Related
To all,
I guess you have all noticed how much spam we have been getting recently in this forum (especially in the D&H section). Most of us are all too familiar with the current events of the site to fall for scams of any kind. However, there is a tremendous influx of new members to the community who have no clue of what is going on, which makes them good targets for these. I have personally never clicked on any of them, but anything could be on the other side of those links.
It seems that spammers are getting a little smarter as of today. I have already seen two new threads being opened with titles of current events (the latest being "Manila 2D Customizer"). Most of us here at XDA are fast when it comes to reporting this kind of threads and the mods are fairly swift to take them out, but they keep on coming.
So, if you are uncertain of a thread (specifically if it has a link and barely any writing or posts), do not click as it is probably not from a trusted source. The best thing to do is to click on the red and white warning sign at the top right corner of the post and report it. This will help keep the forums clean (and you clean of possible viruses).
@Mods: I know it isn't exactly D&H material, but I figured we could make it a sticky to warn noobs. Maybe even copying this on other sections as well might not be a bad idea.
LONG LIVE XDA!!!
Currently, the best thing is to press
located in the upper right of each post. By pressing this, you send an email to all moderators at which time, once recieved, we will respond as quickly as possible.
Thx Very Much
Thx Very Much
Pfft....yea that's smart, call the people noobs that will make them read it
Why not put, Everyone MUST Read!!!?
Because I know senior members that spam as well, not just "noobs"
Whosdaman said:
Pfft....yea that's smart, call the people noobs that will make them read it
Why not put, Everyone MUST Read!!!?
Because I know senior members that spam as well, not just "noobs"
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Why don't you read before talking??? This thread is about awareness of actual spam as in "people trying to do phishing in our forum" spam and not "people opening new threads spam"...
The reason why I directed this to new members (noobs) was because they are not so aware of which the real threads are and which ones aren't. Like I said, please read before complaining. Thanks.
Whosdaman said:
Pfft....yea that's smart, call the people noobs that will make them read it
Why not put, Everyone MUST Read!!!?
Because I know senior members that spam as well, not just "noobs"
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Ha ha ha hah! Says the man with the website link in his sig.
Anyway, good post to bring to everyone's attention I think as we can all do our bit to help eliminate the spamming - by reporting it the moment we see it. Good work moderators, hope it doesn't take up too much of your precious time!
It is never too much to get people attention to these matters,
Thx
BR
Pedro
I don't recall when I registered if you have the "no spam" set up or not. But I have a Vbulletin forum and once the spammers found it I started getting all kinds of junk, as soon as I instituted that they disappeared.
Or are you talking about spam of the human kind (as opposed to bots)
Stroker396 said:
I don't recall when I registered if you have the "no spam" set up or not. But I have a Vbulletin forum and once the spammers found it I started getting all kinds of junk, as soon as I instituted that they disappeared.
Or are you talking about spam of the human kind (as opposed to bots)
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It seems that it has been gradually disappearing, but here is the run down. Spammers (I believe human) were opening threads all over the forum with links to God only know what (never clicked on them for obvious reasons). The biggest problem is that the threads started becoming more ingenious with subjects such as "M2D New Version" or things that are related to the site. That is why I opened this thread, to raise awareness among new members of the forum to be careful and to let them know that they should check things twice to ensure that they are getting the real thing.
I fell for one a while back. The best thing is to use the search function, for me, and only click a link if its recommended by, at the least, by a member that most seem to know or a senior member.
I'm sure vBulletin comes with a moderation-queue feature... any new posts by members with 0-5 posts have to be read and validated by moderators before appearing to 'the public'. Worthwhile?
mendhak said:
I'm sure vBulletin comes with a moderation-queue feature... any new posts by members with 0-5 posts have to be read and validated by moderators before appearing to 'the public'. Worthwhile?
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Maybe, but the only problem is that you would need an army of mods monitoring at all times. This site gets too many new members each day. Besides, the spam posts that I was referring to were opened by "users" that posted the same thing so many times that they actually got about 6-10 posts under their belt.
Good suggestion though...
Date: Monday May 24th, 2010
Time: From 9:00 am to 4:00 pm (EST)
Questions? pm me.
Thanks and hope to see you then.
This thread will remain closed until the specified time.
First of all, I wanted to welcome all of you and thank you for taking the time to put all the remaining issues to rest. As with anything on this site, please be courteous to others, don't flame, don't curse, and try to make your comments as meaningful as possible (in other words, don't troll )
This is a floor for discussion and debate, so whoever feels like speaking up, please do so. I believe that the first order of business is the fixxxer issue. Cbarlan (aka Papa_Smurf) already put me up to speed on that issue but I would like to have some more input from you all.
The only thing i will add to this is im tired of being accused and followed around here because im new, same goes for other newbies as well. This smixxxer guy is obviously a banned member and keeps signing up to stir up trouble. I know i accused neb of being him and i talked to a few members who told me it was not, so for that i humbly apologize. I firmly believe once someone is banned from here, they should stay banned. Id just like to see people start getting along more. In my mind fixxxer is talked about than the hero itself, he's not here anymore and the subject needs to end already.
Thats all id like to add to this as i have to go.
For me, personally, most of what I had issue with has been resolved, both through a bit more leniency from the mods (thanks you guys!), and the creation of the off-topic thread for us to blow off steam in.
Re: fixxer/nebs situation, I am prolly too biased on this to give much of an objective opinion. That being said, if nebs and fixxer are both willing to cool the vitriol a bit, I see no reason to keep the bans up. Others may feel differently, but that is where I stand.
Ban his IP. /End Game
EDIT:
I'll edit this by saying I know the IP thing is useless. Not much you can do other than watch out for the trolls.
Kcarpenter said:
Ban his IP. /End Game
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which his? smixxer?
I think it's just unfortunate there are such easy ways to get around a ban.
FYI and FWIW- I have not created any identities on this site other than this one and phenicks.
I am done with fixxxer even though he is obviously still here. I hope he can begin to grow up a little and stop fueling "the fire".
Without the ability to reliably ban someone from simply making a new login ID I would like to suggest the following as food for thought:
To help cut down on banned members coming right back to start more crap:
-2 to 4 week period before new members can post AND/OR
-2 to 4 week post (not read) restriction to general/q&a sections for new members
To help cut down on redundant and misplaced threads by noobs:
-20/30 post minimum before new members can make a new thread
To help clarify who is actually a senior member:
-500 posts to earn senior member status
(It can be confusing for a noob who to direct questions to, also I have seen as high as 32 posts/day counts.. senior member in 3-4 days?)
-neb
PS.
Thank you for the off topic lounge, that one is a home-run
And thank you to Egz and Ryan and other mods for your involvement lately. I for one am delighted to see the member side of you guys rather than just the moderator side.
nebenezer said:
I think it's just unfortunate there are such easy ways to get around a ban.
FYI and FWIW- I have not created any identities on this site other than this one and phenicks.
I am done with fixxxer even though he is obviously still here. I hope he can begin to grow up a little and stop fueling "the fire".
Without the ability to reliably ban someone from simply making a new login ID I would like to suggest the following as food for thought:
To help cut down on banned members coming right back to start more crap:
-2 to 4 week period before new members can post AND/OR
-2 to 4 week post (not read) restriction to general/q&a sections for new members
To help cut down on redundant and misplaced threads by noobs:
-20/30 post minimum before new members can make a new thread
To help clarify who is actually a senior member:
-500 posts to earn senior member status
(It can be confusing for a noob who to direct questions to, also I have seen as high as 32 posts/day counts.. senior member in 3-4 days?)
-neb
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Neb buddy, are you refering to me?
I agree completely here. On several forums I have been on in the past there is a minimum reply number to current posts before you can start a new thread. This would stop the "Im new and don't wanna read" and also would prevent people from being banned and being able to go start a new account and have just as much going as they did before.
Kcarpenter said:
Neb buddy, are you refering to me?
I agree completely here. On several forums I have been on in the past there is a minimum reply number to current posts before you can start a new thread. This would stop the "Im new and don't wanna read" and also would prevent people from being banned and being able to go start a new account and have just as much going as they did before.
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^WORST-OFFENDER-EVER
Hahaha, J/K of course
Also, I think its great that this place is such a fantastic resource and I think it's great that many of the senior members have the patience to answer questions that come in the form of brand new threads in the wrong sections.
I'd like to see people (senior members) get more comfortable with prefacing their responses to these threads with "This should have gone <here>". I am not suggesting we don't answer these questions, I would just like to see some diligence guiding new people to post in the appropriate section. Lots of these kinds of threads get answered and it's not until half way down the page until someone acknowledges the thread was posted is in the wrong section. Not that its a heinous offense or anything but I think most would agree new threads in the wrong sections are inconvenient and happen A LOT.
tejasrichard said:
For me, personally, most of what I had issue with has been resolved, both through a bit more leniency from the mods (thanks you guys!), and the creation of the off-topic thread for us to blow off steam in.
Re: fixxer/nebs situation, I am prolly too biased on this to give much of an objective opinion. That being said, if nebs and fixxer are both willing to cool the vitriol a bit, I see no reason to keep the bans up. Others may feel differently, but that is where I stand.
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I believe the creation of the off subject lounge and leniency of the mods have made a huge difference. With that being said I believe that being respectful by both mods and users will greatly help. Yeah I know things get out of hand at times and that the mods get tired of hearing a million reports on this section. But commingle in here with an iron fist and then trying to sweep it under the rug hoping it will go away will never work. Getting to the root of the issue is a lot more effective and trying to resolve the problem out weighs bannings. I've said this in the past banning is almost a joke. Anyone can make a sock puppet account and keep causing problems. So what doea is solve.
To the users who r act like natzis...the mods will decide if a subject goes into a different section. Either contribute to the thread or shut up. I'm so tired of someone ask a question or post a thread and watch the wave of senior members (a select few all the time) say this should go to this section. Is it that hard to answer the question or post a link to the answer (this goes for the whole use the search button also). Sometimes when u search for an answer there r so many results and it shows all result including from first day forum started and some of those are way out of date and a noob isn't as experienced enough to sort through what newer and what's older.
nebenezer said:
I think it's just unfortunate there are such easy ways to get around a ban.
FYI and FWIW- I have not created any identities on this site other than this one and phenicks.
I am done with fixxxer even though he is obviously still here. I hope he can begin to grow up a little and stop fueling "the fire".
Without the ability to reliably ban someone from simply making a new login ID I would like to suggest the following as food for thought:
To help cut down on banned members coming right back to start more crap:
-2 to 4 week period before new members can post AND/OR
-2 to 4 week post (not read) restriction to general/q&a sections for new members
To help cut down on redundant and misplaced threads by noobs:
-20/30 post minimum before new members can make a new thread
To help clarify who is actually a senior member:
-500 posts to earn senior member status
(It can be confusing for a noob who to direct questions to, also I have seen as high as 32 posts/day counts.. senior member in 3-4 days?)
-neb
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Hey neb,
For once, welcome back! I am glad that you guys are putting this whole thing behind. For the last few days, I have felt that things have really began to calm down in here (particularly because we don't see that many reported posts/threads from here anymore). I will take your suggestions to the site admin and the other mods and see what they think. Some of them can be a bit hard to implement (particularly the first two), but the other ones, I couldn't agree more (especially on the Senior Member threshold, I agree that 100 posts is just way too little). In fact, I invited the other mods and admin over here as well, so they might up in during the day as well. This thread is guaranteed to have exposure to everyone that needs to see it
Papa Smurf151 said:
To the users who r act like natzis...the mods will decide if a subject goes into a different section. Either contribute to the thread or shut up. I'm so tired of someone ask a question or post a thread and watch the wave of senior members (a select few all the time) say this should go to this section. Is it that hard to answer the question or post a link to the answer (this goes for the whole use the search button also). Sometimes when u search for an answer there r so many results and it shows all result including from first day forum started and some of those are way out of date and a noob isn't as experienced enough to sort through what newer and what's older.
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Agreed that searching can easily and often be a fruitless PITA.
As far as the response.. "if you don't have anything nice to say then don't say anything at all" (right?, lol)
I am not one to bust someones head for posting in the wrong section. I will sooner ignore the question.
I don't see any harm in telling someone they have posted in the wrong section but I think it would be great to see those types of comments accompanied by some sort of helpful reply.
*edit-
egzthunder1 said:
Hey neb,
For once, welcome back!
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Thanks Egz, Nice to meet ya!
egzthunder1 said:
Hey neb,
For once, welcome back! I am glad that you guys are putting this whole thing behind. For the last few days, I have felt that things have really began to calm down in here (particularly because we don't see that many reported posts/threads from here anymore). I will take your suggestions to the site admin and the other mods and see what they think. Some of them can be a bit hard to implement (particularly the first two), but the other ones, I couldn't agree more (especially on the Senior Member threshold, I agree that 100 posts is just way too little). In fact, I invited the other mods and admin over here as well, so they might up in during the day as well. This thread is guaranteed to have exposure to everyone that needs to see it
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Ya know, I woud like to see guys from other devices in here as well. These changes being propsed aren't just relevant to CDMA Hero's. Post Count and status should effect the whole site.
To make XDA better as a whole and to maintain it's "Developers" status so to speak, you have to quiet the people asking basic questions some times.
Personally I am not good at training, I don't want to have to teach someone how to dial there phone
egzthunder1 said:
Hey neb,
For once, welcome back! I am glad that you guys are putting this whole thing behind. For the last few days, I have felt that things have really began to calm down in here (particularly because we don't see that many reported posts/threads from here anymore). I will take your suggestions to the site admin and the other mods and see what they think. Some of them can be a bit hard to implement (particularly the first two), but the other ones, I couldn't agree more (especially on the Senior Member threshold, I agree that 100 posts is just way too little). In fact, I invited the other mods and admin over here as well, so they might up in during the day as well. This thread is guaranteed to have exposure to everyone that needs to see it
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Click to collapse
yeah, it took me no time at all to hit senior member status, and I don't post nearly as often as some (some of you may have a hard time believing this, but i'm still averaging less than a post a day. I like to think mine are just....memorable ). Though it might add more work, it might be useful to have 3 membership types instead of 2. I mean, I can TOTALLY see needing to be around for a while before you get your senior badge, I don't think it is necessary to make a dude wait till he has 500 posts to put up a link, you know what I mean?
EDIT: w00t! I lied! I just hit avg 1.05 posts per day!
Papa Smurf151 said:
To the users who r act like natzis...the mods will decide if a subject goes into a different section. Either contribute to the thread or shut up. I'm so tired of someone ask a question or post a thread and watch the wave of senior members (a select few all the time) say this should go to this section. Is it that hard to answer the question or post a link to the answer (this goes for the whole use the search button also). Sometimes when u search for an answer there r so many results and it shows all result including from first day forum started and some of those are way out of date and a noob isn't as experienced enough to sort through what newer and what's older.
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Hey cb, I mean Papa
Love the new avatar... I guess now I understand why you wanted your name changed . Moving threads for us is a bit of a nuisance, but it has to be done so that important sub forums don't get flooded by a bunch of "asking for help" or "what do you guys think its better x or y" threads, none of which are exclusive to noobs, but some seniors as well.
The way I usually handle (or at least I used to handle when I was a regular member) the out of place threads, was normally to direct towards a solution and used the "Report" icon on the thread/post to get a mod to either move it or delete it, if needed be. People who just flat out burst into flaming or insulting the member asking the question are simply out of place and should not do that. However, I have learned over the years that many people on the internet (not only here) would much rather write a long rant on how someone should google before asking questions, than to simply say "here is the link" and pressing the report button saying "please move to x y z section"... I guess it is a culture thing...
nebenezer said:
Agreed that searching can easily and often be a fruitless PITA.
As far as the response.. "if you don't have anything nice to say then don't say anything at all" (right?, lol)
I am not one to bust someones head for posting in the wrong section. I will sooner ignore the question.
I don't see any harm in telling someone they have posted in the wrong section but I think it would be great to see those types of comments accompanied by some sort of helpful reply.
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I can agree with that but there are a select few that r like section police. Every thread that's in the wrong section they r there to let them know and that's all they contribute. I find myself reading them say that going douche just answer the question or ignore it. That's just ne though
I like LMGTFY, it gets the point across, but is helpful at the same time. Some folks get offended, but most get the point and say thanks.
edit: not to derail the thread, but a lot of people don't know HOW to search properly. It ain't enough to just plug a bunch of words in the text box and hit the button. A lot of us grew up in the pregooglenet dark ages, when searching wasn't nearly as easy, and have skills that these young whippersnappers do not posess.
tejasrichard said:
yeah, it took me no time at all to hit senior member status, and I don't post nearly as often as some (some of you may have a hard time believing this, but i'm still averaging less than a post a day. I like to think mine are just....memorable ). Though it might add more work, it might be useful to have 3 membership types instead of 2. I mean, I can TOTALLY see needing to be around for a while before you get your senior badge, I don't think it is necessary to make a dude wait till he has 500 posts to put up a link, you know what I mean?
EDIT: w00t! I lied! I just hit avg 1.05 posts per day!
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The fact that your post are memorable rather than "fillers" is a good thing (I wish more people would do that)
We have 3 levels of membership:
Junior member (up to 10 or 30 posts, I cannot remember this one)
Member (up to 100 posts)
Senior member (anything over 100 posts)
I will ask the admin about moving senior and junior levels up, because I honestly think that those are the important ones.
egzthunder1 said:
The fact that your post are memorable rather than "fillers" is a good thing (I wish more people would do that)
We have 3 levels of membership:
Junior member (up to 10 or 30 posts, I cannot remember this one)
Member (up to 100 posts)
Senior member (anything over 100 posts)
I will ask the admin about moving senior and junior levels up, because I honestly think that those are the important ones.
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Well slap me silly! I never noticed the middle designation at all.
I know I am gonna sound like a jerk, but I am a jerk most of the time, so what ..
I suggest that we refuse to answer Questions that are posted in the wrong Forum ...
The Stickies clearly state what to post where ...
If you have a question about an app, and it is not an app that has its own thread in "Themes and Apps" it Goes in "Q&A"
If you have a question about how to flash a ROM, it does not go in the ROM thread, that thread is for ROM developers to post their ROMs
If you have a question about a specific ROM it does NOT go in the Q&A it goes in the ROM thread or wherever that Chef wants you to post it ....
If you want to know how to install a Theme or a Mod, it goes in the Q&A , questions about a specific Theme or App it goes in the thread for them.
Now I know that the people that this actually pertains to will not even read this this post, so I leave it up to those that waste their time wading through senseless threads that are in the wrong place and constantly having to tell people to move things around, to decide to help police it..
We are a community, we cannot just say, "Let the Mods handle it..." There are way more of us than there are of them.
I could rant on this subject for hours but you get the point ....
Now not saying if it is the persons 1st or 2nd post that they should be pounced on, but should be nudged with whatever amount of force is needed to get them to understand.
The mods have enough problems to deal with, we should all be intelligent enough to, read the rules , read the stickies, and use some common sense ...
Thanks ....
Mods Please delete this if you feel it is over the top ..........
EDIT:
This really is a site wide issue not just picking on the LEO forum, but I am in this one 99.8925674% of the time, so figured I'd put my soapbox down here ...
While I agree with everything your saying Im not sure if ignoring the posts will do any good, they'll just end up posting again 20 minutes later asking why nobodys responding to them.........
I've not been around here all that long but I get the impression that this epidemic of repetitive questions and pointless threads is a fairly recent thing and is getting worse and worse...... No doubt this is due to so called "smartphones" being made more readily available to dumbasses, myself included.
The only reason I ever ended up visiting XDA was because I had a problem with my shiny new windows mobile and google directed me here as I'm sure it does to hundreds of people on a daily basis.
I dont really think that there is any sure way to reduce the amount of pointlessness thats occuring.
Perhaps a 24 waiting period between registering and being able to post might encourage those who turn up for the first time to search before posting.
Unfortunately we have to put up with the fact that 94.6% of the worlds populations are just dicks.............
conantroutman said:
While I agree with everything your saying Im not sure if ignoring the posts will do any good, they'll just end up posting again 20 minutes later asking why nobodys responding to them.........
I've not been around here all that long but I get the impression that this epidemic of repetitive questions and pointless threads is a fairly recent thing and is getting worse and worse...... No doubt this is due to so called "smartphones" being made more readily available to dumbasses, myself included.
The only reason I ever ended up visiting XDA was because I had a problem with my shiny new windows mobile and google directed me here as I'm sure it does to hundreds of people on a daily basis.
I dont really think that there is any sure way to reduce the amount of pointlessness thats occuring.
Perhaps a 24 waiting period between registering and being able to post might encourage those who turn up for the first time to search before posting.
Unfortunately we have to put up with the fact that 94.6% of the worlds populations are just dicks.............
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I know nothing may change, but I can always hope, I agree with the 94.6% thing fully ....
But if they keep posting the same question over and over THEN it does fall in the Mods domain as spamming , and the mods can handle it with legitimate reason.
I mean simple things, like posting in the wrong forum/thread , it is like walking into a bakery and asking them to change the oil in your car , I mean what kind of person does it take to do a bonehead move like that ...
Oh and I am not saying to really to ignore the posts, because people might learn if a few people hit their thread in the wrong place, and tell them they have the answers but will not answer it because it is in the wrong thread, I know that is being a ****, but , sometimes teaching means writing the lesson on a big stick and smacking them with it till they get the message ..
watcher64 said:
I know nothing may change, but I can always hope, I agree with the 94.6% thing fully ....
But if they keep posting the same question over and over THEN it does fall in the Mods domain as spamming , and the mods can handle it with legitimate reason.
I mean simple things, like posting in the wrong forum/thread , it is like walking into a bakery and asking them to change the oil in your car , I mean what kind of person does it take to do a bonehead move like that ...
Oh and I am not saying to really to ignore the posts, because people might learn if a few people hit their thread in the wrong place, and tell them they have the answers but will not answer it because it is in the wrong thread, I know that is being a ****, but , sometimes teaching means writing the lesson on a big stick and smacking them with it till they get the message ..
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One reason we (and I refer to new folks like me) have a difficulty with this (well I do, any road up) is that the thread header, or whatever they're called are so full of guff.. unnecessary messing about with symbols and other distracting crapola. I for one am looking for another theme to replace my constantly crashing sense and am always lost.
Perhaps a plea for making the headers clearer would be necessary too
blakeboro said:
One reason we (and I refer to new folks like me) have a difficulty with this (well I do, any road up) is that the thread header, or whatever they're called are so full of guff.. unnecessary messing about with symbols and other distracting crapola. I for one am looking for another theme to replace my constantly crashing sense and am always lost.
Perhaps a plea for making the headers clearer would be necessary too
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I would not argue against that point at all .... Can't find it or even search for it , if it is unreadable in the first place ....
watcher64 said:
I know nothing may change, but I can always hope, I agree with the 94.6% thing fully ....
But if they keep posting the same question over and over THEN it does fall in the Mods domain as spamming , and the mods can handle it with legitimate reason.
I mean simple things, like posting in the wrong forum/thread , it is like walking into a bakery and asking them to change the oil in your car , I mean what kind of person does it take to do a bonehead move like that ...
Oh and I am not saying to really to ignore the posts, because people might learn if a few people hit their thread in the wrong place, and tell them they have the answers but will not answer it because it is in the wrong thread, I know that is being a ****, but , sometimes teaching means writing the lesson on a big stick and smacking them with it till they get the message ..
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Yeah that does sound fair enough...........
Ive just had a good laugh at the thought of somebody walking into a bakery and asking how to flash there HD2..........
@blakeboro - a lot of the thread titles actually give a pretty good indication of what they are about (once you get used to it), but your right some are just total gibberish, there are guidelines on how to title releases etc but as with most of the rules they tend to be ignored far too often.......
Let me throw in my $0.02 in here.
As watcher mentioned already, there are very few of us compared to the sheer volume of users that we get on a daily basis and it is very difficult for us to do everything we do, plus having to baby sit people who cannot read the rules.
The rules of the site are very simple and straight forward. In fact, Rule #1 is "Search before you post". Even if the title of the thread itself is misleading, you don't have to go through threads to find what you are looking for. The site does have a search engine, which may not be the best, but it gets the job done. Also, you have our friend Google...
Responding harshly to threads/posts with questions that are completely out of place may work (most times it doesn't though), but here is the approach that I have always used. Flaming the user takes you nowhere and tends to ignite flame wars as users get pissed with one another. Shortly after that, since this is a public forum, everyone and their grandmother believes that they are entitled to give their two cents/piece of mind... and that's when things begin to get ugly, which is why we have to get involved and in many cases, we (moderators) end up looking like bad guys because we don't allow user A to tell user B what he/she thinks of the situation. There have been many instances where users just flat out turn against mods, stating that we are on power trips and stuff like that, case which couldn't be further away from the truth.
Ignoring the posts doesn't really cut it either as it is very likely that the user in question will either bump his question or ask again. As much as we don't like it, it happens... a lot. So, if you have the time, it helps us tremendously when you report the posts, because we can move the post/thread to where the person may get help and not be flamed for it, which in turn avoids the flame war situation depicted above. It helps also if you don't post inflammatory comments in the post of the "Search you stupid n00b" line.
If you know the answer and feel like helping others, simply post the answer with an explanation that next time, he should post in the right section. Otherwise, just report it and we will move it.
FYI, this has been the case for XDA for as long as the site has been running. It happens more nowadays because our user base is on the rise.
@egzthunder1 I do agree with not flaming them, but at the same time a "Flame" is a relative term, we have seen threads blow up , just by suggesting they search, because their post is a couple of days old and nobody has the answer ...
So really I don't know what the answer is, I don't think anybody does, how do you "make" someone learn ...
I mean to use the analogy I used earlier, it is like going into a bakery shop to get your cars oil changed, if the person stopped and read the sign that mistake would not be made ...
The problem on forums I think is the anonymity of the internet/forum, people think they can shut their brain off, and since we don't know who they are we'll spoonfeed them just to shut them up ...
This does not make a good environment for anybody here, the Devs get bogged down with BS posts, the Users have to wade through countless posts to find what they are looking for.
So while it is not a perfect solution, while not ignoring their posts, waiting till they are in the right place or asked correctly/nicely, to answer them might start to train them, pavlov's dogs and all ....
I just reported quite a few in the themes and apps forum. I really don't see a way to stop it without posing an undue burden on the moderators.
You could for instance have all "new" post in the themes and apps forum have to be approved by a moderator.
Or perhaps have a question come up asking if this is a new theme, app, wallpaper, ringtone, question, request, etc. when someone clicks to post a "new" thread. This could even insert "[THEME]", "[APP]", "[WALLPAPERS]" into the thread title as most authors currently do and new question, request selections could go to the Q&A forums instead of posting in the apps forum.
The problem is the first way would burden down the moderators even more while the second would require some special programming.
I think that instead of just having the forum layout of the threads oldest to newest, replies to a specific thread be attached to that tread and to see them you have to expand them. Just sayin.
Phantoms said:
I just reported quite a few in the themes and apps forum. I really don't see a way to stop it without posing an undue burden on the moderators.
You could for instance have all "new" post in the themes and apps forum have to be approved by a moderator.
Or perhaps have a question come up asking if this is a new theme, app, wallpaper, ringtone, question, request, etc. when someone clicks to post a "new" thread. This could even insert "[THEME]", "[APP]", "[WALLPAPERS]" into the thread title as most authors currently do and new question, request selections could go to the Q&A forums instead of posting in the apps forum.
The problem is the first way would burden down the moderators even more while the second would require some special programming.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah. I counted 13+ that you reported. That's insane! Thanks for the help but unforunately I cannot do it since it's not my fora. I like your ideas... that is all but the "must approve post" one. There are currently 2,511,618 active members and it's growing on a daily basis. And the handful of moderators (only about 80 or so and 29 of them are device specific such as myself) have 434,244 threads to monitor as of this moment for the 84 different devices. So it's very difficult for us to continuously monitor half a million threads for 84+ devices with only 80 moderators. (ref stats)
Also keep in mind that because of this very limited amount of moderators to keep the site organized, clean and friendly it would be difficult and not to mention very time consuming to approve new threads each time and still be productive in the forums.
There is also the matter of urgancy.
I have come across more posts than I could count that someone has literally begged for immediate assistance. It could take hours or even days to approve the post for that member. We are trying to encourage people to use the site. That may only prove to be counter-productive.
The idea of a quick questionaire might help... but even I would have to admit that there have been times that I've seen a post that could be relavant to multiple forums (such as a question or statement about building roms, Q&A or development?) It's a tough call for even some of the most experienced members and may prove to be too much of a hassle. Oh and Watcher, this really should be in General since it's not actually pertaining to this particular device but to the forum as a whole. Even you mentioned this yourself in your original thread which only proves my point that there can be a black and white area as to where to post something.
So in the meantime just continue doing what your doing and they will be moved eventually. What I tend to do in my forums is move the thead in question and post a reason as to why I moved it. Sometimes send a warning to the OP stating that (s)he should review the forum rules about searching and post in the appropriate thread or else I won't just move it next time... I'll move and close it until he sends me a quote of forum rule #1 and give me at least three reasons as to why it is important to post in the correct section. In my opinion we should educate these members since most of them are Junior Members.
Which brings me to my idea. I have this crazy idea that for Junior Members ONLY should have to go through a CAPTCHA verification on a agreement of the rules before being able to post anything. That way if these members do post in the wrong section it gives us more grounds to take the appropriate action. It may also cut down on the SPAM that the site receives.
In any case, keep reporting the posts and we'll keep cleaning it up for ya.
Binary100100 said:
Which brings me to my idea. I have this crazy idea that for Junior Members ONLY should have to go through a CAPTCHA verification on a agreement of the rules before being able to post anything. That way if these members do post in the wrong section it gives us more grounds to take the appropriate action. It may also cut down on the SPAM that the site receives.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh I like that idea, say for people under 50 posts have to use a CAPTCHA and maybe on that CAPTCHA , a reminder to search before posting and to re-read their post before submitting ...
I am sure that most of the people here that do the things we are talking about, would be just as annoyed if someone bugged them the same way with their chosen hobby.
Another suggestion, if we were able to modify the forum this much, would be to have buttons underneath the first post saying: "Use forum search!" or "repeated question!" - if say, 10+ people click the button, then an automatic reply is generated saying: "Please use the forum search for answers" etc.
(These could appear for a new member's first 10 posts etc)
We also have to realize that in the HD2 Leo forums, the Q&A forum was just recently added. So you have to change people's habits of posting those questions, request, etc. in the Themes and Apps forum. Along with that you have a ton of posts already in the Themes and Apps forum that will need to be moved to the Q&A forum as replies bring them back to the top of the Themes and Apps forum.
Binary100100 said:
Yeah. I counted 13+ that you reported. That's insane! Thanks for the help but unforunately I cannot do it since it's not my fora. I like your ideas... that is all but the "must approve post" one. There
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Click to collapse
Yeah, reported about as many tonight. Just think what would happen if you didn't have to wait 1min between reports. Not really. I go through my regular routine of reading the new post in the themes and apps forum as usual. The ones that don't belong in that forum (questions, request, etc.) I open in separate tabs and report as I can while reading through the rest of the new post.
The "must approve" suggestion I knew would be to burdensome on moderators. On just new threads it's a lot of added work. I don't think whatever route is taken you have to worry about individual replies, just entire threads that are off topic. If you could find a way to automate the moving of improper "new" threads that would cut moderators work in half right there. That's where the suggestion for adding a selection when clicking "New Thread" of the type of thread (and automatically moving those in the wrong forum) came from. Still, some users would get wise to it, not care and click the wrong selection (App instead of Question) just so they could get their thread started in the wrong section.
Hello guys,
I know this thread is not directly about a ROM, but this is where this thread belongs because it directly involves the OPs of all these threads... so please read my suggestion.
There is an ever increasing amount of flaming going on here, mostly shooting down newbies for asking the same questions over and over again. I have a suggestion which would be very useful for avoiding the repetitive questions as well as the bad vibes and time wasted generated by so much flaming.
My suggestion is to have all OPs of a thread, make post #2 or post #3 available SPECIFICALLY as an up-to-date info aggregating post... so:
1/ in the FIRST post of the thread, mention is made and a link given to a post (perhaps post #2 or 3) which is dedicated to NEW FINDINGS and WORK AROUNDS.
2/ Someone volunteers to update this post, a beta tester or friend of the OP's or a fan of that specific ROM. the would start and edit/maintain this post #2 or #3 each time a new finding is made (delete helvetica on Darky 7.5, for example)
3/ instead of reading dozens of posts of wasted energy flaming people (it makes ZERO difference and ONLY serves to make the flamer look arrogant and unfriendly) we could all politely point newbies and confused old farters like myself to the first post and post #2 or #3 where they can get useful information without being expected to waste hours reading hundreds of useless comments or failing to find what you want by searching.
4/ Searching only happens when you ALREADY have a problem you need to solve. This idea of post #2 or #3 being used for important new info would tell people ALL they need to know, so if they read that, they would not need to search! IMO searching can take a long time, and XDA limits you to one search per 30 seconds, which DISCOURAGES searching!?
IMO it is not THAT much effort for one person to take on this job per thread...
What do you think?
tx
Mark.
I totally agree with you but you probably know that keeping a post up to date is hard as you can't constantly be on xda.
A solution could be allowing multiple users modifying one same post so updating won't rely on one person.
But I don't know if this is currently feasible.
If you check out Doc's thread, this is basically what he does already. Several posts chock full of information with the most revelant addons, fixes, changelogs, etc.
chambo622 said:
If you check out Doc's thread, this is basically what he does already. Several posts chock full of information with the most revelant addons, fixes, changelogs, etc.
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Click to collapse
Hi
Yes, to some extent this is done on Doc's thread, though it contains (or has in the past when I was using doc's roms and reading those tips) some stuff which is outdated/irrelevant/incorrect an it is a bit disorganised.
I would love to see some kind of standardisation, so anyone trying out a new rom can read about the rom in the first post, and read the second post to see what the latest findings/fixes/issues are.
For sure, Doc's is a lot more informative than most...
Tx
Mark
Any specific information you'd like to see? If you have any questions, I'll try to answer them best I can.
I (at least try to) keep a detailed, up-to-date FAQ on my ROM's page. The problem is, not many people are asking questions.
I'm guilty of chastising folks sometimes too, especially the ones that come on here complaining that their phone is dead and how Samsung sucks because THEY didn't bother reading threads on how to properly flash, or not paying attention and flashing a captivate rom on a vibrant or a i9000m, whatever.
When I have a problem and need to ask a question, I've already spent time searching the net, searching xda, and reading related threads. I guess it is much easier just to hit "new post". How about a forum rule where it is mandatory to actually search, read the stickies, and the first few pages of a rom thread before posting? Or maybe a new thread should be created for every new ROM revision, with the thread title for older versions changed to include "OBSOLETE"?
Also, finding specific information in this forum is quite difficult sometimes because it is spread across hundreds of threads, sometimes buried a few hundred pages in. Another problem is that the i9000 is grouped in with the i9000m, and honestly, there should be a subforum specifically for the i9000m, where we can store all the QQ posts about SD failures and the like. Save the main forums for information we can actually use.
Just my 2 pesos... for what its worth.
This suggestion only covers part of the problem, the other problem is aspiring rom chefs was also shot down by fanboys of more established rom chefs. And as a result, not many would venture into rom cooking anymore.
While I have utmost respect for the chefs, what irks me most is fanboys calling others as thieves... Pathetic....
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
g00ndu said:
While I have utmost respect for the chefs, what irks me most is fanboys calling others as thieves... Pathetic....
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Click to collapse
Hi there,
I agree its definitely not constructive, people taking out their anger on others is uncool regardless of who-how-why.
shadoslayer said:
How about a forum rule where it is mandatory to actually search, read the stickies, and the first few pages of a rom thread before posting?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
most of this is already a requirement/request when you join the forum, but flamers get all self righteous and hammer anyone they deem has not done their homework.
searches are very fallible. if you search for a generally used word you come up with way too much, and search too narrow and you are likely to miss something. I was looking for "battery fix" because that is what the thread title mentioned, but in the actual thread it was called "battery drain" or something, so I did not find the "battery fix" and had to ask.
all these little important things that sit somewhere in a 1000 page thread need to be collected and put somewhere immediately after the first post...
IMO that would make the XDA experience more pleasant for more people!
Mark.
I agree its desperately needed .
Whats happening is that other forums mention the various roms .
Owners then download the rom without even the most basic knowledge of roms Odin flashing etc expect them to be just like factory roms . Get into trouble refuse to read page 1 ask for help often on subjects beyond their very limited knowledge .
jje
fredphoesh said:
Hi there,
I agree its definitely not constructive, people taking out their anger on others is uncool regardless of who-how-why.
most of this is already a requirement/request when you join the forum, but flamers get all self righteous and hammer anyone they deem has not done their homework.
searches are very fallible. if you search for a generally used word you come up with way too much, and search too narrow and you are likely to miss something. I was looking for "battery fix" because that is what the thread title mentioned, but in the actual thread it was called "battery drain" or something, so I did not find the "battery fix" and had to ask.
all these little important things that sit somewhere in a 1000 page thread need to be collected and put somewhere immediately after the first post...
IMO that would make the XDA experience more pleasant for more people!
Mark.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree for an extent. There are a few exceptions however:
1) There have been some cases where people have knowingly presented assumptions as fact... REPEATEDLY! Even after it is questioned. So flaming in that case might not be nice, but flaming is the only way to get them to go away. One such example was when someone was telling everyone "Google Mytrack is buggy, not the GPS". He refused to provide adequate evidence. RAM's another area where everyone is a professional, but none of the professionals have proof..
2) There are also a growing number of users who are blatantly IGNORING strong warnings about some ROM's.... And many of these are users with no development skills, or who haven't even tested official roms first. Then when something goes wrong, they demand help from the community, and later they bug the poor developers, who already knew there were serious bugs.
3) And then, there are the people who don't try to solve their own problem first. Granted, some searches CAN be missed. However, we are often seeing questions which often obviously can't be answered by the community (such as "when will Samsung release Gingerbread for SGS"). Well, clearly in that case, it would be best to speak to Samsung (duh). Or "my sd card is dead, will AT&T replace it". Clearly they should speak to AT&T
4) Then there are the guys too lazy to bother with basic fault fixing skills "my phone jammed up.. What do i do?"
I do agree in general it would be nice if things were friendlier. However, in some cases, I'm not sure if we should embrace people who were mentioned above....
What we really need is a thread designed as a faq consolidating answers
Android Beta -> Astro (1.0) -> Bender (1.1) -> Cupcake (1.5) -> Donut (1.6) -> Eclair (2.0/2.1) -> Froyo (2.2/2.2.1) -> Gingerbread (2.3.x) -> Honeycomb (3.x) -> IceCream Sandwich (4.0.x) -> JellyBean (4.1.x) -> Key Lime Pie (5.0?) (see here for more detailed descriptions)
Since the Vibrant is near the run of its contract users life and many are about to move on to other new devices, there will be more of the phones on Ebay, Amazon, Craig's List,... This means that there will be a flood (or at least a small trickle) of new users coming to our forum. The below is a guide that we have put together in the Recognized Contributor's Forum to help facilitate this. It is a WIP and always will be for the mere fact that this is XDA, Android and Open Source. Things change and so will this, you and your device.
Good Luck and if you have any questions, thoughts, additions...please let me know and I will check it out.
To all new users, XDA is a great place where you can learn a lot about how to make your phone better, have fun talking to other smart people about your phone and the Android OS, and maybe be recognized for your efforts. But first there are few things you need to know about XDA to be a good netizen. I suggest bookmarking any of the links below which might seem helpful since chances are in the future it will be helpful to you or to someone else and you will have it bookmarked.
The Difference Between and N00B and a NEWB
TheDeadCPU said:
A "noob" is a person who is new or inexperienced in a subject, usually an online game. Noobs are usually annoying and excessively stupid. Do not confuse noobs with newbs, who are inexperienced players that tend to be more mature and strive to become better.
Source
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The best way to start is not by posting, it is by reading. Read, search, read, search. If you read an answer that looks helpful or answers a question you might have, bookmark it, and when you see someone else ask that question you will have the answer for them plus a supporting link.
Getting Started
First, please start here by registering. This enables you to post questions and helpful replies to other people's questions and get thanks.
The Rules
Like anything in life, there are rules here. There are also moderators (mods) who enforce the rules when necessary.
Here is the short version. Please:
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
Here is the longer version. XDA Rules
Sharing
Sharing, XDA, and You! New Addition to Sharing Policy on XDA-Developers
Banning Policy Revealed
Source: Banning Policy Revealed
In our continuing efforts to improve the experience of our Forum Members, we are reaffirming our belief in being firm, fair, and open regarding our moderation of the forums. We’re going public with our revised and simplified policy on banning those who repeatedly breach our rules. For some time now our dedicated Members have been asking us to be clear about our efforts to remove troublesome users who seem to plague our forums. We agree with a firm approach, and acknowledge your right to see clean forums fit for decent, contributing members who respect the site and its purposes.
With immediate effect, Administrators and Moderators of XDA-Developers will operate a new simplified moderation policy on banning—but rest assured this will be firm and fair, as we see banning as our last resort after warnings and infractions have been given. In fact, we hope that being open about the way bans are applied will lead to better understanding among Members, and will therefore act as a deterrent to bad behavior.
Feedback from Members has informed us that one of the biggest problems with our forums is the increasing number of users who repeatedly spoil the forums with often low level, but extremely annoying and poor behavior. To protect the vast majority of Members from those who appear with self-entitled attitudes, disruptive behavior, and disregard for the rules; we will follow simple stages in applying successive bans. Users who breach our rules should be very clear that it will no longer matter whether breaches of the rules are “serious” or “minor.” Repeatedly breaking ANY of the rules will ultimately result in a permanent ban.
For regular Members the following simple model will be followed if after initial warnings and infractions have been given, the user continues to breach the rules:
Initial ban: 1 to 3 days
A subsequent rule breach: 1 to 3 weeks
A further breach of the rules: Permanent
This new and simplified policy is geared at those repeated poor behavior, ignoring warnings, and failure to read our rules.
Clear and obvious spammers and very extreme or highly destructive behavior will continue to warrant instant bans.
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Searching
When you have a question you don't know the answer to, don't post a new thread when you could post a question in a relevant open thread, and don't post a question when a few minutes reading and searching will not only give you an answer, but a feeling of accomplishment that you were able to find it yourself, and the confidence to remember and repeat the answer with the link to the thread or post with that answer when you see someone else post that question.
Consider the question you are going to post, pick out the keywords and type them into the search box. Try a few different searches with slightly different words.
New Members Guide-Get the most out of XDA!!
Search guide video
Terms and Acronyms
What does AOSP, ROM or FOTA mean?
Libs, WIP, SDK, what the heck are these?
For a more extensive list please see this thread by Recognized Contributor Diablo67:
Android Terms,Slang & Definitions.
Posts 1,2 and 5 have everything you need to know.
Check this Excellent term definition Glossary by benjamingwynn.
* - anything and everything possible. A good example would be "All my friends live at 10* Croxley Street." This is saying that they are all live at 100, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108 and 109.
Dev - See developer.
Developer - A man or woman who has created (developed) software.
ROM - 1. A modified version of the Android operating system operating system. 2. Read Only Memory, a place where information is stored and can not be destroyed, modified or written to.
AOSP - "Android open source project" a project by Google Inc. to give android to developers and manufactures for free (see open-source)
Open-source - (not to be confussed with free) A peice of software that is free to edit, use, distribute and share with no charge.
CM - See cyanogenmod
Cyanogenmod - A free open-source project based on the AOSP. It is a modded (see modded) version of the Android firmware
Firmware - see ROM (1)
Stock - An unchanged version of something. Example: I just flashed stock sense
OTA - "Over the air" a term used to indicate software that was sent to phones directly through the internet to their phones.
FOTA - "Firmware over the air" this normally refers to ROM's but can refer to radio firmware (see OTA)
Firmware - a piece of software to make hardware function correctly. This can refer to Radio Firmware, but is normally used as another name for ROM (1)
Radio - (not to be confused with Radio Firmware) A piece of hardware that allows communication. There are 3 main radios in your phone. Bluetooth, WiFi and GSM/CDMA.
Radio Firmware - (see firmware) a type of software that allows correct communication with the radio and the operating system. A newer firmware would normally improve battery life and call quality. The radio firmware only applies to the CDMA/GSM radio.
CDMA/GSM - A type of network communication between phones and carriers. GSM phones normally are included with SIM Cards that authorize them onto the network. CDMA have this authorization built in and do not need a sim card.
Kernel - An important part of all operating systems that handles the CPU and other vital components. A modded kernel may be used for overclocking.
Overclock - (not to be confused with underclock) to exced the default maximum CPU speed. This could make a phone more powerful but may cause damage. Although no damaged has been reported so far it could still drain battery life.
Underclock - to change your phones maximum frequency to LOWER than the default to attempt to extend the phones lifespan and battery.
Mod - A modification to a part of the phones software. It is also POSSIBLE to mod the phones hardware but is not recommended.
Modding - To perform a mod
Modded - to have included mods
Modification - see mod
Governor - a system embedded into the kernel to automatically change the current working CPU frequency depending on the workload. It would only go up to what it is overclocked (or underclocked) to, this is called the maximum frequency. It would not drop bellow the (just as eaisly configurable) minimum frequency.
Library's/Libs - a set of instructions for applications to use to function. A functioning camera lib would allow the camera to be used.
WFS - "Wildfire S" an armv6 device made by HTC in 2011.
Logcat - A logging system built into the ADB
ADB - "Android Debug Bridge" a system that can be accessed using a computer where you can manage the device from. You need the Android SDK to use it.
SDK - "Software Development Kit" a set of tools used for software development.
WIP - "Work In Progress"
JDK - "Java Development Kit" an SDK for the java platform. It is needed to run the Android SDK.
JRE - "Java Runtime Environment" a collection of binarys and files to allow java software to execute.
Execute - To "run" or "start" a binary
Binarys - (sometimes called bin's) a group of executable files.
RAM - Could be one of three meanings: 1. Memory for the CPU to process processes. 2. Random Access Memory, a place where information can be used, executed from, modified, or deleted. 3. A type of sheep.
SD - Short term for MicroSD
Marvel - A gsm version of the phone
Marvelc - The cdma version of the phone
Marvelct - A rare Easten CDMA version of the phone.
Marvel* - all versions of the HTC Wildfire S (see *)
GB - Could mean one of two things. 1. Gingerbread or 2. Great Britain
Gingerbread - Android 2.3
Froyo - Android 2.2
Honeycomb - Android 3.x. it was never released or ported to the wildfire s because it was built for tablets.
Ice cream sandwich/ICS - Android 4.0. The latest version of Android.
CM9 - Cyanogenmod 9. A modified version of ICS. (see cm)
RUU - "ROM Update Utility" An automatic installer for Radio Firmware, ROM and HBOOT
HBOOT - The bootloader for all modern HTC Android phones.
Custom recovery - A o version of the stock HTC recovery to install unoffical ROMs.
AFAIK - "As far as I know"
KANG - The process of creating a code based of someone else's code.
Zipalligned - This is something that makes a ROM faster. If you can improve this please contact me!
Deodexed - Where ODEX files are moved into the actual applications
APK - "Android Package" an Android application
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Giving Thanks
Giving thanks is important. It lets people know that their work or answer is appreciated. It is a faster method of feedback than posting a reply like "Thanks for your answer!" You must have one post to give thanks, so here is a good place you can do that without running afoul of the mods for posting no content posts.
The "Say Hi" thread.
You get 8 thanks per day, and they renew after 24 hours or so. Each thanks is independent of the others, so if you give someone a thanks at 3, and then another at 4, those will renew at 3 and 4 the next day. If you run out of thanks, then bookmark that page or open it in a new tab and give thanks later when you have one available.
If you use them all every day you are doing it correctly.
Getting Thanks
You will see that everyone here has a Thanks Meter above their avatar. Here are the thanks counts needed to get to the next bar.
1st bar - 26
2nd bar - 51
3rd bar - 101
4th bar - 201
bug here, never gets to 5 bars, probably 501 if fixed.
6th bar - 1001
7th bar - 2001
8th bar - 5001
9th bar - 8001
Maxed! - 10000
Not that thanks are an indication of a user's status or stature on XDA. Some of the most important people here have a lot fewer thanks than you might guess. You can put some stock into "Thanks" because, theoretically, the more thanks a person has, the more they have helped, which in turn means the more of a knowledge base they might have.
***In the real world, THANKS are about as important as QUADRANT scores. They don't always seem to be what they appear to be.***
User Titles
As you go around XDA and encounter people, you may notice that they have different titles under their avatar. Speaking of which, click here to upload a picture.
Here are the user titles explained by one of our mods.
0 to 29 posts - Junior Member
30 to 99 posts - Member
100 + posts - Senior Member
Originally Posted by juzz86
I'll sum it up for you (or try, anyway!)
There are Junior Members, Members, Senior Members first. These make up the vast majority of XDAs userbase.
Recognized Contributors are nominated by other users and/or Mods/Developers. They are recognized for their contributions which are not specifically Development, such as detailed guides, one-click utilities and other tools/mods.
Recognized Themers are also nominated by users/Mods/Developers, for their work theming custom ROMs and providing standalone themes for flashing.
Recognized Developers are nominated and approved by the Developer Committee, for their work in Development whether it be ROMs, Root methods, bootloader unlocks etc.
Elite Recognized Developers are again assessed by the Developer Committee, and are deemed to have gone above-and-beyond in providing knowledge/hacks/tools/apps/ROMs for the XDA community.
Forum Moderators are appointed by the Moderator Committee, after submitting an application (see the 'sticky' at the top of this forum - currently applications are not open). They are the first-line of keeping the forums tidy, friendly and orderly.
Senior Moderators are the next step up the ladder, providing site-wide support for Forum Mods and looking after the nitty-gritty issues, as well as areas of XDA not policed by FSMs, such as the Marketplace.
Administrators are next. There are several Admins - each look after a specific part of XDA such as the Portal, the Members and the User Experience of XDA as a whole.
At the top is Mike Channon, who is overall Forum Administrator.
Other titles you may come across:
Moderator Committee - sits on the Mod Committee
Developer Committee - as above, but for Developer Committee
XDA Newswriter - publishes articles for the Portal (front page)
Retired xxxx - have since officially 'left' their XDA position
Hopefully that clears most of them up for you
Contrary to what a lot of people expect, the thanks-meter does not figure at all in determining a users tag.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Posting
Posting is something you may do a lot of here, but it is always important to remember to make your posts good ones. Don't post just to drive up your count, there is no special reward for the poster with the highest total and you won't catch the long timers here anyways.
You will find that there are some restrictions on your posting ability when you first start here. For starters, for your first 5 posts, there is a captcha prompt and a time limit in between posts. While this may seem burdensome, it does an excellent job of keeping spammers from posting garbage throughout every thread. There is a 2 minute limit between posting and editing your posts. This stops at 30 posts when you go from Junior Member to Member.
Don't Panic!
Please post ALL relevant information. What ROM/Kernel, What you were doing when the problem surfaced, What is the actual problem (not my phone won't boot, help!!), Were the planets aligned,...
Simple information can go along way to diagnose the problem/issue and it also prevents the reciprocal post of "Need more info".
And we have all been there in Panic Mode where you freak out and just want to get some help. Noobs don't look at these devices as phones or tablets, but rather as investment because well that is what they are are $500-$800 a throw. I respect my device but that is because I know how to use and recovery it. Noobs don't. They see a bootloop and it is strikingly similar to the toilet swirling their money down the drain. That is when Panic Mode sets in.
Don't Panic. Don't be a noob. Be a New User who is smart and reads a lot and knows where things are and how to find useful and timely information.
Why can't I post in the Dev thread I want to?
It seems like everyone wants to be able to post in the Dev threads since it is the cool place to hang out or more likely, just because the message comes up and says you can't post here. However, those forums are locked down and new users who joined after Mar 11, 2012 with less than 10 posts will not be able to post there. If you see someone with less than 10 posts in a dev thread, look at their join date and you will see why they were able to post.
This restriction is not meant to be cruel or mean to you, but to prevent inexperienced people from posting in forums which are meant for Development work. Posting "Thanks for a great ROM" might make you feel good, but consider what it adds to the conversation from a Development perspective. If the answer is Nothing, then please don't post it in a Dev thread. If it adds another post to an already long thread with zero value, please don't post it on a Dev thread or anywhere on XDA for that matter.
Also keep in mind that the mods are out there reading your posts, and if they believe you are posting simply to get to 10 posts to post some non-dev comment in a dev thread, you could find all your posts missing and your account temporarily disabled. <----This personally drives me bonkers. DON"T SPAM THE BOARDS TO GET YOUR POST COUNT UP. It doesn't take too much thought to come up with 10 relevant questions.
****READ THIS. If you Spam you WILL get called out and possibly reported****
Please feel free to thank the dev several times instead of posting "Thanks for a great ROM". Rate the dev's thread with 5 stars using the rate dropdown button at the top of every page of the thread. If you feel that is not sufficient, most devs have a donate button with Paypal. I promise you that they will remember you and appreciate you far more for donating even a couple of dollars versus some post, however gushingly approving, on their dev thread.
Please do not send private messages to the devs saying "Thanks for a great ROM" instead of posting "Thanks for a great ROM". See above.
The best way to start is not by posting, it is by reading. Read, search, read, search. If you read an answer that looks helpful or answers a question you might have, bookmark it, and when you see someone else ask that question you will have the answer for them plus a supporting link.
You might be thinking, is there a place for new users? The answer is no, because the only non-noob areas are the Dev subforums. You can post into your devices General, Q&A, Accessories, and Themes and Apps subforums.
10 post count rule for Dev threads
Posting Questions
OK, you got through all that and you have a question that you need that answer to. You have searched, and searched again, and searched again with different keywords, but you can't find the answer. The question is, where do you post it? The first and best place is to check your device's Q&A subforum for a thread posted there, either a general question thread, or a thread already posted there with a similar question. When you post into a thread, that thread is then listed at the top of the subforum it is in and the title turns Bolded for everyone else. Someone else may see that thread and know the answer and post it.
Remember, give it some time before reposting. XDA members live around the world and are not going to be on your time zone and schedule. Wait a day and see if you get a response. If you want a notification of someone else posting into that thread, click on the Thread Tools button at the top of the thread and choose Subscribe.
Getting Flamed
At some point, you are going to get "flamed" by someone who feels that your post is stupid, off-topic, irrelevant, noobish, whatever, and they are going to post something like "You are an XXXXX who doesn't know something simple like YYYYY. Don't post here anymore." It is going to happen at some time here, but the important part is not to respond in kind. It will not help the situation, or make your e-peen any bigger, or make you any tougher. It might make you feel better temporarily, but what invariably happens is that the forum mod (or a senior mod) will come in and delete those comments and you might end up on the infraction list, or temporarily disabled, or banned. Just don't reply to it.
*First, consider the question or post you wrote from a different angle. There is no excuse for flaming someone, but in a multi-cultural environment things may be perceived very differently than what you intended.
*Second, if the flame is really over the line, click on the little triangle in the upper right hand corner of the post and type in a short explanation and let the mods handle it. This is what they are here for. To MODerate and enforce the rules. They are not here to babysit you, so if you get in a flame war and in turn become too hostile in your own defense, YOU could get an infraction.
Signature
Making a signature is a very important thing to do since it can help to describe your phone, it's current software, and any modifications you have installed.
A signature should inform others about your phone when you post a question.
A good signature will include information helpful to others beyond the direct target of the question/reply.
A great signature will inform the community with important information and potentially answer questions which have not been asked yet, avoiding repetitive posts.
Please click here to make a signature (5-8 posts minimum) It's cool and you will get more help and respect from us.
Donations
Making a donation is neither expected or required, but are always gratefully received and appreciated.
There are "Donate to me" icons above people's avatar, or in their signatures.
You can also donate to XDA by clicking HERE.
When you donate 10 EUROS to XDA,you get rewarded with a STAR
,which is displayed a little below your avatar.
If you buy 10 STARS ,you will be rewarded with a
.
Check this out!!!
Remember, always be respectful of other members here and considerate. Most people here are doing this for nothing more than the feeling of helping people as we have been helped by other people previously, and sometimes the occasional press of the thanks button. We aren't making money here and this isn't a job, so please don't tell people what to do or demand things of people such as mods or custom ROM configs to suit you and you will do just fine here.
Links You Might Find Interesting
Getting a Moderator's Help
[Tutorial] How To Logcat
[GUIDE] How to give constructive feedback to developers
[ADB/FB/APX Driver] Universal Naked Driver 0.7
Chef Central
[Ultimate Guide]Android App Development - From Scratch
How to Apply for Recognized Developer
XDA Recognized Developer Program Expansion
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Change-log:
Put in Android Terms,Slang & Definitions from Diablo67
Put in New XDA Sharing Policy and Glossary in Terms and Acronyms
Put in all Android OS's names and version numbers
Put in difference between N00B and Newb
Put in Links You Might Find Interesting section
Put in section about Banning Policies
Credits to mf2112 for putting the nuts and bolts together.
Thanks, both of you for this, I'm sure it will be tons of help for the new users.
Thanks, again, for taking the time to do this.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using Tapatalk 2
Awesome thread and a very good idea.
Thank you for taking the time to create such a well informed thread.
I'm sure this will help a lot of new users to the device ^^
...........................
Massive Update(s) including:
*Banning Policy Revealed (which I am sure some will be interested in this more than others)
*New XDA Sharing Policy and
*Glossary in Terms and Acronyms / Android Terms,Slang & Definitions
*Android OS's Names and Version Numbers
*Interesting Links Section
Informative
nice