dont know if some sort of limited moderator status can be granted, but if so it would be nice for noobnl, Daemon and a bunch of others to have said status and be able to update this sticky at any time. I am sure there are a ton of people who would be glad to do it.
Then, what is needed is a sticky called FROYO SPECULATION, where EVERY thread that deals with speculation of the coming Froyo release is moved, and all discussion of that topic is directed.
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what you are saying isn't wrong but i want one
muyoso said:
No, Q&A IS the general forum. What is needed is a sticky in the general forum with a CLEAR and concise description of how to:
root
use Odin
use clockwork
flash themes
flash roms
battery saving methods
airplane mode trick
DRM services and how to stop them
and ANYTHING else that gets asked multiple times a day. I dont know if some sort of limited moderator status can be granted, but if so it would be nice for noobnl, Daemon and a bunch of others to have said status and be able to update this sticky at any time. I am sure there are a ton of people who would be glad to do it.
Then, what is needed is a sticky called FROYO SPECULATION, where EVERY thread that deals with speculation of the coming Froyo release is moved, and all discussion of that topic is directed.
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That is EXACTLY what the Wiki is for. But people either don't know about it, use it, or update it. Anyone can update the wiki. Leaving all of the cleanup to moderators isn't fair, or effective at getting stuff up quickly. There should be better indication to go to the wiki and more people need to start using it.
plapczyn said:
That is EXACTLY what the Wiki is for. But people either don't know about it, use it, or update it. Anyone can update the wiki. Leaving all of the cleanup to moderators isn't fair, or effective at getting stuff up quickly. There should be better indication to go to the wiki and more people need to start using it.
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Thats fine, but where the eff is the wiki? A person who just bought their epic and signed up would NEVER find it. There needs to be like a flashing light and have the font in size 4.2 million saying "Epic 4g XDA User Manual" or something like that.
muyoso said:
Thats fine, but where the eff is the wiki? A person who just bought their epic and signed up would NEVER find it. There needs to be like a flashing light and have the font in size 4.2 million saying "Epic 4g XDA User Manual" or something like that.
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I agree. Or a sticky at the top of ALL of the subforums linking to the wiki. There used to be a STICKYWIKI post, but the title got changed.
I agree the wiki needs serious editing and updating, and we should all be somewhat responsible. Maybe if you flame a newbie, you have to add a paragraph, like a swear jar smoothone, get typing hahaha.. sorry... had to... but I get the feeling you dont mind.
Honestly, I wish sprint would just say screw you, no froyo. This way, people would move on, keep developing, not thinking to wait on that elusive source code... and stop *****ing. The repeat questions, etc werent that bad until that stupid 26th thing brought a bunch of new people at once, so everyone here who was already waiting and annoyed, then get bombarded with new people who heard about XDA from engadget.
BTW... wheres those two who had those super secret sources?????? Kinda quiet....
Bloggers: do not cite an XDA member, or their word they have a good source unless they show you the goods! Somehow, everyone thinks XDA really knows more than the average joe... and dont trust Sprint sales info or personnel!!!!
Sure, let's create yet ANOTHER ignored forum that the mod(s) get to monitor and spend more time on while every single new user here ignores it and the search button just to post the question anyway.
Instead of making a new forum, we need another moderator added to help manage the forum.
And make a post count minimum to START a new thread!! Too many ppl coming over straight from google and, not knowing how to use xda (or their effen owners manual) to its fullest.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
othan1 said:
Sure, let's create yet ANOTHER ignored forum that the mod(s) get to monitor and spend more time on while every single new user here ignores it and the search button just to post the question anyway.
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Dumping questions to a Q&A forum creates less clutter for the other forums, thus relevant threads will more likely be in the first two pages.
lazydazed said:
And make a post count minimum to START a new thread!! Too many ppl coming over straight from google and, not knowing how to use xda (or their effen owners manual) to its fullest.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
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I love that idea, but there are occasionally relevant posts from new users. I would like to think that not EVERYONE that initially comes to XDA is a moron. But I guess I'm a glass half full kind of guy.
It looks like a lot of people are in favor of it.
The Q&A forum will just be full of people asking the SAME QUESTIONS over and over and over again. Why not just create a sticky that either links to an updated wiki or better yet that lays out nicely how to do basic things with the Epic4g?
muyoso said:
The Q&A forum will just be full of people asking the SAME QUESTIONS over and over and over again. Why not just create a sticky that either links to an updated wiki or better yet that lays out nicely how to do basic things with the Epic4g?
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That's ok, as long as the questions aren't in the other forums. But I agree, sticky to the wiki should be on all subforums.
Personally I don't care if the Q&A forum is filled with spam repost topics. All I, and others, want is for the it to be quarantined.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
muyoso said:
The Q&A forum will just be full of people asking the SAME QUESTIONS over and over and over again. Why not just create a sticky that either links to an updated wiki or better yet that lays out nicely how to do basic things with the Epic4g?
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That will happen in any forum. We do need a sticky, but don't expect that to stop the noobs from asking before reading.
I see that some of the other Galaxy phones here on xda have a Q&A in addition to a general section. General is used for general discussion and Q&A is for all questions. It seems like it would be more obvious for noobs to wander into the Q&A section to ask questions and hopefully save the mods some effort while also cleaning up our little corner of this website.
DiGi760 said:
That will happen in any forum. We do need a sticky, but don't expect that to stop the noobs from asking before reading.
I see that some of the other Galaxy phones here on xda have a Q&A in addition to a general section. General is used for general discussion and Q&A is for all questions. It seems like it would be more obvious for noobs to wander into the Q&A section to ask questions and hopefully save the mods some effort while also cleaning up our little corner of this website.
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Exactly my point. Also, as someone mentioned...the cycle of useless questions that cant be prevented will at least be quarantined.
Hi all,
Since January, I am a regular reader of xda-forum galaxy s and its subforums. First of all I want to thank you all for your great work. It helped me a lot.
I would appreciate though if the forums could be more fine-grained like for example that in the section "Questions & Answers" there would be subfolders for "kernels", "roms" etc., and that related threads could be found in there and only there. I also suggest to do this for every section of the galaxy s forum. I think this would give the forums a little bit more structure and newbies would not get clobbered over the head with tons of threads. I know that people should search the forums with their specific questions, but it would be easier to begin with xda and maybe this would even curtail the flood of posts. By the way, this holds also for the other device specific forums
Thanks.
zimbardo.ea said:
Hi all,
Since January, I am a regular reader of xda-forum galaxy s and its subforums. First of all I want to thank you all for your great work. It helped me a lot.
I would appreciate though if the forums could be more fine-grained like for example that in the section "Questions & Answers" there would be subfolders for "kernels", "roms" etc., and that related threads could be found in there and only there. I also suggest to do this for every section of the galaxy s forum. I think this would give the forums a little bit more structure and newbies would not get clobbered over the head with tons of threads. I know that people should search the forums with their specific questions, but it would be easier to begin with xda and maybe this would even curtail the flood of posts. By the way, this holds also for the other device specific forums
Thanks.
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The trouble with this is that huge numbers more forums just give us WAY more to move around.
The trouble is that people who are unsure just post everywhere instead of posting once somewhere wrong
Adding the forums causes a huge strain on every page load as well, and vBulletin doesn't cope too well with large numbers of nested forums IIRC
Pitty, but thanks for your reply anyway
Hi all,
I've searched xda and others, and can't confirm whether or not this ROM was ever completed for the Dinc.... anyone got any info on this?
Codename Android
Noob, out.
AFAIK, it never was. No version could ever boot. Even if it ever did, this was a pre-HWA ROM.
Noob better read forum rules before posting
Questions go in Q&A
Developers post threads in Development
Thread moved!
FNM
kennyglass123 said:
Noob better read forum rules before posting
Questions go in Q&A
Developers post threads in Development
Thread moved!
FNM
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Okay, I've read the forum rules, but I need your help.
1. Show me where this is written: "Noob better read forum rules before posting"
2. Show me where this is written: "Questions go in Q&A"
3. Show me where this is written: "Developers post threads in Development"
If you can't provide proof that these three rules exist, out of the very forum rules you expect me to read, should you even be a moderator?
I find questions being asked in all the forums, under all areas. I asked a specific question about a specific ROM that's been in development, that I knew would get answered by the folks who would know best: devs. Therefore, I posted it in Development.
m1tommy said:
Okay, I've read the forum rules, but I need your help.
1. Show me where this is written: "Noob better read forum rules before posting"
2. Show me where this is written: "Questions go in Q&A"
3. Show me where this is written: "Developers post threads in Development"
If you can't provide proof that these three rules exist, out of the very forum rules you expect me to read, should you even be a moderator?
I find questions being asked in all the forums, under all areas. I asked a specific question about a specific ROM that's been in development, that I knew would get answered by the folks who would know best: devs. Therefore, I posted it in Development.
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Are you kidding? All of those rules are common sense.
EDIT: You should watch this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmvCpR45LKA&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Sent from my Nexus 7 using XDA Premium HD app
Albinoman said:
Are you kidding? All of those rules are common sense.
EDIT: You should watch this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmvCpR45LKA&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Sent from my Nexus 7 using XDA Premium HD app
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No, they're not common sense, if they were, there wouldn't have been a need to post them.
I'm relatively new to rooting & development, and still learning. But you are moderators, and you have the opportunity to teach & encourage others. But when you forget that Golden Rule of Basic Internet For Grown Ups called "Don't Be An A-hole", you'll blow those opportunities, piss people off and drive them away.
This book may help you: http://www.amazon.com/The-Asshole-Rule-Civilized-Workplace/dp/0446526568
m1tommy said:
No, they're not common sense, if they were, there wouldn't have been a need to post them.
I'm relatively new to rooting & development, and still learning. But you are moderators, and you have the opportunity to teach & encourage others. But when you forget that Golden Rule of Basic Internet For Grown Ups called "Don't Be An A-hole", you'll blow those opportunities, piss people off and drive them away.
This book may help you: http://www.amazon.com/The-Asshole-Rule-Civilized-Workplace/dp/0446526568
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Yes they are...the development section is for development of roms and mods. Your thread is a question so it goes in the Q & A section.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using XDA Premium HD app
m1tommy said:
No, they're not common sense, if they were, there wouldn't have been a need to post them.
I'm relatively new to rooting & development, and still learning. But you are moderators, and you have the opportunity to teach & encourage others. But when you forget that Golden Rule of Basic Internet For Grown Ups called "Don't Be An A-hole", you'll blow those opportunities, piss people off and drive them away.
This book may help you: http://www.amazon.com/The-Asshole-Rule-Civilized-Workplace/dp/0446526568
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Click to collapse
Ok, since you can't be bothered to look at a sticky in the development section, here you go: READ BEFORE STARTING NEW THREAD! This is DEVELOPMENT section not Q&A/General!!!! <<<<
And I'm sorry, it IS common sense. Have a Question? Post in Q&A (aka Question and Answers). How about a nifty new ROM I'm developing? Sounds like a good place to go is development. I really don't know how to break it down further, honestly. For the record, I'm not trying to be an "A-hole," but you are pushing the limits of common sense.
Now, I gave you the link, so please read it, or have an adult read it for you since you missed it the first time, despite it being a sticky (thus being at the top of the sub-forum). Better yet, read it twice so it all sinks in.
Edit: Read this, too. It's linked in that thread I gave you, but I don't trust you to find it. The True PURPOSE of XDA....Nailed it too the T:
If you read anything on these forums, read this post