[About XDA developers] quicksite:
Let's get with the flow and add Droid and move on...

svetius: My view on this below:

The touchscreen industry is at a pivotal stage with Android's meteoric rise while at the same time the WindowsMobile brand is badly tarnished; and it is questionable whether their Sept 2010 late-late-late premiere of WM7 is going to be a game changer, or confirmation of Microsoft's head-in-sand business strategy. Wisely, XDA is rebuilding or enhancing their brand right now. XDA *HAS* been known for a long time to be THE PLACE for serious modding & development for touchscreen phones, but principally for the WM Platform. You've had to actually BE HERE all the years to also understand it was all based on HTC phones; the industry and its high-readership publications like engadget and gizmodo haven't a clue about that distinction -- nor should they.

But in the last 15 months, with the Android explosion, XDA -- sadly -- has ceded its position as the undisputed "GO TO" resource for "all things touchscreen hack/mod related"... giving rise to hundreds of Android forums opening up, each hoping to be the "be all- end-all" for Android phones.

To me the server load is exactly correct - because the demand is high. To base a decision on "add Droid?, don't add Droid?" based on server load is a total "tail wagging dog" way of thinking. (I understand, ratcom, you were simply making that observation, so this is addressed to svetius, not you :) ) For XDA to be rebuilding its presence -- and to drop the ball on this one -- would be so ridiculous as to (slight exaggeration) earn this site an annual DARWIN AWARD for one of most boneheaded moves of the year.

The holy division of XDA as "HTC only" has been broken. It's done. That genie is not going back into the bottle. Those who are sad about that and long for "just HTC", well, take your licks. That's over. The Motorola Droid should be such a no-brainer to include here that it baffles me what are we waiting for? The Droid broke new ground for several reasons, including a return to Motorola as a premier and trend-setting phone maker, but also one of the biggest brightest screens around, one of the latest Android OS phones, and fact that is on the USA's Verizon network, CDMA -- and prior to that, Android phones were principally GSM band phones.

I think it's time for XDA to get on board, or, despite its unquestioned WM dominance, start to be seen as just one of SEVERAL dominant sites one turns to when finding latest ROMS or home-grown apps for touchscreen phones. To me, that would be a pity. As for server load, there are many many ways to address this, including, SHOCK!! requiring a $2 USD membership fee a year to use XDA site. Or even a $1 USD a year membership fee. With over 263,000 *active* members of XDA on any given day here, do the math. Does it cost more than $263,000 USD to run the XDA servers?

If we're (using the royal "we") going to DO this at all, let's do it right, and quit putzing around on the Droid issue. Add it and regain unquestioned XDA positioning as #1 developer community -- bar none, or putz around even more, and threaten that status which took 5-6-7 years to build.

That's my argument... but that's just me :)