[About XDA developers] byte_rider:
Constructive critics about this website

I am a new member, but it's not the first time I visit this site. I have some critics about it and some recommondations. First I want to say, that I see, that there has been many hours of work dedicated to this site and I am thankfull for that. The critics and recommondation aims only to make this site even better.

There are some places where it is stated, that this is a place for people like developers and not so much for noobs. For example here: http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1282679

While I understand that noobs can be dependend (not cappable to work on their own) and hence sometimes annoying, I think we should all keep in mind, that we all began as noobs.

I think when so many people have difficulties understanding the topics, find the right places to read up and similar problems, than we should take that serious and think about the reasons for that. I think the reason is partially in the structure of this website.

I find it pretty hard to even get a rough overview over the work that people do here. I obviosly I am not the only one.

I think the reason is that the forum is used for documentation and wiki is used rarely. I would recommend to do general documentation in the wiki. I think it is the better tool for that, than the forum. The forum has it's right to exist, of course.

There is site we can take as example: http://ubuntuusers.de/ . It is a German community of ubuntu users. There is a forum and a wiki at the portal, too, like here. The wiki is really great. It is well structured. Have a look at it: http://wiki.ubuntuusers.de/Startseite

Even if you don't understand the German language I think you get the idea. When I do something with ubuntu for the first time and need more information, that is my first place to look. If I need more information, than I might use the forum. And now I can ask the RIGHT questions, about thing that are not documented well in the wiki. Wouldn't that be an improvement for this site, too?

In the XDA developers wiki I could imagine articles about:

smartphone hardware

smartphones OSes

smartphone applications

GNU/Linux and Android compatibility

native GNU/Linux for smartphones

GNU/Linux in a sandbox / VM on smartphones

ROM flashing and warranty

building ROMs

ROM flashing

OS releases

etc.

Partially this information is already availibe in the forum and we have the experts and knowledge here. Even the structure of the forum may be partially applicable to the wiki. So I would recommend to start moving knowledge from the forum into the wiki.

A point where I am not sure how to solve is device specific solutions. I think it would relatively easy to find the right places for general topics. When it gets to application of those topics to specific devices it is not so easy anymore. The ubuntuusers.de wiki articles often start with a statement like this: "This information is mostly applicable to all ubuntu releases.". But sometimes there are changes made in the history of ubuntu and then the compatible releases are stated at the top of the article or solutions for different releases are documented. Sometimes there are known problems to specific releases which are mentioned at the corresponding place in or at the end of the article.

We should think about a propper solution applicable to the smartphone topic.

I think the best reason for moving documentation from the forum to the wiki is this:

With better structed and easy to find information, there will be more experts at XDA developers. All, new members and existing experts - the whole community - will profit!

I am ready to do my part and write articles right now. There are some knowledge gaps in my brain, but I am able to do my part.

Now before I start working on the wiki, I would like to hear your opinion.

EDIT: I already started working on the wiki. Sry for my impatience but i wanted to get some things done. Right now I have some time and I can't say if this will be the case in the future. I would still like to see an admin, moderator or active member to support me at least in that way that I want to restructure the navigation a little bit and I don't want to bother you.

To be presice: I want to get a clear and not overloaded navigation on the main page. Todo that I would like to move the devices stuff to a devices page. I don't think that all devices should be on the first page.