[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] :
Okay, I've had enough. I've been around since '06, and have been a part of various forums since about 1999. In that time I've seen quite a bit. While I appreciate the mods concern for order, I think their overreaction only adds fuel to the fire.

As I see it, mods are blaming users, and while there is some truth to their claim, this is only a part of the problem. There are some infrastructural problems that management needs to address.

1. Xda has outgrown its original purpose. To say that it is a forum for developers alone is untrue, and has been untrue for a very long time. If that were the case, management would have restricted posting ability to developers. In reality, this site is a business that sells advertising and the more members, posts, and pages, the more ad revenue it can command and thus generate.

2. The moderated forum system is inadequate for such a large operation. With the influx of so many users, mods sometimes get overwhelmed and overreact to situations. The same thing happens in any kind of law enforcement: in an attempt to maintain order, overwhelmed officers who feel besieged respond with excessive force. This is not the faults of the mods; this is a management issue.

3. Xda cuts across several countries, languages, cultures, and age groups. The idea that there is one universal standard of determining relevance is, in a word, ludicrous. The notion that these multiple people from these various perspectives will share a common understanding of what constitutes a "development" issue versus a "q& a" issue is even more ludicrous. Fact is, these definitions are slippery and porous, not to mention the fact that forcing devs to have two threads actually creates more fragmentation and more need for searching and more moderation and more frustration in troubleshooting.

4. The forum system, as implemented by xda and many other sites, rewards posting, not reading. Don't believe me? What is seniority based on? Where do we look first to judge the credibility of a poster? Who do we give most props to - the person on xda for 3 months with 1000 posts, or a person on for 3 years with 100?

5. The much-sung search function sucks! Seriously! Have you used it recently? It is slow,clunky, and antiquated. Moreover, searching requires knowing specific keywords, slang terms, tech jargon, and acronyms - all of which are rapidly changing. Do you really expect members to know all of this before they ask a question?

6. Xda needs to carefully monitor the donation system. When people donate to a dev, it (quite rightly) creates certain expectations. That's ok when the devs can deliver, but when, for whatever reasons, they can't and make up all kinds of excuses, that produces ire. Ironically, those who solicit donations of cash or devices, often retort that they are just developing as a hobby. If that's the case, do your developing at your own expense, and if the community finds your contribution worthwhile, it will reward you. I personally think that this practice seriously undermines xda, and we've seen its devastating effects in this sub-forum.

Xda is suffering growing pains and is in the middle of an identity crisis, not unlike many in its new age demographic. How management and mods respond will determine its fate. If they overreact and overreach, they will lose the mature members and developers like M&S who have made xda such a great place. If they play to the immature and act like overbearing parents, they will encourage childish behavior.

What xda needs is a new, clearer vision and identity. It needs a new format to replace the dead forum format. It needs a new reward system that recognizes both reading and making meaningful contributions, and not just posting. (Thanking is not enough.) It needs better search capabilities. It needs better-trained, seasoned, and more mature mods. It needs all of us to cool down and to stop the posturing and flaming. It needs us to be as patient with each other as we want others to be with us.

Have you ever seen a once-flourishing forum die? I did, and it is not pretty.