Related
I'll get straight to the point....
Despite stickys and forum announcements most of us are still finding ourselves becoming terribly, terribly vexed at the amount of [Q]'s cluttering the dev section...
Therefore, from now on, if you do not follow the rules outlined below, you will be infracted. Break them again and you may find yourself unable to post anything at all on any forum!!
[Q]Surely thats a bit harsh aint it??
[A]Not really....
We've tried to be nice about it but that clearly doesnt work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you cannot read and abide by the simple rules in this sticky then I dont know how you're going to manage to hack your device without running into trouble.
The Dev section is NOT for asking questions.....
The Dev section is NOT for general topics..........
All threads posted MUST be prefixed with a description of the thread, [ROM] / [Kernel] etc etc.....*
*(Not planning on being particuarly strict on this. You guys (the devs), know how to title a thread.... just a pointer for new devs.)
Basically, unless your thread is to actually release something or discuss something of a very technical and n00b unfriendly nature, it doesnt belong here!
Pretty simple really.....
If you see something that shouldnt be here then PM me....
I will try to check in as reguarly as I can but I have a few sections to keep an eye on and believe it or not, a life outside XDA
Yes thats right, there is life outside XDA
Post What Where:
General - general technical discussion items, news, anything else that does not fit into the other fora categories.
Accessories - any items to do with components and/or accessories relating to your device.
Rom Development - only meant for very advanced technical discussion directly related to ROM development activity and the delivery of actual ROMs and ROM components ONLY. Nothing else goes in here.
Themes & Apps - anything to do directly with the development of themes and/or applications. Nothing else goes in here.
MOD EDIT: BEFORE POSTING ANY THREAD IN THE DEVELOPMENT SECTION, PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING:
If you have developed a ROM, or are working with others to do so, the development forum is somewhere to discuss and share ideas, post useful feedback and logs or crash dumps, and to discuss a common goal developers are trying to achieve.
It is NOT the place to post your question because it gets higher traffic, or because more experienced users frequent it. Doing this just annoys those who are working on the device, and drives them away. Developers don't want to wade through 20 threads of "Help me urgently" to find their threads for porting and fixing camera issues etc. Similarly, if a thread is designated as discussion for developers say, porting a camera fix, please do not post in there asking "When will it be ready?", "Can I flash this yet?" etc. This is both completely disrespectful to those working on the project (you evidently haven't read the important posts in the thread), and also is making it harder for developers to find comments from other developers or testers when required.
Similarly, don't make loads of "Thanks for your work here" posts in an active development thread. It's just as annoying to developers as asking when something will be ready. If a ROM is complete, then go ahead and thank the developer if you wish, but don't go into threads for devs only, and interrupt it to post "thanks". It's basically spamming, and is treated as such.
If you are posting in development, you should have read every sticky and notice there, and should be actively developing or helping in the development of something. Developing isn't installing a ROM, or using a tweak, it's creating a ROM or other hack or tweak. If you haven't read for several days before starting out on XDA, you are likely about to ask something already solved. I registered on XDA when I first wanted to post, and that was to join in a discussion on something. Sure, join up and ask a question, but read the information available in General and Q&A first, as your question will have been asked before. Search is your friend here, become familiar with it.
Regarding when to post in development if you are not actually developing something, there is one occasion where it's acceptable. If you find a leak of a new ROM, which isn't already posted, and you verify it's legitimacy via either running it, or based on the source you obtained it from, then this is assisting in development, and should be posted in development. If you want to ask when a leak will be available use search first, then if not already in discussion, open a thread in general or Q&A.
If you have a problem flashing a ROM, this is NOT related to development. It's up to you to determine if it is specific to a particular ROM, and post useful information in that developer's existing thread for the ROM. If it happens on more than one ROM, and isn't a known issue (remember you should read several times more words than you post), then find out what you are doing wrong. Check guides written by others, try to repeat the problem and see if it happens every time. Something needs to be reproducible to be fixed effectively.
Once you have identified what you need help with go to the device Q&A forum (general if device lacks one), and make a clear, informative thread that explains the issue, and what you have tried doing to fix it. Did you re-download the ROM? Did you ask a friend to flash it for you, to reduce chance of user error? What steps (exactly) did you follow? What errors did you see (exact wording)? Did you double check all the steps? Did you do a wipe or hard reset?
If you make a clear, concise, yet detailed post, you will find help forthcoming, and should get the problem sorted very quickly. If someone suggests you try something, report back on what happened, did it work etc. Then, next time someone has this issue and searches, they will find this and have a verified and tested solution.
So remember... before you start a thread in development, ask yourself what you are developing. If you can't answer, then stop, step away from the post button, and think about where you are posting. Would it be better in General or Q&A, or is some more time with your best friend, search, required?
Hopefully this brings some change to the forum, this site is a great place to learn and develop for everyone no matter what stage of the game your in. There are quite a few people here that really put forth the effort to help others no matter how fundamental the question is and it would be a shame to see XDA take a turn like other forums have in the past.
To: conantroutman
You are my Freakin Hero, Thank You!!! LOL
The annoying thing is, people are STILL not following the rules -_-
GazaIan said:
The annoying thing is, people are STILL not following the rules -_-
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They probably never will but at least now they are being punished so that they either learn from their mistakes or leave...
Sent From My Fingers To Your Face.....
I understand where you are coming from but...yes a bit harsh, so many people come he now and then etc, Just my thoughts. I will post what I deem necessary in what I think the proper thread is. Obviously not going to ask how to flash rom, (which is in developers section) Maybe you should move those topics out to faq or general, it only draws more attention to the dev. section
---------- Post added at 09:40 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:35 PM ----------
conantroutman said:
They probably never will but at least now they are being punished so that they either learn from their mistakes or leave...
Sent From My Fingers To Your Face.....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This will only drive people away, ban me and I surely will look for another forum and recomend it to my friends, thats the mentallity, because what you have on these forums is also on 3 others, please dont tick off ppl. I personally dont think this is the right approach. Educate people first. I have been admin for several forums, very hostile ones at that, please take some advice.
I'll get straight to the point....
Despite stickys and forum announcements most of us are still finding ourselves becoming terribly, terribly vexed at the amount of [Q]'s cluttering the dev section...
Therefore, from now on, if you do not follow the rules outlined below, you will be infracted. Break them again and you may find yourself unable to post anything at all on any forum!!
[Q]Surely thats a bit harsh aint it??
[A]Not really....
We've tried to be nice about it but that clearly doesnt work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you cannot read and abide by the simple rules in this sticky then I dont know how you're going to manage to hack your device without running into trouble.
The Dev section is NOT for asking questions.....
The Dev section is NOT for general topics..........
All threads posted MUST be prefixed with a description of the thread, [ROM] / [Kernel] etc etc.....*
*(Not planning on being particuarly strict on this. You guys (the devs), know how to title a thread.... just a pointer for new devs.)
Basically, unless your thread is to actually release something or discuss something of a very technical and n00b unfriendly nature, it doesnt belong here!
Pretty simple really.....
If you see something that shouldnt be here then PM me....
I will try to check in as reguarly as I can but I have a few sections to keep an eye on and believe it or not, a life outside XDA
Yes thats right, there is life outside XDA
Post What Where:
General - general technical discussion items, news, anything else that does not fit into the other fora categories.
Accessories - any items to do with components and/or accessories relating to your device.
Rom Development - only meant for very advanced technical discussion directly related to ROM development activity and the delivery of actual ROMs and ROM components ONLY. Nothing else goes in here.
Themes & Apps - anything to do directly with the development of themes and/or applications. Nothing else goes in here.
MOD EDIT: BEFORE POSTING ANY THREAD IN THE DEVELOPMENT SECTION, PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING:
If you have developed a ROM, or are working with others to do so, the development forum is somewhere to discuss and share ideas, post useful feedback and logs or crash dumps, and to discuss a common goal developers are trying to achieve.
It is NOT the place to post your question because it gets higher traffic, or because more experienced users frequent it. Doing this just annoys those who are working on the device, and drives them away. Developers don't want to wade through 20 threads of "Help me urgently" to find their threads for porting and fixing camera issues etc. Similarly, if a thread is designated as discussion for developers say, porting a camera fix, please do not post in there asking "When will it be ready?", "Can I flash this yet?" etc. This is both completely disrespectful to those working on the project (you evidently haven't read the important posts in the thread), and also is making it harder for developers to find comments from other developers or testers when required.
Similarly, don't make loads of "Thanks for your work here" posts in an active development thread. It's just as annoying to developers as asking when something will be ready. If a ROM is complete, then go ahead and thank the developer if you wish, but don't go into threads for devs only, and interrupt it to post "thanks". It's basically spamming, and is treated as such.
If you are posting in development, you should have read every sticky and notice there, and should be actively developing or helping in the development of something. Developing isn't installing a ROM, or using a tweak, it's creating a ROM or other hack or tweak. If you haven't read for several days before starting out on XDA, you are likely about to ask something already solved. I registered on XDA when I first wanted to post, and that was to join in a discussion on something. Sure, join up and ask a question, but read the information available in General and Q&A first, as your question will have been asked before. Search is your friend here, become familiar with it.
Regarding when to post in development if you are not actually developing something, there is one occasion where it's acceptable. If you find a leak of a new ROM, which isn't already posted, and you verify it's legitimacy via either running it, or based on the source you obtained it from, then this is assisting in development, and should be posted in development. If you want to ask when a leak will be available use search first, then if not already in discussion, open a thread in general or Q&A.
If you have a problem flashing a ROM, this is NOT related to development. It's up to you to determine if it is specific to a particular ROM, and post useful information in that developer's existing thread for the ROM. If it happens on more than one ROM, and isn't a known issue (remember you should read several times more words than you post), then find out what you are doing wrong. Check guides written by others, try to repeat the problem and see if it happens every time. Something needs to be reproducible to be fixed effectively.
Once you have identified what you need help with go to the device Q&A forum (general if device lacks one), and make a clear, informative thread that explains the issue, and what you have tried doing to fix it. Did you re-download the ROM? Did you ask a friend to flash it for you, to reduce chance of user error? What steps (exactly) did you follow? What errors did you see (exact wording)? Did you double check all the steps? Did you do a wipe or hard reset?
If you make a clear, concise, yet detailed post, you will find help forthcoming, and should get the problem sorted very quickly. If someone suggests you try something, report back on what happened, did it work etc. Then, next time someone has this issue and searches, they will find this and have a verified and tested solution.
So remember... before you start a thread in development, ask yourself what you are developing. If you can't answer, then stop, step away from the post button, and think about where you are posting. Would it be better in General or Q&A, or is some more time with your best friend, search, required?
Can this be posted on all dev boards please? It is sorely missed...
Dr.Romca said:
Can this be posted on all dev boards please? It is sorely missed...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Truely ! I read them , cuz i am making other improved and detailed versions of other people's tutorials , more like the Arabic for the Jxmatteo 1.2 , and the storage thing , and other stuff ... so i don''t want to mess up with the rules since i am enjoying helping people ...
hm
The spirit of XDA
Read this from the beginning till the end
Henry_01 said:
Read this from the beginning till the end
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good read
Sent from my Wildfire S A510e using xda premium
Hi,
I like what the XDA Devs bring to us "users" in terms of modding phones, instructions, assistance and so on. I am wondering though how many of these devs actually get a chance to go through their own thread (rom post, suggestion, hack or whichever) and update their main post with the most common hurdles that users within the forum have posted and inquired about?
Not many would be my guess and I don't blame them.
I have also seen the comments of "search this thread" way too many times and have been caught out myself too.
My suggestion is that people with the issue contribute back to the thread if any answer helped them to the solution, or if they come up with the solution themselves.
To improve this concept further, keywords for questions and answers within the thread should be compulsory.
A list of possible keywords would be
[Q] Question
[A] Answer
Bug
Solution
and used in conjunction with each other. If you have both the bug and solutions, you'd post - yes i know what that looks like!
Benefits to this system would be when searching a thread you could filter the entire thread with [Q] and bits and then troll for the answers.
This is too long and will most likely be ignored, but if you've read this far, please let me know what you think.
It is possible to add a "thread wiki" post below the original post?
Eg in slickdeals, you have a common wiki below the OP that people can add stuff
I feel like threads should have things like that...
OP might not have time to update his/her post with relevant info that an another user can add
It might be difficult trying to look through 100 pages of posts to figure out if someone has a similar problem(or through search), while it is easy for multiple people to maintain a common wiki that they can all edit
EG: http://slickdeals.net/f/4803408-Thi...ted-by-users-like-you?p=51265310#edit51265310
paperWastage said:
It is possible to add a "thread wiki" post below the original post?
Eg in slickdeals, you have a common wiki below the OP that people can add stuff
I feel like threads should have things like that...
OP might not have time to update his/her post with relevant info that an another user can add
It might be difficult trying to look through 100 pages of posts to figure out if someone has a similar problem(or through search), while it is easy for multiple people to maintain a common wiki that they can all edit
EG: http://slickdeals.net/f/4803408-Thi...ted-by-users-like-you?p=51265310#edit51265310
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Interesting idea, not sure how adaptable it would be with the VBulletin software though. It might also be similar in effect to something I hear is going to be rolled out sometime soon, a post rating system so posts with more positive ratings will move to the top, and posts with enough negative ratings will be hidden.
I think though that the OP should either ask the mods to close the thread or hand it over to another user by contacting the forum admin if they don't have time to maintain their thread with important new information.
mf2112 said:
Interesting idea, not sure how adaptable it would be with the VBulletin software though. It might also be similar in effect to something I hear is going to be rolled out sometime soon, a post rating system so posts with more positive ratings will move to the top, and posts with enough negative ratings will be hidden.
I think though that the OP should either ask the mods to close the thread or hand it over to another user by contacting the forum admin if they don't have time to maintain their thread with important new information.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I mean small details: like "most commonly encountered problems and solutions", that the OP might have time to add or not
For a dev thread, I rather have the dev (most likely the OP) focus on developing and other people helping out in figuring out problems by common users... users can update the wiki on the un-resolved problems so that the dev can see, without having the dev to read the last 3 pages that were newly posted
you can see in the Slickdeals thread... 179 pages of posts... some of them are "useless" in saying "thanks for the deal", while some people have legitimate questions (like "is this phone quad band") that other users answered 10 pages after their post... having a wiki means common info will be presented clearly without having to dig through the thread, and anyone can update that, not just the OP <--- most important point
EDIT: Slickdeals uses vBulletin too, but customized plugins... there are probably open source plugins out there, just trying to dig through
EDIT2: i guess SD doesn't use pure vBulletin plugins for that... maybe some CMS system
paperWastage said:
I mean small details: like "most commonly encountered problems and solutions", that the OP might have time to add or not
For a dev thread, I rather have the dev (most likely the OP) focus on developing and other people helping out in figuring out problems by common users... users can update the wiki on the un-resolved problems so that the dev can see, without having the dev to read the last 3 pages that were newly posted
you can see in the Slickdeals thread... 179 pages of posts... some of them are "useless" in saying "thanks for the deal", while some people have legitimate questions (like "is this phone quad band") that other users answered 10 pages after their post... having a wiki means common info will be presented clearly without having to dig through the thread, and anyone can update that, not just the OP <--- most important point
EDIT: Slickdeals uses vBulletin too, but customized plugins... there are probably open source plugins out there, just trying to dig through
EDIT2: i guess SD doesn't use pure vBulletin plugins for that... maybe some CMS system
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I guess the problem really is that the dev thread should not be used for support, but people insist on treating them that way. I think that there should be a "ROM XXXXX Support Thread" in the device Q&A forums and that is where such questions should go instead. Then there would be no problems with the restrictions since user support questions or bug reports without proper logging, details, attempted fixes, etc. would be moved from the dev thread into the support thread if they were able to post them there.
mf2112 said:
I guess the problem really is that the dev thread should not be used for support, but people insist on treating them that way. I think that there should be a "ROM XXXXX Support Thread" in the device Q&A forums and that is where such questions should go instead. Then there would be no problems with the restrictions since user support questions or bug reports without proper logging, details, attempted fixes, etc. would be moved from the dev thread into the support thread if they were able to post them there.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
even in support threads... who would maintain the massive throve of info that many people would ask? the OP(most likely the dev himself who made the thread), or every user who wants to?
example.... if a lot of people post below us, makes it go into 5 pages... someone on page 3 found a plugin that does what it works.... does it make sense for that info to be posted just below my first post by anyone, or is it on me(the OP) to edit my first post "someone on page 3 found this info"?
This is actually an interesting idea. We are busy adding other new features but definitely will keep this in mind. Right now, we do already have a wiki and there is nothing stopping someone from creating a wiki page while adding their thread, and linking to it, but it would be nice to integrate that directly into the page.
bitpushr said:
This is actually an interesting idea. We are busy adding other new features but definitely will keep this in mind. Right now, we do already have a wiki and there is nothing stopping someone from creating a wiki page while adding their thread, and linking to it, but it would be nice to integrate that directly into the page.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yeah, but it's definitely not as seamless as having it right below the original post
lemme see if there are any plugins to "stream" that wiki page into a post...
Came here to request this too. And precisely for the same reasons as the OP.
This would be immediately embraced.
I don't understand the "I'm not sure this would be adaptable with vBulletin" comment since slickdeals uses vBulletin.
http://www.qapla.com/mods/showthread.php/309-Wiki-Posts-for-VB4-by-BOP5-BETA
another vote for this.
i have been following a thread about about the development of 4.4 for the hisense sero 7 pro (randomblame, davepmer and others are awesome)
anyway it has a post count of nearly 1,000 and people come in and try the latest build, or just wanting to ask a question about the latest builds. the same questions get asked over and over. i don't really think its the fault of the person asking since who is going to read 1,000 posts just to see if his/her problem has been discussed.
It has been a couple months since I've been on the site and quite often I am directed to what I want to find via a google search.
However when trying to access the forums today from the top banner bar, the options seem extremely limited.
It lists things like "Top Phones" "New Phones" "Root Tools" "Top Apps", etc. and each of these has a small sub menu of choices.
However I can't find a way to just access the General discussion forum...the one I'm posting in now.
In order to get here I needed to google "XDA general discussion" and then clumsily navigate to this "About XDA" sub section.
Am I missing something with how this site has been updated and how one is supposed to navigate it?
thanks.
TraderJack said:
It has been a couple months since I've been on the site and quite often I am directed to what I want to find via a google search.
However when trying to access the forums today from the top banner bar, the options seem extremely limited.
It lists things like "Top Phones" "New Phones" "Root Tools" "Top Apps", etc. and each of these has a small sub menu of choices.
However I can't find a way to just access the General discussion forum...the one I'm posting in now.
In order to get here I needed to google "XDA general discussion" and then clumsily navigate to this "About XDA" sub section.
Am I missing something with how this site has been updated and how one is supposed to navigate it?
thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
https://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=72689104&postcount=2
sd_shadow said:
https://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=72689104&postcount=2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, that does give me a little bit more control.
However (to anyone listening who cares) - this still has problems. In order to search for a forum to jump to, I must first know its name to search.
In my case, since I've been here a while I know/knew there were general forums, so I typed "general" and I was able to pull some of them up.
But for new users, or anyone unsure of where to post a topic that doesn't have to do with a specific device it still obscures the entire forum structure from them.
Also, unless I was referred to the link above, there is really no way for me to know that typing in that box is how I find a forum, since it says "Type device...& more"....that "more" is pretty broad.
Wouldn't/couldn't it be a good idea to both write somewhere up there that the box is how you are meant to navigate to a specific forum rather than just search? Also couldn't there be a link within the list of results that always shows that allows one to view an entire structured list of the forums?
Part of the issue as I see it is that while many thinks are device based, there are certain issues that have the same solutions across a wide array of devices. For instance I just had an issue with APN settings being grayed out (non editable) on my wife's Galaxy S5, but I saw similar posts and partial solutions scattered throughout device forums for dozens of devices. I know that there will never be full consolidation into one "general" topic for these, but I think having a "general" forum (or forums) as the first landing page for these types of questions is more beneficial than forcing users (simply by the current design) to post in their specific device.
Anyway, I might be late to the party and these discussions may have already beat the horse dead, I still love the site for the wealth of information it provides but IMHO the redesign in this aspect borked functionality/ease of use when it comes to "finding" the right place to go to post a new thread.
/
TraderJack said:
Thanks, that does give me a little bit more control.
However (to anyone listening who cares) - this still has problems. In order to search for a forum to jump to, I must first know its name to search.
In my case, since I've been here a while I know/knew there were general forums, so I typed "general" and I was able to pull some of them up.
But for new users, or anyone unsure of where to post a topic that doesn't have to do with a specific device it still obscures the entire forum structure from them.
Also, unless I was referred to the link above, there is really no way for me to know that typing in that box is how I find a forum, since it says "Type device...& more"....that "more" is pretty broad.
Wouldn't/couldn't it be a good idea to both write somewhere up there that the box is how you are meant to navigate to a specific forum rather than just search? Also couldn't there be a link within the list of results that always shows that allows one to view an entire structured list of the forums?
Part of the issue as I see it is that while many thinks are device based, there are certain issues that have the same solutions across a wide array of devices. For instance I just had an issue with APN settings being grayed out (non editable) on my wife's Galaxy S5, but I saw similar posts and partial solutions scattered throughout device forums for dozens of devices. I know that there will never be full consolidation into one "general" topic for these, but I think having a "general" forum (or forums) as the first landing page for these types of questions is more beneficial than forcing users (simply by the current design) to post in their specific device.
Anyway, I might be late to the party and these discussions may have already beat the horse dead, I still love the site for the wealth of information it provides but IMHO the redesign in this aspect borked functionality/ease of use when it comes to "finding" the right place to go to post a new thread.
/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you try the Search Plus feature?
Wood Man said:
Did you try the Search Plus feature?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've looked at it, but it doesn't really remediate the issues I mention above.
While it can help you "find" answers to questions, google is just as capable in most cases of directing you to the relevant threads on XDA.
The problem is not really where to go to find answers, as much as it is to ask a question.
It seems the way the site is now structured as far as indexing/lookup is concerned is more of a "knowledgebase" then a forum.
I'm not sure if that is necessarily a bad thing - but it is different from how things used to be and for long time users it makes things a bit more difficult to adapt.