[About XDA developers] garyd9:
(This is an edited repost of something I posted privately)

This is in regards to the "android development" and "original android development" subsections within each device section.

The simple FACT is that "Device_name Android Development" is usually filled with firmware for "Device_name" phone, and "Device_name Original Android Development" is usually filled with kernels for that same phone. There are some exceptions, but not many.

Assuming a touchwiz device (but feel free to replace "touchwiz" with "blur" or "sense"), most of the so-called ROM's in android dev are the result of tweaking various aspects of the touchwiz firmware and repacking it. build.prop changes, CSC changes, some smali changes/repacks, etc.

There are also many so-called "ROM's" that are nothing more than changing the build.prop file, and pulling in someone else's modifications.

Most of the "built from source" stuff here is actually a port from a larger project (and those are usually originated on nexus devices and ported from there.) I ported AOKP to the i9300 and I can tell you that it consisted of AOKP's base code and a device tree (which was proprietary binaries, copies from other devices, and most of the original work was mostly from teamhacksung.) The only work I had to do was fixing the LED libs (and purposely leaving a broken copy of that lib in my github for the pirate who stole it.)

As well, I've never actually seen a fully original kernel here for an android device (assuming anything based on linux could be called original.) They are all either based on OEM sources for that device or based on OEM sources for a similar device. Several device kernels are worse than that: they are 100% OEM code with nothing but cherry-picks. Not much "development" work there. (Yes, there are several people who do much, much more. They are the exception and not the rule.)

Then again, even assuming that people aren't posting 100% cherry-picks are original work, THE SECTIONS ARE MISLABELED ANYWAY:

How many threads in a given device's "android development" or "android original development" include anything related to development? If the thread's OP is essentially an advertisement for a firmware that's prepackaged and ready to install, that isn't "development." If a person posts a question in a firmware thread asking how a given mod was done, the answer is usually (depending on the post type) either "look at my github" or "just use apktool to look."

Here's a typical firmware or kernel thread: The first 1 to 3 posts are a description of the product, a possible list of credits and changelog, and a download link. In the case of kernels, a github link is also often given. The remaining posts in any of these threads can be summarized as: "thank you", "how is this different from XYZ?", "how do I install this?", "Will you add ABC?", "here's a paypal confirmation number that is meaningless to you but lets everyone know I sent you money", "you bricked my device", "moderator cleaning the thread", etc.

Where's the development?

I'm not saying that the firmware/kernel itself didn't involve development effort - I'm saying that the threads posted are SUPPORT and ADVERTISEMENT threads, and not DEVELOPMENT threads.

So here's the suggestion I'm making for ANDROID device-specific sections:

Drop the "android development" and "original android development" sections for each device and replace them with "Alternative Firmware" and "Alternative Kernels." THAT is what is really in those sections. For devices with less traffic, it might make sense to combine both into "Alternative firmware/kernels."

Then, if a given section gets flooded, subsections can be put in, such as "Alt.firmware.touchwiz" or "alt.firmware.sense" and "alt.firmware.compiled".

(Obviously, the sections/subsections would need better names. Only a developer would be comfortable with dot.naming.)

For those very few threads that actually are development (the process) and not a product (the result of development), there's a development discussion section (or perhaps there will be.)

Take care

Gary