[MTCB Android Head Units General] MikeChannon:
I suppose it was inevitable that things would not work perfectly in everyone's mind with this transition. Probably it shouldn't have been allowed to get as far as it did before some additional forums were set up. (unavoidably therefore some people are going to say, "I only had one place to look in before, now I've got several places to look, this isn't better, it's worse"). This always happens when a device(s) grows in interest to a point where it has to be split.

The forums that were created are broadly the same as for any other device here at XDA. In fact devices also have separate themes and Apps and Accessories forums in addition. What may make it appear different is the fact these new forums are coming under Android Auto which isn't technically correct and we may sort that out, but essentially you now have very similar forums to other devices.

I know

for some

who had lived with the old enormous thread and knew where things were, this was bound to feel like disorganisation rather that making life simpler. However, I received numerous complaints that things were getting messy and impossible to find because they were not categorized into standard forums with shorter threads.

That said, if you want a general thread as someone suggested, then have one.

I saw someone suggest that several devices use the same software and don't need separate threads. I understand that although that's a difficult message to get across to newer users who don't realize this and create new threads. It may sound simple to merge such threads together but merging causes confusion as they merge in date order and and you end up with a mess of posts that don't follow each other and make sense anymore. My experience also tells me that when we've tried merging in the past we get angry users saying things like "you might think these devices are the same or use the same software but you are wrong, there are subtle and important differences and I created a new thread for a reason!!!, now you merged it and created a mess". Not sure I have an easy answer to this point.

I saw a user above say he wasn't happy with his posts being separated out into different threads though he did understand it was for good intentions. From my point of view I don't mind if certain posts are

copied

back to the huge thread but keep in mind we're all trying to create something that will work going forward for new users and for people who are familiar with our standard types of forum.

I'm not sure of the value in re-opening the long thread. I'm not against it as a sort of general discussion place, but I feel that distinct items shoould now be entered in the appropriate forum.

Overall, the feedback I've had is positive. Generally folk say they now know where to look even if it does mean watching/bookmarking more than one thread/forum. Painful for some but it was always going to happen with a popular type of device. You know before, (and I use a head unit myself), there is no way on earth I would have attempted to read through a 2100 page thread, but after these new forums/threads have been created I've begun to take an interest. This is important, people arriving here as new users and from other device forums expect to find things appropriately organized and in a fairly standard way, although I completely understand that this will be annoying and feel like extra work finding things for those that built up the existing long threads. We need to give it time I think and let it settle. That's not to say you can't discuss specific things with Alex who can move or copy things to achieve best results... keep in mind though that we do need ultimately to split things up even if we need to feel our way a bit for a while.

Mike