yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[About XDA developers] NeoS:
Then, I can relate to the objections. Most problems are caused by new threads like "plz help me!!" I remember when I first joined xda, I posted a question in a ROM development thread. I wonder if this will solve our problem, or hold off new users wanting to learn.

Now, If it WERE only applied to creating new threads in development, it would still be alot better, and less restricting to new members.
[About XDA developers] bmdixon:
Maybe this should be tried first? See if it helps, if not restrict all posting. I think the current plan is too restrictive. Whatever the decision is I hope it helps.

Most of my posts have been in the dev forum, don't think many were questions; i've tried to help people where I can.
[About XDA developers] jase81:
i fink its a good idea but op's shuld mod there threads and clean up
[About XDA developers] pulser_g2:
This feature doesn't exist unfortunately, as we've looked before.

Also, what about if an OP decides to go deleting anything critical of his ROM or reporting issues? We'd have threads with posts getting deleted because they criticised the ROM or developer all the time, and people complaining about that...
[About XDA developers] timothydonohue:
i vote that it be 25 posts, not 10.

hopefully, that would force people to actually read before posting. the same question doesn't need posted in a thread 89 times.
[About XDA developers] WarByte:
I honestly believe that all these changes are justified by what happens at the forum. Some may be of a lot of help while some others not quite.

There are two sides of the equation that people need to understand. There is no development without noobs. They thank, provide feedback, some (very few) flame you for not developing a "good" thing or not having what they need. This is just the way it is and there is just a limit as to how much that can be controlled.

If this were a pure developers site then there are things you would expect like more in depth questions, elevated technical background, and everybody would know what we're talking about when we say "compiler", "runtime", "framework". If this were the case then there would also be some sort of admission process as not all people meet this expectations, but this is not what we're dealing with.

The truth is, in such a mixed environment like this one, there is always gonna be people who: do not read the agreement, do not know about the rules (because they choose not to read them) and might not even know how to use a computer effectively. All these cases are more a matter of changing the individual's behavior, which we can't.

Not all but most developers do not like reading, explaining, going into tiny, obvious (for us) details, and do not even mention writing help docs or guides. That one is a killer and the guides written out there, much respect for them. Most new people don't like reading, searching, investing time in understanding a process, looking at what the other guy is doing and experimenting just in case it works.

To me the developer's behavior is not so much of a problem as solutions and cool stuff come out and whoever wants to give it a try then there you go, simple, help is offered as possible, done.

The noob's case is more of a problem as similar questions get asked, countless unanswered threads are open, and before you know it there are thousand of posts without any useful information at all. As a fatal consequence, newer members have a tougher time swimming through all this useless information, give up and post making this even worse. This is therefore more a subject of control.

The issue here is what form of control is effective is what would be a debate. Just the post count sounds like something easy to defeat. It wouldn't be a problem just to spam 10 "thanks" around the forums. Does it sound reasonable to think of a better way to allow posts into the development area, maybe some sort of post count + time since the account is active + time around the forum? Creating new threads should require a little more experience, or at least a mod's approval. There are way too many questions already answered that are still being opened as new threads. I know some might not agree because this would stop people with some experience but with new accounts to post but I would suggest to judge: more time dedicated to the forum and making it cleaner vs a total mess most people fight to find they way around and posts all around. Anyway, just wanted to express my thoughts on this.
[About XDA developers] zaidshb:
I guess these changes will dramatically change the way people interact around here because users usually tend to avoid using a multi-step action to do an easy task.

anyway, i wanted to say that i have had a forum in the past and i used a hack to put a button in a the new thread or new post that says "search for the same topic". this hack will search for the same sentence written in the subject area.

it worked well for me and hope it works here too.

regards

spider05906
[About XDA developers] banshee28:
I think its a great idea based on the many "junk" posts I have seen in some recent threads! I also agree that it seems like XDA "quality" is going down somewhat with these posts so hopefully this will clean most of this up.... 10 posts is probably a good start. :cool:
[About XDA developers] d34th:
I agree fully with this method. The minimum of 10 posts have been done on another forum, the end result was that it didn't fix the problem. People would still post hateful comments. Another system that can be implemented is that if the user posted something retarded. Just report them to remove there right to post for a short period of time.
[About XDA developers] jigners:
the planned changes, i believe is hinged in the general impression that a large majority of new

members are - like many of us when we started as newbies - naive and dont spend

enough time reading the rule book in the first place. whereas i admire the mods and admins

in doing their best in creating forum rules and its simple straight forward tone.

drawback:

1. For one thing, and as has been pointed out by a few people, is the alienation that

the community might do to new members. (again this may not apply to the vast majority as i

believe any newbie who are really enthusiastic may not only possess a good sense of

community spirit and camaraderie but also knowledgeable in the technical

side of things, like programming and developing.)

may i also suggest:

Forum and Marketplace Rule

Forum Rules by mikechannon

not only should be on top of any list in all devices,

but highlight this prominently

particularly the areas where their is a high

volume of traffic.

thanks,

Cesar
[About XDA developers] okie03:
May i suggest the number of post to be more than 10? I am still new but i noticed a lot of new members are always anxious to post comments, or just say am downloading right now, or just ask a question someone already ask and issue as been resolved. This is just what i feel.
[About XDA developers] pulser_g2:
Well, if I see any "downloading now" or "kthxbai" contentless posts, I just delete them, which reduces post count and makes me inclined to check their past posts.

The thanks button stops some of this. But for users below 5 posts, they won't get this due to abuse restrictions. They need to remember this is no excuse to make a worthless post. Staying quiet and appreciating developers is possible :)
[About XDA developers] pulser_g2:
All I can say is "+1", but in light of discussion about worthless posts, had better flesh it out a bit :)

Very good points, and I can see some thought went into this.
[About XDA developers] 651stp:
I have to say, im really glad this is going into effect. I agree with the suggestions/rules that you guys are going to set.

My View:

Honestly when people are new and get stuck they are going to want to ask questions and get answers "immediatly" thus the reason they post in "development" section because it has the most traffic. I've been thinking about this a lot lately and i think that if there were a IRC chnnl for the device, it should be pinned and that should be the way people should go about asking for help in the early stages. Its much easier to get help in an IM then posting multiple times and waiting. Maybe a stickied topic witch the irc channel and a breif description on how to set it up and get connected would be a big help to people who unfamiliar with it also.

My 0.02¢
[About XDA developers] douger1957:
I'm kind of conflicted on this new policy.

Yeah, like a lot of people, I'm kinda sick of seeing twenty pages in a thread with the same inane questions.

But what if a newbie does have a legitimate question or better yet, something truly useful to contribute to the discussion?

It's no skin off my butt...I've got plenty of posts, and I really hope none of them have been of the stupid variety. Just something to consider.
[About XDA developers] ludionis:
I almost think a better solution would be....

1: Limit posts to development section to devs/mods only. Mods grant approval for individuals wishing to upload, share, or otherwise make meaningful contributions. No newbie questions/posts, period.

2: Create a subforum *only* for Rom questions/support. It is so hard to find the actual roms and uploads for all the questions, even legitimate ones sometimes. Would it be possible to force a search prior to posting? (i.e. I have a question, but I am not given the "post reply" link until the search result screen)

3: Stickied posts with forum rules clearly posted, anyone not following them (from ignorance or otherwise) gets immediate restriction from posting. Subsequent strikes result in permanent ban.

4: Make the default posting category the "General" forum for that device. Only a deliberate change will allow it to post to accessories, themes, or Rom Support.

Just my $.02...
[About XDA developers] RambJoe:
How about a reputation system where you can give users negative reputation?
[About XDA developers] daddysays:
When I first saw this thread I thought "FINALLY!!!"

Then I read what you are doing to try and help with the useless posts. What a waste of time and effort on your part to implement such a futile strategy.

This will not work because of this:

need 10 char

need ten char

need 10 char

etc.

Somebody said 25 posts, ok better, but still useless there are a lot of people who have something useful to add simply because they mostly browse to find their solution and never need to post but can help someone else.

Here is my recommendation: (I am a web developer and have SOME free time to help look into and implement this feature, but you already have something similar in place so shouldn't be too difficult)

Have a "crap post" button next to the "thanks". (you said it yourself, this is our community) I recognize this may be abused, but you can only "crap" a post once, if ten different people "crap" a post for the same user ten times then their account goes into temp suspension for a day or a week or whatever. This guideline can be implemented without the need for moderation except by the community, or if abused by members crapping perfectly good posts for whatever reason.

Very similar to the way you spam a listing on craigslist. I think this would seriously improve the quality of this site.

Thanks this post if you agree :P

Edit: The guy above me is simplified version of what I suggest, but possibly have two kinds of negative.

There will always be re-asking of already answered questions, unfortunately that is unavoidable, once a thread hits more than 30 or so pages I usually wont go back and read them all to find an answer either.
[About XDA developers] dehidding:
The problem with this scenerio is that many posters are unwilling to take the time to search and read posts. Yesterday I saw one post that asked a question that had been answered in the same thread a few days earlier. The questioner said that they didn't have the time to read the whole thread.

I do agree with you that it's very educational to read the posts (in general). I know that is how I got the comfort level to know that I wasn't going to brick my gTab, nook, Droidx when I rooted.

Regards
[About XDA developers] winkzone:
Thank you for that letter. Addressing that letter to every member will also educate and make this forum to become more informative. I am also grateful for all the information and knowledge that the XDA developers have put up...that's also the main reason why I joined to be a member because as a newbie like me, it gives me a lot of information in updating my Android Tablet. But on the other hand, I think you guys should also think that not all members (including me) have 10 or more posts... There are times that my question was already been answered by reading posts here...well does that includes replies as well?

I would suggest that this forum should have a more wider selection on where to put posts (questions, comments, etc) or also have a report a member or something so we can avoid spammers or just non-sense comments.

But anyways thank you for trying to make this forum more systematic...but maybe you guys need to think more about the rule on the 10post thing....
[About XDA developers] dehidding:
I really like the idea of a forum for ROM support (separate from development). I would like to be able to read the development forum, but questions - post to the support forum. And I would suggest that with each version of a ROM, a new Thread be started, which would help organize questions specific to a ROM.
[About XDA developers] daddysays:
I really feel like this would be the same thing only in a different forum and could add to confusion. I like being able to ask questions in the same forum as the rom I download.

Maybe Dev's could be encouraged to create a new forum for each rom, although that may get redundant.
[About XDA developers] iXNyNe:
i think i have less than 10 posts but i still think it's a good idea to have rules like this that keep one time flamers from showing up and trash talking

granted there are people out there who would ask legitimate questions that wouldnt normally be active members of xda - for those i think xda should encourage strongly the use and support of the Q&A forums (or another appropriate section for 'n00b questions') in each device's section
[About XDA developers] sakai4eva:
After swimming through the sea of carp (!) in the Oxygen thread, I agree with this. But I suggest that the minimum limit is increased for different subforums of a device, and a cooling off period is imposed to increase the quality of the posts. My suggestion is as follows (examples taken from the Desire thread, replace device as necessary):

Minimum posts:

General forums - 0 posts to start posting

Desire General - 0 posts to start posting

Desire Q&A - 20 posts to start posting

Desire Accessories - 0 posts to start posting

Desire Development - 50 posts to start posting

Desire Theming - 20 posts to start posting

Cooling off period:

24 hours before a new user can start posting, regardless of sub-forum.

Minimum character limit:

Increasing the character minimum limit to 100 chars in the "serious" sub-forums, while retaining the 10char minimum in the off-topic (seriously, or it'll be a killjoy for a lot of us).

Special Threads:

Creating some "Dev Only" threads for serious development discussion (like the camera fix for the HD, and the camcorder fix for the 2.3 ROMs)

The reason I suggest the changes above is because of a few principals:

1. "+1" posts are no longer relevant with the "Thanks" button

2. Cooling off period forces new users to read before they post.

3. Minimum posts forces users to try to find out more and ask questions in areas that are less contentious to find out more instead of barging into a serious discussion and disrupting the flow of thought.

4. Changing the minimum character limit also forces users to explain more about what problems they are facing, instead of just a short one-liner about the ROM not working, blahx3, and so on...

5. Creating special threads help devs interact with each other, instead of each dev working on his own. This kinda ties in with the spirit of open source too.

Just my own two cents on this issue, because XDA is my favorite site, and I hate to see it go to waste.
[About XDA developers] Stephenxda:
Ok we now have a thanks button for a good reason. How about a useless post button that could be used to show an ongoing Talley of those who make useless post. I dont think they every user should have the ability to mark them as such, but maybe those above 500 post???

Just my 2 cents
[About XDA developers] sm1te:
Thank you

As a long time lurker and relatively new member this seems to be a good start to help manage some of the churn.
[About XDA developers] mrtim123:
personally, i think "post count" is less critical than "time since joining". It is all to common to see users that have been members for 4 weeks with 500 posts or more. These are the type of user that generally (and i mean generally) contribute very little to the overall community. They are more likely to post "+1 10chars." and other basically useless posts.

There are many users that have been members for months or years and have less than 50 posts - some have been in this very thread that are years old with less than 10 posts!

To me, it shows a level of commitment that the longer you remain active on a forum (posting or not) the more worthwhile your comments will be. Often they are less immature too but that does not always go hand in hand.

I kinda forgot where i was going with this......i think basing on post counts alone is not the best idea. i think that was it :)

Anyway, i am very pleased to see that something is being done about this, i think that on a whole XDA has so much to offer - its just a shame that its often hard to find.

Tim
[About XDA developers] Stephenxda:
After giving it a little more thought i think if xda whet with a useless post count that after you received a certain number of vote your posting privilege would be suspended. Just to throw a number out. Say you get 10 useless post your privilege would be suspended for 24 hours.

This is taking more thought then i am willing to put into it tonight. 16 hour workday today and I'm pooped. I am going to visit my pillow
[About XDA developers] ludionis:
The main rationale behind my earlier suggestions are based on my experiences here:

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=685594

Don't get me wrong, I love Kaos, and think he's an awesome dev who did more for the Eris than HTC. But that one rom has <b>1707</b> pages! There is no way to possibly swim through that much information to catch everything. And, heaven help the person that asks a question on page 1707 that was answered on page 923, there will be another 10 pages of flaming them in about 10 seconds...

I like and support the idea of a "crap post" button. I do, however, believe that rather than auto-bans, maybe at 25 votes it gets flagged for mod attention. I've seen too many legitimate craigslist posts get flagged for no perceptible reason. If people could effectively police themselves, we wouldn't need police. Or Mods.

I've also seen a couple of arguments against proposed restrictions citing "some people simply won't use the search function". Those people are exactly the problem. I feel if they can't bother to search, they can't bother everyone else with dumb posts, period.
[About XDA developers] blaine.keith:
Ok. Here is post#1 for me. :) I agree with the above.

Admins and Moderators, Take it as loving criticism, because I love the info available here. I also "feel your pain". Really. Been there, done that. My hats off to you.

Many "newbies" to this forum, may not be "newbies" in general. I'm an old grey hair *nix admin, been around since 2400 Baud and BBS days. I don't have much experience with these new fangled devices. But I am lurking and reading and learning. Only recently registered.

Some 100+ post members may not know the diff between a nail file and a Makefile.

Unfortunately, methinks you can not prevent a forum from having the don't wanna rtfm, don't wanna read the faq, don't wanna grep some info types come in and want THEIR question answered RIGHT NOW!

Just give me a personal hand hold so I can fix MY problem and be on my way. So... Should they first go clutter up other sections with 10, 25, or 50 useless posts. Uhhhh, no.

You have some guidelines as to what goes where, content wise.

Posts that are polite, contribute, meet the guidelines get answered.

Others posts get moved or deleted. Which unfortunately takes a moderators valuable time.

And Mods... Don't wear yourself out. There are surely some people here with the time and ability to be good assistant moderators.

I still have not waded through the pages upon pages of goodies, ( and cruft ) available here, yet.

I am going to have some questions I'm sure. And I don't want to waste the time of the DEVELOPERS. ( God bless em every one. ) But, it may well belong in the dev forum, and if I have to go "post some stuff" so I can ask it there, then that kinda defeats the purpose of trying to make things MORE relevant.

Just my. 2 shekels worth. Keep up the great work, and know that some of us "quiet lurkers" really, really appreciate and understand what you are up against.

So to all of you who make this place what it is... THANK YOU!

It _IS_ appreciated.

Blaine
[About XDA developers] jjwa:
The 10 post rule seems silly to me. If I am interested in development-related topics, about one phone, what would I have to do first as new user? Reply to 10 topics about where to buy a dock I do not want for my phone? That would lead to very unmotivated and uninterested posts to be honest. Also known as junk.

New users would also have to jump through hoops before being able to use the dev forums to provide feedback in a ROM topic for example, or make others aware of a bug in something. The alternative would be sending a PM (which would really make some dev inboxes get zerged terribly), or simply not bothering providing useful feedback. And that useful feedback is relevant to the developers you are trying to help out here....
[About XDA developers] sakai4eva:
The rule is to promote constructive comments, and reduce the one-hit wonders. Go through the Oxygen thread and see if you agree with me.