yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[About XDA developers] FrozenLord:
I really do like this concept and am looking forward so see the changes or improvements (hopefully) it brings along :)
[About XDA developers] gutsbn:
I agree with this decision, but let's see what happens, eh? May need tweaking, but it's better than the current free-for-all idiocy.

Every forum at some point gets to this point. This one is fairly tolerant: try posting the same level of rubbish on some more specialist forums.

Another option would a Stack Exchange site so we can police as a community given certain levels of rep: however I don't think it suits the content of XDA
[About XDA developers] dcheng11:
it'd be awesome to be an xda mod. i know i don't have many posts, but i hang around the hd2 forums basically everyday, and i could help patrol the forums a bit. i could send you guys a resume or something if you want to make sure i'm not gonna like be trolling or anything with my mod privileges lol.

on a side note, one suggestion would be to expand the staff. this could already be implemented and i just don't know it. maybe have a few for each forum (or subforum), and make it like device-specific. for example, like i said, i'm hanging around the hd2 forums all the time because that's my device and i like to be kept up to date with releases. it'd be kinda pointless for me (if i were a mod) to be moderating like the evo forum or something when i have no need to know about new evo releases. just a thought. i'd hate to see xda collapse because it gets too big. besides facebook and gmail, xda is probably my most visited site.
[About XDA developers] reinbeau:
Part of your solution is to have some kind of an 'unanswered posts' button so those who are inclined can respond to people with problems - they get attention in the ROM threads (where you don't want them) but can languish without answers in the Q &A areas.
[About XDA developers] DaveShaw:
I quite like this Idea :).

EDIT: Tagged with a [Q] and has 0 replies.

Dave
[About XDA developers] Biofall:
That system is already in place.

However, I agree that maybe they need more. For example, the Evo is consistently fighting for the number one most talked about device, yet there are around three (not sure, will check later) moderators assigned to the gazillion threads. These moderators are big time developers who aren't spending any time policing the threads.

A suggestion of mine would be to perhaps have a person or two per device who understand the rules fully, help sort stuff out, and who aren't super busy devs.

EDIT: Actually, here are the stats I came up with:

EVO Forums-

18805 Threads

469,850 Posts

1 Moderator. Toastcfh. A great dev/member of the community and an avid poster, but certainly not enough.

My opinion
[About XDA developers] pulser_g2:
Dave, that was one of the first things I was asked to add on my vBulletin install... It's a common one, can't believe we've not got it already :p

Will try and find the one for vB3

EDIT: Dave, check the usual place :)
[About XDA developers] craigyd:
I totally understand the move but I pretty much exclusively stalk the development forums... Hmm guess I better start inputting more! Hopefully it will be quality postings :)
[About XDA developers] Logicalstep:
Maybe a better idea would be to have a time delay of 10 days before a new registrant can post in the dev forums, this way people would be forced to look for an answer before posting and then if they really did need to post and were serious about asking the question they could do so after ten days.

I think this would really cut down on impulsive poster who can't be bothered to take the time to search. It would also cut-down on people spamming other threads to get their post count up.

Logicalstep
[About XDA developers] pulser_g2:
Well... there's one FSM, but there's also 50 senior mods, not assigned to any one forum, for when someone steps mega out-of-line or bans need to fly... I've been in the Evo section a bit, and a few other mods frequent it as well :)
[About XDA developers] pulser_g2:
Well... You will still have full read access to those forums :) Checked your posts and you've only made one post in dev, and one in Q&A, and this one :)

Looks like it should be quality, but if you're not in the habit of posting, you might find it takes you a while... I was on about 3 posts for a month or so :)
[About XDA developers] craigyd:
Yeh I was just a lil concerned it would block me writing a necessary infrequent post in the dev forums.... Meh, will just be a lil more involved!
[About XDA developers] DaveShaw:
That's the spirit :), and exactly what sergiopi was hinting at in his post earlier.

@P, I posted here for you to notice and copy ;)
[About XDA developers] Tweakssd:
The above applies to my own experience on so many points that quite frankly, I'm a bit freaked out. I frequent a few technical forums as anything from regular member to site leader.I registered here just recently, but have been lurking for a year or so. Your rules are, IMO, nothing out of the ordinary, straight forward, and makes sense. But, as mentioned above, I was reluctant to start posing questions that I failed to find through through searching, even though I have ailin few thousand posts on other tech forums. Android is still as new to me as tomorrow

I also have questions unanswered, as mentioned above. I always make my post in the place I believe is the right place. Sometimes I've discovered that I posted in to the wrong place, but then I take note of it and learn, so that I don't ignorantly keep posing stuff I've learned is appropriate elsewhere or not at all. As mentioned above (again), I come from forums where I know what I'm doing, at least compared to here. When I post here, I'm nervous about asking something that's been covered, but failed to find by search.

I love my Desire, and I got a Wildfire for my wife. I never touched her phone unless she asked. She uses my phone from time to time, and started asking about stuff. Now she also wants root. But she never heard about any forums or warnings about ota updates. A quick search lead me to some poor guys being told that ifthey're on official froyo, they must be too stupid to pull of the procedure if it becomes available again.

Aside from that, my personal impression of this forum is very good overall. And it needs to still offer this great comprehensive service and source of information. In order to best assure this to continue in a manner that suits givers and takers alike, adjustments and rules must evolve at a proportional rate with the community. You can't please every single one with any decision.you can only observe what yields the most satisfying result/effect.

Regards,

tweak
[About XDA developers] reinbeau:
Maybe it would be an incentive to actually use the tags (I know I'm guilty of not using them, I'm going to try harder going forward), because the tags will make it more likely that the question will actually be answered.

I do like the 'two thread' suggestion for ROMs, but I can also understand that would make it twice as much work for a developer to participate in, read and answer two threads instead of one.
[About XDA developers] lionzzz:
It´s my first postin xda i normally read first and ask later. I hope to be usefull in this forum. The major problem is my poor english and i think that is the mane problem some user not to post ...
[About XDA developers] Biofall:
I do realize that there are a ton of those senior mods who go around. I appreciate them and the huge stuff is usually caught.

Do you see the merit, however, in having one or two more dedicated device-specific mods who are perhaps not developers? Ideally, the developer would have no life and spend all his/her time devving and then moderating their threads, but that's ridiculous and definitely not feasible.

There are an abundance of truly helpful users who spend large amounts of time on this great site simply aiding and redirecting people. I say some people like that with some admin privileges could do a lot of good.
[About XDA developers] newalopez:
Good news, hope to hear more of those changes in the near future.

I have notification by email on important threads, but I receive pretty often posts like 'that's good to hear?' ... maybe the notifications should be by parameter, as an example, if the new post it's from jarpelea (developer) then do, people that has less than 100 post, no notification then.

something like that (sorry for my crappy english).
[About XDA developers] pulser_g2:
That's an interesting idea :) The feature doesn't exist in vBulletin to do it, but it would be nice...

And btw, your English there is perfect :)
[About XDA developers] pulser_g2:
The applications are open to anyone with more than 6 months on the site, who can show they've been a good "citizen" on XDA, to cut it short.

You can see the announcements in about xda for application details - it's open to non-devs, but the committee chooses from those who apply... Simple as that :) so yes, a lot of mods are non-devs, but conversely, I can spend hours a week dealing with stripping ROMs apart, so dev mods are important too :) (not that you were saying otherwise, just observing :D)
[About XDA developers] cjward23:
I think this is a good idea. Like many of the the people who have commented on this thread I'm not a developer but a very keen xda member. I'm more of reader than a talker and when I do post I all ways Search first and ask questions second.

I'm sure like lots of other members, I spend all day lurking round the dev forum waiting for updates of my favorite rom. And it really winds me up having to read the same question over and over again.

I dread to think how many times people have asked how to flash CM7 in the Desire Z / G2 forums, its in the first post, someone even wrote a guide for noob's in the Q & A section, but everyday I head to the Dev threads and again someone is asking about CWM 2.5.... and not being able to flash a froyo rom after flashing CM7.

I think any restrictions that can be put in place to stop irelevant posts is a good thing.

Sent from my CM7 powered Desire Z
[About XDA developers] Biofall:
I'll check it out and send a few PMs to some people I know
[About XDA developers] smokestack76:
Oh the mods apps have been closed for awhile. I think i have the time frame down as well..could just be me.

but i would like to see this happen. With higher post count too!!!!!
[About XDA developers] DaveShaw:
They've been re-opened.

http://xdaforums.com/announcement.php?a=75
[About XDA developers] svetius:
Hi Everyone,

This is a really great discussion. We really appreciate the input-- I have been taking notes while reading this thread. A few comments:

1. All long-time XDA members won't be impacted by this change--you guys will all be "upgraded" automatically regardless of post count. The change is really only meant to stop new people who visit XDA for the first time, register, post without reading the rules, and then leave never to be heard from again (all within a day or two).

2. For those worried new users will just spam 10 posts to other forums-- I doubt this will happen very often. With our flood time for new users, this would take 45 minutes of effort. I think most people just looking to post crap (or already answered questions) will find it easier to just search and read for a few minutes.

3. Devs who want to let new users ask questions about a piece of software should create a "support" thread within Q&A. I know this is sub-optimal, but it's one sacrifice we'll have to make to try out this new policy.

4. Finally, we are working on rolling out English language URLs to the forums (with forum names and thread names in the URLs as opposed to forum ids and thread numbers). We hope to roll this out to one or two test forums within a month and then the whole site soon after. The primary benefit of this will be to allow us to set up forum-specific (and maybe even thread-specific) Google searches. Hopefully these will be much, much better than the standard vB searches.

Thanks again,

Svetius
[About XDA developers] smokestack76:
Sweet mother of god!!!. You are correct. I have waited years for this!!!

I do regret not being helpfull enough though. Oh well. Passes over again.................
[About XDA developers] smokestack76:
I agree all the way. Every point is valid.
[About XDA developers] pulser_g2:
LMAO. Someone's excited :p

Didn't you think I was perhaps alluding to something when I detailed the application process? ;)

Dave, get ready for a tidal wave now :p
[About XDA developers] dvgrhl:
For points 1 and 2, a 24 hour delay between registration and ability to make your first post would probably handle those problems for the most part. I personally don't like post count minimums as that will lead to posts that aren't useful or wanted. Look at how many good standing xda members, even in this thread, don't have more than 10 posts. If they haven't had the use for posting elsewhere, this rule would force them to do so. So why do we want people making posts they normally wouldn't just to be able to make the post they do want? Rather than having new members focus on making 10 posts so that they can ask a question in Development, their focus should be on attempting to find the solution to the problem themselves. A first-post delay helps motivate them to do that.

For point 3, rather than use Q&A, what about making a sub-forum under Development specifically for these types of threads?

For point 4, that's great to hear as improved searching will only help with this, as well as be useful for everyone else.
[About XDA developers] smokestack76:
Yeah be ready lol. Its giod to see them open again. Even if i dont make it :-)
[About XDA developers] smokestack76:
Not sure i follow you. To me its alot better to have a "bug" thread than a 5000 count thread. Plus without all the how do i flash....or flash a modem threads it will be alot better. Do many of those with 1 post count.
[About XDA developers] Dissenter:
That's exactly what I was talking about. The poster said it will just encourage users to make 10 quick garbage posts. In that case, a ban is the proper course of action. I certainly don't suggest it as a standard :eek:
[About XDA developers] DaveShaw:
A deletion of all posts and a few days off should discourage those who do ;):D

Dave
[About XDA developers] thx1200:
I have never found the forums to be overloaded with crap. There's crap, for sure, but at no greater rate than any other site. And not at any rate that is so high where it prevents me from doing what I need to do.

Honestly, it doesn't bother me at all. I have like 700+ posts now (I don't even remember -- nor care). I think it would have really turned me off if I had to post 10 before posting my first developer post. I probably would have just gone somewhere else and stayed there. I know I posted an app to XDA before I had 10 posts. And I'm pretty sure my first ten were not in the non-dev forums.

I wish I had a solution that would please everybody. I have to say that the partial forum lock is certainly better than a private club with invitations or something like that.

So my take is, it's fine the way it is. Haters will always hate. XDA rocks hard the way it is. :-)

What would prevent somebody from doing ten spam posts in the general forum to gain access to the developer forum? If there's no time limit or moderator approval to prevent that, it's actually making the problem worse, not better. Sure you can just ban the user afterwards, but it creates a mountain of new moderation crap in the interim.

Anyhoo... I must conclude: I LOVE XDA. LONG LIVE XDA. :-)
[About XDA developers] crax0r:
I think that the admins should lock the site if more junk keeps coming... no registrations, no posts, only able to download and view posts. They go through every thread, and either delete it or leave it. Then when the forum is clean open it. They can do this a thread at a time so there wont be much downtime. It will take a very long time but is needed. I come from the Eris forum and I've seen pages of spam there. Admins and moss should be much more strict on this matter... banning if necessary.
[About XDA developers] Product F(RED):
If I may,

I'm a moderator on PSPMod.com (which ironically now handles multiple consoles) and we also have a minimum number of required posts before new members can post in other sections of the site. We have a "Beginner's Section" (which we might relabel) under each console subforum and those are the only sections they can post in before hitting 25 posts. That way, we can filter out those users who join the site to ask a simple question and then never return. On top of that, it cuts down and isolates spam from multiple sources. I just want to say that 10 posts is way too little, since even we on PSPMod have users who post random things so they can access other subforums and the download section. You should consider making it 20-25 posts.

Also, try and put up a time buffer that you have to wait before you can post again in any thread. Say, 30 seconds. That way if they try and bs their first 10 / 25 posts, they'll have to sit for a while and eventually give up.
[About XDA developers] youngpic48:
Thats not good news for people like me...I havent been an android user for more than 6 months and I have three Android phones (N1, SGS I9000 and Galaxy Spica). I just recently felt like I was ready to start flashing Roms and Kernals (Galaxy Spica)and I read more than I post. I ask very few questions because most guides are very well written. But when I do ask for help its because I'm totally lost. I love this site because I use it as a tool to determine my next phone or my next app to install. Just give users three strikes and a ban if they are out of line or creat threads with no merit. XDA4Life!
[About XDA developers] Product F(RED):
Don't take this negatively, cause it isn't, but your case is an irregular one. Besides, you're already of the 10 post limit, so you're fine.

From a moderator and administrator's perspective, what you're suggesting is easier said than done. Mods can't chase after every user who spams to beat the measure. And you can't really offset the work onto users by making them report each spam post because then the mods' inboxes get filled with notification emails and they'll have to ban the users one by one and take care of their posts. What has been suggested originally is fine. We want to prevent the problem, not take care of it AFTER the damage has been done.
[About XDA developers] warriorvibhu:
A Small Suggestion

Dear Admins/Mods

I am in love with this site since more than 2 years and yes I agree with the fact that more junk is coming up. The sheer volume of threads with same questions repeated multiple times and people abusing/bad mouthing the devs because some app crashed on them or even abuse for no reason ( which i faced recently ) has increased a lot.

My suggestion::

Forum Mods should make a sticky thread with the name "All problems here" and put up links to all FAQs that are solved or (may i suggest posting all general problems here and linking to the posts with problem and solution in the very first post ), and people who post already solved problems should be warned about reading, searching and then posting.​

Creation of new threads should only be allowed to people with more than 25 posts. Also a thread with name "Introduce yourself" should be created in each smartphone section along with general, development, theme and apps etc sections so that if someone wants to post useless stuff to reach the 10 and 25 post mark .. they can do it here. This way we can always have a thread we can purge without the fear of loosing some development.​

Thanks and regards

Vibhu
[About XDA developers] Bill Noneya:
Strange that I use my first post to comment on restrictions for new users posting in development forums. What may be even stranger is that i agree 100% with doing it. Just to clarify though, these restrictions are only for developer forums correct?
[About XDA developers] GrilledCheze:
I agree that something needs to be done, and I am fine with the post count rule (having 5 posts now, I would be affected, but I have a feeling my post count will be skyrocketing soon.). I also am not a developer, so I have no real need to post in the development sections.

That being said, I would like to offer an alternative method. There is a social networking site here in Japan called Mixi (mixi dot jp). Up until about a year ago, they had 2 barriers to entry: you MUST be invited (now removed), and you MUST provide a valid cellular email. (In Japan, all of the providers give you an email address with your phone.) These two barriers make things personal. If I invite some jerk into the site, I am responsible for his actions as well - make the punishments two levels deep - ban the jerk and remove my inviting ability. I realize that the whole world doesn't have cellular email, but everywhere I know of has SMS. This will force users to supply REAL credentials and remove anonymity which will also make people think twice before making a stupid post. Personally, I think these two barriers would go a long way to improving the quality of user on this site.

I've been a lurker since 2006, a member since 2008, and became active late last year. I want to see this site grow in the most positive way possible. Now...back to trying to figure out how to unlock my SC-02B :P
[About XDA developers] deyna:
I'm mostly a lurker myself but I do agree that it may cut down on the junk posts so I've got to agree with your decision as well. I've seen forums slowly succumb to spam and the like and I don't want to see it happen here
[About XDA developers] Bill Noneya:
Hate to make another post but I used to run run Vbulletin forums for several sites and I have some suggestions.

We had this very same problem and we tried out the remedy you are trying now. It didnt work as planned.

Our solution was this. We made a sub forum under every release forum called discussion forum.

For example:

HTC HD7 Release Forum

-----HTC HD7 Release discussions

Release forums were set so that only those in the developer usergroup could post and reply. The discussion sub forums were set to not allow file attachments other than pictures or links to outside websites. We also set up where there could be attachments in Private messages.

I hope these suggestions were useful. If any of you used to be into DSS stuff you've probably seen my work. Im retired from that hobby though.:)
[About XDA developers] dharvey4651:
I propose a different method(tried and tested a long time ago,on my own, now dead forum.

Prohibit users from posting in any thread until the following conditions are met:

1. They have been registered for 24 hours - giving them plenty of time to read.

2. They have read the rules and "signed off" on them by pressing the "I Agree" button.

Prohibit users from creating a new thread in the development forum(they can post in existing threads still after above conditions are satisfied) until 2 conditions are met.

1. They have been registered for a full calendar week.

2. They have at least 10 posts.

This system worked for me on my own forum in the past. The quality of posts was far more valuable than what we have seen in recent months here on XDA.

I personally have closed 2 of 3 IDENTICAL threads in HD2 WM6.5 ROM Development today. They were identical in title and content. No reason for thread 2 and 3 to be created other than the fact that the user did not get his answer the first time and felt the need to repeat himself over and over. Needless to say he was warned.

This is the kind of users that the newer "user-friendly" operating systems are attracting. This is the quality of posts that ALL forums are receiving right now.

I for one, do not agree with the 10 post limitation before posting in Development forums. I feel that my forums get enough spam every day that I really don't care to clean up another 1,000 more posts, every day. Also, you know that we will see "Get your post count up" threads pop up all over the place.

Something else needs to be figured out...

My 2 cents..
[About XDA developers] eyeballer:
Great idea :)

/me casually points to http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?p=8989292#post8989292