Database Users

I am Making A Website

I'm making a site, called market4android which you developers can feature your apps/roms on, etc. I'd love for you guys to contact me so we can get the ball rolling. It's a great domain that gets a lot of search engine hits, so if you're looking to get your name out there and get your apps out there, then please PM me and let me know what you have and all that cool stuff!

The site should be online for most of the world. If it is not, give it a while because it may still need to update on world servers.
Check it out, leave feedback, etc, and developers! hit me up and let me know if I can post your ROMs on the site. Don't want nobody getting mad at me!

Reminds me of a site that I frequent called XDA.
Maybe I am missing the point? Are you simply offering to host files?

jerry43812 said:
Check it out, leave feedback, etc, and developers! hit me up and let me know if I can post your ROMs on the site. Don't want nobody getting mad at me!
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You'll never get anywhere waiting for others to send you content. If you want to post a rom, post info, screenshots, etc. and link out to the post where they can get it and more info.

This may be a dumb question, but here goes anyway....
It's not hard at all to get an app included on the Android Market. What advantage are you offering over going that route?
So far I've only written a few Android apps, and they were both custom jobs for clients that would not be at all interesting to the general public. (And they have a LOT of tweaking left to do before I'd call them anything I'm proud of. I'm new to Android, it'll take awhile for me to catch up with the stuff I've done for WinMo and PalmOS.)
But I've considered diving into some more generally appealing projects, and the Android Market currently offers me both the ability to distribute for free, and the ability to monetize my efforts if I decide to go that route. Either route gives me pretty widespread exposure.
As a developer, my main question would be: "What extras are you offering that the existing marketplace leaves out?" (i.e. How can you make me more money? And/or give me wider exposure?)

I don't think he is making a place to distribute apps (at least that's not what I got), I thought he was making a place to be like "hey look what's going on in the dev community, check out this app and this rom, etc."

gthing said:
I don't think he is making a place to distribute apps (at least that's not what I got), I thought he was making a place to be like "hey look what's going on in the dev community, check out this app and this rom, etc."
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So a review site?
That could be very, very cool. Only trick is building a large readership.....
With that in place, it could very easily be something that developers want to pay close attention to.

gthing said:
I don't think he is making a place to distribute apps (at least that's not what I got), I thought he was making a place to be like "hey look what's going on in the dev community, check out this app and this rom, etc."
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You got the idea down pat!

subliminalurge said:
So a review site?
That could be very, very cool. Only trick is building a large readership.....
With that in place, it could very easily be something that developers want to pay close attention to.
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I'd definitely be letting developers have publisher accounts so they can work on getting exposure from my site, etc. It's not totally about me distributing apps...
Try to picture this: I can get traffic. Traffic coming to my site and seeing your apps there, your ROMs there, etc, want to download them, etc, well, not only gets you not only exposure, but income from the apps as well seeing as how they're downloading you stuff because they found info and reviews on it on my site.
Yes, the market would definitely be the #1 way to go, but what harm can it do to get some more exposure to your stuff? as well as get user reviews and the income that youre concerned about?

danknee said:
Reminds me of a site that I frequent called XDA.
Maybe I am missing the point? Are you simply offering to host files?
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I will create mirrors for your files etc, and yes, you are missing the point. I wasn't 100% absolute sure in the direction I was heading with this, but I am offering you the exposure of traffic that comes to my site to see your apps etc, when they may not have ever noticed your app in the marketplace. User reviews, developer releases and all kinds of cool **** can happen here if you're willing to crack the shell away a little bit and accept my offer of free exposure to your stuff.
Why the hell would anyone pass up free? Beats me.

jerry43812 said:
I wasn't 100% absolute sure in the direction I was heading with this,
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For the record, my comments were not meant to be disparaging, but to help you figure that out.
I'm not going to go into how old I am, but I'm not exactly wet behind the ears. I was making a living in the "computer field" since long before anything called a "web browser" ever existed. The first time I heard about Mosaic, my reaction was "eh, sounds like gopher with pictures. big deal." (It wasn't a great article....)
There are two main reasons why projects fail. The first, and by far the greatest, is because the people starting that project never ask themselves, and come up with a clear answer to, "what problem am I trying to solve?"....
The second reason is that they fail to ask themselves "Is my solution something people will actually use?".
If you have good answers to those two questions, then the rest is just the legwork of getting it done. If you don't have good answers to those questions, then no amount of work will produce a successful outcome.
Sorry if I sound harsh, just trying to be helpful.

subliminalurge said:
For the record, my comments were not meant to be disparaging, but to help you figure that out.
I'm not going to go into how old I am, but I'm not exactly wet behind the ears. I was making a living in the "computer field" since long before anything called a "web browser" ever existed. The first time I heard about Mosaic, my reaction was "eh, sounds like gopher with pictures. big deal." (It wasn't a great article....)
There are two main reasons why projects fail. The first, and by far the greatest, is because the people starting that project never ask themselves, and come up with a clear answer to, "what problem am I trying to solve?"....
The second reason is that they fail to ask themselves "Is my solution something people will actually use?".
If you have good answers to those two questions, then the rest is just the legwork of getting it done. If you don't have good answers to those questions, then no amount of work will produce a successful outcome.
Sorry if I sound harsh, just trying to be helpful.
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Not harsh at all and I comprehend your points. Maybe my tone sounded harsh when it was simply factual and jsut telling my purpose.
I feel that the purpose of this site I opened is good, and it can be very useful. But just like any other good thing, it usually cannot be done by one person. Support for the project is always a plus, and it can be made to be an excellent resource for people who are green on both sides, that want to get into modding android devices.
I dont think that it is a waste of my time, but in order for it to make it to where I'd like it to be, it can definitely use all the support and input that it can get. Thats why I brought the whole subject up, here. There are lots of developers here and even I am new to a lot of the stuff here, and I feel that it would be a great asset to a lot fo folks here if you jsut give it a chance.

jerry43812 said:
Not harsh at all and I comprehend your points. Maybe my tone sounded harsh when it was simply factual and jsut telling my purpose.
I feel that the purpose of this site I opened is good, and it can be very useful. But just like any other good thing, it usually cannot be done by one person. Support for the project is always a plus, and it can be made to be an excellent resource for people who are green on both sides, that want to get into modding android devices.
I dont think that it is a waste of my time, but in order for it to make it to where I'd like it to be, it can definitely use all the support and input that it can get. Thats why I brought the whole subject up, here. There are lots of developers here and even I am new to a lot of the stuff here, and I feel that it would be a great asset to a lot fo folks here if you jsut give it a chance.
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Oh, I never meant to imply it was a waste of time. Nothing of the sort. I think the Android platform has a huge amount of potential. For the people developing the platform, for the people developing apps to run on top of it, and for people creating the entire ecosystem that will surround it.
I guess what I was trying to do was get you thinking about a statement that you ended up making yourself. That you weren't 100% sure about the direction you wanted to take this. Whatever direction you decide on, I think your chances of success are much greater if you have a clear idea of what that direction is.
That said, I like your idea. I'd love to hear more about what you have in mind.

subliminalurge said:
Oh, I never meant to imply it was a waste of time. Nothing of the sort. I think the Android platform has a huge amount of potential. For the people developing the platform, for the people developing apps to run on top of it, and for people creating the entire ecosystem that will surround it.
I guess what I was trying to do was get you thinking about a statement that you ended up making yourself. That you weren't 100% sure about the direction you wanted to take this. Whatever direction you decide on, I think your chances of success are much greater if you have a clear idea of what that direction is.
That said, I like your idea. I'd love to hear more about what you have in mind.
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Why dont you PM me with some messenger info so we can talk? I run ICQ and AIM because ICQ is what is industry standard in the industry I work in.

jerry43812 said:
Why dont you PM me with some messenger info so we can talk? I run ICQ and AIM because ICQ is what is industry standard in the industry I work in.
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Will do. I mainly use Skype these days for IM, but I can throw ICQ on my computer real quick.

subliminalurge said:
Will do. I mainly use Skype these days for IM, but I can throw ICQ on my computer real quick.
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Awesome, look forward to talking with you!

Got an article coming soon on the best battery app I found, along with some info from the developer. This should be live within a day or two.
I am looking for more stuff to write articles about, and it will involve some email communication between us so I can get the most accurate info onto the site.
Anyone want to be the one of the first few people to get featured on the site? PM me your email address so I can contact you

jerry43812 said:
Got an article coming soon on the best battery app I found, along with some info from the developer. This should be live within a day or two.
I am looking for more stuff to write articles about, and it will involve some email communication between us so I can get the most accurate info onto the site.
Anyone want to be the one of the first few people to get featured on the site? PM me your email address so I can contact you
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Got that article written and set live, and I also have a few other things on there, including a comprehensive guide to rooting the Sprint HTC Hero.

well an app review site would be great as i tend to follow users input when i download apps, and the input in the Market is just crap .. what some user find to be a bad app could actualy be a very good app for others. i sometime do it myself when i download an app , i look for user rating and comments. and decide wether to download the app or not, based on the user ratings..
The other thing would be a app request, meaning i been loking for an app that will play FLAC or AAC music files, i found 2 , 1 is from XDA ( a good app but the GUI is must to be desired ) the other is a cheap app that sometimes plays sometimes dont.. LOL
if someone would make good app for this i would be willing to pay for it 20.00 if i had to ...
The point is i would love a place that i could go to and request an app or suggest ideas for an app..
my 2 cents

rgildoss said:
well an app review site would be great as i tend to follow users input when i download apps, and the input in the Market is just crap .. what some user find to be a bad app could actualy be a very good app for others. i sometime do it myself when i download an app , i look for user rating and comments. and decide wether to download the app or not, based on the user ratings..
The other thing would be a app request, meaning i been loking for an app that will play FLAC or AAC music files, i found 2 , 1 is from XDA ( a good app but the GUI is must to be desired ) the other is a cheap app that sometimes plays sometimes dont.. LOL
if someone would make good app for this i would be willing to pay for it 20.00 if i had to ...
The point is i would love a place that i could go to and request an app or suggest ideas for an app..
my 2 cents
Click to expand...
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You're able t request apps and stuff there, I honestly havent set that section up because I am working on other content first. You can possibly post a new thread requesting someone code something for you, but I am not sure on the pricing of their work, etc. Let me work on getting some good app coders on my side and then I'll open up the requests section.

Graphics Designer Needed. Any amount of experience welcome!

Hello! Thanks for stopping by! I'm making an app with a friend of mine and we both are terrible at making graphics (we both code). The game is a simple dice game yet what sets it apart from other dice games is online play and a level of polish above the rest. Our code is pretty polished, even in its humble beginnings, so we are looking for a graphics designer who is willing to help show to users a polished interface.
We don't care how much experience you have as long as you're willing to learn (we can't teach you though obviously). The only thing we ask for is that you give at least 3 hours a week to the project. I believe that is not a lot to ask for. We are doing this project as a hobby and we hope to add another member (or two) to our team. Once again thank's for your time.
If you would like to know more about the app please post in the thread so other people can benefit from the information and if you have more personal questions feel free to PM me.

I'm actually interested. if it's not too time consuming I will gladly give it a try.
you can take a look at my deviant art profile to see what graphic works i normally do
http://aoisora9x.deviantart.com/
send me an email @ [email protected] if you want to contact me.

i do lots of traditional paper and pen design then move it over to digital paint.
let me know if you need some help and what your ideas and i'll toss up a few test designs you can look over.
i do very little in terms of actual 3d renders and modeling.
deviant art gallery
@sora:
nice gallery btw.

Aoi_sora9x said:
I'm actually interested. if it's not too time consuming I will gladly give it a try.
you can take a look at my deviant art profile to see what graphic works i normally do
http://aoisora9x.deviantart.com/
send me an email @ [email protected] if you want to contact me.
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Click to collapse
Nice Deadmau5 head

not hijacking, but it'd be really cool to see resources designers kicking around here make. which could then be used in projects by devs. just putting something out there will encourage others to use it. ie. icons and so on.

MarkusPO said:
not hijacking, but it'd be really cool to see resources designers kicking around here make. which could then be used in projects by devs. just putting something out there will encourage others to use it. ie. icons and so on.
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The only problem with that is that some people don't like other people to use their work. It's the same thing with code (i.e. open source or not). In any case it would be better to submit work you would like to share on Open Clip Art instead of a thread that would be hard to upkeep and search through.
pxldtz said:
i do lots of traditional paper and pen design then move it over to digital paint.
let me know if you need some help and what your ideas and i'll toss up a few test designs you can look over.
i do very little in terms of actual 3d renders and modeling.
deviant art gallery
@sora:
nice gallery btw.
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Click to collapse
The time it will take depends on you're proficiency with creating buttons backgrounds and stuff like that. Right now I have three people that want to work on this and I always had in mind to have different themes for this app. I'm going to ask Aoi_sora9x if he won't mind other people making other different themes. I will get back to you as soon as I can.

tytdfn said:
The only problem with that is that some people don't like other people to use their work. It's the same thing with code (i.e. open source or not). In any case it would be better to submit work you would like to share on Open Clip Art instead of a thread that would be hard to upkeep and search through.
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i thoroughly disagree! so if a designer didn't want to share, they're not forced to post whatever they've made on here. and as xda is a large community, you never know who could be reading about your work. maybe a new forum would be best.

I think the main reason is that XDA is a developer forum and not a designer forum?
artists and designers mostly will post on art forums, like how developers will only share stuffs on developer forums. When i wanna share a new icon set, XDA is not the first place i would think of. :/

MarkusPO said:
i thoroughly disagree! so if a designer didn't want to share, they're not forced to post whatever they've made on here. and as xda is a large community, you never know who could be reading about your work. maybe a new forum would be best.
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True. The new forum idea has potential.

I would like to try that, too..
My deviantART profile: http://kanttii.deviantart.com
email: [email protected]
I'm not good with 3D modeling, but I like to create interfaces.

Off-site Roms and XDA support threads

This has become a stickler point for me.
How exactly do these "roms" that post on xda to gain the large audience with links to thier own sites with thier own forums and downloads do it?
Why does XDA allow the threads to exist?
To me it's a confusing point, on one hand you've got the huge user base that XDA has and it's "helpful" but on the other hand these "roms" have chosen to move else where to have a clear cut definition of "who" their users are.
I for one would love to see xda delete these threads, if your rom isnt hosted here why should XDA pick up the tab on the traffic and moderation to "support" the people that don't want to follow basic rules.
It's one thing to post on here saying that it's out it's quite another to have a thread devoted to the rom for "support" when they've got their own site and thier own "donation" setup and don't offer direct links to the roms.
I'm thinking of Bonsai and Baked Snack when I say this, although other sites like ppcgeeks are guilty of it as well.
Here's the breakdown...
Baked snack was a rom a while back that Herver ran, he had people that loved his roms, but he wouldnt share his gpl code, so XDA to avoid issues banned him and removes his threads.
Bonsai started up thier own "business oriented and non-hobby"(randy's words) website and started offering up betas to people that donated, BANNING people that would share this beta software if they found out.(or so his users have said)
PPCGeeks.com basically is a forum that has very little of it's own content and tends to backlink to threads here on XDA. This should not be allowed. it's cheap and annoying to think that other forums all link back to xda but refuse to use and follow it's rules touting it as the devil for thier moderators sucking and other offhanded badness, while at the same time using it's resources for thier own gain.
If you want to follow the XDA rules on rom posting fine. Post here. If you want to have your own site to support the rom fine have the site, but if you get removed from the site for not following the rules, do NOT expect to keep using it to support your users.
The rules of posting should be simple.
If you post a rom in a thread there should NOT be an external sign up on said site to get the rom.
If you post a rom, there should NOT be a pay to play system in place to get "advanced" copies,(nor a "shopping cart" for the rom)
If you post a rom, there SHOULD be a direct link or mirror link to the rom.
If you post a rom, there should be open disclosure and read-only sources to what you've done.
In essence i for one WANT to see all support threads for non-hosted on XDA roms removed, they put a burden on XDA to moderate, the put a burden on XDA for bandwidth and hardware, and they cause undue traffic to those that don't want to play by the rules they signed up for.
Side note, i'd love to see hotlinking from other sites also disabled on XDA to stop those crap spring up offshoot websites thinking they're better and "more laid back" from not having to bother with their own content and users.
Analogy time:
Think of it like this... You've spent a lot of time and money to make a large car lot, you allow others of the community who've used your car lot to gather and sell their own cars on your lot free of charge. It all runs fine until along comes one person that feels they should be allowed to use the facilities of the lot for only themselves and break ruin the good bathroom, now they setup thier own bathroom close to thier table but only people that come to thier table and purchase a car may use this bathroom. After a little while you find that they have opened up their own car lot across the street. You ask them to take their cars elsewhere, and remove them from your lot. BUT they setup a table on your lot and take up valuable real-estate to "answer questions" about their car lot across the street AND about their cars. while using your facilities and security etc. Would you do that in normal circumstances? or would you remove their table as well and let them use their own car lot as a support and sales team for their own cars?
Anyways, thats my take on the whole off-site roms but XDA support.
Add thanks to this if you support this idea, OR post away and add something new to the conversation, *I* personally think that XDA should take a hand in removing these threads from here as they are a detriment to the community that exists and undermines the ideals attached to opensource projects.

I definitely agree with Art3mis on this one. Its ridiculous that they are still allowed to have support threads (and more that they even have support threads instead of just having them all on their own private forums as they either, didnt follow the rules of XDA, or left at their own accord).

Yeah it annoys me that bonsai still has support threads here.

you are right and i agree 100% with everything except this:
art3mis-nyc said:
Side note, i'd love to see hotlinking from other sites also disabled on XDA to stop those crap spring up offshoot websites thinking they're better and "more laid back" from not having to bother with their own content and users.
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hotlinking from other sites is how all the roms are posted whether it be private domains or sites like multiupload. there is an 8meg limit on xda attachments...so big 100+ meg rom downloads have to be linked from somewhere else to save xda's bandwidth. i personally like hosting my own files and giving direct links in threads because i can look at awstats and know how many times a file has been hit.
on that same note i agree there should be a direct link...and i mean a real direct link....not a redirect to sign up or a redirect to an ad page or anything like that...the rest of your article i agree 100%

Then don't click on the thread?? Is it really that hard?

art3mis-nyc said:
This has become a stickler point for me......(other stuff)
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Get off your high horse. You are no dev (not even cut and paste) and no mod.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk

XDA doesn't allow software that breaks the rules or off-site competition, but they allow discussion of said software. Kind of counter-intuitive, really.
Rodderik said:
hotlinking from other sites is how all the roms are posted whether it be private domains or sites like multiupload. there is an 8meg limit on xda attachments...so big 100+ meg rom downloads have to be linked from somewhere else to save xda's bandwidth.
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I think he means other websites hotlinking to XDA.

All the Bonsai support threads are gone, and have been for a long while. The only thing left is the user discussion thread in the General section. It's for news and users helping other users. Everyone knows where to go for dev support when it comes to Bonsai.
But there are a couple reasons why the thread exists. First off, it doesn't break any XDA rules. They would have to break their own rules or create new ones to get rid of it. The other reason is XDA does not want to remove it. Anything that is considered controversial gets hits. The more hits, the better for advertising revenue . Every time someone tries to start a Bonsai hate thread of *****es about why it exists, people come along and either argue or agree with the OP. XDA does not care one way or the other, they get paid the same.
As Randy stated here-
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=15035075&postcount=1026
He has made every attempt to work things out, but it has been a one way process.

Deleted. Counter productive.
Sent from me!

tl;dr
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

I think this whole thing is kind of silly. The analygy given by the OP isn't even close. In xda, no physical damage was done and nothing illegal was done. You might as well been comparing a frog to a cow .
I am a huge proponent of open source, but as a business owner, I know that time is very important and good developers should be paid.
In other open source industries (I will use Drupal.org as my example), commercial and opensource get along just fine. There are many commercial companies (acquia.com) that's entire business is providing service and support for the open source products they use and promote. The commercial companies have made the open source community way stronger in these last few years. Another example would be Linux, Canonical the business backing Ubuntu.
Those industries have standards too and don't allow any non-GPL (back to the Drupal example) code to be committed in there repository. They still allow commercial companies with closed source to participate.
The "groups" (bonsai, etc...) that are talked about here are still contributing to the the community. They may not be doing it according to xda's rules, but that doesn't mean they aren't contributing.
I understand xda's motives for disallowing closed source stuff in the forums. But banning everyones ability to talk about sites outside of the forum is ridiculous. Thats like saying "we encourage and love open source" but "we hate open (source) communication".
Lastly, why you throwing PPCGeeks under the bus. Before my epic I owned 3 winmo phones. I could find way more CDMA winmo roms on PPCgeeks than I ever found on xda. Fixes were rolled out fast and the winmo community on ppcgeeks was very strong.

Rodderik said:
you are right and i agree 100% with everything except this:
hotlinking from other sites is how all the roms are posted whether it be private domains or sites like multiupload. there is an 8meg limit on xda attachments...so big 100+ meg rom downloads have to be linked from somewhere else to save xda's bandwidth. i personally like hosting my own files and giving direct links in threads because i can look at awstats and know how many times a file has been hit.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is more in relation to say i started a "forum" for Superawesomeroms.com and then i have nothing to post so all i do is post links to XDA threads all the while bemoaning and berating XDA for thier crap moderation and blah blah blah blah

Well, I for one post my content here, ppcgeeks, and ACS. Obviously most of the traffic I get is here.
What I can say is that other sites linking to xda is how I found this site. I was on ppcgeeks a few months before xda, and found xda through a link off their site. I also link back to xda quite often when I'm trying to help other on another site. What that shows me is that other sites linking back to xda drives traffic here.
Traffic=revenue. Guess I don't see the problem with that.

art3mis-nyc said:
This has become a stickler point for me.
How exactly do these "roms" that post on xda to gain the large audience with links to thier own sites with thier own forums and downloads do it?
Why does XDA allow the threads to exist?
To me it's a confusing point, on one hand you've got the huge user base that XDA has and it's "helpful" but on the other hand these "roms" have chosen to move else where to have a clear cut definition of "who" their users are.
I for one would love to see xda delete these threads, if your rom isnt hosted here why should XDA pick up the tab on the traffic and moderation to "support" the people that don't want to follow basic rules.
It's one thing to post on here saying that it's out it's quite another to have a thread devoted to the rom for "support" when they've got their own site and thier own "donation" setup and don't offer direct links to the roms.
I'm thinking of Bonsai and Baked Snack when I say this, although other sites like ppcgeeks are guilty of it as well.
Here's the breakdown...
Baked snack was a rom a while back that Herver ran, he had people that loved his roms, but he wouldnt share his gpl code, so XDA to avoid issues banned him and removes his threads.
Bonsai started up thier own "business oriented and non-hobby"(randy's words) website and started offering up betas to people that donated, BANNING people that would share this beta software if they found out.(or so his users have said)
PPCGeeks.com basically is a forum that has very little of it's own content and tends to backlink to threads here on XDA. This should not be allowed. it's cheap and annoying to think that other forums all link back to xda but refuse to use and follow it's rules touting it as the devil for thier moderators sucking and other offhanded badness, while at the same time using it's resources for thier own gain.
If you want to follow the XDA rules on rom posting fine. Post here. If you want to have your own site to support the rom fine have the site, but if you get removed from the site for not following the rules, do NOT expect to keep using it to support your users.
The rules of posting should be simple.
If you post a rom in a thread there should NOT be an external sign up on said site to get the rom.
If you post a rom, there should NOT be a pay to play system in place to get "advanced" copies,(nor a "shopping cart" for the rom)
If you post a rom, there SHOULD be a direct link or mirror link to the rom.
If you post a rom, there should be open disclosure and read-only sources to what you've done.
In essence i for one WANT to see all support threads for non-hosted on XDA roms removed, they put a burden on XDA to moderate, the put a burden on XDA for bandwidth and hardware, and they cause undue traffic to those that don't want to play by the rules they signed up for.
Side note, i'd love to see hotlinking from other sites also disabled on XDA to stop those crap spring up offshoot websites thinking they're better and "more laid back" from not having to bother with their own content and users.
Analogy time:
Think of it like this... You've spent a lot of time and money to make a large car lot, you allow others of the community who've used your car lot to gather and sell their own cars on your lot free of charge. It all runs fine until along comes one person that feels they should be allowed to use the facilities of the lot for only themselves and break ruin the good bathroom, now they setup thier own bathroom close to thier table but only people that come to thier table and purchase a car may use this bathroom. After a little while you find that they have opened up their own car lot across the street. You ask them to take their cars elsewhere, and remove them from your lot. BUT they setup a table on your lot and take up valuable real-estate to "answer questions" about their car lot across the street AND about their cars. while using your facilities and security etc. Would you do that in normal circumstances? or would you remove their table as well and let them use their own car lot as a support and sales team for their own cars?
Anyways, thats my take on the whole off-site roms but XDA support.
Add thanks to this if you support this idea, OR post away and add something new to the conversation, *I* personally think that XDA should take a hand in removing these threads from here as they are a detriment to the community that exists and undermines the ideals attached to opensource projects.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As long as your calling everyone else out. Mentioning a competitive site, I do believe, is against the rules.
Guys, these are just phones and at this point why even bring this up? I'm not suggesting that the rules be ignored but everyone constantly getting bent out of shape over this stuff isn't productive or even healthy for that matter.
PLEASE, just let the Bonsai thing just die already. They made their choice and no matter how many people complain about it, is't going to change anything. All it does is start flame wars. If you have something to say to them I suggest you contact them directly and give them a chance to address the concerns directly.
Why can't we do something.......anything...but complain. Does anyone stop to think that Bonsai leaving for setting up their site the way they did has little to nothing to do with the direction the Epic forums are going in? It's bad attitudes and feelings of entitlement that are KILLING this forum, IMHO. Stop complaining and contribute to positive change. If we focus on the negative all the time that's all we are going to get.

If any threads should be deleted it is ones talking about other phones. There are forums for those. This is the Samsung Epic forum, that is the phone I have chosen for 2 years and only want to see threads about those. If an accessory or ROM is avaliable off XA for it, I want to know about it. I don't give a crap about the EVO 3d or Within or any otherstupid little phone that comes out. XDA has a general forum for that and most of these have their own forums. Don't clutter our threads with that garbage, or whiny kids saying "it's official our phone is a piece of crap"! This is the clutter that needs to be removed. Not a single thread for an offsite ROM.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

icevapor said:
I think this whole thing is kind of silly. The analygy given by the OP isn't even close. In xda, no physical damage was done and nothing illegal was done. You might as well been comparing a frog to a cow .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not really it's a valid argument, and while you dont see it, BW useage etc is a hit when it supports items that arent on the site itself.
icevapor said:
I am a huge proponent of open source, but as a business owner, I know that time is very important and good developers should be paid.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Some very fine work perhaps the best work as far as the epic goes, is from people that do it for fun and hobby, and dont ask for donations and in some cases dont even have a link for it, yet others believe as you do apperantly that they should be able to take the others work, rename it and change it and "sell" it(ie the Bonsai clockworkmod that they simply renamed and recoloured) as noted i'm fine with charging for support, it's the software i dont like the charging to exist for.
icevapor said:
In other open source industries (I will use Drupal.org as my example), commercial and opensource get along just fine. There are many commercial companies (acquia.com) that's entire business is providing service and support for the open source products they use and promote. The commercial companies have made the open source community way stronger in these last few years. Another example would be Linux, Canonical the business backing Ubuntu.
Those industries have standards too and don't allow any non-GPL (back to the Drupal example) code to be committed in there repository. They still allow commercial companies with closed source to participate.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The difference between that and this is that the Opensource lives along side, doesnt require a signup and in most cases is "on par" with the pay version, again you're paying for support, which im fine with, but the software is available to all or none, not to who pays.(minus some features of course but rarely advanced beta copies etc)
icevapor said:
The "groups" (bonsai, etc...) that are talked about here are still contributing to the the community. They may not be doing it according to xda's rules, but that doesn't mean they aren't contributing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can't think of a single thing that has been contributed back, aside from the kernel fiasco for marcusants "psuedo rom"
icevapor said:
Lastly, why you throwing PPCGeeks under the bus. Before my epic I owned 3 winmo phones. I could find way more CDMA winmo roms on PPCgeeks than I ever found on xda. Fixes were rolled out fast and the winmo community on ppcgeeks was very strong.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ppcgeeks was the first site that i noticed it on and while it's not directed specifically at them, they are guilty of the above mentioned content links.

i'm not scared of negativity
and you shouldn't be either
if discussing negativity means thats all you will end up with
then ask yourself who is the real source of negativity?
deciding your fate...premonitions?
let it roll
if you never go there...you will never get it out of your system
and i'm sure thats why anyone would participate in this thread to begin with
so do it, and dig deep
just try and be as respectful as possible in your aims
dont cloud this life with misconstrued karma
if you cannot understand someones apparent stance and it appears ignorant or childish,
then try and be the bigger person and post something constructive they can actually do
otherwise you are just bickering for the sake of it
before i get too far off topic
if xda's main goal is truly web traffic...then thats what the userbase is going to comprise of...otherwise you are just out of place and belong elsewhere.
if you are just part of traffic then dont claim to be a leader with every post you make
and vise versa...dont get lost in the traffic when you know damn well you have something to offer the community that is truly valuable. Everyone has a part to play, dont care how many babies are born today.
If in fact this is truly xda's goal...who knows...the site is large...plenty of room for emotion to find its way in.
Life is useful. (dental dams are your friend)
And above all...hitler was nothing compared to billions the russians killed of their own people...
History...it owns people every day.
Stand for something better than the illegitimate use/abuse of people.
Especially when most of these things being created are not very reliable and designed to support jobs and sales and an economy and false hopes and everything that goes along with a society that throws its lives to the foothold of a dollar bill that is utterly useless in the reality of the universe.
Real answers are not easy...take the time as much as you possibly can.
LISTEN
and when you think you cannot take anymore without putting in your two cents
LISTEN SOME MORE
there are plenty of people just hanging around that have been through it all and seen it
and you can stop acting anytime like you are one of them
real life steps in before anyone could ever make a worthwhile decision
humans...making decisions for others since breakfast
tough titties?
we'll see who's talking then...when?
the sooner the sooner

mattallica76 said:
The only thing [Bonsai] left is the user discussion thread in the General section. It's for news and users helping other users.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can't say whether this is ideal or not. However, folks are going to ask about Bonsai whether discussion is allowed or not. Thus, it's arguably prudent to allow one thread for its discussion to avoid having it being asked about repeatedly in new threads.
shane6374 said:
What I can say is that other sites linking to xda is how I found this site.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is perhaps the most important point of the thread. However it happened, xda became the definitive resource for phone hackery. If xda were to forbid off-site hotlinking, that would have the result, both direct (PageRank, robots exclusion, etc.) and indirect (through absence of news articles and other discussion) of sinking it in search results. At which point--at best--some other site would become definitive and discussion would move there, or quite possibly, no one site would emerge as definitive and discussion would become horribly fragmented.
To be honest, the primary reason I post patches here with lengthy technical descriptions is becuase, in 3-6 months time, I know someone Googling a similar problem will come across my threads and find an answer. The fact that it also contributes code to this community is a wonderful secondary benefit, but to be honest, discussion and ROM development is too ephemeral to make it worth the effort if Google wasn't around to archive the result. And it's far easier for me to do it here, and gets far more exposure and use, than if I were to run my own blog or something.

ptfdmedic said:
As long as your calling everyone else out. Mentioning a competitive site, I do believe, is against the rules.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yeah yeah, pedantic argument.
ptfdmedic said:
Guys, these are just phones and at this point why even bring this up? I'm not suggesting that the rules be ignored but everyone constantly getting bent out of shape over this stuff isn't productive or even healthy for that matter.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
oh im not bent out of shape, that post would have been a lot more incoherent if i was.
ptfdmedic said:
PLEASE, just let the Bonsai thing just die already. They made their choice and no matter how many people complain about it, is't going to change anything. All it does is start flame wars. If you have something to say to them I suggest you contact them directly and give them a chance to address the concerns directly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it's called an example. Happens to be the most obvious so it's used.
btw i did contact them directly and thats how i came to the quote from randy stating that Bonsai is not a hobby it's a business.
and then the tired out saying of "i for one like to pay for good software rant" while touting the virtues of opensource.(<3 me some hypocrites)
ptfdmedic said:
Why can't we do something.......anything...but complain. Does anyone stop to think that Bonsai leaving for setting up their site the way they did has little to nothing to do with the direction the Epic forums are going in? It's bad attitudes and feelings of entitlement that are KILLING this forum, IMHO. Stop complaining and contribute to positive change. If we focus on the negative all the time that's all we are going to get.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
this isn't negative unless you read it that way, i honestly want it to change, and to find out WHY it exists.
People commenting and saying we should "all get along" sadly contribute nothing(good nor bad) to a thread.

mkasick said:
I can't say whether this is ideal or not. However, folks are going to ask about Bonsai whether discussion is allowed or not. Thus, it's arguably prudent to allow one thread for its discussion to avoid having it being asked about repeatedly in new threads.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You would think so, but the same can't be said towards heros' rom, many threads are started to talk about it are quickly killed and its poster banned.. so it's sort of a double edged.

[INDEX] Community help with marketing

Community help with marketing
Here on XDA I have seen many members collaborate which is great. Nobody is perfect but we can combine our knowledge and create something which is really amazing. This is one of the reasons I like XDA for. :good:
Currently there are threads for developers who are looking for testers, translators and designers.
However, it is a shame if we create fantastic apps and nobody is downloading them.
To bring the collaboration to the next level I set up this thread.
Developers, here are your marketing experts.
This thread is divided into different sections for different purposes.
If you want to participate, send me a PM with a link to your profile and tell me what you are skilled in. I will add you to the list.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO):
Your app needs to be found using search.
Waiting for you to be the first one...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Demo videos and screenshots:
If you present your app in an app store, the first thing in addition to the description your consumers see are the screenshots and the demo video. Providing a demo video is a huge advantage. It is one of the best opportunities to present your app to your costumer.
Mrtoxicgamer10
Waiting for you to be the second one...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
App reviews:
One of the most important criteria for the user will be app recommendations and reviews on websites. So here is a list of people with app review sites:
kornett (http://androidki.com)
out of ideas (http://androidsexplained.com/reviews.php)
Hectopixel (http://www.appdorado.com)
More to come...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
(Check out this thread as well: Beam me Up Scotty !)

Reserved.
Big thanks to @QuantumFoam for the idea. :good:
By the way, if you have got ideas for new categories, tell me.

Cheers. This will help us app developers a lot
Sent from my Nexus⁴

Yooo man you always come up with something special for us Developers...
Cheers!!

Really great idea and something i could do with right about now! Hope this goes to plan
Cheers

If I have the time, I'll see if I can write up a more comprehensive marketing guide covering the pricing and promotion strategies and aspects of marketing. Both are really important, especially for this market, and quite a few times I've seen apps that seem to have potential hindered by a not-so-smart/appropriate pricing/promotion strategy that the dev have in place :/

SammiSaysHello said:
If I have the time, I'll see if I can write up a more comprehensive marketing guide covering the pricing and promotion strategies and aspects of marketing. Both are really important, especially for this market, and quite a few times I've seen apps that seem to have potential hindered by a not-so-smart/appropriate pricing/promotion strategy that the dev have in place :/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Would be amazing! :good:

Added app reviews category.

Exchange Reviews with other developers
Today Android marketing is very expensive right now, so why not a review exchange?
androidki[.]com
Androidki is a exchange review web totally for free, your app can be reviewed by the web authors and also by other users in the web.
Also reviews are schema.org standarized so the reviews will also appear on google results
Best of luck with your android app!
:cyclops:

kornett said:
Today Android marketing is very expensive right now, so why not a review exchange?
androidki[.]com
Androidki is a exchange review web totally for free, your app can be reviewed by the web authors and also by other users in the web.
Also reviews are schema.org standarized so the reviews will also appear on google results
Best of luck with your android app!
:cyclops:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Looks like a cool website. Thanks.
I will add it.
(Sorry for not answering before. I was not at home, so I was unable to answer.)

Thank you! It is hard marketing an app! Specially when there is SO MANY!! This is a very helpful subject

Gabilheri said:
Thank you! It is hard marketing an app! Specially when there is SO MANY!! This is a very helpful subject
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I hope that there will be more people participating.

nikwen said:
Yeah, I hope that there will be more people participating.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well I guess I'll toss my hat into the ring for some more reviews.
I'm doing a little android blog/review thing. It's in VERY early beta and i'm playing with it everyday so it'll be changing plenty.
http://androidsexplained.com/reviews.php
That's the reviews page, I already got a few big apps up, and bunch more I have to upload.
Basically its gonna be the standard bigger apps, and I want to have a good section focusing on the smaller and indie developers. Give some love back to XDA and all that.
Every little bit helps, so if you need a review feel free to message me on here or mail me at [email protected]

out of ideas said:
Well I guess I'll toss my hat into the ring for some more reviews.
I'm doing a little android blog/review thing. It's in VERY early beta and i'm playing with it everyday so it'll be changing plenty.
http://androidsexplained.com/reviews.php
That's the reviews page, I already got a few big apps up, and bunch more I have to upload.
Basically its gonna be the standard bigger apps, and I want to have a good section focusing on the smaller and indie developers. Give some love back to XDA and all that.
Every little bit helps, so if you need a review feel free to message me on here or mail me at [email protected]
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks a lot.
Added. :good:

Great idea, I just sent an app for review to the links you provided. Thanks!
instalatorapp.co.nr

Great ideas here.
I've launched a game one week ago and it's really hard to be discovered and increase visibility.

Hartok said:
Great ideas here.
I've launched a game one week ago and it's really hard to be discovered and increase visibility.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, that's right. I hope that more people will be participating.

Thanks!
Thanks for this great thread! I have sent a link for Review to androidsexplained of my game Number Play Free on google playstore. This game is published by Kjas Labs.
It is a Educational Brain Game suitable for all age groups.

Mispost

Hartok said:
Great ideas here.
I've launched a game one week ago and it's really hard to be discovered and increase visibility.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Seeing your avatar, I guess that it is Feed the Sheep.

[APP][DEV][WIP] DemiGod RPG for android

Hello everyone,
This is my first thread on XDA, and also my first time using github. I have been learning java for android for ~3 years now, and feel there is still much to learn. As an all-time gamer, I would absolutely love to make one of my own.
I have recently started my 1st open-source project on github. I am still learning quite a bit, and am looking to create a retro-style, turn-based RPG for android. Any collaberators feel free to chime in, offer advice, bring new ideas to the table, etc...
This project is just beginning and the downloads may not be fully functional as of yet. Downloads serve mainly for testing purposes for now, but feel free to check it out. Please let me know what you think.
WORKING SO FAR:
* Stats and Inventory Databases
* Character creation (Choose name and class)
* Simple Battle mechanics
* Enemy Database
* Random enemy from database used in battles
* Level-ups
* Status Screen
* Viewing pre-populated Inventory (No using/exchanging items yet)
KNOWN ISSUES:
* Re-positioning Virual D-Pad when it's size is bigger than screen causes a force close
* D-Pad position gets skewed when re-sizing caused by it not accommodating for D-Pad Position setting
* Map's/Area's bounds are not set (Graphics still being worked on)
Storyline:
Unknowingly, you are a demigod. Half mortal, half god. Ever since your early teenage years, you have had "incidents" in which you never quite understood the nature of. Sudden outrages, blackouts, and waking up feeling completely exhausted.
The more the hero aged, the more frequent the uncontrollable events would occur. Finally the hero can't help but to believe it is some sort of witchcraft, cursed as a child. For this may not be completely false, the hero is soon to find out his true origins...
Github link: https://github.com/MattMatt0240/DemiGod
* Licensed under GNU GPL v3

Credits:
@nikwen (introducing the idea of open-source to me/ help in development threads)
@ADDICT.ANK (collaborator, helping hand)
@sak-venom1997 (collaborator, helping hand)
Please let me know if you're left out

FAQs/downloads/screenshots
Download:
* Alpha v0.02 (Preview/Testing)
* Alpha v0.01 (Preview/Testing)

MattMatt0240 said:
Credits:
@nikwen (introducing the idea of open-source to me/ help in development threads)
@ADDICT.ANK (collaberator, helping hand)
Please let me know if you're left out
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well great. Thanx bro you created the thread required
and pls reserve a couple of post row for later updating..
Lets go for it then.

As i developer i see firm reasons to join it
But few questions arise in my mind and it will be good for all if answered in the op
* What is the storyline for this game ?
* Under which lisense is this app available ? (Creative Commons ,GPL ..)
I suggests adding requests for things you want to add in the github repo
Sent from my GT-S5302 using Tapatalk 2

sak-venom1997 said:
As i developer i see firm reasons to join it
But few questions arise in my mind and it will be good for all if answered in the op
* What is the storyline for this game ?
* Under which lisense is this app available ? (Creative Commons ,GPL ..)
I suggests adding requests for things you want to add in the github repo
Sent from my GT-S5302 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the suggestion. This is my first thread here on XDA, also my 1st time using github(or any repo for that matter).
Pretty much my 1st time taking my code anywhere else from my personal computer and sharing my code/ideas with anyone besides my wife (who could care less about all of it). I have been learning java/android all by myself for a while, and could use some help and/or insight from someone more experienced.
Welcome aboard :thumbup:
Noted to self thrice via tapatalk

MattMatt0240 said:
Credits:
@nikwen (introducing the idea of open-source to me/ help in development threads)
@ADDICT.ANK (collaborator, helping hand)
@sak-venom1997 (collaborator, helping hand)
Please let me know if you're left out
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Haha. Thanks.
MattMatt0240 said:
Reserved for FAQs/downloads/screenshots
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow, looks good. Is that a mockup or do you already have this working?

nikwen said:
Haha. Thanks.
Wow, looks good. Is that a mockup or do you already have this working?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I started working on this a while back (in a different project to learn from). Realized many of my errors in doing so, so started fresh. The screenshot is just a basic idea of how I want the gameplay to look like, and is not quite functional yet. I do all of the art myself (so far) but there are many aspects in which I'm not quite sure how to make work, such as inventory/shops, and maps.
If there's anything you see that you feel can be improved, please feel free to let me know
Thanks nikwen!
Noted to self thrice via tapatalk

Would you mind pushing the merged code to new branched and deleting the bin folder
These non essential files make the repo huge and people like me with slow internet have problems synchronising
Sent from my GT-S5302 using Tapatalk 2

sak-venom1997 said:
Would you mind pushing the merged code to new branched and deleting the bin folder
These non essential files make the repo huge and people like me with slow internet have problems synchronising
Sent from my GT-S5302 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I meant to do it sooner. Been busy the last few days, will do it soon. Should be done by the time you get on. I don't have much of a base yet, this is really just the start of an idea.
Noted to self thrice via tapatalk

Should be good now sak. I have slow internet as well, very slow unless I manage to find 4g at my house. I downsized the repo quite a bit, so it should be better for us all
Noted to self thrice via tapatalk

@sak-venom1997 I added a PreferenceActivity (settings) and made the D-Pad repositionable via those settings
If you get a chance, check it out and let me know what you think.
Noted to self thrice via tapatalk

MattMatt0240 said:
@sak-venom1997 I added a PreferenceActivity (settings) and made the D-Pad repositionable via those settings
If you get a chance, check it out and let me know what you think.
Noted to self thrice via tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What's about posting apks here or on Github every now and then? I'd love to give it a try but I don't want to build it myself every time.

nikwen said:
What's about posting apks here or on Github every now and then? I'd love to give it a try but I don't want to build it myself every time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow, still new to github, didn't know they had a release system I could do that and put a link in the O/P. Keep in mind that (at this point) it isn't necessarily playable, but at least everyone could get a feel for it and put up suggestions
Noted to self thrice via tapatalk

MattMatt0240 said:
Wow, still new to github, didn't know they had a release system I could do that and put a link in the O/P. Keep in mind that (at this point) it isn't necessarily playable, but at least everyone could get a feel for it and put up suggestions
Noted to self thrice via tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exactly.
So do it and lets gather the suggestions.
Sent from my LT26i using xda premium

nikwen said:
What's about posting apks here or on Github every now and then? I'd love to give it a try but I don't want to build it myself every time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ADDICT.ANK said:
Exactly.
So do it and lets gather the suggestions.
Sent from my LT26i using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Added download link to 3rd post. Constructive criticism is welcomed
Noted to self thrice via tapatalk

MattMatt0240 said:
Added download link to 3rd post. Constructive criticism is welcomed
Noted to self thrice via tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks.
Looks good. Crashes very often but it's good considering that it's in its infancy. :good:
Will the character turn around when he's moved?
For sure I'll follow the development.

nikwen said:
Thanks.
Looks good. Crashes very often but it's good considering that it's in its infancy. :good:
Will the character turn around when he's moved?
For sure I'll follow the development.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I just need to crack down on drawing up some sprites Lol. Crashes may be caused by not creating a character first, and possibly a few other things that will be put in order in final production.
I was thinking of having the user being presented with a "setup" screen where they will have to adjust the D-Pad position and size. There's a few bugs in there I think. All of the activities are placed on the title screen temporarily simply for ease of access during development.
Regardless, thanks for the feedback, and yes it is still very early. I'm trying, and learning a whole lot quite fast
Noted to self thrice via tapatalk

Just a little update:
I have been working on trying to find an organized mapping system and think I found a satisfying solution. Before it was all hard-coded in java files leaving it a mess to read, and an activity for every "map" area.
Now, the maps will all be written in XML with a number identifier, which corresponds to the appropriate tile, translated by a separate java class. I tried using JSON, but @nikwen made a valid point... XML is more versatile and easier to read/use, thanks bud!
The inventory database has the path to the corresponding asset icon for each item, making it possible to match "xItem" with its relative icon. I was thinking I should do the same for enemies (once they are drawn). Enemy images are 100x100 pixels, used in battles, whereas item icons are the standard 32x32 px.
I also started playing around with animations, and obviously have much to learn on it.
I'll update the OP with another download, not much progress but still a lot of changes. Anybody feel free to chime in.
Noted to self thrice via tapatalk

MattMatt0240 said:
Just a little update:
I have been working on trying to find an organized mapping system and think I found a satisfying solution. Before it was all hard-coded in java files leaving it a mess to read, and an activity for every "map" area.
Now, the maps will all be written in XML with a number identifier, which corresponds to the appropriate tile, translated by a separate java class. I tried using JSON, but @nikwen made a valid point... XML is more versatile and easier to read/use, thanks bud!
The inventory database has the path to the corresponding asset icon for each item, making it possible to match "xItem" with its relative icon. I was thinking I should do the same for enemies (once they are drawn). Enemy images are 100x100 pixels, used in battles, whereas item icons are the standard 32x32 px.
I also started playing around with animations, and obviously have much to learn on it.
I'll update the OP with another download, not much progress but still a lot of changes. Anybody feel free to chime in.
Noted to self thrice via tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good progress.
Looking forward to more improvements.