[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] jaybob413:
Thread Perspective

Seems like we go through cycles of conflict on the purpose of the thread on a regular basis, so thought I would add my .000000000000002 cents.

From a developer's viewpoint (having delivered ROM's, kernels, themes for about 5 years on XDA), here is my perspective:

Background:

One of the reasons that I don't spend more time in these threads is that the signal to noise ratio is highly skewed on the noise side. In addition to life, family, and work requirements, I am currently working with five different devices, updating our build/development environment and tools, and supporting the integration of non-nexus devices into AOSPA (and that's just on the android front). When I consider the number of posts I often have to go through to find even a single one that provides enough information to help me take any meaningful action, it gets hard to justify wading through the chaff. It really can be the case that less is more when it comes to providing value to the developers and the community.

What I would like to see:

Civility - using a tone and level of respect that would be appropriate for a face to face conversation with a close friend or relative. Err on the side of kindness and courtesy, due to the fact that tone and intent are much more difficult to discern in writing.

Clarity - describing a problem, bug, or issue in a way that allows it to be easily repeated, which means documenting the exact versions of sw/hw being used; a repeatable method for generating the issue; and a link (not a post) of the logcat/dmesg covering the time just before, during, and just after the situation. Sometimes it is also useful to have the logcat/dmesg from a fresh boot through initialization. Saying something doesn't work or asking does it do this or that does not typically allow any effective action to be taken.

Community - within the thread, I am encouraged when I see people supporting, collaborating, cooperating, educating, and sharing with each other. There are many examples of this behavior, but unfortunately it sometimes gets drowned out by the high noise level.

Support Channels - I also think there is plenty of room for additional support/faq/knowledge threads to carry the everyday support discussion for newcomers and capture common issues, tips, tricks, and general support that really doesn't belong in a "development" thread. I have seen this work very well over the years and my thanks/gratitude to those who chose to organize and capture what they have learned and make it available to others. However, in the limited time available, I don't have the capacity to take this on atm.

What I DON'T like to see:

Random Positivity - there is not a lot of benefit to anyone from the high number of posts that are: yay, thanks!, woot, yowza, or (insert favorite variant here). If you want to show appreciation, use the thanks button. That's what it's there for.

Random Negativity - don't like this ...; that sucks...; should have ...; the other thing is better ... or many other variations. People generally don't come to development threads to hear people complain.

Feature Requests - everyone has features they like, don't like, find indispensible, annoying, etc. Asking for new features, if/when new features will be available, arguing their merits, doesn't add to the discourse. Your developer community is very well aware of what features are available in other ROMs/devices, and if/when a determination is may to add a particular feature, it will very likely be by choice and not by demand.

ETA requests - this is just a waste of space. You are not going to get a response (at least not from me), so just don't do it.

Bickering - this is just a complete waste of time and is incredibly invasive/destructive to the spirit of community (See Civility above). Overactive egos, hormones, etc. really detract from developing an open clearing for communication.

Rants / Diatribes / Preaching - Like this one. But, since it's my thread, I will cut myself some slack just this once. ;)

Finally, I understand that the nature of the vehicle that is XDA allows everyone the freedom to impose their perspective on the community at large. The only real power we have is the power to leave the community and seek another.