Develop Bugs

Q: forum management?

I pretty new here but I haven't seen any mod presence in some forum sections. The Aria section is messy and needs some guidance. At least some one could come around and clean up a bit. I use to Admin on other boards, so I know its not too much to ask. It would make it easy for the noobs to sort out information.
Just my 2 cents, awesome forums btw love it here.
sent from my OC CM6 Intruder using XDA app

Noz85 said:
I pretty new here but I haven't seen any mod presence in some forum sections. The Aria section is messy and needs some guidance. At least some one could come around and clean up a bit. I use to Admin on other boards, so I know its not too much to ask. It would make it easy for the noobs to sort out information.
Just my 2 cents, awesome forums btw love it here.
sent from my OC CM6 Intruder using XDA app
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I am not certain of what forums you are admin in, but we are only a limited number of mods and this site has shy of 3M registered members (average of 10000 members online at any given time of the day) with over 50 subforum for devices (and that is not accounting for subforums for each device). XDA is one of the largest cell phone communities on the web and as such we manage it as well as we can. We roam around all the forums and normally if problems arise, we try to attend to the issues as soon as possible. As far as the Aria forums, XDA Specific Forum Moderator leepriestenator is in charge and any issues should be brought up to him or any Senior mod in case he is not available. If you have any specific concerns, please let us know and we will act accordingly
Thank you for being part of this community.

[POLL] The Holy Flame War is Upon Us - (D-Day) - War Briefing: Day 4

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.

[IDEA] Development for the welfare of our community

So why are we the only forum that has to have 40 generals for each rom, why are we not like every other phone where the chat about the rom is done in development? I feel this could alleviate a lot of the "RentaMods." Since i found it to be an easy way to find solutions to many issues... for example the galaxy nexus there roms they don't have 5 different threads for one rom... guess where people talk about the developers rom... in the developer thread... guys i know this is earth-shattering stuff... but let's just keep it simple one thread one rom.
I await my ban with GLORY, but i consider this development since it is essential to our community at e4gt xda since it is causing problems between many users.

this rom is the bomb!!

ethandissi said:
So why are we the only forum that has to have 40 generals for each rom, why are we not like every other phone where the chat about the rom is done in development? I feel this could alleviate a lot of the "RentaMods." Since i found it to be an easy way to find solutions to many issues... for example the galaxy nexus there roms they don't have 5 different threads for one rom... guess where people talk about the developers rom... in the developer thread... guys i know this is earth-shattering stuff... but let's just keep it simple one thread one rom.
I await my ban with GLORY, but i consider this development since it is essential to our community at e4gt xda since it is causing problems between many users.
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I believe this belongs in development too. Because in a way you are Developing a better community.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium

riggggght this belongs in dev, isnt this just like trying to be the forum police?? arent there already rules of the forum (stickied at the top of each section) that should take care of this...
as for this whole idea that talking in a dev thread should be fine, most of the chatter is the same damn questions every three pages! if everyone would not be lazy and again follow the forum rules 3/4's of most threads wouldnt exist.

my point is why do we seem to be the only phone that has a clusterfuck of twenty threads instead of a clusterfuck of one thread?

yourm0m1 said:
riggggght this belongs in dev, isnt this just like trying to be the forum police?? arent there already rules of the forum (stickied at the top of each section) that should take care of this...
as for this whole idea that talking in a dev thread should be fine, most of the chatter is the same damn questions every three pages! if everyone would not be lazy and again follow the forum rules 3/4's of most threads wouldnt exist.
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Furthermore devs can request their threads be only development only, like the case of the CM9 thread, but why would we respect their wishes?
Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk

ethandissi said:
my point is why do we seem to be the only phone that has a clusterfuck of twenty threads instead of a clusterfuck of one thread?
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i dont see why it matters what the general or q&a sections look like or amount of threads, thats what they are there for. why should everyone have the right to turn a dev thread into a clusterfuck?? as for the rest of the forums i only frequent the nook color section and the dev section is HEAVILY moderated and respected

I came from the EVO ROM section it's not half as ridiculous as this forum when it comes to being watched. I don't think I ever posted in the general section for a ROM. Yes the questions get redundant but most of the time it's just as easy to answer the question as it is to ***** that it's in the wrong section or that it's a frequently answered question. Not to mention that a lot of people troll these roms from tapatalk or the xda apps which offers virtually no convenient search functionality. yes Google works but not half as well a everyone acts like it does. It took me 30 minutes to search for a specific thing that had been "talked about frequently" in the forum through google. but could have been answered easily enough and in less time then it took to post a lmgtfy link. it's a forum people are going to ask questions it's the purpose of the site period.

All it comes down to is this.
Certain devs request certain guidelines for their development threads.
Do they have the right to request that?
I think so.
And being as the devs make the community, their wishes should be respected.
Not ignored and spit on.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk

Plus have you looked at the general section lately? People post **** about iPads.....iPads! Which have absolutely nothing to do with e4gt at all! fav modems, games, stupid **** that has no specifics about a particular rom at all. Random rants who wants to dig through that kind of **** to find an answer to a question that a developer or senior member who has been in the forum for a bit can answer in a short conscious answer. I answer plenty of noob questions because I know a while ago I was in the same place.

I don't consider myself a "DEVELOPER" but I've posted couple of roms.
I don't want to have multiple threads for my roms because it will take more time from me to follow all of them.
I think, if you have questions, bug reports, problems with my rom you should ask, talk, report them in rom thread so the members of the forum who use my development can find all the questions and answers in one thread.
And it's easier for me to keep eye on all problems related to my rom.
Just my $0.02.

samuel346 said:
this rom is the bomb!!
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THANKS!
Sent from my SPH-D710 using XDA

samuel346 said:
this rom is the bomb!!
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ethandissi said:
THANKS!
Sent from my SPH-D710 using XDA
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This is exactly the type of junk which QA and General are trying to keep out of the Dev forums..

And now we have one more!!! [idea]:what:
Sent from my SPH-D710 using XDA

This ROM is giving me the blue led light of death!

This thread is a travesty.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk

OP has a point... in the OG epic forums most threads had just the dev thread, and the threads could be really helpful and relatively BS free, like midNIGHT, or 500 pages of insanity like viper or ACS... but really there wasnt ever ROM threads in general. I assumed this was an EVO thing, as I had heard that forum was nuts with kids posting inane crap and flaming... idunno. It seems like this phone attracts a lot of disgruntled people... tons of minimodding and attitude... sad really. Its not like the community for this phone is so big that we cant keep out dev threads relatively clutter free, but some members choose to flame everyone who asks a ROM RELATED question in the ROM thread... makes no sense. If you REALLY feel you need to censor and judge the validity of every post in the precious Dev section, DONT respond with another post, ignore them till someone helpful (theres usually one or two who 'troll' every rom helping people out... bastards...) answers their question, and YOU flag the oh so offensive post and even PM a mod, maybe we will get a clearer picture that the minimodding creates WAY more posts than the questions or occasional side topic.
Also, I think this is a little different now, as back on the OG Epic, a lot of dev discussion was done in the threads, not IRC (I havent been in a chatroom since like '99) or ROM specific websites, or PM.... everyone was involved. Really if you weed out everything that isnt ACTUAL DEVELOPMENT of the given ROM in a thread, you would have about two pages... so whats the point of the Dev section? I think theres a lot of much undeserved elitism going on where people dont want to be bothered by all the tapatalk notifications because someone else has a question... try just actually looking at the thread and see if theres an update to the OP or something... but lighten up... this phone has a lot of stick up the ass people... get over yourself.

To be honest, I pretty much only see 2 threads at most for a given rom, one in general and one in development. If you hear of a general thread being referred to, then it shouldn't be hard to find and use it.
Want to hear ironic? For whatever reason, the general thread gets ignored, so the dev thread is overrun. Where do people move to continue development, teamwork, and quality help? The general thread.
When did you first see the aokp rom? :sly:
Sent from my SPH-D710

I agree with OP about the need for only one thread. I've been on Xda since the G1 days...never seen anything like it. Problem is that Android is more widespread these days...means lots of newbs.
sent from my Epic Touch

agat63 said:
I don't consider myself a "DEVELOPER" but I've posted couple of roms.
I don't want to have multiple threads for my roms because it will take more time from me to follow all of them.
I think, if you have questions, bug reports, problems with my rom you should ask, talk, report them in rom thread so the members of the forum who use my development can find all the questions and answers in one thread.
And it's easier for me to keep eye on all problems related to my rom.
Just my $0.02.
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And if would have read earlier in the thread you'd see that the decision to have two threads (one for questions and such and another for development) is totally up to the developer of the ROM himself.
While some don't want that, others do.
And I don't see what's so hard about complying with what they want.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk

Recurring threads

Hi,
First of all...Don't kill me
Since a few weeks there is a upsurge of recurrent threads like "What is the best rom","What is the best kernel","What is the best rom for battery life",What is the best kernel for battery life" or "Help me to choose a (best) kernel/rom"...
There was this kind of topics 3/4 times a day in General and Q&A section...For me it gets boring every day the same threads.
There is not that the rom or the kernel that comes into account about battery life for example,but the settings,the usage,etc...But always (or almost) in these threads the reply is just "x kernel","xx kernel","x rom","xx rom",etc...without more detail...Makes no sense...
There are almost many answers as there are different kernel+all the different settings (CPU freq,GPU freq,undervolt,hotplug,etc...)+the rom used+your personnal settings (sync,brightness,widgets,wifi,etc...)+your use...,Etc...
Many of these threads have a dozen answers then they are forgotten and the OP never comes back and does not even give feedback...
What's the point?
With a little search in both General and Q&A section there are some recent threads,rather important (in term of number's reply) and detailed for it to be useful...
Why not post again in one of these threads to move up and continue the discussion into a central thread...
It's so complicated searched a bit,read existing threads,test by itself or form an opinion by reading other feedback?
There would be no threads regarding these question,ok no worries,but right now there are many,way too much this kind of topics...
These threads are very subjective as the answers and reflects nothing...Almost the time nothing is known of the usage/settings of the OP than the guy who answer,just a name of kernel or rom...
And nothing is says about "Best kernel/rom" or "Best battery life"...What does that mean exactly ...? Unspecified:nothing,therefore unnecessary threads...
Ok, we're here to help,advise and give notice but not 10 times a day the same thing especially that with a minimum of research and reading...there is a response...
Sorry for this topic,if it does not please->trash...
Just so everyone make an effort and you can not see all the time the same thing with the same answers when there is already threads...
And if you do not like... do not read ... This is what I do ,but when I naviguate in General or Q&A section...and when I see the titles of all these threads it bothers me to navigate through all these threads and to see new interesting topics between all of these topics to see 3/4 of interresting...
Thanks
PS:sorry for my English about some phrases.

Sticky please.

I 100% agree with you. Unfortunately it will never stop.
I made a rant similar to yours in January (see signature) and there are still 3-5 new "I bricked my phone plz help!!!!!!!!" threads a day.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

Damn I was thinking of making this last night before I fell asleep but you beat me :'(
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

nodstuff said:
Sticky please.
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The irony will come when another "Recurring threads" post pops up next week

Agreed. Lazy people will be lazy.

Just report the thread, do we really need another please use the search thread?
---------- Post added at 11:38 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:37 AM ----------
nodstuff said:
Sticky please.
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Already stickied in the posting rules thread.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=19177654&postcount=2

Unfortunately, with 1 million + members you get to see a fairly good cross section of humanity. That includes those that won't listen to instructions, those that need spoon feeding and those that genuinely need help.
Oh, and those that give useless replys to threads (Get that in before anyone else does)
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA

Hi,
Thanks for your opinion.
@phatmanxxl,and...?I know there is already a sticky but I presented it differently,not just a rule.Like I said if it does not please->trash.
@killyouridols,yes you're right...
Each gives his opinion ...Perfect,maybe someone can convince me that I'm wrong and that this multitude of threads is not a "problem" or is not annoying
I have not asked for a sticky or anything else,I just gave my opinion on something annoying for me (and maybe for others).
Of course the mods can not do everything but a central thread would not hurt,like other threads (homescreens,pictures,benchs,etc...).
And:
mskip said:
Thinking of posting a new thread???
Use the search button on the top bar between "New Posts" and "Quick Links"
If any mod, including myself, continue to find new threads about topics that have threads already existing.
The thread will be locked with no notice and/or up to a temp BAN!!.
Mods, including myself, are not here to keep the forum organized after the fact, we need your help to keep it organized, clean and grouped.
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Actually it's not the case,recurrent threads are still there and they are mushrooming ("ils poussent comme des champignons" ).
Of course already seen with my thread but a little reminder...There is less about like mine as there are those that I describe.
In this section we also see topics that have nothing to do...
Feel free to the mods to delete or lock this thread for convenience.

The answer is to refer them to a link with the proper discussion then report the thread as redundant and one of us mods will come and lock it.
Thanks
Friendly Neighborhood Moderator

i agree with above me
The fact is, everyone that posts these "which _______ is best for battery/performance/stability" are usually quite new to this world. And they do not realize even a little bit that there is NO SINGLE answer to that question. Hell, there isn't even a round about general few answers to those questions. It is ALL COMPLETELY dependent on your use of device and the environment the device is in (i.e. Signal reception, apps on device, etc...) So much so that any other persons set up will usually NEVER give you the same results. People worry to much about finding "The best ______" and not enough about just enjoying the device AND enjoying the experience of the quest to find your OWN "perfect setup". And even when you DO find your own perfect set up, you are just going to keep wondering if there is something else that could make it better.
So what happens is they come here, and most likely they've SEEN these "which ______ is best", threads, BUT they see all the amounts of different responses and combinations without much details and decide "maybe if i ask I'll get a different answer catered to what I'm looking for" type of mind set. They are just confused as to the amount of different setups they saw in these other threads regarding a best set up since there isn't any details.
What they SHOULD come away from those threads thinking is something more along the lines of "Wow, there is so many different opinions on the best set up that i should just get to experimenting for myself" that is really all that they should do in the first place. It can be a bit intimidating to steyel into the development forum and see the multitude of roms, kernels, tweaks, that EACH have there own following of users that swear by them and it's easy to be lost on where to start. They don't realize that they can just choose a few things to flash and try them out, and then move along quite easily to another setup. They just don't realize how easy it is to just flash another ROM or kernel or whatever and just go at it. These users who post these types of threads are usually afraid of the prospect of bricking their brand new $500 device. Yes that risk is always present, but if it was something that happened very often due to a certain set up its something that you would have read about and info would be easily found on what NOT too use.
These types of threads will never go away unless as stated by the moderator above, REPORT(why is everyone SO AFRAID to press that report button??!!)and point the OP to a thread already established about the same thing. threads don't have to be vulgar/spam/etc... To warrant a report/deletion/maintenance....
So that's the Lesson of today. Be vigilant and report those threads if you want to see a cleaner forum. They will never NOT be posted, it's just the nature of people to want to be told what's best in a reply directed to them personally.
(BY THE WAY, can anyone tell me what's the best thread to read to find out what the best ROM/kernel setup is? Thankyou..../sarcasm )
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

Cool story bro
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

rayiskon said:
Cool story bro
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
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I thought you might like that
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

Can anyone tell me which thread is the best to read about repeat threads regarding what is the best anything about something knowing nothing?

kvirus11 said:
Can anyone tell me which thread is the best to read about repeat threads regarding what is the best anything about something knowing nothing?
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I beat ya to it....
NINJA'd!! Lol
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

Yes. <fist pumps> . Now instead of searching for recurring thread i can just make another "recurring thread" and all is normal on xda!
...

How do I mitigate fragmented forum categories?

If I post about my problem in a device forum then I'll only get the audience for that device. Some devices only have a few hundred users. This makes xda kinda useless.
But xda is obviously far from useless.
What am i missing? Tags?
Is it that xdadevs tend to stick to very popular devices only?
IMHO, many devices are similar when running the same version of Android. Is it worth having separate forums?

Welcome to XDA @DontReuseUsernames!
It really depends on the information you are looking for. Questions can be very device specific, ie "Why doesn't my camera work?" to being generally applicable to Android "How do I do X with Google Camera App", and for each of these there are different forums to post in.
If all else fails, you can always post to the "General" forum, which is anything else: https://forum.xda-developers.com/f/general.256/

Thanks.
https://forum.xda-developers.com/c/xda-community-apps.3092/ is a useful new category I wasn't aware of.
Perhaps the problem could be improved by making it so that when you subscribe to one forum, you are automatically offered some related tags to subscribe to as well.

DontReuseUsernames said:
Thanks.
https://forum.xda-developers.com/c/xda-community-apps.3092/ is a useful new category I wasn't aware of.
Perhaps the problem could be improved by making it so that when you subscribe to one forum, you are automatically offered some related tags to subscribe to as well.
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Hi, there is a thread at the very top of the about: xda-developers.com section that explains how xda works. If you have ANY questions that are Android related, you can post in Questions and Answers or Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting.
But again, everything is here: XDA New User Guide
Oh and, I also say hello to newcomers (originally iPhone newcomers) in this Post: Hello

Thank you. I'm always grateful. But I also need to tell it how it is and be honest about those beginners links.
Wow! What a mess. Broken image links. A link to a flash file. A 9 year old thread. Links to another thread that 'has been cleaned' and has only one reply ( https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/new-members-guide-tour-get-the-most-out-of-xda.1282679/ ) Again, more broken links there.
. Not a single mention of
XDA Community Apps
Download Android apps that come from XDA developers and members
forum.xda-developers.com
at either of the links that I've found so far.
Nothing addressing the issue of device fragmentation. Fragmented forums effect even the popular devices. It's just less obvious.
What needs doing is for us to re-index threads by keyword and make a new site linking through to helpful threads. I may well do this myself, depending on how much time I get off over the next holiday and how much I need the info myself. If I get some time to do it I'll update with a link here.