Database Users

Support Section (Mods look here please!)

Okay, before everyone starts flaming...I know that there are probably hundreds of thread in the Dream General section suggesting a support section or a "Support thread" but they have been incredibly unsuccessful and members are constantly reporting and starting new threads on their problems in Dream Android Development and in General. Isn't the whole point of GENERAL suppose to be GENERAL? And not a support area?
This is why I'm proposing that we create an entire new area for people to get help and for people to post their problems and give solutions. If you take a look at the amount of locked threads in development and the amount of threads in Dream General pertaining to the numerous amount of problems that people are having, you will understand. I understand that there is in fact a brick thread inside Dream Development, but people don't care. They just post it in random places and mods have to constantly remind people to post in the right place and to SEARCH! With this proposal, I believe that if a support section is created, people will be more likely to search in THERE because it's a special place set aside for just that, SUPPORT.
Mods please take this into consideration and don't lock this thread. How many of you think that we should have a support section and not clutter Dream General and Dream Development with hundreds of two post threads talking about bricks and eventually them getting locked or moved to the trash within seconds.
Thanks for reading this. Comment in the posts below
Thanks to Milestone for a list of good reasons why we should have a support section! thanks milestone!
milestone.it said:
i feel that a support section would be useful for many simple reasons
1) it would aid in the moderation task - most people can read the word "support" and realize to post in there. if they can't then don't get a g1!
2) it would allow for a few people who are interested in helping out other newbie users to correct their problems without everyone having to read them if they don't want to.
3) there can be a place to move wrongly posted requests to.
4) everyone knows where to post them to in the first place!
that was my £0.02p
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Everyone here with a few exceptions i'm sure are using a rooted phone. If you noticed, each thread that contains a ROM will also provide support for that ROM. Most of the problems are specific to each rom. So there would need to be a support thread for each ROM released in a seperate forum section, which already exists in the developer section. Also, each rom released is pretty much a beta and will always remain a beta because there is no standards to which these roms are created and no "end point" to the development, its always on going. And unique bugs and problems will always occure with each Rom. So it is a continual part of development to post, read about and repair those bugs and problems to make each Rom better. I don't think a support section needs to be created. I just think people need to be less lazy and use the search tools. Even bricked phones are being bricked by a specific rom...or SPL or what have u and again should fall under development since most bricked phones was because of a bad SPL or bug in a ROM . And if it is not specific to anything that has been created or released here...Tmobile DOES have their own support forums =)

Good point, but we're not T-Mobile and T-Mobile doesn't JUST carry the G1 now do they?

alritewhadeva said:
Good point, but we're not T-Mobile and T-Mobile doesn't JUST carry the G1 now do they?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You've a good point as well =). ...Yah, T-mobile mentioned something about them carrying the ION soon....so I guess "T-Mobile" can be replaced with "Your phone's manufacturer and/or carrier" hehehe
Did XDA not create forums for the Magic and the Ion and the Sapphire? Most of this development is geared towards the G1 for the most part...which pretty much is T-Mobile....Now if they just made a Forum for "ANDROID DEVELOPMENT" that encomposses all the android phones...that may work out better. But the support would still end up in the specific rom forums... I dunno...to many roms and too many phones and too many carriers lol getting had to keep up

alritewhadeva said:
Good point, but we're not T-Mobile and T-Mobile doesn't JUST carry the G1 now do they?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, and T-Mobile won't be able to support the myriad of problems that come with rooted phones and custom ROMs anyway.
The sad fact (and why this idea has never really taken off) is that no matter what you do; stickies/wikis/locked threads/temp bans etc... there is always going to be a host of fng's that don't know any better and will continue to post out of context and out of laziness.
Hell, there's a couple people that straight up know better and will still post in the wrong section because "nobody's gonna be able to help me in the Dream forum, so I'm posting here anyway."
It would seem you can't change human nature, so you're forced to moderate. Or so I've decided.

i feel that a support section would be useful for many simple reasons
1) it would aid in the moderation task - most people can read the word "support" and realise to post in there. if they can't then don't get a g1!
2) it would allow for a few people who are interested in helping out other newbie users to correct their problems without everyone having to read them if they don't want to.
3) there can be a place to move wrongly posted requests to.
4) everyone knows where to post them to in the first place!
that was my £0.02p

tep065 said:
You've a good point as well =). ...Yah, T-mobile mentioned something about them carrying the ION soon....so I guess "T-Mobile" can be replaced with "Your phone's manufacturer and/or carrier" hehehe
Did XDA not create forums for the Magic and the Ion and the Sapphire? Most of this development is geared towards the G1 for the most part...which pretty much is T-Mobile....Now if they just made a Forum for "ANDROID DEVELOPMENT" that encomposses all the android phones...that may work out better. But the support would still end up in the specific rom forums... I dunno...to many roms and too many phones and too many carriers lol getting had to keep up
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah there's a forum for the Magic/Sapphire but the ION has not really been officially launched, but when it does I'm sure XDA will create another forum for it. I still think a support section would be a good idea. Most other forums have something like that, however this one does not. Just my opinion
milestone.it said:
i feel that a support section would be useful for many simple reasons
1) it would aid in the moderation task - most people can read the word "support" and realise to post in there. if they can't then don't get a g1!
2) it would allow for a few people who are interested in helping out other newbie users to correct their problems without everyone having to read them if they don't want to.
3) there can be a place to move wrongly posted requests to.
4) everyone knows where to post them to in the first place!
that was my £0.02p
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good list. Updated OP

So, I've been thinking about this a bit more... and drinking bombay/tonic and shots of patron, so take it with a grain of salt...hehe
Anyway, I actually think it could be useful at this point. Seeing all the troubleshooting threads in this forum, it could be useful to seperate truly general things with support related things.
The way I see it, at this moment:
Dream (26 Viewing)
Dream android development (237 Viewing)
Dream accessories (2 Viewing)
Dream themes and wallpapers (25 Viewing)
Dream applications and games (23 Viewing)
Obviously, development gets all the attention.
That's the main reason so many people go straight there to get a question answered.
However; a support thread probably wouldn't see any less visitors than the other 4 threads and certainly more than the accessories thread. I dare say, accessories could be merged with general and be replaced with support.
It wouldn't hurt to have a handful of stickies of current support issues and an entire thread dedicated to it. Maybe having a thread that floated to the top in development called support that tried to redirect people to a support forum might work well.
Anyway, just a thought. Back to the tequila...
milestone.it said:
i feel that a support section would be useful for many simple reasons
1) it would aid in the moderation task - most people can read the word "support" and realise to post in there. if they can't then don't get a g1!
2) it would allow for a few people who are interested in helping out other newbie users to correct their problems without everyone having to read them if they don't want to.
3) there can be a place to move wrongly posted requests to.
4) everyone knows where to post them to in the first place!
that was my £0.02p
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Agreed =] I'm thankful for everyone commenting in this thread and keeping it alive. Come on guys, don't PRETEND you DON'T want a suppport section. Aren't all of you tired of the cluttered threads and the people telling you to sift through 300 page threads for answers? With this support section, finding an answer should be a breeze. I'm proposing we have sepeerate threads in the section for different ROMs and to post known problems and known solutions in the OPs. Let your opinions be heard! Going to go ahead and bump this up there. Come on! Comment! and vote in the poll

[Q] Proposal to merge all Galaxy S family into 1 neat and big sub forum

original topic at
[Q] Proposal to merge all Galaxy S family into 1 neat and big sub forum
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=764084

That is brilliant. Can't believe I did not post it first, it is a peeve of mine, big time.

I would like to see this as well.

I support this!

It was like that at first, but I think they did this so that people wouldnt start flashing things on their phones without knowing which one it's for.
I wouldnt mind a general "Galaxy S General" forum though.

yes, this would be a definite plus. and give us an off topic section for us sgs users as well.

+1 .....10 char

^bump^
as i don't have any Mod power to make it a sticky, much less make the original topic cross posted across the 5 SGS forums

115 Yes
7 No
Wow...

I didn't at first, but I found my self looking at the other forums today because its really obvious that there is tons of cross over. Of course I'd agree that development should be seperate, but cases and other things should totally be combined.

I just hope my sticky stays a sticky

jz9833 said:
It was like that at first, but I think they did this so that people wouldnt start flashing things on their phones without knowing which one it's for.
I wouldnt mind a general "Galaxy S General" forum though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It wasn't exactly like that at first I think..more precisely only the i9000 forum existed as it was the only device out at the time..
Right now we got almost the devices out the door and most of the stuff are compatible..if not minor tweaks make it compatible...
But yes thats exactly what the proposal will do..it will separate out the development with some room for cross development and keep the other categories like general the same

As long as the development sections are separate I think this its a good idea..
Especially if we have enough mods to watch over us...
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App

and also take out the Galaxy Spica subsection which no one seems to use.

I do like the idea though the only thing I'm worried about is people getting confused in the development section. And I'm assuming since the software is basically the same for all the phones then themes would work across all phones.

yeah that might be an issue. if we do merge, I think it's best if people start id'ing their thread with something like
[CAPT] dadada
[VIBR] dadada
[EPIC] dadada

Let me clear things up a bit....the Development thread will have sub-forums for each device...so anything that is unique or only for 1 device will be in the sub-forum...things that work on all devices or multiple devices will go into the main Development forum where we will tag it something like this "[V][C][F]" which would mean works for Vibrant, Captivate, Fascinate only.

I agree, checking all the other SGS forums is a litle annoying.

kizer said:
I didn't at first, but I found my self looking at the other forums today because its really obvious that there is tons of cross over. Of course I'd agree that development should be seperate, but cases and other things should totally be combined.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was under the impression that the Vibrant and Captivate don't use the same cases (Captivate has lines vs curves), so already there is an instance where this idea falls apart.
Theres going to be a SGS with a keyboard soon, that case won't be compatible with cases for the other phones.
So....we could mix the Vibrant and i9000 forums because they're basically the same form factor, but why bother.
There is enough different about all these phones that it's probably better keeping them separated.
-----
EDIT:
With that said, when there is an issue with one phone, it does seem to carry over to the others and it is freaking annoying having to delve the forums of the other phones to find a solution.
Unfortunately, what is the "better" solution? Either one is going to be somewhat confusing for somebody.

Bump.
To the people that still doesn't know about this idea, please go vote if you would like to see the big Galaxy S family forum merged.
Thanks.

[Q] Proposal to merge all Galaxy S family into 1 neat and big sub forum

original topic at
[Q] Proposal to merge all Galaxy S family into 1 neat and big sub forum
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=764084

Yes this is exactly what we need. Since the poll is positive, when will we see the forums merge together?
Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk

Great idea. I voted in the orignal thread.

They did it with so many other phones, why not the galaxy s series?
I don't get it, and not many do. I came from the touch pro series and it doesn't bother me to have separate subs; rapheal is a great example of how it works out to combine em in one.
Sent from my captivate

^bump^
as i don't have any Mod power to make it a sticky, much less make the original topic cross posted across the 5 SGS forums

This would help a lot!

I'd be okay with merging the Vibrant, Captivate, and that Verizon model, but I feel that the Galaxy S is too different in both hardware and software to merge it. Do we really want to be dealing with people who flashed the wrong ROM that was in the same forum?

NickMl said:
I'd be okay with merging the Vibrant, Captivate, and that Verizon model, but I feel that the Galaxy S is too different in both hardware and software to merge it. Do we really want to be dealing with people who flashed the wrong ROM that was in the same forum?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually we have more similarities with the Galaxy S then the Vibrant and Captivate >.>
If you read the post the Development forums will have separate subforums for device specific stuff...but things like General and etc will be merged so more people will be able to assist you..our device are pretty much 95%-99% identical.

I think its a pretty good idea. We don't want development scattered. United we stand strong!

it. said:
I think its a pretty good idea. We don't want development scattered. United we stand strong!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yup! and more development = win for us all...

Please make this happen!

*Flashed back to the Hero forum before they where separate* Horrible Idea wanting to put CDMA and GSM phones in the same area - many a Hero where sent to an early grave by mixing the Dev boards for these 2. Someone posts a GSM radio update and a CDMA guy gets it thinking "Hey, what the Hell, couldn't hurt!" and there goes their $500.00 phone. Then they something about having insurance replace it and a huge debate starts over insurance fraud. And I've been told that insurance on the Epic is a one time use, then they drop it and you are Ef'd on a second one.
So consider this my vote against a huge forum of all GS devices. Also, with the hardware differences on a kernel level I have to think this would be a developer nightmare. As active as all 5 boards are already, there would be no way to keep up as a community to help each other out. Your thread would be buried in 10 minutes and we would have to deal with 5 times as many people asking stupid "Which rom is the best" or "How do I root my phone" questions without searching.

Kcarpenter said:
So consider this my vote against a huge forum of all GS devices.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The proposition includes having separate development forums for each device. Only the General and Apps forums would be combined. Check out the link in the OP for more info.

lol wouldn't it be funny if they all merged and than the other Galaxy S phones want to divorce from the Epic because of no Tv-Out.
"They're mutants!!!"

sorry about the cross forum posting guys, but until we get this other issue solved
Proposal to merge all Galaxy S family into 1 neat and big sub forum
this is the only way to keep in touch across the separate forums

Hey mod !!!!!!! Read this and reply !!

Please answer us on splitting out the Tab Development section into at sub sections, GSM, Sprint CDMA, Verizon CDMA.

aal1 said:
Please answer us on splitting out the Tab Development section into at sub sections, GSM, Sprint CDMA, Verizon CDMA.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Demanding a response from a mod isn't likely to be met well. There's a lot of exclamation marks going on there. I think you might've forgotten a couple of 1's.

Why does it need to be split, are you confused from the huge selection of roms and development that's going on
swyped from a galaxy far far away...

galaxy tab has no movement (compared with desire, nexus, galaxy-s and others).
divisions are not needed, imho.
the thread titles are explicit.

Not until the source for honeycomb is released.

I personally agree with the OP. I think the section need to be split. I don't think the titles are always explicit and can be confusing. They are less confusing when you've been around for a while because the Tab forum has like no movement as was said earlier. I'm just not sure how they can split since some of the euro roms work on CDMA devices.

I have to say that I too agree. Nothing is more frustrating for a CDMA SGT owner looking for goodies, than to have to scroll through countless GSM posts. Not all posts are clear, some say only (ROM) which works fine for any other topic, but as long as there are 2 versions of the product, there should be 2 versions of threads. Just my 2 cents...
Sent from my EVO using ESP.

I see no valid reason for this forum to be split, it would do more harm then good. What it infact needs is some sort of mandatory tagging scheme like the HD2 section has.
Devs need to tag their releases clearly and informatively to a set standard so users of their work have a clear and expected way of getting that info.
Example...
[10.MAR.11][ROM][GSM/CDMA] Release Name/Version [KERNEL]
This way you can clearly see the date and other needed info just by checking titles of topics.
You guys should visit the HD2 section and see how organised things are there, Yes there is waaaaay less dev work in the Tab section but better to start as you mean to go on.

I agree with both Grim and the OP.
I think what is desired is an easier way to find what will work with your device.
I moved to the Verizon version of this device from an original Moto Droid. With phones it seemed easier. If I was in the MotoDroid area, I knew that everything worked... (yeah, right) at least it was supposed to.
Here, it is much harder.
So either a consistent method of tagging a file posting or splitting. Either way solves the real goal.
Just my 14 cents...

kenfly said:
Not until the source for honeycomb is released.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't see what that has to do with this..
Burning think its clear enough with the titles tbh. They state if they're CDMA or GSM.
Sent from my GT-P1000

aal1 said:
Please answer us on splitting out the Tab Development section into at sub sections, GSM, Sprint CDMA, Verizon CDMA.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agreed but not JUST to those carriers. Split it according to TYPE instead.

Its probably not going to be split. And a please would be nice.

option94 said:
Its probably not going to be split. And a please would be nice.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As you wish...
PLEASE!!!!!

Dev threads naming conventions/date stamp at front.

Firstly I would just like to say that I am eternally grateful to the devs for choosing to share their work here and I have no complaints (other then one) and I think the work the do is amazing, without them we would be stuck on carrier firmware and out of date software/features so much respect!
My issue is and personally think this is long overdue is that we REALLY need a global (or in least the GS2 section) XDA naming convention/rule or forum addon for adding rom threads so that all rom topic titles are consistent and uniformed.
I probably say this and think about it more because my 2 previous daily devices were the immortal (and best ever smartphone) HTC HD2 and the Galaxy Tab (P1000) and in these forums all dev topics were pretty uniform and all rom/kernel topics has date stamp at front of title so that people browsing section could easily see at a glance if there had been any updates to their roms or in general for people like me who have ORD.
Other sections though like S2 seem to be completely random and its more of a pain to look through roms and the "at a glance" checking of rom updates is completely non-existent.
IMO we really need a rule set of posting topics in dev section as far as rom/kernel releases goes, for example..
[DATE][ROM/KERNEL] Rom Title [Version][Extra Info]
Obviously thats just a quick example but really think the first 2 sections (ie date/type] should be mandatory at front so that all dates/types are in line. Anywhere else and they all just go completely random.
Agree/Disagree , why, thoughts?
:good:

Thoughts? Sure, site-wide rule suggestions don't belong in device sub-forums.

oinkylicious said:
Thoughts? Sure, site-wide rule suggestions don't belong in device sub-forums.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well it was in the least just for our forum since mods can create per section rules, however the rule could be made global ideally.