Related
Not only is development and hacking clogged up by numerous threads all just regarding themes and theme issues but so are all the sub forums. So why not have a specific section just for themes? I think that this would tidy up the entire site, for example tf3d themes are now spread across quite a few forums and there are loads of wallpaper threads in every forum, development and hacking is starting to fill up with titanium themes.
So my idea is to have a new section....Themes and UIs ....everything together, multi device.
What do you think?
Not sure if im blind or just missed it...but you didnt explain where you wanted it. Im thinking your talking about the dream forum b/c I am in there a lot, but I read it and said nah b/c there is a theme forum. You have to specify where if you want some assistance .
Thanks for the reply I actually meant an entire new forum devoted to themes and UIs for any device in the main section right here at the top.
Any Mods got an opinion?...bump....this has to be the quietest place on xda devs.
You might want to consider reposting in this thread.
I agree with the skins theme forum, well, maybe not completely. A sub forum should be more than enough, not a full section dedicated to skins.
Also, what exactly do you mean by UI? If you are talking about things like M2D, PointUI, IFonz, etc... those things really are part of Dev and Hacking (more D than H), but they should be there simply because they are being developed/ported/made by other site members who rely on the feedback, knowledge, and expertise of other developers to debug and complete their apps.
Just my two cents.
I agree completely. Would help the site and the user. Users would be able to find themes more easily.
egzthunder1 said:
I agree with the skins theme forum, well, maybe not completely. A sub forum should be more than enough, not a full section dedicated to skins.
Also, what exactly do you mean by UI? If you are talking about things like M2D, PointUI, IFonz, etc... those things really are part of Dev and Hacking (more D than H), but they should be there simply because they are being developed/ported/made by other site members who rely on the feedback, knowledge, and expertise of other developers to debug and complete their apps.
Just my two cents.
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Yes UI=User Interface, I know what you mean, developement does belong in D&H but it is overflowing with UI stuff at the moment, stuff like M2D would still get developed and supported, just somewhere else. I think it would be one of the busiest forums on the site and that a new forum would unburden Dev and Hacking leaving it free for all other development.
With a dedicated themes section it would be great to have a few things like a dedicated photoshop tips and questions thread and a place where people could share all their custom graphics and knowledge in one place.
Well, not a lot of votes, but there does seem to be a bit of a swing.
Please if you do view this thread you might as well vote, it does not take very long.
Vote added...nice thread.
+1. Perhaps a sub-forum of Dev & Hacking would be nice, instead of a seperate section itself.
I think it is a good idea
that will save time and keep out the interruption thread what take our attention if we are searching for themes and UIs only
Makes the site more arranged
you have my voice
Connect the Devs
Thanks to everyone who has voted so far.
Another point that occurred to me which I have not put too clearly to date, is that not only would all the themes be in one place, but so would all the theme developers! Which to me seems possibly like the biggest advantage of all, to help connect all the theme developers from across all the boards, now that would be good to do.
good idea...clearly people like this and it should be implemented into the website
now we should vote on where in the forums it should be.
New section or under dev/hacks or somethin?
vote added.. separate section would clear up Themes/Skin Developments frm Software Developments and make navigation easy!
Good idea !!! I'm for it.
Windows Phone 6.5
Windows Phone 6.5 themes are where it's at now; are you planning on heading that direction?
@ Black C5, yes definitely wm 6.5 themes are huge in development and hacking right now. If I had my way there would be a sub section of the Themes and UI's section dedicated to WM 6.5 themes with a big sticky near the top linking to all available widgets and add ons etc. I think that dev and hacking is the right place for widgets since they fall into the catagory of software development but themes don't, if it's mainly graphical it should be in the hypothetical themes and ui's section.
What next?
So how many votes are needed to make this happen? and how do I/we go about making it happen?
uniqueboy said:
So how many votes are needed to make this happen? and how do I/we go about making it happen?
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Well To put it bluntly, This isn't a democracy so there is no magic number of votes that will make this happen.
this may happen if and only if the Admins decide that they want to do so.
However that's not to say this is of no use, the admins like to give the people what they want. But don't think that they will automatically create this section just because you got x amount of votes.
When the time is right, and they decide, then it will happen.
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.
A very good morning to all admins and mods!
As new ROMs and builds of Android for HD2 keep popping up, I think there is a need for a subforum for Android ROMs within Android for HD2 section so as to not mix all general threads with the ROM threads.
thanks for reading!
Perhaps Android HD2 Q&A and HD2 Android Roms within the main hd2 section?
Sounds ok tbh - but then what about winmo roms (that often come with someone else's android) designed to solely run android versus android builds? where do you draw the line?
The winmo ROMs should stay in the winmo ROM thread logically IMHO.
Sent from my HTC HD2 using XDA App
Yeah, but if you see some rom makers - like Energy and Chucky I think have posted 'android focused' Roms in the android section
so it has got a bit confusing tbh.
chvvkumar said:
A very good morning to all admins and mods!
As new ROMs and builds of Android for HD2 keep popping up, I think there is a need for a subforum for Android ROMs within Android for HD2 section so as to not mix all general threads with the ROM threads.
thanks for reading!
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Hopefully with the markers, the forum can stay organized. If there's a specific thread that needs to be moved/deleted/better organized, feel free to ping me or another moderator.
i posted this but i wanted it to be more visable
I would like to suggest not just a Q&A thread but a subsection dedicated to this.
The reason why is because to many random questions that have been answered before I being posted in the main section. I value all the members that we have but id like to see the forum's being used more productively.
I noticed in the Q&A thread a lot of peoples questions had been skipped over. I believe this is do to the number of post that get added to this thread at any one time.
I think that if we had a sub-section just for questions less flaming would go on. Also there wouldnt be a need for double post as these topics would have their own thread. I believe it would make the mods life easier to control all the unneed post without having to drop the ban hammer.
also there is a lot of information in the other threads that are about android. I think that needs to be highlighted so that the dev's dont have to deal with the I'm knew to android questions.
I have put a lot of thought into this and I would just like for us to get along.
mskip or joshkoss or dharvey would you please consider this Idea.
If anyone else supports this idea please say so. I did not give this post its own thread because I felt I would be adding to the problems of random uneeded threads. I also tried not to call anyone out so please dont be offended.
I like the idea. Let us see if anyone else like it too.
Sent from my HTC HD2 using XDA App
idea
The logic in this idea is sound.
Can't argue
//sent from my froyo hd2
At least one post in 90% of threads here have a question in them, so why aren't they all moved to the Q And A threads? Forums are discussions of opinions and questions for each other to talk about.
If one thread is going to be moved that (imo) is not a question, then why aren't all the others? tbh, it annoys me, and i think the moderation here is a little too heavy handed.
Agreed... and to add another question why do some devices have a Q&A sub-section and some not? Seems inconsistent. Anyway the forums are hard to navigate anyway (too many sub-sections, outdated stickies, too many "READ THIS BEFORE YOU POST"-threads etc..). I guess at least the Q&A part could be merged with 'General' of every forum. Also Accessoires & Wallpapers/Themes get an extra sub-section? I'd lump everything together and make just two per device (General/Dev).
Oh and don't take this as "This is how you run a forum " - just my humble opinion
Ok. When a device general forum gets over 10,000 posts, or 1000 threads, it gets a Q&A section.
General vs dev only would result in even more junk in both to be fair...
I reckon at present there is a good balance as almost everything is consistent across the site. Go to HTC G1. It has, by and large, the same layout as all other sections.regarding outdated stickies, contact the mod for the relevant section by pm and point it out.
Regarding questions being moved, we can only move what we know about or see... So drop the mod for the section a PM with the threads.
MarkusPO said:
At least one post in 90% of threads here have a question in them, so why aren't they all moved to the Q And A threads? Forums are discussions of opinions and questions for each other to talk about.
If one thread is going to be moved that (imo) is not a question, then why aren't all the others? tbh, it annoys me, and i think the moderation here is a little too heavy handed.
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Heavy handed? Howso??? Feel free to PM if you want.
Typically, the original post in a thread defines the rest of the thread. If it is a question, then evidently the correct place is Q&A. I don't really see any way to argue with that to be fair.
Regarding a question that emerges later on in a thread, perhaps a move is not needed. For example, are you suggesting a ROM thread should be moved because someone asked a question?
As before, the reason some things get moved and others don't is because we are not aware of them. The report post feature, and pm to the section mod, are both essential in letting us know what is going on.
Finally, XDA is a development site first and foremost, so keeping questions clear of development areas is a pretty high priority. People spamming the dev areas with pointless and basic questions annoy everyone, and just bury the content we are all here to see (ROMs and tweaks)
pulser_g2 said:
Heavy handed? Howso??? Feel free to PM if you want.
Typically, the original post in a thread defines the rest of the thread. If it is a question, then evidently the correct place is Q&A. I don't really see any way to argue with that to be fair.
Regarding a question that emerges later on in a thread, perhaps a move is not needed. For example, are you suggesting a ROM thread should be moved because someone asked a question?
As before, the reason some things get moved and others don't is because we are not aware of them. The report post feature, and pm to the section mod, are both essential in letting us know what is going on.
Finally, XDA is a development site first and foremost, so keeping questions clear of development areas is a pretty high priority. People spamming the dev areas with pointless and basic questions annoy everyone, and just bury the content we are all here to see (ROMs and tweaks)
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Thanks for the response. My time here has been fairly short I know, but I'm not new to forums of course, and this is my experience thus far:
a thread that wasn't a question, but was about speculation for a nexus tablet was merged into the 'what phone / tablet should i buy next' thread. wtf.
other threads have been merged into semi-related, but not completely related threads. wtf.
i see sticky threads for newbies about development in - for example - the nexus s general on how to root / mod etc. wtf.
i know it's a fine balance between heavy-handedness to try to enforce an overall tidy forum vs user intuition and the chaoticness that is the weird and wacky thoughts of people.
imho this processing of my threads annoys me, and i'm sure it does other people too. if it drives people away, then that's bad for advertisement revenue. as long as threads are in the sort-of-right forum, then so-what. i for one tend to browse all the forums for a particular phone. so i'm going to reply if something catches my attention.
though, i do like the concept of having an accessories forum, dev forum, and general forum. i don't think a q+a forum is needed, ie. if i were to ask "does the otterbox commuter have this feature as a thread starter" where should it go? naturally the accessories forum, but it's a question... if i were after information about accessories, i'd head to the accessories forum as i may have the same question.
forums thrive on questions and answers. moving some questions to a q+a forum, and appearing to turn a blind eye to others just doesn't make sense. yes, so you miss some, but visitors don't know what you miss, and what you leave.
i'm thinking maybe test out a slightly looser mod regime for a while and allow related questions in the forums.
MarkusPO said:
Thanks for the response. My time here has been fairly short I know, but I'm not new to forums of course, and this is my experience thus far:
a thread that wasn't a question, but was about speculation for a nexus tablet was merged into the 'what phone / tablet should i buy next' thread. wtf.
I will look into this. Sounds strange.
other threads have been merged into semi-related, but not completely related threads. wtf.
i see sticky threads for newbies about development in - for example - the nexus s general on how to root / mod etc. wtf.
Those threads are pertaining to development, as without a way to root/hack the device, nobody can really develop for it. That's basically the way it's been for ages, so that's unlikely to change.
i know it's a fine balance between heavy-handedness to try to enforce an overall tidy forum vs user intuition and the chaoticness that is the weird and wacky thoughts of people.
You are right, it's hard on occasion to strike a balance, but to be honest, you have no idea what kinds of trolls we get here Most of the time we can sweep away the awful stuff before people see it...
imho this processing of my threads annoys me, and i'm sure it does other people too. if it drives people away, then that's bad for advertisement revenue. as long as threads are in the sort-of-right forum, then so-what. i for one tend to browse all the forums for a particular phone. so i'm going to reply if something catches my attention.
Fair point, but we have about 600,000 threads I can assure you we won't be cutting the number of forums per device, as that would make things unmanageable. Regarding the "right sort of forum", will address next. The trouble is that when I want to find some hack or tweak, I go to development. I don't expect to hunt through 200 pages of "I NEED HALLLLLLLLLLLP PLEEEEEEEEEEEZ NAOOOOOOOOOOOOOO KTHX" just to find a buried "[Mod] Trackball Wake source edit" or whatever...
though, i do like the concept of having an accessories forum, dev forum, and general forum. i don't think a q+a forum is needed, ie. if i were to ask "does the otterbox commuter have this feature as a thread starter" where should it go?
That would go in accessories. To be honest the Q&A is actually for beginner device questions moreso than that. I do see your point here, but I think you are misunderstanding the idea for the Device Q&A forum. If you want to ask "how do I flash a ROM on SPL v0.1", then Q&A is the place to go If you are more asking about a theme, then themes & apps is the place to ask it (provided it's about one of the existing themes and you can post in the existing thread). Regarding development forum, the idea there is that ONLY roms and other hacks go there, or discussions about achieving them. Essentially, anything not development related should be in general ("I like this device, do you?", "Is your screen darker at the bottom than top"? etc...), and the questions about ROMs etc in Q&A...
naturally the accessories forum, but it's a question... if i were after information about accessories, i'd head to the accessories forum as i may have the same question.
It would belong to the accessories forum. As above, Q&A is for device/ROM questions.
forums thrive on questions and answers. moving some questions to a q+a forum, and appearing to turn a blind eye to others just doesn't make sense. yes, so you miss some, but visitors don't know what you miss, and what you leave.
Interesting... You got any such examples? It would not be normal to move a question thread from a forum other than development, in my experience, so if there's an example, I'd love to see it. If you mean moving questions from development, that's not something we're likely to change, as it drives away the developers and hackers who make the ROMs you use
There shouldn't be any "blind eye turning", though if something is borderline or in doubt, it wouldn't usually be moved.
i'm thinking maybe test out a slightly looser mod regime for a while and allow related questions in the forums.
Other than the development forums (they're not going to change- we're having to add restrictions in there as well like postcount to stop spam and junk), that should be the way it is... Please PM me any examples you see, as I'd be keen to follow them up.
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Answers inline.
P
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!
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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?
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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?