So many categories on main page - About xda-developers.com

Whats the point in having all the models of a manufacturer listed on main page? cant we have a simpler forum? Like list only samsung, lg, etc and inside those have the models like s3, s4 and so on. And all this junk nonsens images of devices, only to make the forum a horrible loading experience.

@Zedgor, please post your feedback and/or recommendations to XDA in this thread. Thanks.

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Related

Request feature - Main page link to comparisons

Hi,
I would like to request a feature which I think would be real help either on XDA-developers.com or wiki.xda-developers.com[
There is an excellent matrix of differences between the different HTC models & the names different phone providers give them.
I've tried using searching terms like 'comparison' or 'differences' (between XDA's) to find it, but the search engine does not seem to be speaking my language.
1.
I think having a better main page hotlink to such a comparison Matrix would be REALLy helpful, PARTICULARLY as the matrix is (hopefully) updated regularly and has lots of hotlinks to the various models.
2.
The second request is to somehow display details in a list of phones as they are released so that I can see whether the XDA I'm waiting for (or similar) has been released.
Thanks for an EXCELLENT site

Software on the Wiki

Hi,
There seems to be a lot on the wiki regarding the handsets, but there doesn't seem to be a lot of information on software for the handsets.
There's the "Must have tools" page, but I personally would appreciate a page listing software by category.
I am therefore proposing to produce a page called "Software" with a list of categories such as
Diary/Calendar
Contacts
File Managers
Games
GUI Enhancement
Instant Messaging/Chat
System Tools
Today
etc.....
Then, each of these pages would have a list of sub categories with software titles listed underneath, so for example "Instant Messaging" would have IM+, Skype, Pocket IRC etc... under it and each of these would then have it's own page on which to include features, details of compatibility with handsets and WM versions and links with where to get them from (possibly even links to related forum topics).
Obviously I will start from my Wizard/Hemes and the software I have used, so I shall apologise for that in advance, but if I start adding this will anyone complain?
Or would it be appreciated?
Any thoughts, comments or ideas (and things I have overlooked, like this existing) are appreciated.
mikechannon said:
One question for you would be whether the software section would be a cross device section or under a specific device eg Hermes or Wizard?
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Click to collapse
Cross device, totally.
The way I look at it is that most of the software is written to work on "Any" WM device so it should therefore be written generically. I'd then try to include a compatibility list of "This software is confirmed (not) working on..." for people to add their devices to as well as notes on how to get it working if their may be trouble.
For example, Skype works on most, but not so well on a Hermes unless you use the beta.
Just wish I knew more about the advanced features on the wiki software xda-devs uses....
Had a play the other day and at least one other person has linked something into it so far...
Games and Emulators page.
Guess we will see how it goes....
I'd love to help, but I'm mainly a MediaWiki guy, is there a list of basic editing procedures and stuff for the software xda-developer wiki uses?

Get some organisation on the Forum topics

Is it just me or does anyone else get frustrated locating which handset they wish to look at when you navigate to xda-developers forum?
What I mean is the fact that the handsets are listed in no particular order... Blackstone is way down the list and Wallaby is at the top.
Can someone shuffle the list so that it's either in alphabetical list or order of release?
the list order at present makes no sense to me.
Thanks
It would help especially when you view the site from your mobile as you have to do a lot of scrolling and zooming to get to the right part.
spvc500 said:
Is it just me or does anyone else get frustrated locating which handset they wish to look at when you navigate to xda-developers forum?
What I mean is the fact that the handsets are listed in no particular order... Blackstone is way down the list and Wallaby is at the top.
Can someone shuffle the list so that it's either in alphabetical list or order of release?
the list order at present makes no sense to me.
Thanks
It would help especially when you view the site from your mobile as you have to do a lot of scrolling and zooming to get to the right part.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah
In fact it would be easier to have them organized by any criteria: Alphabetical, date of releasing, etc.
Maybe you can post this sugestion on (requests) From the Users to the Mods & Admins thread in About xda-developers.com forum
Second on the date of release or alphabetical order . It would make mobile browsing a lot easier.
Like many, I'm used to the way it is currently. alphabetical would be cool but then all of us would be lost
Actually, it's a good idea... i'll propose it to Flar.
Yeah
I suposed they were in appereance order but not sure
Well Mike has a great idea!
Hope it can be done
Was just about to start a new thread on this, but decided to just resurrect this one. It would be real nice if some other sort order for the forums was in place. At the least, group all phones by a manufacturer together. Currently, many Samsung phones are interspersed with those of other manufacturers making it a pain to find them. I think sorting them by popularity (# of posts in their respective General subforum) would be good as it would put the most used forums near the top, but alphabetical by either manufacturer name or device name would be fine, too, as it would make scrolling through them a lot easier.
Miami_Son said:
Was just about to start a new thread on this, but decided to just resurrect this one. It would be real nice if some other sort order for the forums was in place. At the least, group all phones by a manufacturer together. Currently, many Samsung phones are interspersed with those of other manufacturers making it a pain to find them. I think sorting them by popularity (# of posts in their respective General subforum) would be good as it would put the most used forums near the top, but alphabetical by either manufacturer name or device name would be fine, too, as it would make scrolling through them a lot easier.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Enable compact view for a manufacturer grouped system
pulser_g2 said:
Enable compact view for a manufacturer grouped system
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I always use "Find your device..." to jump around the forum, and I have in the Index in compact.
Dave
pulser_g2 said:
Enable compact view for a manufacturer grouped system
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How did I never notice this? They're still only mostly in order of release, but that makes a huge difference, thnx!

[REQ][XDA WIKI]: Feature request thread

Request 1: Add HTML Tidy to the xda wiki stack
Template:Navbox @ Wikipedia said:
Using this template on other wikis requires HTML Tidy to be turned on. A version that does not require Tidy can be found at Wikipedia:WikiProject Transwiki/Template:Navbox. (That version generally shouldn't be used here on the English Wikipedia.) More detailed information on copying {{Navbox}} to other wikis can be found on the talk page.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've been doing a LOT of work adding stuff to the xda wiki, but I've hit an impasse, some of the most complex templates used on Wikipedia depend on it being 'scripted' with HTML instead of pure wikimarkup.
The main example is Template:Navbox. While this specific template does have a pupre wikimarkup equivilent (if it even is an equivilent, it's not maintained at the level of the normal one). The other templates I wish to use dont have equivilents.
Template:Navbox subgroup is the one (among others) that I wish to add in but cant because it depends on HTML Tidy. The Template itself is already on the xda wiki, but if you attempt to use it it's completely broken.
I cant say it's as simple as "install on server and turn it on" but the fact of the matter is that without it most of the fun/magic stuff on wikipedia cant be brought over to the xda wiki.
Some examples of recent stuff i've made (for reference):
Samsung Galaxy S Series Navbox
Samsung Galaxy S II Series Navbox
New Samsung Portal on Main page
Entirety of Dell devices page
If you look at the several navboxes I've made they have hacks in the code to get around the fact that I'm just a normal level editor.
Request 2: We need MOAR editors!
Also this doubles as a request for more editors on the wiki: XDA is the largest android development based site on the internet, yet here we are weeks after the release of the Galaxy Nexus and Galaxy Note and the pages didnt even exist until I made stubs for them.
As of this past quarter I've generated more edits then possibly nearly every other user combined, but there's only so much I can do at this point by my self. (With my primary style being to organize page layouts and tidying stuff up vs writing new content for devices)
[Edit count itself is a bad metric, but edits that arnt mine only number in the dozens a month]
Sure it's reasonable for minor devices and varients to be stubs, but the Note has sold over a million units and yet not a single person has even bothered to make as much as a scribble on the wiki about the device. That's just an example, but ultimately if this were wikipedia, the amount of pages rated 'good' or higher would only number in the dozens. (There's also the fact that my belief is that it's a bad idea to add anything intensive for a device you dont own, standard fare on one device can super-brick another due to quirks)
It's a rather sad state of affairs that for such a large web site with 22000 active users at any one time that there's not a single good consistant repeat editor besides me.
Edit: changed wording to not be inflammatory
Request 3: Turn on Subpages on the main namespace
Mediawiki:Subpages are by default enabled on the template and user namespaces, but not on the main namespace. I believe it's done this way because of editor policy and not technical reasons.
The xda wiki would HEAVILY benefit from having it enabled since it already currently manually uses them, the previous example of:
Samsung <Series>/<model number>/article has long existed this way but without the automatically generated anchors.
The majority of pages are already ready to accept it, it might simply need to be turned on.
XDA Wiki
TheManii said:
there's not a single good editor besides me.
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Click to collapse
IMHO that is a rather sweeping statement and is likely to put off anyone from editing the Wiki. I would dispute even your claim as a good editor would not make sweeping changes to categories without discussion on the pages involved. Should I just "undo" them?
XDA has a problem with repetitive questions leading to user dissatisfaction with overlong forums and the loss of good developers such as AdamG.
One solution may be to create a FAQ Wiki for any thread over a certain size (for example 1,000 posts) and automatically link to that thread at the top of every page and above the reply box.
Cheers
Tom
It is sweeping, but the fact is there arent many repeat editors, many devices havnt not seen edits in months because a great deal of the changes dones are a one-time batch job with a single theme.
I'm not at all saying that the other editors are bad, though yes that what the impression was (and perhaps I should have worded it better). I'm saying that few wish to stay with it for the long-haul.
There's few editors that consistantly return to add/update/expand artitles for their own devices or other devices. That's my main issue. I actively want to be proven wrong in this regard, I'm inviting other to prove me wrong. I myself am somewhat guilty of this myself, I primarly concentrate on the dell devices, but I've kept them very up to date for the previous year.
One example I have issue with is: Acer A500 -xda wiki the entire page are just forum links. I have no issue at all with the contents of the posts (just as much my opinion on them is irrelevent) but the fact they are just links and not part of the article. The fact it's not on the wiki means that other editors cannot make changes themselves, which rather defeats the point of the wiki, which leads to,
The other issue is, unless the OP is excellent at keeping the thread organizied, you often have to wade though the entire thread to keep up to date. With a thread with +200 posts even if you wanted to it's a huge effort to do that. Even in the most complex of topics, they can be broken down a couple bullet points and approx a paragraph each to elaborate. There's also 'bad' advise that doesnt get edited away on topics ('bad' as in it may simply be the case that it was the right thing at the moment but there was eventually a more 'correct' method discovered later and the original 'bad' one is still reposted for whatever reason)
I could copy the posts onto the wiki verbaitm, but you really should have the poster's permission, what if the poster isnt active? It would be a bad idea to paraphrase advise/guides without context, what if you remove an important small detail. The right way to be to frequent the device and get context, but that triples the amount of work to do so properly.
It's no secret that there's always users that refuse to read topics and simply skip straight to posting repeat questions. Short pages with clear instructions are much easier to recommend then having them read though dozens and dozens of posts (which they skipped as they posted without reading in the first place)
Discussions dont really work on a wiki, esp one without consistant-repeat (or even repeat) editors. There's a fair amount of edits for various devices, but there are obviously more devices then editors. Lets walk though it: I want to make an edit, do I post it on the topic's talk page? Short of doing so on wikipiedia proper on a popular change, you wont recieve much feedback.
Do you make a post on each of their device's forums? XDA has sub-forums for each device, but not really a sub-forum for the family itself (back to the SGS/SGS2, there's the main device's subforum and each varient's subforum but none for the entire family, i think) That means making dozens of posts to talk about each major change.
What if it's an old device such as the winmo devices? The HTC HD2 is the only one left on the active part of the xda forums, because it's obviously not just a winmo device now. You're going to have to wait a very long time as they naturally only get a couple posts a month now.
Just as much, unless a mod/admin states to the contrary, you can always assume Wikipedia:Be Bold is implied to apply. I honestly have no issue if my edits are reverted if they are constructive reverts, as that's how wikis work.
If anyone has a issue with the edits I make, you're welcome to discuss it with me and hopefully we'll find a middle road.
Also I've made a reply on User_talkaveShaw#Page Name & Categories (as a fun note: & is translated to _.26_ in links while / isnt, though mediawiki has no issue with either of them, though you cannot directly use & in page names while you can use /) You should read it if the critisim is directed towards me.
tl;dr prove me wrong, Be Bold, help make the wiki better
Edit: HTC_HD2 - NexusHD2 ICS CM9 FAQ is an excellent example of why things should be on the wiki as articles instead of just merely links to a thread. It's about 3 pages of topic points and contains the majority of the topic points instead of having to read 225 (currently) pages to get the same info. (Also, just as much if I inadvertently remove valid content, revert/add it back! That was not my intention, everyone makes mistakes. The xda wiki is pretty well off in that it has little/no intentional vanadalism, you can always assume an edit is in good faith, I dont recall more then 1-2 legitamitely bad edits in nearly a year)
I've asked someone to look at Request 1.
I'm not sure what can be done about Request 2, if people don't want to maintain it, we can't make then
Thanks!
I dont really expect req 2 to be fullfilled in any real manner. Just pointing it out.
Added request 3: enable subpages on main namespace
TheManii said:
Added request 3: enable subpages on main namespace
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Our server admin has told me this has been done.
Dave
I can confirm it's on now, all the subcatagorized pages seem to be working great now
TheManii said:
I can confirm it's on now, all the subcatagorized pages seem to be working great now
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks
Dave

FNG With Questions about ROMS For Open Mobile PR

So as the title states, I'm not only new to the forum, but to the whole world of stock/custom ROMs, and about 95% of the vernacular that appears in your typical conversations.
Before opening this thread, I did read a few others on the subject of Open Mobile users successfully using customized ROMs of other carriers, but with the loss of 3G and/or MMS. (By the way, the feature that shows similar threads under the title box- genius.) I, too, have fallen into that unfortunate category, but with a stock ROM belonging to Metro PCS. It was completely unintentional, the changeover.
After the first 10 minutes of freaking the out, I got my act together and found this forum, among others with not a single solution to my problem, or that of other users with a situation similar to mine.
I would simply like to know if anyone has been able to fix this problem.
As proof I've check other threads,
-This one is for an HTC Hero and in page 2, post #11, someone offers a possible solution, but the person referred to doesn't respond. And I can't really understand what it says.
-This one offers three posts of nothingness.
-This oneseems to have a user inventing a Battleship/Bingo hybrid with all them numbers and less-than-average use of periods.
I appreciate any help anyone offers. And if I posted this in the wrong section, feel free to move it as needed.
Again, thanks.
As a follow-up, today I realized that I could access the Play Store by using 3G only. I could also browse/download apps and use apps that require internet/data connections, such as Words with Friends and Draw Something.
Basically, all I lack now it internet access (I was able to download another browser even just to make sure it wasn't the original one that was FUBAR) and MMS capability (I can receive pictures, but not 100%; more like 90%).
Any thoughts or suggestions?

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