[Touch Pro, Fuze ROM Development] redgarter437:
McMex & All:

I agree that the quality of posts has gone down on these forums. Like you (and I remember you from then, actually!), I've been browsing and downloading ROMs from these forums from the Wizard days. My impetus for this was simple: I wanted something faster and more stable than my stock Cingular ROM.

Maybe I didn't join right away -- it's simple really. I DIDN'T HAVE ANYTHING CONSTRUCTIVE TO ADD, and I felt that everyone's replies and comments were totally out of my league. I just read them, soaking up what was being said around me, and using that knowledge to FIX problems I had with whichever ROMs I was using at the time.

I'm sure I was naive when I first joined, and I know that I am STILL naive. I work 50-60 hours per week, and I use my phone as a primary tool for this. I've been using Windows Mobile -- nee, Windows CE -- for work AND school since Version 1 with my Casio Cassiopia. Since then I've gone through lots of hardware, lots of software, and lots of cellular technology -- hacking RAZRs, HP PDAs, and Windows itself along the way.

Again, I admit my ignorance. I can't dig deep into DLL files, but I can follow directions. And most chefs do post in their threads on how to fix problems with their ROMs -- even since the Wizard days. What I find revolting, though, is the carelessness of the user base these days. It takes almost the same amount of overall effort to use the "SEARCH" button as it does to use the "REPLY" or "POST" buttons, but nobody thinks of doing this. In the Wizard days you were ostracized for this -- or outright BANNED for this. Now it's tolerated, and talented chefs have left us over it.

Most chefs cook ROMs for the fun of it. I've never had the gift -- I've tried to cook using kitchens, but something's always amiss and I don't have time to find what the problem is. And I know that chefs hate this type of user. I'm sorry guys, but I *am* a USER, plain and simple, and I'm sorry if my posts (as few as they are) have offended any of the chefs out there. But I digress...

The purpose of cooking ROMs is to make our phones more stable, faster, and usable than the stock carrier ROM. We learn how to problem-solve along the way (even us "power users"), and when there's truly a problem the good chef is quick to do whatever possible to try to fix it. Some problems are fixable, some aren't, and that's the nature of the beast.

Over the last 4-5 years, though, these forums have changed. We (as a community) have changed, from "power users and hackers" to "USERS" and "LEECHERS". That's not to say we still don't have fair share of super hardcore buffs here (Da_G that's pointed STRAIGHT at you!), but the guy that posts "Where is the link for the ROM?" 47 pages deep in a thread has NO BUSINESS flashing ANYTHING other than a carrier ROM on their phone.

Our success has made this possible. We've created almost literally one-touch unlocking -- so easy it's idiot proof! -- and this type of "easiness" has made our forum accessible to even the most basic of Windows Mobile phone users. It no longer takes someone with a daring spirit and a fear of the unknown to hack our phones -- all it takes is a USB cable (optional at that even!) and a charged battery. And this "USER" base is very much a mirror of the "Consumer" culture: I want it all, I want it to work right the first time, and I want it now, and **** YOU if it doesn't work right, it should have!

How sad that we have come to this. We are losing top quality chefs not because we don't have Moderators that care, not because we don't have VERY talented chefs, but because we have become too mainstream for our own good. Our success breeds our failure.

I'm not sure there's a way to solve the problem, other than to have chefs moderate their own threads, and delete stupid comments that have already been answered. But to do this would make the chef spend half the time cooking, and the other half of the time moderating their thread.

We must become a subculture again, not a mainstream, and I thoroughly believe that's the way we can survive and thrive!!!

</rant>