yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[About XDA developers] egzthunder1:
Well, that is kind of the idea. If you have questions or are not sure about something, you are supposed to try and find the answers by using the search engine. If you must ask questions, most device forums have a Q&A section where you can post. Keep in mind that the announcement says that you will still be able to read, just not post.

As for the "no real development" comment... these forums are not just guides to teach others how to flash custom stuff. It is called development because the roms, kernels, themes, apps don't just magically appear from thin air. There is a lot of work done to get a custom rom to even boot in a device (let alone get it to work properly). You need to tweak drivers, apps, test, test, and test some more before you can even consider releasing something. And don't even get me started in porting and kernel development.

The reason why you don't see the discussions about development is because they are heavily diluted by posts not related to the devving process (which include questions in the wrong place, flaming, thank you posts etc). Hence, the reason for this move. This is to ensure that the development sections stay that way.... as development.
[About XDA developers] Lennyuk:
All I can say is about friken time! I have been discussing this rule with a number of mods for a long long time now and frankly I still think 10 is too low, but its a great start and should cut a lot of the rubbish or at least make some people think twice about where they are posting their questions.
[About XDA developers] thefinancemaster:
I agree with spock ("Live long and prosper"). For newbies, which I may still be considered, searching the forums is daunting. For example, I have an HD2. I was running Android off of SD for a few months, then just last week took the plunge to NAND. You guys are really making progress on cleaning up the forum structure, because at least now in the HD2 section there are different "development" sections for NAND and SD, etc. BUT, when you are searching for the perfect ROM, it is very confusing with all of the codes in the ROM names. It took me 5 different tries between NAND roms and CWR roms (using clockwork recovery, I'm not THAT DUMB) to finally get one to boot up. I was sweating for a bit!!!

Plus, when you use the search function in the forums, the results very rarely seem to match my search. I understand the experts' frustrations when a newb asks a question or needs help with something that's already been covered, but I have searched numerous times looking for help with bluetooth on a rom, or music skipping, or whatever. Sometimes, I'll take 45 minutes reading through the search results and will realize that none of them are even touching on the subject I was searching for.

Don't get me wrong, I am extremely grateful for all that the XDA team does. I visit this site daily, and follow the news with RSS on the Google Reader. I love it. But, since you're asking for suggestions, there you are.

;-)
[About XDA developers] drhonk:
It's a shame that you guys need to enforce this kind of rule but we really do need something to keep this forum in control.

Good job. :)
[About XDA developers] The Andropirate:
As i am mech engg and i dont about Rom and other things so i have to post stupid posts

and also some stupid post might help someone

if you can help "If some dev posts some information make sure that he posts his post well informed. by this unnecessary posts can be avoided"
[About XDA developers] jmarden:
Fair play on attempting something. This is one of a few large community sites I frequent and they all suffer from the problems you describe. Unfortunately no-one has the answer and it is a case of trail and error to find what works.
[About XDA developers] seroaddict:
See, I didn't even know that. I think this is a smart move, since it will all but force n00bs like myself to direct their comments to the appropriate forum. In terms of other recommendations, I would say having a ROM support forum, as somebody else mentioned would be a good idea.
[About XDA developers] spock2097:
Post<>opening a new thread.

Let me phrase this:

1. I have been reading the forum for 1-2 weeks.

2. Then I couldn't find the answer and I have opened an account.

3. I want to post a question to the maker of the custom rom.

4. I can't do this!

5. I will post 10 idiotic comments somewhere else to get my right.

Is this what you want? I (you can see all my posts) have never spammed or asked stupid stuff anywhere but a number of posts should be a sign of my maturity? Posting 10 Post gives you little to no sign if the user has and knows how to use search and stay still untill he has read at least 1000 posts!

This is what you should be aiming for.

Just because you can't measure it better doesn't make it valid. It is like giving you no mortgage loan because in your neighbourhood there were 5% not paying it back in time.

What does this have to do with my remarks concerning the XDA developer forums?

I do agree with everything you said but "testing" especially means getting feedback from users that can't tell you anymore if "it worked".

Then make inexperienced users stop "opening new threads" instead of "posting answers/making remarks to current threads".
[About XDA developers] egzthunder1:
Here is the thing, and probably where lots of people are missing the point here. It isn't a matter of stupid posts. It is a matter of stupid posts in the wrong places. No one is telling you that you cannot ask for help. What we are saying is that, if all search efforts fail, please post in the right place....
[About XDA developers] pulser_g2:
Well...

My advice to all ROM devs would be to make their own thread in Q&A or general, called [SUPPORT] ROM NAME HERE Support Thread - Latest Version 1.2.3

In there, all users could post, regardless of number of posts. The first post would link to the main ROM, and perhaps contain a FAQ.

In the ROM release in development, have a large link to the Q&A thread at the start and end of the post. That way, those reporting bugs and helping with patches/fixes can post in the development thread, and those needing help can post in the Q&A thread.

Just encourage devs to do something like this :)
[About XDA developers] thefinancemaster:
One of the things XDA added recently to cut down on posts was a "Thank You" button. It's a great idea! Where the heck is it? I would love to thank the devs that help me out with my HD2, but I CANT FIND THE BUTTON!

Can somebody draw me a picture or something?
[About XDA developers] MeX_DK:
I mean something has to be done. But being new to all this rooting, S-OFF etc kind of thing I do consider myself at least somewhat of a greenhorn :P. I do however try to keep my questions relevant to the topic and try finding the proper topic before placing a question.

But I am also struggling with actually get a proper answer, or an answer at all to some of my questions, making it hard for a new guy (or girl) to transend from being a greenie to actually become more and more knowledgeable over time. I mean if people dont share their knowledge and or their solutions then how are we all to benifit from them.

I do however admit that some form of moderation needs to find place, considering that some of the guides are actually more or less straight forward and quite frankly. If people can't follow a single straight forward guide then perhaps rooting, modding etc is not for them :)
[About XDA developers] pulser_g2:
It appears to the left of the Quote button.

But IIRC it appears only after 5 posts, as we would have issues with new accounts being made solely to thank their "owner".

You're not far off the thanks button appearing.

I would screenie it, but there's little point. It's to the left of "Edit" for me ("Quote" for you I think as you won't see edit buttons everywhere)
[About XDA developers] lowes:
This is your site and your rules. The only question is, that a person like me who has been a member for a short time, but been runing modded rom's for about 5 months (thanks to this site) can't post a question if I did have one. This is my second post, and the first one was to answer a question, I have found everything I needed and every question I had answered by way of reading posts. But if I do have a question I can't ask it because I have not posted alot of BS to get my post count up.
[About XDA developers] wbkang:
This doesn't really help much

Hi,

This doesn't really help the situation. The (unqualified) people who already spam dev forums are very likely to have more than 10 posts posted so far and there is nothing to prevent those spammers degrading the quality of dev threads.

On the other hand, now you are shutting up a lurking (and more qualified) developer who doesn't really post often and post occasional insightful comments are shut up.

In other words, I don't think there is much correlation between the quality of your posts and the number of posts you made. Just look at this thread and see how many people added useless posts to this thread.

Also worth noting is that you are discouraging ther new-to-xda talented developers to use the XDA forum as their home. Do you see a competent busy developer bothering posting 10 posts before he can participate to a meaningful discussion to offer his work (often for free)? I don't think so. I (as a programmer) wouldn't.

In conclusion, sure this measure might not increase the speed of the quality degradation (the function quality'(time) will stay below zero) but it will not increase the quality of the posts here.
[About XDA developers] Alex_GP:
Agreed. 50 is a bit too much, 25 is just right.
[About XDA developers] -WP7User-:
I hope that there'll be a HD2 WP7 Development Section soon. 'Cause all these HD2-related posts in the Windows Phone 7 Development and Hacking section are really annoying if you want to look for something for your REAL WP7-phone... That's maybe the best example for those unnecessary threads. WP7 for the HD2 is out since last friday or smth. like that and now every second or at least third post is about something not working on WP7 on the HD2 or something like "How can I make it working?"
[About XDA developers] mindbullet:
I think that is an excellent idea. Too many times people are just too plain lazy to do a search.

Also, i believe seperating general q/a and development q/a would cut down a lot of irrelevent questions being posted in development section.

Just an idea: How about offering auto-generated search suggestions based on when someone starts filling in the title/body of a post? I'm thinking something like how google search reacts. I'll bet if the top 5-10 matches are listed, the user could find what they are looking for, and not post the 10 millionth "help plez! I bricked my phone"
[About XDA developers] ivorycruncher:
I have a suggestion. As of right now, general discussion about a particular ROM takes place in the thread for that ROM in the development forums. That appears to be a conflict of interest. What I would like to see is threads in the general forums for discussion of said ROMs, and keeping the threads in the development forum limited only to posting actual updates for the ROM, and maybe developer-relevant discussion. Right now most of the posts in those massive threads are either questions that are already answered by the FAQs that nobody reads, or off-topic discussion in general. In fact, it would be great if developers could somehow lock their own threads, so they could use them just for updates, and prevent them from being spammed with general chat.

If you could somehow engineer a solution to move all that discussion to the general forums, that would probably help the developers a bunch. And then it would be safe to restrict posting access to the developer forums to a much higher post count. I would agree with at least a 25 post minimum.
[About XDA developers] Product F(RED):
Yes, but we cannot tell developers from non-developers. Doing nothing doesn't solve the issue. We're not looking to go after the spammers who are already in the system; that would be way too resource-intensive. This is more about prevention. The beauty of it is once it's set up, it's set up. I'm telling you, we need a "New User" forum for each device section where new users are limited to posting in (1 day). If anything interesting comes up, like you said, the greatest new developer who ever lived, it will come up under "New Posts". I also stand by the 25-post minimum to start threads or post in development.
[About XDA developers] latinopeo:
So why not establish a new kind of "user", giving him the right to post from the very beginning?

Like Mods have more power than normal user, a (let me just call it) "dev" has the right to post in any section regardless of the existing post count.

To achieve this title, he/she might wanna send in some working rom or at least a construct-plan with the basics already programmed. Get my point?

Another possibility might be this:

Anyone can register for free. But if a new dev wants to join the board and wants the "dev"-title, he might wanna contact some established devs of the board and send them his rom/sample/whatsoever and then, to get the "dev"-title, he will be given reference by the established dev...

just 2 thoughts that came to my head while reading the news.....

and dont be to hard on me, i know i am also <10 posts :-)

im one of the silent readers....but i do really appreciate the effort of the board and the devs!!!

cu
[About XDA developers] S_Kool:
i support idea...
[About XDA developers] hexxor93:
Likewise I think the idea would work, wouldn't be good for those like myself who don't post much. But if it helps the matter, I'm for it.
[About XDA developers] woody_2k:
Realistically i don't think this will change that much. Yes there are a few totally random topics in the wrong threads but the real problem is the amount of posts by people asking for help in a thread before reading any of it.

Take the AdamG Gingerbread thread for Desire. There is some excellent posts and information on that thread and I admit it is hard to read every post on every page BUT if I have a question I use the search function before writing crap. On that thread alone there are over 100 posts from people complaining that their camera wont record video, yet you have to scroll past the line that tells you about the problem to get to the download button.

There are people on here who spam the hell out of threads i have seen members reach 100 posts within a week. HOW?

so is the 10 post limit really going to stop them? There should be an auto detect for high posters that stops them posting for a limited period of time. Say if you post 10 times in a day you are blocked for 24 or 48 hours.

I have been a member since Aug 2009 and this is my 56th post
[About XDA developers] boborone:
Ok well I see now. Then I think it will cut down a on the problem. But it needs to be more than ten. 25 maybe.
[About XDA developers] MindTooth:
I guess all the Bugmenot.com accounts got removed ;) Regardless, here I am with my own account.

Love the work xda providea :)
[About XDA developers] pulser_g2:
We already have this :)

Go try making a new thread and start typing the title.
[About XDA developers] pulser_g2:
Well, I've proposed a solution to this.

ROM thread in development, support thread for ROM in Q&A. Both are linked by the first posts having a link. The issue with locking threads is that the good ones would get buried, but it's possible to implement, certainly.
[About XDA developers] pulser_g2:
Yes, had issues with spam from them. But now you can have your "own" account etc, and it's just as simple... The hardest part was probably entering the captcha or answering what the capital of France was :)
[About XDA developers] pulser_g2:
I have an auto-detect like that :) I troll about the place looking for anything unusual :) My nose has spotted 2 people making 120 posts in less than a day, all nonsense... Soon as I spot it, they've just had a postcount reset. Takes them 3 hours to do, takes me 7 seconds to undo :) And a complimentary ban for spamming the board :)
[About XDA developers] webpatrick:
Dear fellow XDA members

I regret that it has to be like this, it shouldn't have to be like this.

I don't mind people asking (good) questions, I like to help and answer them politely as good as i can.

Maybe it would be nice if we could have a read counter, and then allow posting after reading a number of threads... Cause the development threads are the ones raising the most questions. And they are hardly answered in the Q&A threads... maybe our senior members and developers should read the Q&A threads more.

BUT I AGREE WE HAVE TO BE POLITE.

Imagine the voice of Don LaFontaine (movie trailer voiceover) and read the following lines:

Do you remember asking your first question on XDA...?

And do you remember the member who answered...?

So many happy years together on the best platform there is...

Let us always be polite in questions and answers.

All of us... Keep up the great work... and we will see if this wil work.
[About XDA developers] pulser_g2:
Well, I visit some of the fora, and clicking their wiki page will give a comprehensive flashing guide. And every section has a sticky with such links, AFAIK.

Remember on Android that panic mode is when NOTHING appears on phone (no charging LED)... Not booting isn't panic mode, as you can just reflash it from bootloader if required (or do what your device does).

I think people who read more panic less :)
[About XDA developers] pulser_g2:
I haven't used the move redirect ever (I think), as I hate it, and people can go find their thread and perhaps learn next time.

Report post (this links us direct to the post, so just explain what is wrong in the little box :)):

dropbox is playing up just now... check back in a bit if it's not there for you

Ignore the buttons you don't see (red and yellow card, and computer icon). It's the little triangle.
[About XDA developers] Paul22000:
ALL the complaining comments here can be fixed via an extremely simple tweak of the new rules:

A) People with less than 10 posts can POST to the development forum, but cannot CREATE threads. THAT is what the issue is. People creating useless crap threads.

So let people post and ask questions in the development forum all they want, but just disallow them from CREATING new threads. (In my opnion, this should actually be extended to all forums; not just the development forum.)
​

BOOM!

Done.

Fixed.

Some other things:

B) Personally, I think 10 is too low. Raise that to 25 before creating new threads in the development forum.

C) Can you separate the development forums? There is just way too much in there: ROMs, Kernels, Root Guides, etc. Usually people are looking for just one, so specific forums would help to focus the discussion, and also make it easier for people to find what they're looking for.

D) As mentioned previously, how about extending this to all forums? New users cannot create threads until they hit 10 posts (replies). (And 25 to create threads in Development-specific forums.)

E) More moderators. At least three PER device.​
[About XDA developers] maxisma:
Thanks for this. I ♥ XDA.

Really great change! :)
[About XDA developers] pulser_g2:
Read counter would add a huge amount of load to servers in recording each users' reads... :eek: Not gonna happen imho.

As for the questions:

1. No, I don't remember asking my first question on XDA, but I do remember my first post... I can't find it now, as I've made a few thousand more than the search will find, but IIRC it was more a statement than a question. I've never been a fan of asking, as the answer is always out there somewhere...

2. I have done a stint in answering Q&A questions, and trust me when I say there is only so much you can take of it... When you guide people through flashing about 10 times, and then someone else asks it, when a post DIRECTLY BELOW THEIRS is titled IDENTICALLY, you start to lose patience

I remember helping a guy over 3 days back when I started, unbricking his phone, despite him not having a USB card reader, or ability to make a goldcard... That was a unique challenge, and the guy was technically minded, so it was possible to suggest things and get results... I think we got it sorted so he could return the phone to HTC for repair... But point is, ordinary questions get boring.

I know what it's like to develop, and when I dev, I don't answer Q&A stuff... There are loads of experienced users who answer Q&A stuff, so I don't really agree devs should have to go answer questions... That is what pushes developers away from xda, when they have to read what amounts to spam of the same basic question 5 times without waiting for an answer...

We can't make people answer questions, but I've not seen one go unanswered in my "home section" for a long time... But if it was someone saying "how can I root?", then they are unlikely to really get far, with stickies saying "READ ME BEFORE POSTING"... Reading before posting is the solution to everything :) I read XDA for 1 week, pretty much solid, when I wasn't doing anything at work, before I even registered... :D Others register and start asking before even reading the rules or sticky in their section...
[About XDA developers] mindbullet:
Wow... sorry, talk about an exercise in irony! :rolleyes:

For extremely cluttered threads, I offer this suggestion:

Give the thread starter the ability to mark answers or helpful posts, and those posts, when matching keywords are searched, are the first hits to appear. It will put a little more on the dev I suppose to watch their thread, but I think it would cut down on clutter if the dev identifies answers to common problems/issues/questions with their work.
[About XDA developers] tshoulihane:
Not read the whole thread (which kind of proves the point) but I think this is a useful step. It's not about preventing people from asking questions, it is about insulating the development and debug work from some of the noise.

It's a question for the forum as to how much they want to attract newbies, but I'm fairly confident that reasonable questions will be answered if they are posted somewhere sensible. If the ROM dev doesn't notice it, probably someone else will pick up on it.

Having questions in the dev section where the answer is 'read the first post' is worth avoiding. The dev threads are all about accurate feedback and improvement, not making people think that a beta version is a good thing to install on their new toy.
[About XDA developers] hydrogenman:
only problem with the rule is that the # of required posts is only 10 instead of say, 25
[About XDA developers] xnosajx:
I agree with the decision. This is truly my first post and while I have only been a registered user for a short time, I have “lurked” on this site since I bought my first droid. As an android user, it is very time consuming to wade through the threads. Hopefully, this idea works well. I do see some great ideas in this thread that could be used to help further this idea of trying to clean up the threads.

Thanks.
[About XDA developers] mark60:
Not sure

if this will be a good move. Considering now to do 2 posts per day (sensible or not) in the next 4 days to stay in the game :mad:.

But ofcourse sth. has to be done to avoid trash.

Keep on rockin'
[About XDA developers] NeoS:
Isn't this rule only applied on creating threads? You can still reply to existing threads in development, right?
[About XDA developers] pulser_g2:
LOL. Thing is, you exercised judgement in deciding it was pointless to read 20 pages, as you assessed the thread and decided you could contribute meaningfully without reading it :)

Trouble is those who don't do this, or get it wrong...

Dev forums are for development. I personally can't stand people who whine about bugs in a beta... Beta means that. Don't use it if you can't have bugs...

If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen :)
[About XDA developers] pulser_g2:
As an existing user, you won't be affected anyway...

Also, none of your posts would have been affected anyway, as this only impacts posting in dev forums, and I don't see any there just now anyway :)
[About XDA developers] pulser_g2:
Nah, it's to all posts in dev, mate :)