A thought occurred to me here while just browsing the forums.
If it doesn't already exist, I'm wondering how many senior members as well as new members might be interested in having a place where live dialog could be done. Many a time I could see threads and posts by people looking for help or just making a simple query out of curiosity waited days or weeks before seeing a resolve or no answer at all on ones which the answer was easy. I've taken a few that looked like no answers that I was reasonably sure I was correct and posted an answer to and thusly those people probably at least if they did get a resolve went away thinking at leastsomeone was watching wanting to share knowledge and experience. Now while I know it could not replace the overall usefullness of a forum, as with a forum the answer is only a search away. Some answers could be resolved without saying "search the forum" or more degrading and sarcastic answers like "Why don't people just learn to use google to search" coming from an It support background I understand there are people that don't fully understand search engines or forums but are very good at following step by step instruction or pointing directly to a link to a post on the forum.
So my idea is a reasonably setup irc server with channels named properly to reflect the device of interest "Blue Angel" "Hermes" "Elf" "Universal" etc. where a person could go for quick explination or direction. and talk live to other members.
also a general discussion area for say windows mobile in general, or even just general rant about achievements or development feedback and idea sharing with more experienced developers who want to join in.
I don't know if this I already available as I haven't seen any that relate to this forum. But I think it would be a good resoure to both new and more senior and experienced users to have available.
Please feel free to give your feedback on this idea, but as I know how forums can be.
Please keep your feedback constructive and professional like the intelligent and respectful people I've seen so far.
Thanks
Note: yes to answer this ahead of time I'm thinking about starting up something like this or would be willing to help set it up if the owners of this forum would be interested. feel free to move this thread to a more proper section as you see fit
You are right it requires a lot
**UPDATE AT BOTTOM OF POST***
**PLEASE , GIVE 3 MINUTES OF YOUR TIME TO READ THIS AND POST IF POSSIBLE**
Hey guys and gals. TweakMan here. Thanks for stopping in. First off , let me apologize for opening this thread. I am totally against opening any thread in the Development & Hacking section unless you are contributing, but this is my only option. So please read on, and show your support for XDA. It will only take a minute to read this, and decide. It takes less to post and show your support.
I opened the "General PPC Questions" thread at the top of this page almost 2 months ago. When I first opened this thread, I believed it would only have 10 to 20 posts max. Now , it has grown into a size I never believed. The amount of support everyone has showed for there fellow PPC users, is amazing!!
This one thread alone has helped answer over 150 questions! It has stopped almost 250 new threads from being opened for a simple question. It's done it's job, and I believe its served this site well!! I am in no way trying to take sole credit for this. All I did was open the thread. It is you amazing people that keep this thread alive and working.
I spend at least 2 to 4 hours a day trying to keep the "Answered & Unanswered Boards" updated, for easier use. But there are still maybe 20% of the original amount of new threads being opened. And I believe I have a solution.
I would really like to see a new section opened in this forum. General Questions. I would be willing to do all of the work, and put the same amount of time and more into it. There are a few features that would help this work. First, in the section, open only 5 threads at the beginning. Software Questions, Theme Questions, PPC Questions, Smartphone Questions, and Other Questions.
Also, and most importantly, make the entire section locked. This should be the only 5 threads that are able to be opened. This makes sure that the section isn't overrun with new threads everyday, making it impossbile to keep organized.
I have a lot of ideas that will make this work. And I promise you if you show your support here I will do my best to make it work as well as and better as the General Questions Thread. But I need your support to even get the moderators to consider this.
When I first posted the idea for the General PPC Question thread, I was flamed and told that it would never work. Look at how well it has done. There are over 300 users that are currently using this thread, with better results than any other site I've seen like this. So this goes out to all of you. Especially the users that use this thread for help. Give me one minute of you time and post a reply here showing you support this idea.
**IF YOU DO NOT SUPPORT THIS, PLEASE DO NOT POST HERE, THIS IS TO HELP XDA. THERE SHOULD BE NOT REASON TO CRITICIZE FOR THAT*******
**LOOK HOW MUCH WAS ACCOMPLISHED WITH 1 THREAD!!!!!! PLEASE SHOW YOUR SUPPORT !!!
****************************************************************UPDATE HERE:
****************************************************************
Hey guys. Just giving you an update on the progress of our work here. I just sent the letter to the administrator of the forum, and am now in a waiting game to hear a response.
But until then , I hope you keep showing your support. Also, there are now at least 4 mods supporting this.
Thank you all for your support in this , and the already existing thread. Without you all, each and every one, this wouldn't even be a dream, and the other thread would have already crashed and burned.
And last but not least, Thanks for the ideas. Your guys ideas are what make the already existing thread work. I hope that it happens so that all of our ideas can continue to help clean up this site, and gain our once loved search function back to full capacity !! LOL
So keep the support coming guys. There are over 400 users that use the Questions thread. I hope that you all can return the favor, and show your support here for something that has helped you. This isn't for me, it's always been for XDA.
I will update you as soon as I hear back from the admin.
Keep your fingers crossed and keep showing the love for XDA!!!!
**ALL NEW UPDATES WILL BE POSTED IN THE SECOND POST FROM NOW ON**
RESERVED
This is reserved to update you on how this project is going.
**PLEASE GIVE 1 MINUTE OF YOUR TIME TO POST. IM SURE YOU'VE READ ALOT MORE USLESS THINGS HERE BEFORE. THIS HELPS XDA!!!************
Voted +1.
(What? we can't all have long threads )
Voted +2
its a great idea..im too getting annoyed by new post here and there..
Voted +3
great idea
An Alternative Suggestion
Tweakman,
Instead of implementing your suggestion why don't we create another forum called, say, "Development & Hacking Professional".
This new forum would be locked to all except those who had an application or development to submit. For an author to place his/her item in this new forum he/she would first have to submit their item to a moderator. If it passes the test then the moderator opens a thread in the new forum for that item.
All questions, etc, would be placed in the current Dev & Hacking forum which would, de facto, become the Questions & Answers forum you are seeking to create. The moderators could, over time, move development items already in the current Dev & Hacking forum into the new forum.
To make this work effectively, all developers would have to setup a wiki page for their development. Any valuable hints and tips, registry changes, tweaks, etc, would go into that wiki page as support for the developed item.
The upshot of all this is that if you wanted to find a developed application you search in the new Dev & Hacking Professional forum. If you want support you search the relevant wiki pages.
Searches become simple and fast, support is there without the developers being innundated with crap, and we all live happily ever after.
Just my penny's worth.
WB
PS: BTW, what I am suggesting is not difficult. We did something similar for Schaps when he was developing his roms and getting threads 1000 posts long, most asking the same question that had been answered only 2 posts up if people had bothered to read!
To reduce the support overhead on Schaps, myself and another user put together wiki pages for Schaps as a support and reference point and it worked! You still got the lazy fools posting already answered questions in the main thread; however the wiki page fast tracked any search for solutions to known problems, etc.
It can be done if there is the will by all to make this work.
Give me Moderator status and I will be more than happy to put some legwork in to make this happen.
Good idea tweakman. you have my vote.
@wacky
IMHO doing it your way sounds to me as damage control, while Tweakman's idea is (or should) target the root of the problem...
I do like the wiki idea though
on a side note i'd also like to see a "software request" section,
+1 vote... good idea
I posted a thread about this awhile back, I support this idea
THANKS
Thanks guys !! I wish as many that used the thead would give one min of there time for somethin thats helped so many. I am sending a request to the administrator in the morning, and alread have support from several mods. LETS KEEP TRYIN, IM ONLY DOING THIS TO HELP!!!!!! WEVE COME A LONG WAY WITH ONLY 1 THREAD!!! Almost 400 posts in 2 months!!!!
Yup, I support you too.
UPDATE
Thanks guys! Im sending a request to the administrator in the morning under recommendation from several mods, and those mods, are supporting us as well guys!!!!
So keep your fingers crossed and show the love you have for XDA!!! Simply post a quick reply sayin I SUPPORT THIS!!!
**LOOK HOW MUCH WAS ACCOMPLISHED WITH 1 THREAD!!!!! SHOW YOUR SUPPORT !!!
keep it rocks
Count my vote
good idea, fully support this.
it would tidy the entire forum cos when you think zbout it a lot of the questions posted in the devices threads relate to more than one phone
+vote
D&H definitely needs cleanup.
EDIT: One more idea: what about creating a Themes/skins development section?
Great Idea!
You have my vote
I have seen so many noob's get flamed, and probably scared off the site forever, for asking simple questions that deserve to have a place to be answered.
Any member that dedicates posts to shaming someone, for what they post, should slap themselves. To those members; you were all noobs once, and now you've graduated to become full fledged ASSHOLES! Pull the stick out of your ass and get a real hobby. This is not your private club, and you definately do not look cool when you do **** like that.
XDA is a community for users of EVERY level. Cut new people some slack, quit playing little social exclusion games, and help someone out every now and then. As they grow in knowledge and understanding, they will treat others, on this site, the same way they were treated when they were beginners.
I THINK A GENERAL QUESTIONS SECTION IS AN EXCELLENT IDEA...NO JERKS ALLOWED!
One More
Good idea.
Not sure the post suggesting that a 'Development & Hacking Professional' thread is opened is a good idea though - we are trying to consolidate the information into one place, not spread it more thinly.
+1 from me!
+ 1
Ciao, Andrea
I have a few ideas for the troubles developers are having here
1. Each rom developer should work together and have one area that only developers can give ideas and input, only select people would be allowed to post to the area but we could all view what is in the works, a semi private forum or community, this would cut down on spam and allow for uninterupted development
2. Developers shouldn't have to handle being customer care/support, they shouldn't have to deal with idiots that cannot rtfm or search, this takes time from their own ideas and development process as well as their own lives having to keep up with thousands of people.
3. In organized places like the linux kernel project developers are seperated from the community to a point to avoid such issues that turn away good developers. Basically the developers know what need to be done, its a passion of theirs and we are all lucky to take part in the experience
4. There is already communication between developers and maybe the mods could create a read only area for non-developers, and read/write for rom developers and trusted helpers
So if xda cannot create a seperate forum just for the developers to use and for people to view but not spam/other things I say the devs should just create another rom mod community
Thanks,
defcon
defconoi said:
I have a few ideas for the troubles developers are having here
1. Each rom developer should work together and have one area that only developers can give ideas and input, only select people would be allowed to post to the area but we could all view what is in the works, a semi private forum or community, this would cut down on spam and allow for uninterupted development
2. Developers shouldn't have to handle being customer care/support, they shouldn't have to deal with idiots that cannot rtfm or search, this takes time from their own ideas and development process as well as their own lives having to keep up with thousands of people.
3. In organized places like the linux kernel project developers are seperated from the community to a point to avoid such issues that turn away good developers. Basically the developers know what need to be done, its a passion of theirs and we are all lucky to take part in the experience
4. There is already communication between developers and maybe the mods could create a read only area for non-developers, and read/write for rom developers and trusted helpers
So if xda cannot create a seperate forum just for the developers to use and for people to view but not spam/other things I say the devs should just create another rom mod community
Thanks,
defcon
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The xda forum has been here for very long time. And that proves there's nothing wrong with the working model we're having here right now. Otherwise you wouldn't see an active forum like this, amirite?
Part of the problem here is that evryone in the community who has an interest in modding KNOWS that this is the place all the modders go. I agree if we created a tech support forum (or a sepperate website) with threads that can only be started by privilaged users then the madness would be contained within a logical structure.
I agree with this completely! This will force those that don't research (search and read appropriate topic) into doing some studying! We need to resolve this issue ASAP before we lose more of our top devs! I appreciate their hard work and the countless hours of effort they put in! I've read some of these long threads and they just keep getting longer by posters that ask a question that was answered at or near the beginning of the topics! Pretty ridiculous? I call it laziness!
I think this is a great idea. And also maybe an irc for devs and trusted helpers.
Hi everybody,
Let me introduce myself. I'm M_T_M , your new forum mod for the HTC Wallaby.
I've been on xda-developers for over a year now. Mostly visiting the devices I own and supporting other forums with the experince I've gathered on this great site. Maybe some of you have seen me lately in the forums helping a little.
Now, I'm happy and honored to be appointed to the HTC Wallaby forums to provide mod assistance to all of you in the best way I can to this great community.
I'm here to help you and I expect the same from all of you .
If you experience any other way of approach from members, feel free to contact me through PM, or report the post by using the "!" button in the post.
Additionally, I want to let you know that I'll be doing some forum maintenance (cleaning threads addressing an already discussed topic or an off topic, moving threads or posts to proper sections) for making it easier to all of you get the information you are seeking and keeping the forum clean.
Cheers
I very much enjoy the XDA forums. I also frequent the Modaco blade forum.
My biggest annoyance is that Modaco Blade forum has become overrun with repetitive posts from newcomers.
If you scan the first page there are so many "How do I..." or "Help!..." posts and if you go to the second page you'll usually see the same question with an answer. This does not make me want to frequent the forum which is a shame because I am passionate about android and this phone.
I very much support newcomers but believe there should be structure to the support given.
I created a video guide and it just got lost in the depths of Modaco, then about a week later there were a few posts such as "How do I put video on my blade?" etc.
PLEASE create a forum just for support questions like "How do I change the brightness?!" This will make me stay at XDA Blade.
Thanks,
Andy
That's what general if for post tips and guides when enough ill compile a sticky same as other sub forums 'in the meantime will stick anything important'
Sent from my BladeVillain using XDA App
Got it. Good to know there's active structure.