[Samsung Mesmerize] ChromWolf:
I get the sense that a lot of the folks here like to rely on making people REEEEALLY hit the forums and read stuff (read: patience test) as a means of throttling just how quickly a new person comes into the forums and then proceeds to attempt device customization, and for better or worse, I get that---and for the most part, agree. Maybe I'm even just seeing things, but even so. *shrug*

I've been VERY hesitant to go doing stuff to my phone with all the "REED MOAR" warnings out there, since it's my lifeline phone; we haven't had a land line for several years now. But even for me, there's still plenty of stuff I just don't know, and I don't know that I want to sift through every single post on the forums just to find a little broader knowledge base, especially with the forums having the overload issues I've been seeing lately.

I like to be an informed buyer. I HATE impulse buying something because "this guy I know said it was cool". I want to know the EXACT nature of what I'm getting before I go for it---even if it's being provided to me for free (which XDA has in spades, which is SPECTACULAR. I LOVE that you guys pour your time into that for everyone else).

But I always get the feeling that I've missed most of the conversation when people throw around some of the acronyms still; like everyone just sorta already knows what it all means, and I'm the only one on the outside. XD ((Note: I'd like to call attention to bdemartino's [GUIDE] Newbie's Step-by-Step: From Stock USCC Mesmerize -> Custom Rom/Kernel as a specific exception to this rule; he answered a few of the questions I was going to post in this thread in his EC10 guide))

So here's where I'm going with this.

Could we set up, specifically in the Samsung Mesmerize general forum (and maybe the other forums as well, though that's a tall order, I see there are TONS of phone models supported at XDA!), a more advanced glossary? Like, if you don't know what a ROM or Flashing is, or Froyo vs. Eclair, you definitely *do* need more reading before jumping in (so they say), but I'm talking more specifics.

TL;DR: I'd love to see a stickied glossary thread I can come to that's updated regularly enough to keep up with the new terms, ROMs, etc. that come out, so the new(er) people, or those who aren't hanging out in the IRC channel (if that's where all this explaining is going on, LOL) can come to find out just what's out there for them to try.

Some specific terms I don't know, or formerly didn't know but managed to discover with some digging, that would make a great starter to the Glossary:

Pick-n-Pack

CWM Recovery

No-Clock

Puzzle Lock

5-lock

AOSP

Superclean

Please note I'm not after just a response that just list-answers what all of those are (though that would definitely be appreciated); as I say, I already know maybe half of them. I'm after a few sentences, a couple paragraphs, that define the specific nature of those terms so someone just coming into the Android thing like me can go to one place and read them over. Nothing with instructions, just definitions, lists of what's included if it's a ROM, etc.

Is that something we could do? Is it a bad idea in that it arms the over-anxious, not-yet-prepared new Android user with a dangerous level of information?