Develop Bugs

Discussion: Important XDA Announcement Regarding New Users

This is for discussion about the recent news that we'll soon be disallowing posts to development forums for new users with 10 posts or less in an attempt to cut down on junk posts.

I believe is a good new way of lowering down the crap-posts
What else a normal member can do to help?
- Report any problematic post by using the "report" button
- Help to improve and maintain a friendly ambiance
Thanks!

>25 would be better.

It sounds very very good. I'd like to suggest a little thing:
is it possible to ban thread with "HELP me please" title?
This type of title is common and doesn't help to focus the problem.

Sorry but I think is not a good move.
I am massively effected by this move. My only posts and reads are in the development forums because I installed a "custom rom" the moment I purchased my new phone. There is no posting from me in the "other" forums.
How can I answer the maker of the custom rom?
Should i spam 10 meaningless posts in other forums just to get my right?
The term "development" in XDA is funny anyway because these forums have very little todo with development but with installing custom roms and other patches. They are not discussing "development" stuff in these forums.
Anyhow I would suggest to:
1. Have grace period of at least 1 day between registration and posting.
2. Have REAL development forums and separate ones for "custom kernels/roms" for the maker and their users.
Best Regards,
Daniel

spock2097 said:
Sorry but I think is not a good move.
I am massively effected by this move. My only posts and reads are in the development forums because I installed a "custom rom" the moment I purchased my new phone. There is no posting from me in the "other" forums.
How can I answer the maker of the custom rom?
Should i spam 10 meaningless posts in other forums just to get my right?
The term "development" in XDA is funny anyway because these forums have very little todo with development but with installing custom roms and other patches. They are not discussing "development" stuff in these forums.
Anyhow I would suggest to:
1. Have grace period of at least 1 day between registration and posting.
2. Have REAL development forums and separate ones for "custom kernels/roms" for the maker and their users.
Best Regards,
Daniel
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Daniel, I totally agree with you. These are very valid points. Many people lurk here, mainly because they don't want to look stupid when they ask questions - and then, when they get serious after gaining knowledge here, they try something and they can't post? That isn't right.
The biggest issue here at XDA is what I mentioned above - people are hesitant to post because of the reaction they frequently get - on the flip side, those that do post in the proper areas for questions and answers are lucky if they get answers sometimes, I've had questions go unanswered, when I posted in what I thought was the proper forum (never in the ROM development forums). So what I think you really need to do is to come up with a good support forum for custom ROMs, and have knowledgable people read and help out in there - no matter how 'dumb' the question is in their eyes. From my experience, the only 'dumb' question is the one you don't ask. Will that 'cut down' on the 'dumb' questions? Yes, in the ROM development forums it will - only if they're answered elsewhere, however.
You have to remember, Android doesn't come naturally to everyone, some come from other 'worlds' where they know what they're doing, then they're tossed into the thick of it when they try to make the switch (been there, done that). Are there people who really shouldn't be messing with their phones? Of course there are. Is it XDA's job to let them know they're too dumb to be messing? Or is it a better plan to help those people learn? I've always found the latter to be a better plan.

spock2097 said:
Sorry but I think is not a good move.
I am massively effected by this move. My only posts and reads are in the development forums because I installed a "custom rom" the moment I purchased my new phone. There is no posting from me in the "other" forums.
How can I answer the maker of the custom rom?
Should i spam 10 meaningless posts in other forums just to get my right?
The term "development" in XDA is funny anyway because these forums have very little todo with development but with installing custom roms and other patches. They are not discussing "development" stuff in these forums.
Anyhow I would suggest to:
1. Have grace period of at least 1 day between registration and posting.
2. Have REAL development forums and separate ones for "custom kernels/roms" for the maker and their users.
Best Regards,
Daniel
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, that is kind of the idea. If you have questions or are not sure about something, you are supposed to try and find the answers by using the search engine. If you must ask questions, most device forums have a Q&A section where you can post. Keep in mind that the announcement says that you will still be able to read, just not post.
As for the "no real development" comment... these forums are not just guides to teach others how to flash custom stuff. It is called development because the roms, kernels, themes, apps don't just magically appear from thin air. There is a lot of work done to get a custom rom to even boot in a device (let alone get it to work properly). You need to tweak drivers, apps, test, test, and test some more before you can even consider releasing something. And don't even get me started in porting and kernel development.
The reason why you don't see the discussions about development is because they are heavily diluted by posts not related to the devving process (which include questions in the wrong place, flaming, thank you posts etc). Hence, the reason for this move. This is to ensure that the development sections stay that way.... as development.

All I can say is about friken time! I have been discussing this rule with a number of mods for a long long time now and frankly I still think 10 is too low, but its a great start and should cut a lot of the rubbish or at least make some people think twice about where they are posting their questions.

spock2097 said:
Sorry but I think is not a good move.
I am massively effected by this move. My only posts and reads are in the development forums because I installed a "custom rom" the moment I purchased my new phone. There is no posting from me in the "other" forums.
How can I answer the maker of the custom rom?
Should i spam 10 meaningless posts in other forums just to get my right?
The term "development" in XDA is funny anyway because these forums have very little todo with development but with installing custom roms and other patches. They are not discussing "development" stuff in these forums.
Anyhow I would suggest to:
1. Have grace period of at least 1 day between registration and posting.
2. Have REAL development forums and separate ones for "custom kernels/roms" for the maker and their users.
Best Regards,
Daniel
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree with spock ("Live long and prosper"). For newbies, which I may still be considered, searching the forums is daunting. For example, I have an HD2. I was running Android off of SD for a few months, then just last week took the plunge to NAND. You guys are really making progress on cleaning up the forum structure, because at least now in the HD2 section there are different "development" sections for NAND and SD, etc. BUT, when you are searching for the perfect ROM, it is very confusing with all of the codes in the ROM names. It took me 5 different tries between NAND roms and CWR roms (using clockwork recovery, I'm not THAT DUMB) to finally get one to boot up. I was sweating for a bit!!!
Plus, when you use the search function in the forums, the results very rarely seem to match my search. I understand the experts' frustrations when a newb asks a question or needs help with something that's already been covered, but I have searched numerous times looking for help with bluetooth on a rom, or music skipping, or whatever. Sometimes, I'll take 45 minutes reading through the search results and will realize that none of them are even touching on the subject I was searching for.
Don't get me wrong, I am extremely grateful for all that the XDA team does. I visit this site daily, and follow the news with RSS on the Google Reader. I love it. But, since you're asking for suggestions, there you are.
;-)

It's a shame that you guys need to enforce this kind of rule but we really do need something to keep this forum in control.
Good job.

As i am mech engg and i dont about Rom and other things so i have to post stupid posts
and also some stupid post might help someone
if you can help "If some dev posts some information make sure that he posts his post well informed. by this unnecessary posts can be avoided"

Fair play on attempting something. This is one of a few large community sites I frequent and they all suffer from the problems you describe. Unfortunately no-one has the answer and it is a case of trail and error to find what works.

egzthunder1 said:
The reason why you don't see the discussions about development is because they are heavily diluted by posts not related to the devving process (which include questions in the wrong place, flaming, thank you posts etc). Hence, the reason for this move. This is to ensure that the development sections stay that way.... as development.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
See, I didn't even know that. I think this is a smart move, since it will all but force n00bs like myself to direct their comments to the appropriate forum. In terms of other recommendations, I would say having a ROM support forum, as somebody else mentioned would be a good idea.

egzthunder1 said:
Well, that is kind of the idea. If you have questions or are not sure about something, you are supposed to try and find the answers by using the search engine. If you must ask questions, most device forums have a Q&A section where you can post. Keep in mind that the announcement says that you will still be able to read, just not post.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Post<>opening a new thread.
Let me phrase this:
1. I have been reading the forum for 1-2 weeks.
2. Then I couldn't find the answer and I have opened an account.
3. I want to post a question to the maker of the custom rom.
4. I can't do this!
5. I will post 10 idiotic comments somewhere else to get my right.
Is this what you want? I (you can see all my posts) have never spammed or asked stupid stuff anywhere but a number of posts should be a sign of my maturity? Posting 10 Post gives you little to no sign if the user has and knows how to use search and stay still untill he has read at least 1000 posts!
This is what you should be aiming for.
Just because you can't measure it better doesn't make it valid. It is like giving you no mortgage loan because in your neighbourhood there were 5% not paying it back in time.
egzthunder1 said:
As for the "no real development" comment... these forums are not just guides to teach others how to flash custom stuff. It is called development because the roms, kernels, themes, apps don't just magically appear from thin air. There is a lot of work done to get a custom rom to even boot in a device (let alone get it to work properly). You need to tweak drivers, apps, test, test, and test some more before you can even consider releasing something. And don't even get me started in porting and kernel development.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What does this have to do with my remarks concerning the XDA developer forums?
I do agree with everything you said but "testing" especially means getting feedback from users that can't tell you anymore if "it worked".
egzthunder1 said:
The reason why you don't see the discussions about development is because they are heavily diluted by posts not related to the devving process (which include questions in the wrong place, flaming, thank you posts etc). Hence, the reason for this move. This is to ensure that the development sections stay that way.... as development.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Then make inexperienced users stop "opening new threads" instead of "posting answers/making remarks to current threads".

Naren Raj said:
As i am mech engg and i dont about Rom and other things so i have to post stupid posts
and also some stupid post might help someone
if you can help "If some dev posts some information make sure that he posts his post well informed. by this unnecessary posts can be avoided"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Here is the thing, and probably where lots of people are missing the point here. It isn't a matter of stupid posts. It is a matter of stupid posts in the wrong places. No one is telling you that you cannot ask for help. What we are saying is that, if all search efforts fail, please post in the right place....

seroaddict said:
See, I didn't even know that. I think this is a smart move, since it will all but force n00bs like myself to direct their comments to the appropriate forum. In terms of other recommendations, I would say having a ROM support forum, as somebody else mentioned would be a good idea.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well...
My advice to all ROM devs would be to make their own thread in Q&A or general, called [SUPPORT] ROM NAME HERE Support Thread - Latest Version 1.2.3
In there, all users could post, regardless of number of posts. The first post would link to the main ROM, and perhaps contain a FAQ.
In the ROM release in development, have a large link to the Q&A thread at the start and end of the post. That way, those reporting bugs and helping with patches/fixes can post in the development thread, and those needing help can post in the Q&A thread.
Just encourage devs to do something like this

One of the things XDA added recently to cut down on posts was a "Thank You" button. It's a great idea! Where the heck is it? I would love to thank the devs that help me out with my HD2, but I CANT FIND THE BUTTON!
Can somebody draw me a picture or something?

I mean something has to be done. But being new to all this rooting, S-OFF etc kind of thing I do consider myself at least somewhat of a greenhorn . I do however try to keep my questions relevant to the topic and try finding the proper topic before placing a question.
But I am also struggling with actually get a proper answer, or an answer at all to some of my questions, making it hard for a new guy (or girl) to transend from being a greenie to actually become more and more knowledgeable over time. I mean if people dont share their knowledge and or their solutions then how are we all to benifit from them.
I do however admit that some form of moderation needs to find place, considering that some of the guides are actually more or less straight forward and quite frankly. If people can't follow a single straight forward guide then perhaps rooting, modding etc is not for them

thefinancemaster said:
One of the things XDA added recently to cut down on posts was a "Thank You" button. It's a great idea! Where the heck is it? I would love to thank the devs that help me out with my HD2, but I CANT FIND THE BUTTON!
Can somebody draw me a picture or something?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It appears to the left of the Quote button.
But IIRC it appears only after 5 posts, as we would have issues with new accounts being made solely to thank their "owner".
You're not far off the thanks button appearing.
I would screenie it, but there's little point. It's to the left of "Edit" for me ("Quote" for you I think as you won't see edit buttons everywhere)

This is your site and your rules. The only question is, that a person like me who has been a member for a short time, but been runing modded rom's for about 5 months (thanks to this site) can't post a question if I did have one. This is my second post, and the first one was to answer a question, I have found everything I needed and every question I had answered by way of reading posts. But if I do have a question I can't ask it because I have not posted alot of BS to get my post count up.

[REQUEST More fine-grainded structure for forums and subforums

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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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

I used XDA for all my Android needs in the past...

Now that I have a Galaxy Nexus and I'm looking threw to see what's out there to flash. I get to my favorite community here and find out that for whatever reason GSM and LTE models are mixed together in one big cluster f**k that can potentially brick my phone if I don't read the fine print. This is insanely dumb, it poses a potential risk for me even tho I feel I'm a seasoned veteran of the Android flashing community, and to anyone that is completely new to this and doesn't understand the subtle differences of CDMA and GSM. So here I am typing this out trying my damnedest to wrap my mind around WHY XDA DOESN'T CREATE SUB FORUMS FOR EACH TYPE. A lot of other sites do, and it makes the search 1000000x easier to navigate.
So please could some moderator explain to me the reasoning behind having one giant pool of ROMS and mods that are completely different from one another? Is it really that hard to create a sub forum to take you to either the CDMA or GSM version?
I'd like to get some feed back here or am I the only one that is slightly frustrated about this? I mean its completely unorganized and the whole forum just feels really sloppy already.

You're not the first to mention this and, if you searched (cause you're a vet with 47 posts), you'd know the Mods are looking into it
But in essence I agree, or you just hope the threads are labelled correctly (LTE/GSM)

Dude if you used XDA as much as you say you do then you would have done a search on this topic and realized that there are already 2 threads in the last week on this subject.
Mods can we please merge all "Separate GSM/LTE forums" posts.

yeah I did try searching for it, thanks for the most obvious response
but ya know what its hard to find something when I don't know what to call it....
you'll notice that I never used the word separate which is the key word I was missing
so thanks for the ****-ish way you gave me that info it was slightly helpful i guess...

Just for the record I agree with the op. However I'm not too worried about it. This site has given me so much and asked for very little in return. I'm just greatful to have access to all this great info.

robby88 said:
yeah I did try searching for it, thanks for the most obvious response
but ya know what its hard to find something when I don't know what to call it....
you'll notice that I never used the word separate which is the key word I was missing
so thanks for the ****-ish way you gave me that info it was slightly helpful i guess...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Some veteran. You really can't just look at the title of the thread to see if it says "LTE" or not? The only important threads that should be looked through are on the first two or three pages. Not that hard.
If you seriously brick your phone because you can't figure out whether something is LTE or GSM, you are a bit slow IMO. So far we only have one page of relevant ROMS and mods in dev section and you're already complaining about having trouble finding things when search isn't even necessary. Come on...
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA App

It's because this site is a joke. There are so many things wrong with the way XDA structures and manages these forums. Look at rootzwiki...or even droid forums. The mods actually do their jobs there and make it EASIER for devs to post their work and manage their users problems by preventing/deleting/combining duplicate threads. Both of those forums even provide sub-forums for popular devs to let them manage it as well. And a simple thing like separating the LTE and GSM versions into their own forum was a non-issue at rootzwiki...yet here at XDA it seems we're asking the admins to split the atom.
That's why devs are/have moved to rootzwiki to post their work. Sure they'll copy and paste their topics over here eventually, but the difference is that if you want your post to be read by someone at the developer level, you're probably at the wrong forum. You should have seen the XDA droid bionic forums before everyone packed up and went onto rootz...LOL, it was like the wild west.

mb02 said:
Some veteran. You really can't just look at the title of the thread to see if it says "LTE" or not? The only important threads that should be looked through are on the first two or three pages. Not that hard.
If you seriously brick your phone because you can't figure out whether something is LTE or GSM, you are a bit slow IMO. So far we only have one page of relevant ROMS and mods in dev section and you're already complaining about having trouble finding things when search isn't even necessary. Come on...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I wasn't talking about myself jackass, there are tons of people out there that have never flashed a phone before and not knowing the difference between GSM and CDMA can be a confusing concept for most. So thanks for trying to make me out to be the jackass when you've accomplished that all on your own.
I'm not having trouble finding anything considering there are only 2-3 ROMs for LTE, but in a month there's going to be 50 pages of crap to sift threw. So that's the problem I see, and the fact that if it was just broken down in to 2 different sub forums from the start would of been something very simple and I just don't see why it wasn't/hasn't been done.

quentin0 said:
It's because this site is a joke. There are so many things wrong with the way XDA structures and manages these forums. Look at rootzwiki...or even droid forums. The mods actually do their jobs there and make it EASIER for devs to post their work and manage their users problems by preventing/deleting/combining duplicate threads. Both of those forums even provide sub-forums for popular devs to let them manage it as well. And a simple thing like separating the LTE and GSM versions into their own forum was a non-issue at rootzwiki...yet here at XDA it seems we're asking the admins to split the atom.
That's why devs are/have moved to rootzwiki to post their work. Sure they'll copy and paste their topics over here eventually, but the difference is that if you want your post to be read by someone at the developer level, you're probably at the wrong forum. You should have seen the XDA droid bionic forums before everyone packed up and went onto rootz...LOL, it was like the wild west.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It may be disorganized and full of duplicate threads, but it is an excellent resource. I have been here since Windows mobile 6, The G1, and a whole slew in android phones... and it is the same story. The devs move to some other site. You get a new phone and everyone comes back to XDA. If more people kept their mouth shut the site would be easier to navigate. I could care less, as I mostly lurk and find what I am looking for. No need to comment in every thread, because it probably wouldn't contribute much.
XDA is a great resource, if you don't like it go to another site and browse their forums.

axion68 said:
It may be disorganized and full of duplicate threads, but it is an excellent resource. I have been here since Windows mobile 6, The G1, and a whole slew in android phones... and it is the same story. The devs move to some other site. You get a new phone and everyone comes back to XDA. If more people kept their mouth shut the site would be easier to navigate. I could care less, as I mostly lurk and find what I am looking for. No need to comment in every thread, because it probably wouldn't contribute much.
XDA is a great resource, if you don't like it go to another site and browse their forums.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I completely agree, I started flashing my first droid and found everything I needed right here with super helpful devs and a mostly wonderful community that would aid you. I personally don't care what gets posted in General though. I think only dev's should be able to post in the development forum to keep things to a minimum, but if a topic needs to be brought up multiple times to get it done then so be it. That's how things get done if a topic is shoved back into the darkness then it needs to be brought to light over and over til something gets done.

I agree totally, I started using rootz instead because they seperated the 2 devices. Also it should be GSM or CDMA. LTE is GSM. Lots of confusion can happen here.

[Administrator Request] Enable Wiki Posts w/in threads

I've been a member for over a year and been fairly active in the Epic 4G forum.
It has been my experience that a myriad of questions are constantly re-asked & re-answered by ROM devs and other little elves b/c people are too lazy to search/read-back the threads, or are simply too daunted by 10's & 100's of pages of posts.
This has become a problem to the point where on a couple different occassions we created off-site Wikis just to help redirect people to answers to common problems. The problem with this is people have to be told each time..."Go to the Wiki [here]". It would be grand if you would enable Wiki-posts. It would allow each thread to have its own little ecosystem so that Devs wouldn't have to micro-manage & update OP with Q&A on every little bug, the little guys could keep it up to snuff. It's a great way to crowd-source troubleshooting. I've seen it successfully done on a number of threads.
What's more, I believe the OP can disable it if he prefers not to have one.
Thanks for listening!

.
Thread moved. Would advise you to read forum rules and post in correct section.

Xda has a WIKI for all devices granted some pages need updating so i doubt the Admin will enable wiki in posts

lufc said:
Xda has a WIKI for all devices granted some pages need updating so i doubt the Admin will enable wiki in posts
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Very aware of the XDA Wiki, in fact, we are using it at the moment (albeit it, somewhat unsuccessfully).
One advantage of in-thread Wiki is that it's all right there, right below the OP, right after all the other instructions. EVERYONE sees it, instead of a link to another page.
Another advantage is that it's generally easier for people to edit the in-thread wiki posts than an actual Wiki-page (I know neither is difficult, but this comes from my experience helping to maintain a ROM-devoted Wiki).
As far as the drawbacks of in-thread Wikis, perhaps spam, or it being forced after the initial Post?
I'd like to throw the idea around. I know it would help troubleshooting/Q&A in the forums I participate in, thought I'd throw it out there in case others would be interested.
Thanks!
P.S. Thanks for moving my thread (and shame on my for not reading the forum descriptions more closely)

I second this. It's borderline vital in long development threads. The off thread wiki doesn't do a whole lot of good if the link to that wiki needs to be hunted for, same as everything else.

Too bad the wiki doesn't even work on my computer...I think it's something with my wifi but idk.

Years on and this is still something I wish we had on this forum. In thread wikis are essential, especially on a website as big as this with threads that run for hundreds of pages. When you come to a thread months or years after it started, the OP is often irrelevant, and the links broken. It's not reasonable to expect someone to read hundreds of pages in a forum thread to find out what the current situation is.
So people ask the same questions, over and over. Eventually people get annoyed and stop answering, and just say the ever unhelpful "go read". I'm always willing to read and learn. But wading though tons of outdated data doesn't have to be a necessity. A simple thread wiki post would make this so much easier. If you're not familiar with the concept SlickDeals.net has one (it's available to every thread but not always used). A deal is posted, people chime on on how to improve the deal. The thread may go one for a few pages, but the wiki means you can get all the relevant info in one place. The info from the OP can change, the OP doesn't have to answer basic questions over and over, or any questions. Another person can take over the thread and keep it relevant.
I checked out this wiki https://forum.xda-developers.com/wiki/Samsung but it's not updated. So why not a wiki post, it's right where people are looking for the info, so more likely to remain relevant and updated.
Years on from this OP and still no in-thread wiki post? Any reason why?
I'm a PHP developer, and have been for more than a decade, if any techs want to talk more about this, I'd be happy to chat.

My favorite is when people start belly aching and go on a tirade if a newcomer hasny read the entire thread. 1/4 of which is people asking for ETAs, and the other 1/4, people getting pissed at people asking for ETAs. Like they are getting brownie points from the Dev or something X^D
I have wasted so many people's time because I've had to ask questions that have been covered a billion times. I've also had tips/tricks get buried and never come to light again which is a shame.
XDA is all about development and progression, and yet the absence of a wiki post prevents a lot of knowledge from being readily available and wastes Devs time.
Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

Threads with many hundreds of posts are crazy-making!

Often a single thread will wind up having many hundreds, even thousands, of posts. In most cases, one would have to be a masochist to read them all, but, unless one can come up with good search terms to find posts relevant to a particular aspect of the thread topic, one is likely to miss significant, even crucial, information.
It seems that, in many contexts, starting new threads is frowned upon here, and users are encouraged to add new topics to existing threads. An extreme example is the thread:
Barnes & Noble Nook Color > Nook Color Android Development > Development Q&A - Ask Developmental Questions Here!
Mikey starts the thread with the message:
If you have any questions that may be development related please post them in here instead of making a new thread. Hopefully others will try to answer your question to the best of your abilities. Plus it saves me from moving a few hundred threads a day
Thanks!​
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To me this makes no sense. Wouldn't it be better to have a sub-forum for such questions, so that users who have a question, perhaps even one not clearly formulated in their mind, could see what questions have been posted and possibly answered already? (Parenthetically, I would like to know how to distinguish "Developmental Questions" from other technical questions.)
Also, I think a lot more use should be made of the Wiki. For example, wouldn't it be useful to have a Wiki page for each ROM or closely-related set of ROMs for each device or set of devices that said ROMs have been developed for? Couldn't any guide that will inevitable require updating in response to developments and user questions be better done as a wiki page? (I would allow for the possibility that changes in the page might require the approval of the author of the guide.)
Am I banging my head against a wall here?

There is a lot of good info in the threads. But you expect devs to keep things up to date in one location? Some of them do and do a really good job at it. But most don't. Hell 95% of the time they don't even have a description of what the benefits of buying their paid apps over the free version are in the market. They don't put forth the effort when they are trying to get you to spend money, why would they do it in the forums. [/rant]
Sorry guys, just sick of the lack of descriptions/features the market.

aarons510 said:
Often a single thread will wind up having many hundreds, even thousands, of posts. In most cases, one would have to be a masochist to read them all, but, unless one can come up with good search terms to find posts relevant to a particular aspect of the thread topic, one is likely to miss significant, even crucial, information.
It seems that, in many contexts, starting new threads is frowned upon here, and users are encouraged to add new topics to existing threads. An extreme example is the thread:
Barnes & Noble Nook Color > Nook Color Android Development > Development Q&A - Ask Developmental Questions Here!
Mikey starts the thread with the message:
To me this makes no sense. Wouldn't it be better to have a sub-forum for such questions, so that users who have a question, perhaps even one not clearly formulated in their mind, could see what questions have been posted and possibly answered already? (Parenthetically, I would like to know how to distinguish "Developmental Questions" from other technical questions.)
Also, I think a lot more use should be made of the Wiki. For example, wouldn't it be useful to have a Wiki page for each ROM or closely-related set of ROMs for each device or set of devices that said ROMs have been developed for? Couldn't any guide that will inevitable require updating in response to developments and user questions be better done as a wiki page? (I would allow for the possibility that changes in the page might require the approval of the author of the guide.)
Am I banging my head against a wall here?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Once a Device forum reaches a certain amount of posts, a new sub-section for "Q&A" gets added to the device forum. In the meantime, we use a specific thread for questions regarding development. This makes it easier for devs to read through there threads and pull out issues and come up with better products. You as a user are assumed to have the basic knowledge to search for your answer before posting questions. If you still can not come up with an answer, then by all means, post your question in the "General" sub-forum.
Also, can you tell me what being a masochist has to do with anything?