Database Info

UPDATE IDEAS -- WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE CHANGE HERE!! [Response Now Posted!!!]

UPDATES: WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE HAPPEN HERE!!!​
This enitre section has been dedicated to you, and getting you the help and information you need! For that reason, it is only right that you all have a say in what you would like to see happen here.
From changes in the rules, to specific info, IT IS ALL UP TO YOU!!! Myself, and the other members who dedicate there time here, are constantly trying to come up with new ideas and ways to make this section better for you. So give us a hand, and you will get what you want.
This is not another thread where you ideas and comments will just be looked over. All of you requested the ability to open your own thread, and you got it. Now what else do you want to see happen here? Looking forward to seeing your ideas!!!​
**ONCE YOUR POST HAS BEEN READ, IT MAY BE REMOVED. THIS IS NOT BECAUSE YOUR IDEA OR COMMENT IS NOT BEING WORKED ON AND CONSIDERED. THIS IS SIMPLY TO ENSURE THAT ALL IDEAS WILL BE SEEN AND NOT LOST IN PAGE AFTER PAGE OF POSTS!! EACH IDEA OR COMMENT WILL BE COPIED TO ALL MODERATORS AND MEMBERS WHO WORK ON THIS SECTION. WE WILL THEN TRY OUR BEST TO FULFILL YOUR REQUEST!!​

As a noob with an interest in this I would like to see an area where some steps are given to get us started. I don't learn too well by reading, and prefer to see some examples.
An example would be a screen shot of some code, along with what it does and why it does it.
Maybe if someone is feeling extra adventurous, some 'hands on' tests could be posted, starting with easy, small basic apps going up to fixing issues on the latest ROM.
I have gone through google and most places seem to assume that there is already some basic knowledge acquired. I have no knowledge but a strong interest.
Right now it seems like a huge undertaking, but with people posting new software, fixes, ROM's etc in a short period of time I am beginning to believe it is more about understanding concepts than learning a complete new way of thinking.
How did you guys start? What were your first steps? What help would you give your best friend if they wanted to start writing apps and cooking ROM's?
I appreciate all you guys do, and the help I have got from this site over the last few months has been immense. I want some advice on how I can give something back.

RANT:Check out the new forums

To all of those who feel it necessary to create a separate forum for you rom, please stop. I understand that donations do not make you a lot of money, and that the pay per hour of cooking is probably well under the minimum wage in most countries. And, that opening new forums allows you to collect your own ad revenues, or maybe even harvest emails.
The amazing roms that come out of XDA are the result of collaboration between the thousands of people working out one fix at a time. Moving that knowledge else where creates a headache for people who simply want support for your rom.
Sometimes the XDA format can be a drag.
Having only one thread for an entire rom can bury good information, but...
searching through a thread is a lot less of a mess than having to sign up for a new forum every time you want to get the newest version of a rom, or find a fix implemented by a chef.
I understand that a chef's roms are the fruits of his or her efforts, and that he or she can do what they please with them (according to some interpreations of the law). But much of the progress that allows us to cook came as a result of people openly sharing information on XDA.

I don't see the problem it's really the person decision making the rom. I really hate searching through hundreds of posts to find info and would like to be able to have an easier way. I wish my rom did have it's own forum. Its not like they cant ask here or the rom cant be posted here. I am sure the cooker will support both since he will receive donations from both sources.

Use search link in my sign, its a lot easier and faster to search this forum. I agree there is tons of information in here. And most of all, anything that you can think of has been asked before, all you have to know is how to search, and you will find the information you want. So starting a new thread unless you are contributing is just waste of server space!

I'll take this spot to reinforce what Travito says in the next post. Phoenix is a community driven rom and the Phoenix forum helps us prioritize what we include in a build, the fixes we do and allows us to have a very collaborative process. We do post general fixes on xda.
The OP also doesn't realize the collaboration that goes on behind the scenes between the chefs, moderators and other developers that drive the general improvements in all of the roms that are being produced. This is especially true in the Kaiser community. It is this sharing that drives innovation and improvements. This process isn't necessarily one that I would want out in the open since it is iterative and tedious at times. It takes a long time to fix bugs but we all share our experiences.
One last thing, we on the Phoenix team do NOT accept donations, solicit donations or put advertising on our forum...You see we do this because we believe in helping the community. I am not disrespecting those chefs that accept donations because circumstances vary and needs vary. I am just stating that a private forum is NOT about making money.
Parley

okay, now that my little gaffe is out of the way from being in Parley's account when i posted that, though I'm sure his opinions are similar...
We on the Phoenix team have a seperate forum because it allows for easier bug tracking. XDA threads consist mainly of "Thank yous" so it seems, and you need to realize that we all have normal jobs and social lives. When we do get time to dedicate to XDA, it becomes very tedious and time consuming trying to sort through all the thank yous and trying to figure out which issues have already been addressed by fellow Phoenix users and which are still open.
PDC lets us bug track much more similarly to a piece of Helpdesk or Knowledgebase software, except the Forum basis allows for collaboration on solutions.
Most problems that get posted at PDC are ROM-specific, and not present on every ROM. If we find a fix that others could use back at XDA, we let the other chefs that we work with know and share the knowledge.
If that bothers you then I suppose your problem is actually with the advancement of ROM support and task management.

I'm behind whatever the Chef's feel they need to do and Travito is spot on with the ammount of work just to bypass thankyou or the monotomous problem that has been answered a million times......
Without the chefs here i would have a very dull phone, infact no i would have an n73
So to chefs do as you wish just produce the awesome ROMs you do!! And i wont make a new thread!! JK

Yeah um who cares? Private forums are good for cooking teams and anyone who wants to follow the ROM dev closer.

soulbandaid said:
To all of those who feel it necessary to create a separate forum for you rom, please stop. I understand that donations do not make you a lot of money, and that the pay per hour of cooking is probably well under the minimum wage in most countries. And, that opening new forums allows you to collect your own ad revenues, or maybe even harvest emails.
The amazing roms that come out of XDA are the result of collaboration between the thousands of people working out one fix at a time. Moving that knowledge else where creates a headache for people who simply want support for your rom.
Sometimes the XDA format can be a drag.
Having only one thread for an entire rom can bury good information, but...
searching through a thread is a lot less of a mess than having to sign up for a new forum every time you want to get the newest version of a rom, or find a fix implemented by a chef.
I understand that a chef's roms are the fruits of his or her efforts, and that he or she can do what they please with them (according to some interpreations of the law). But much of the progress that allows us to cook came as a result of people openly sharing information on XDA.
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you know u shouldnt have started a new thread for this, your just wasting space this thread should be closed and thread starter should be warned of starting this bogus thread in the kaiser rom dev forum

msd24200 said:
you know u shouldnt have started a new thread for this, your just wasting space this thread should be closed and thread starter should be warned of starting this bogus thread in the kaiser rom dev forum
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why ? I think a lot of good info and intentions came from it.....if there is nothing to hide then why curtail legit threads..huh? if you do not like the threads do not read it..simple
..free flow of info is important to this site..remember the only dumb questionis the one not ask.
OP got the answers he was looking for, and some darn good ones...i to was wondering why private forums were being created instead of being kept on this site...

F2504x4 said:
why ? I think a lot of good info and intentions came from it.....if there is nothing to hide then why curtail legit threads..huh? if you do not like the threads do not read it..simple
..free flow of info is important to this site..remember the only dumb questionis the one not ask.
OP got the answers he was looking for, and some darn good ones...i to was wondering why private forums were being created instead of being kept on this site...
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I agree. Frankly, I used to follow XDA and loved it. But there are so many egotistical, immature, thread Nazis and other not so nice users, lot's of time is wasted reading their nonsense. Anyway, yesterday was the 1st day back after months and I was skeptical about the Phoenix team, but after reading this thread, I'm going to check them out for sure.
--G

F2504x4 said:
why ? I think a lot of good info and intentions came from it.....if there is nothing to hide then why curtail legit threads..huh? if you do not like the threads do not read it..simple
..free flow of info is important to this site..remember the only dumb questionis the one not ask.
OP got the answers he was looking for, and some darn good ones...i to was wondering why private forums were being created instead of being kept on this site...
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DOES NOT AID IN "KAISER ROM DEVELOPMENT" enough said

Standardised form for bugs so Devs can glance at?

While I haven't been on XDA as long as some other members, I have gone through the mammoth threads that are Dude's and Cyanogen's and its just flooded with spam or often un-useful information most of the time.
This is a development thread after all and for those running either experimental or unstable builds are beta-testing for everyone else. Now there's no harm in having a bit of chit-chat here and there to lighten things up but some issues seem to get lost amongst the ten's of posts just saying "Flashing now/issues after flashing a theme/etc".
They are experimental/unstable for a reason!
I was wondering though, if it would be beneficial to devs to have some sort of standardised form for bugs and issues. Yes I know we could probably use a wiki or support tickets offered on other sites, but generally many things get posted here on XDA first.
I was thinking of a simple list that users could copy and paste to make things easier to see at a glance and to improve on search hits. Something like this:
ROM Build:
Theme:
ROM Issue:
Issue Keywords:
Reproducible:
Wiped before install:
Re-installed/reflashed:
Logcat:
Searched for answer:
An example of a report as below...
ROM Build: Cyanogen 3.9.6
Theme: Stock
ROM Issue: Cannot run MyTracks (be specific as possible)
Issue Keywords: MyTracks ForceClose
Reproducible: Yes (put in steps)
Wiped before install: No
Re-installed/reflashed: Yes, re-installed MyTracks
Logcat: Attached/No
Searched for answer: Yes
It can be added to though so I'll leave it to you guys to offer up suggestions.
The "Issue Keywords" part should flag up easier during searches, so if you run a search for "Issue Keywords Mytracks Forceclose", technically speaking it should link to this thread.
What do you guys think? Its a longshot I know for most members to copy and paste before they reply but if it becomes a habit, maybe it will become easier for devs to track issues for themselves to prioritise or offer solutions.

FLASHING NOW
Kidding, I think a standardized form would be useful and I think any issue somone reports must have a logcat or it should be thrown out with the exception of phones that won't boot at all and a logcat can't be created. I think posts like "this don't work' are largely useless to developers.

lol I was reading through the Hero dev threads before and all I saw was one liners with FLASHING NOW/CAN'T WAIT/ROSIEEEE etc. While enthusiam is a fantastic thing, sadly more information is often needed to fix any issues that might pop up.
I don't expect, and neither should anyone else, a dev to read though 200+ pages of posts to only find that there are only a handful of issues that are actually ROM related and not solvable by other members with a little effort.

A general thread for a rom that's a little more open and a straight bug report thread would probably help all invovled maybe u can pm a few developers about this idea to see if there is any support for it.
Aso a moderator that can provide tight strict support of the bug thread to keep it on the striaght and narrow

I have suggested to the mods before about having a totally seperate section just for ROMs and that but it looks like it was debunked, along with having any new moderators for this place.
Which is a shame because a lot of threads and points do get lost amongst the often pointless posts that are made, which makes searching and reading them a chore.
I'm not sure what the moderator support is like for the Dream section, I've only seen Mikey being active in trying to establish any ground rules. Have offered my services though if required but will try to help out whenever I can.
I'll ask around though to see if devs would be interested in trying to standardise reports here on XDA and hopefully other members might follow suit before posting.

I really like this idea. It would be nice to have everyone on the same page. I would also like to see a feature where you HAVE to put your info in a sig. The hardest thing about helping people is lack of info. With this in place, everyone will be a lot happier to help then if you just said, "I have a problem" and expecting everyone to read your mind.
Good idea NeoBlade!
I second this idea.

Thanks! After all it just makes it easier for the people here, be it devs or helpful members, to diagnose and to figure out solutions when troubleshooting. Its the same process that I use when helping people with technical issues on computers - The more relevant info available, the easier it becomes to track.
Cuts out a lot of guesswork I find.
Enforcing it into your signature would be nice but from the looks of it, most people have put in the effort to display the latest info at least, not all though which can't be helped since its understandable.
At the end of the day, most of us are willing to help out others, as long as they put in a little effort too.

What about a bug tracker? Maybe not even something as formal as a bug tracker but something along those lines. We could set it up to force certain information before submitting a bug such as their current rom, a2sd setup, phone model, motherboard, etc. I am a web developer so if I get some extra time I could write something up pretty quick. Just a thought.

chuckhriczko said:
What about a bug tracker? Maybe not even something as formal as a bug tracker but something along those lines. We could set it up to force certain information before submitting a bug such as their current rom, a2sd setup, phone model, motherboard, etc. I am a web developer so if I get some extra time I could write something up pretty quick. Just a thought.
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most of the devs are using googlecode which has a bugtracker with it

There's a link to this in Cyanogen's Experimental thread
I think this is a great idea, so don't get me wrong, I just think it's more complicated than bug hunting.
A lot of what gets discussed sometimes isn't directly related to the ROM, but things like best swap methods and battery ussage do end up incorporated into the ROMs. Most people who post on these things do know what they're talking about and do make a contribution to the ROM, and other ROMs, too, and it necessarily stems from the discussion about the ROM, in my experience, most of the time.
In general, if I post, I try to address some sort of work around or solution to a problem that not everyone is having with the ROM. The fora aren't just for the ROM Devs, the rest of us read them, too, and get a lot out of them, despite the occaisional inanity.
If you go through the HTC Wizard ROM Forum, you'll see the same thing, and a ton more heated arguments. What happens as the ROMs progress, is that fewer bugs come up, and the fora get cleaned up right along with them.
What I might suggest is that people title their posts (perhaps be required to do so) with [Bug Report], [Request], [Solution], [Work around], [Comment], [Question], [Discussion], maybe [Misc.] to help sort through the parts of a forum. All of these parts are important enough, and mostly do contribute somehow to the results, which is a great ROM, but the process is people being in the discussion, and that's what's really going on. Wiktionary: forum I imagine if people did this, at least they would have to identify what it is that they're posting, which is where I see the problem. If people were required to think before they post by taking some sort of labelling action, they might second-guess themselves and save the keyboard for something more useful to others. At the least it would let anyone, devs included, filter.
It also might be handy if I could delete my own threads & posts that were errantly posted. We all have them somewhere. And people who post thier feelings rather than their cohesive, relevant thoughts will only be eradicated by educating the masses, so, pay your property taxes and find out what's going on with your local schools (we may be stuck for now, but there's always hope.).

Yeah there is an active bug tracker at googlecode already, but I can't really see many people actively taking the time to actually post there and fill in the relevant information.
I have no issue though with discussions in a thread as it adds character and can provide a friendly environment for people to help each other. More often than not, when people see others helping out, they would chime in too with a contribution.
I think Cyanogen though has killed off any compcache/linux swap discussions earlier on as he mentioned in his post that he didn't want to hear anymore of it And it has actually remained as so - There are plenty of such threads that exist already.
I agree though Janis with a structured standard title in their posts. It only takes a couple of seconds but can help people skim through what is banter and what issues might need looking at. I'll do so from here on it too (if only fast reply supports post titles!).
Would be nice if there was a notes/announcements section put up on certain sub-forums too outlining some form of post structure like what was mentioned. I'm more familiar with IPB/phpBB personally but I'm sure vBulletin supports it too.

Reminder about XDA

OK so i know this is the wrong forum, BUT I came across this and wanted to "bump" it so to speak. This was posted by kyphur in 08 and in a mods sig now. Please read and adhere to the spirit of the post. It is RIGHT ON!!!
I think what a lot of people forget is that this is not a "make my phone neat & kewl" place.
As implied by the name this is technically a Developers forum/community.
Now what does that mean? Well first off it means that there is an expectation that if you are here then you want to customize your device but rather than just installing something that someone packaged you want to understand how it works and maybe even enhance it yourself.
When I first came here with a Blue Angel it was a different environment. PDA Phones were not embraced by the general public because of the expense and complexity (I paid over $400 for my BA). A $400 phone 4 years ago was expensive, today the Tilt is $300 after rebates but with inflation & the rise in the cost of other devices and the fact that there are other sources out there giving them away for $150 our neat bit of kit has become popular with mainstream users.
Now we have a flood of new users who are asking not "How can I do this myself" but more like "Give me the quick fix" without caring to understand the process. See if you read the threads then you get to experience the learning process, you see how the issues were investigated and confirmed. Then you get to watch the different attempts at resolution and learn why some failed while others worked. That is called Development.
The NooB backlash is coming from users who have walked in the development shoes and is directed mainly at those who don't care for the journey but just want the end result or destination.
As a Development Forum we are just as much (if not more) about the journey. I've read so many comments like "I don't have time to read all of the threads" or "I don't care how it works, just that it does". These very statements are contrary to the heart & soul of XDA-Devs and that is why the backlash is so strong.
Let me be very clear on this: IF YOU DON'T CARE ABOUT UNDERSTANDING THE JOURNEY THEN YOU PROBABLY SHOULDN'T BE HERE IN THE FIRST PLACE.
XDA-Devs is about developers & hackers helping each other and working together to get the most out of our devices by understanding them better than most.
XDA-Devs is not about helping everyone who wants a "Kewl bit of kit" make their phone better than the guy next to him.
Now do we go kicking users off who never contribute anything, NO. We tolerate it to an extent. Where the toleration ends is when these users start diluting the usefulness of the forum by repeating the same questions over and over again.
You ask us to understand your position. Well if you want to benefit from our experience and time then I think it is only fair that you understand our position.

Maybe you can recommend an alternative site for people who just want the newest tweaks and software.

the idea is not that only developers should be looking at this site, but that this is a place where developers communicate with each other and the beneficiaries of their work. This is not the place for someone to post threads about general questions about how to use or mod their device. This is a place that will develop the capabilities of the android platform if it is allowed. Developers WILL abandon this forum if it becomes a bulletin board or a technical support site.....and if you need a question answered, there are other forums on THIS site to address those.

Agreed 100%. While developing for the Windows mobile, I also got the same thing. I would post a thread and WARN people of a certain things and tell them how to fix it. Then I'd get 30 pages of "geeze, you broke something. how do you fix it?" That gets annoying real fast. I would love it if this forum forced people to take a test before they could post in the development sections... Before that, they should only be able to post in the regular sections.
One thing that really bugs me is the fact that the newbs don't want to search but don't realize that they take OUR time to search FOR them. No one knows everything. Every developer on this site searches and learns. I know that if you put together all the time that I've spent on this site JUST researching and searching, it'd be MONTHS and MONTHS of non-stop, no sleep searching and researching. So why can't the average person search for 2 minutes? Is their time worth more than my time?
/rant - while talking on the phone so it might not make sense...

Pinesal said:
Maybe you can recommend an alternative site for people who just want the newest tweaks and software.
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There are thousands, but essentially all they do is copy stuff off here.
Like the post said, if you just want to root your phone so it can do 'cool stuff' and not give a **** about how the damn thing works then maybe you shouldn't be modding your phone (that wasn't aimed at you btw, just 'people' in general the market place is made up of 99% 'these people' who don't/can't read and it's pretty irritating.)
Agree with the post 100%, fantastic

we sadly are living in the (ME) world
there is such a huge gape beetween the 10-19 generation and 20-29
10-19 generation is living in such an easy world, they never had to blow into their nintendo cassettes , know how heavy a quantum bigfoot is or what RTFM mean's

You said it, this is in the wrong forum.
You're not an admin and although you can spend your time here (and pretty much all of your posts) reporting out-of-place threads, you're still not an admin.
People always wonder into communities and it always takes a while to learn the way things work. Mickey is doing a good job on closing and moving threads that are unrelated to development.
With that said...
Reported.

Agreed. It's really, really, really, really getting to me. I wish OP's had semi-moderator power. They could at least delete all necessary posts and ban that user - if required- for a certain amount of time from their thread only.

jubeh said:
You said it, this is in the wrong forum.
You're not an admin and although you can spend your time here (and pretty much all of your posts) reporting out-of-place threads, you're still not an admin.
People always wonder into communities and it always takes a while to learn the way things work. Mickey is doing a good job on closing and moving threads that are unrelated to development.
With that said...
Reported.
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ughh, no i'm not an admin, and no almost all my posts, or the majority, or a half are reported threads, but i do try to help out the mods when i can. they are not on all forums at all times and can use the help, and they have said as much.

Oh thank you thank you! People here should want to understand why thing the work as they work. Not just want their phones to look cool.

As it you wouldnt know it, i have been with xda for years well since the titan came out. before that i was modding an ipaq and of course the old palms. everyonce in awhile i lose interest and move on only to come back when i have something new(major a.d.d). i do write java as well as c and even c++(so on) i typically find this place useful to try stuff out and even set up my own custom rom just for me. i dont post because i can google. while i have many of my own questions i would like answered i simply dont ask most of the time(such as using micro kernels and modding app2sd to make the os have two options sd in or out. however the problem is not the generations or age difference or anything like that. its social systems outside of xda. posting a reply used to mean an answer or something useful. now its normal to simply post "great job". thats nice and all but maybe instead of complaining about it we should come up with a new system that improves xda. like a sorting system or sub thread system and set up catagorys for our replys. like thumbs up would be for the "good job". i know its hard to keep everyone happy but this is a forum first, a forum has design problems when you get the number of people xda has. use advanced search it helps a lot. a sorting system with requirements for certain catagorys would help devs. its not easy modding and getting it right and you cant do it alone. xda is the help even if its not your phone sometimes others have solutions too. such as winmo users putting android on their phones(yes i did it too my old titan for fun). things i learned and other devs learn can help us and vice versa. i have yet to find bad technology only poorly thought out ideas that could have been. which is why we mod.
p.s. wtf is up with palm and blackberry ads all the time.

Most of those kids just want the answer or fix in the next 3min. with perfect steps or a patch that supposedly will fix and hack their device,after that they´ll never show up.
All they want is to show off without bothering to read.

I totaly understand. I do feel sometimes that certain devs do get a bit annoyed with people who just want to fix the phone and not understand. I'm not linux or coding wiz. But whe I got here in may I was one of the people who just wanted me phone to be better than urs. I still have that to some extent but I have developed more of a "how and what is causeing this issue" attitude. I try to contribute as best as I can. Helping out over at q&a as best as I can. I enjoy xda and without my days would be more boring than what the are now. I dunno I guess I'm just rambling. Bottom line is I have tried to correct my attitude toward modding. Hell I even post my email so users can drop a line if they need help.

i am 20 and i fondly remember blowing into my nes super nes and genesis games.

i am pretty new to XDA. when i first found this site all i wanted was a quick fix. now i am getting more intrested in the actual dev aspect. i want to be able to create my own rom eventualy. yes i do find myself asking stupid questions and getting some foul responses but in my opinion no question is a stupid one. only the one not asked. yes alot of people just want a fix but there are new users who want to learn. like me. so i appreciate the help i have recieved from most members. and i alwasy appoligise for my stupidity. so dont get down on all noobs because alot of us want to learn and the only way to is to ask.

saprano614 said:
i am pretty new to XDA. when i first found this site all i wanted was a quick fix. now i am getting more intrested in the actual dev aspect. i want to be able to create my own rom eventualy. yes i do find myself asking stupid questions and getting some foul responses but in my opinion no question is a stupid one. only the one not asked. yes alot of people just want a fix but there are new users who want to learn. like me. so i appreciate the help i have recieved from most members. and i alwasy appoligise for my stupidity. so dont get down on all noobs because alot of us want to learn and the only way to is to ask.
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nobody is getting down on noobs. ONLY the site users who FAIL to post questions and general comments in the correct forum

jaaronmoody said:
nobody is getting down on noobs. ONLY the site users who FAIL to post questions and general comments in the correct forum
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Just want to make a statement befor someone did.

I thank you for this post. I came to this forum a long time ago I have learned quite a bit and appreciate everything that is done here. There are very skillful people that are on here and I wish I had the amount of skill then thesemodders, hackers, developers etc... have I keep my mouth shut unless i feel there is some thing that i know how to answer, i have never complained about a single rom i simply research what can be done to change for fix it, all answers rely in a search somewhere either here or google. I just wish other people would do the same then we would be able to prevent a 300+ page threads where only about 25 pages are worth anything.
look at the amount of posts from someone who knows they are barley able to contrubute(but do what he can) and been here this long. compared to people who have been here dont have much to contribute but love to post everything that comes to thier minds.
Join Date
22nd October 2006
Total Posts
89

samygent said:
we sadly are living in the (ME) world
there is such a huge gape beetween the 10-19 generation and 20-29
10-19 generation is living in such an easy world, they never had to blow into their nintendo cassettes , know how heavy a quantum bigfoot is or what RTFM mean's
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Click to collapse
HEY!
im 18 and clearly remember blowing into those damn games to make them work. but when they worked, so much fun i still think theyre better than the crappy xbox and ps3 games of today... but thats just me. lol

pleeease yall! let's keep THIS thread on topic! LOL!!

[SLIGHTLY OFF TOPIC!] ROMS. the state of the forums :(

HELLO! Long time member here
Now its time for me to have a bit of a rant! Over the last few years, this site/forums, have gone downhill, the reason being....? Ignoring The rules and not doing things for yourselves!
I am not a mod, or admin, but I expect I speak on behalf of a large number of users/rom devs, when you see the same posts explaining the same thing again and again!
Such Enjoyable posts such as 'can I use xposed on this'. 'whats the battery like on this thing - even though the rom has just been released!!! whens the new update coming, and why not for my model?????
You see, I could never ever share a rom on here (I have made loads for myself, including a few for note 3), because of a small number of users WHO CANT POST in the right section, READ Q&A forum, or MOAN because they have bricked their handset because they have not read things properly!
XDA is a amazing site, and I have killed and revived hundreds of handsets, but people think its their god given right to expect the dev etc to hold their hands and go through every step of the flashing of roms, its a case of trial and error, the roms here are not always 100% stable, but people expect it to be! people expect the latest firmware, bits and bobs to be added all the time, the devs have real lifes, families, and jobs......they are doing you a favour....free!!
What I am saying is, please respect the devs, the forum mods, and post in correct sections!!! use search.....or a little site called google.......any of you can inbox me with any problems you have
Anyway I LOVE YOU ALL

Couldn't have said it better. I know several developers who have mostly migrated to other forums due, in large part, to the things you mentioned.
I too have put together a number of ROMs, full themes, and apps, the majority of which I've either kept for personal use, or shared only with select individuals, because it's almost become a burden to publicly release them here. Alliance has an unofficial rule where any time someone asks about an update, we postpone releasing one, but even that doesn't stop the incessant stream of repeated questions that we get (the majority of which are already answered in the OP).
A lot of the members here don't seem to understand that this is, first and foremost, a developers site, and they act as if they're entitled to something or that the devs somehow owe them something. I've never understood that mindset; Whenever I've wanted to modify something, in any way, I've put in the time (sometimes years) needed to learn how to do it myself, and if I ever got stuck, have sought guidance from more knowledgable people. That doesn't seem to happen much any more.
XDA has gone through some major changes, and has grown almost exponentially in the 9 years that I've been here, and I couldn't be happier for its' success, but some things have certainly, and unfortunately, been lost along the way.

There is also the issue of people who steal others work. The number of devs I have seen leave xda because of that is quite high. It is not ok and it is against the rules for people to do it but they still do. Once the devs who put the time in to create the mods leave nothing new happens because no one knows how to do anything without copy and paste or even have their own original ideas.

Same old same old since XDA moved from a developers forum to a forum for those that don't know and refuse to read/ learn .
I gave up years ago and try to ignore the idiot posts .

@JJEgan: You really gave up, years ago, with that post count?
Anyway, the problem is newcomers. They don't search, they don't read, but their demands are high all the same, that's the most saddening part I think.
All the ROM/ Kernel topics should have a separate Q&A section. But at the same time I think its needed to be mentioned that OP (Original Post) should contain all the needed informations too, sometimes they don't!

Yes is the answer to first question .
Only time i use the forums is nowadays for a new rom .

I've been visiting xda, as a lurker, for years (since about '07-'08) and only created an account a couple of years ago. (Hence the low/non-existant post count.) I may not have ever released any of my own fiddlings for my phone(s), but I have borrowed some of the knowledge from the fine developers and learned more about my phone(s). It also annoys the hell outta me to see so many people refusing to learn about the equipment they use everyday and expect to have people, busting their asses (on their own time & dime), just bow down and cater to the weak-minded and lazy masses. It's sad... If someone's too lazy to do the homework before they go flash happy, then I feel they deserve the bricks. I have nothing but mad respect for the devs who put their work out there, regardless of quality! To play off of what Morningstar said, I think it's great that there's a bit of a slap on the hand, from the devs, of the disrespectful, over-eager ones who get too grabby-- command respect wherever you can! HAHAHA!
Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk

@DSA thats a great name from the past! I used to love your Blackbox roms from a couple years back, remember it used to amazing, and can remember too, that you closed your thread due to the same sort of thing.....people posting non development stuff.......I managed to sell a old s4 about 8 months back that had your rom on it (the bloke preferred a 4.4.2 rom)

DEV section should be for DEVs ONLY. There should be a category in which you have to be invited to be able to post there. Rest must go to Q/A section IMO. I am mod myself, not of a such big forum like XDA, but from ReactOS forums. Even there you have stupid children starting a rant with their first post or more often just post a stupid question answered two posts above! Same like here, just not that many ppl flooding you ^^ I started to give away free warnings and bans to minimize the negative impact we have there after any public booth we had somewhere etc. Telling ppl not to do X and Y and what are they doing? X AND Y OF COURSE! You write it in the first post in RED AND CAPS LOCK and ppl still don't read it. Then they show up to rant that their PC is dead, hamster is pregnant, phone fell into the fish tank and whatever else you might be the evil guy for. I completely second AND support that opinion of the OP.

In my opinion only Devs, Mods and Senior Members (maybe with some criteria, ex. by registration date and/or by number thanks) should be able to post on the Development section.
I would assume that most Senior Members with several years of registration, and with at least 50 thanks would know the forum rules.
Closing the Dev section only to Devs would bring very little input and feedback.

pacc said:
In my opinion only Devs, Mods and Senior Members (maybe with some criteria, ex. by registration date and/or by number thanks) should be able to post on the Development section.
I would assume that most Senior Members with several years of registration, and with at least 50 thanks would know the forum rules.
Closing the Dev section only to Devs would bring very little input and feedback.
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Thats what the Q/A is for.

emuandco said:
Thats what the Q/A is for.
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You're right, but many senior members know programming and their contribution to development would be lost in the extensive list of Q/A.
Hopefully XDA will figure something out.

I am of the opposite opinion.
Ten years ago you asked a question you got a reply. Simple and practical.
Now you have to put up with a stream of people moaning and lamenting the nerve of someone daring to ask a question that has been asked before, usually because the op has not been updated or has such useful instructions as:
Installation instructions:
1. Install
So now instead of having a simple question and answer we just have the questions and the moaners; people who conveniently forget that they had their own questions earlier and act instead as guardians of some sacred knowledge which you must trawl through a several thousand page long thread (or three or four separate threads) before being worthy to dare ask a question.
My two cents.

1. That's what the search function is for. There's a rule, search first, ask questions later. I mean if not found.
2. There's also the attitude problem with people being entitled to anything, as if they are doing a favor for using the roms. No doubt, bugs can only be found if enough people are using it, and they are beta testing it this way for the developers, but still the work here is done by the developers.
3. But this is true until a developer starts accepting donations. I believe while somebody is doing in his free time, on his own dime, he/she can decide what questions to address. But after receiving the first donation at least the real documented bugs should all be answered at least with an "I'm looking into it".
4. OP should grant moderator rights for his/her topic, and purge irrelevant stuff.
My 2c.

istperson said:
1. That's what the search function is for. There's a rule, search first, ask questions later. I mean if not found.
2. There's also the attitude problem with people being entitled to anything, as if they are doing a favor for using the roms. No doubt, bugs can only be found if enough people are using it, and they are beta testing it this way for the developers, but still the work here is done by the developers.
3. But this is true until a developer starts accepting donations. I believe while somebody is doing in his free time, on his own dime, he/she can decide what questions to address. But after receiving the first donation at least the real documented bugs should all be answered at least with an "I'm looking into it".
4. OP should grant moderator rights for his/her topic, and purge irrelevant stuff.
My 2c.
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I wholeheartedly agree with your numbers 1,2, and 4. I take exception with number 3 though. The donation is a thank you for what the person has done. Like tipping a waiter at a restaurant ... better job done .. better tip. But that is done at the end. Appreciation for a job well done. Maybe next trip you get really good service ... maybe you get someone else. My point is that making the donation doesn't give anyone the right to "expect" more. Most donations are minimal .. very nice to receive ... but normally small. So if you send someone $5 and expect more, you are putting a very small value on their time.
The majority of crap that clogs the threads is people not searching as stated previously. It's obvious that some people are just too lazy or have come to expect to be hand fed the information. They even state in the post thing like "too many post to look at" and "just don't have the time to look" ( for themselves). If I search and find the answer for them, I usually put in my post a link to the post with the answer as well as the amount of time I spent searching (usually less than a minute). This normally brings out the hatred in people, but I really don't care.
This thread has surprised me in that it hasn't turned into a battleground yet. Nice that opinions can flow and discussions can happen without the need for a mod to calm the situation. We all know it won't change anything on xda .. it is what it is. It has changed a lot since I started a few years ago. I just tend to stay in threads that are suited to my nature and with people with sense of humor like mine. The others that I follow that are not like that, I tend to remain silent(ish).
Some things like total disrespect for someones work really set me off. I have seen people tell other themers that their work is ugly or tell them how it should look. I look at their profile and they have produced nothing here. Multiple threads started about help me this and that, and request for things to be done. It just chaps my ass. But it is what it is. Anyway ... Rant over ... thanks OP for the thread.

Bubba said:
I wholeheartedly agree with your numbers 1,2, and 4. I take exception with number 3 though. The donation is a thank you for what the person has done. Like tipping a waiter at a restaurant ... better job done .. better tip. But that is done at the end. Appreciation for a job well done. Maybe next trip you get really good service ... maybe you get someone else. My point is that making the donation doesn't give anyone the right to "expect" more. Most donations are minimal .. very nice to receive ... but normally small. So if you send someone $5 and expect more, you are putting a very small value on their time.
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No you're right, I agree, it's not the value of the work just saying it's appreciated.
What I was trying to say was that if being correct only those will accept donations who are really determined to have a relatively complete rom made, and by complete I mean compared to what is announced in the OP. And if people appreciate it then at least every well documented bug report would be nice if it was acknowledged. Just to show that this is really a contribution to the development if someone gives links to logcats, and gives steps to reproduction. And by no means what is very frequent here: "This sucks, fix it!!!!!!!111111One"

istperson said:
3. But this is true until a developer starts accepting donations. I believe while somebody is doing in his free time, on his own dime, he/she can decide what questions to address. But after receiving the first donation at least the real documented bugs should all be answered at least with an "I'm looking into it".
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Your last post cleared things up a bit, and I think I get your point, but I still completely disagree with this statement.
Every developer I know here (including myself), has a 'real' job, and does development work solely as a hobby in their spare time. A donation is just that. it's not solicited or expected, it's simply a way of showing appreciation and thanking a dev for the work that they've done.
Personally, the things that I've shared here publicly and/or are included in others' releases are the product of several hundred hours (and probably more than that) of work. I've received a few donations, but the total sum doesn't even amount to one full day's pay at my 'real' job, so I would say everything I do is on 'my time' and 'my dime'.

Morningstar said:
Your last post cleared things up a bit, and I think I get your point, but I still completely disagree with this statement.
Every developer I know here (including myself), has a 'real' job, and does development work solely as a hobby in their spare time. A donation is just that. it's not solicited or expected, it's simply a way of showing appreciation and thanking a dev for the work that they've done.
Personally, the things that I've shared here publicly and/or are included in others' releases are the product of several hundred hours (and probably more than that) of work. I've received a few donations, but the total sum doesn't even amount to one full day's pay at my 'real' job, so I would say everything I do is on 'my time' and 'my dime'.
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100 percent agreed. I have spent thousands of hours on my personal theme for alliance that i freely share. Same for apps that I also share. I have received only a couple of donations. Not that I care. But they are nice. I appreciate the thanks clicked just as much.
But again the point is ... It's a thank you ... not a purchase with a promise. Knowing the people that @Morningstar and myself know through this hobby is (to me) humbling. The average user could never begin to comprehend the time and effort ... and dedication ... maybe even some OCDC ... that goes into building or theming a rom or app.

It IS hard work and I am always grateful to the amazing helpful members who make coming here enjoyable and who vastly outnumber the vocal whiny minority of spoiled douches.
My 2c ?
Sent from my SM-N920C using Tapatalk

Welcome to the new world,Facebook and the deliberate dumbing down of the masses.. Its no accident that the general public aren't as bright as they were,ask any teacher how new age teaching just isn't as good as the old ways.
I can see and share your frustrations but there a lot of factors
young people have more disposable income I see 12yr olds with S6s and other high end phones
young people have been spoilt and are treated like little prince/princesses because the parents are so busy earning a living they can't give them time so spoil them or try to buy their love creating needy lazy demanding kids
the general assumption is that young people are internet savvy but this is far from the truth, I see classes of kids every day in the high school years who still don't realise that you can type an address into a web browser they do a search for the same site every day and then click the link. If google was shut down the world would end for a lot of people
samsung have released so many different models and variants which wasn't the case in the past so people have a lot more issues world wide
upgrading custom roms were probably less buggy than ported roms which are released now as betas, maybe they shouldn't be? it seems to be a bit much too ask for many to comprehend
xda's popularity and some people over eagerness to help beginners encourages too many people without enough skills to attempt highly risky things
there are a lot more postings of high end roms and later versions of android onto older hardware so many more issues than in the past where it was more cosmetic adjustments and feature add ons
there are a lot more asian developers so there are a lot of roms that are released and have to be made international (more issues)
a lot of the roms threads are terrible now possibly due to different cultures again
compare note2 threads with note3 threads,note 2 were usually logical with all files in OP are now a lot of note 3 threads are a mess with sometimes note3 base note4 base s6 base and note 5 in same thread and questions and fixes are just donated randomly all through the thread by anyone rather than dev only.
I would consider myself an experienced xda lurker but following just a note 3 means trying to keep on top of many different threads to just make sense out of peoples cross thread posts its very time consuming
a lot of thread starters need to be a lot more organised in the OP and control their threads more, removing comments that are about other roms etc,I think because they know and follow all the other threads as well as there own they assume everyone reading is doing the same. I do feel sorry for someone blindly trying to get started now but a well controlled thread would make huge difference,list known bugs themselves in the OP,
Some developers might be better to hand their thread over to someone enthusiastic to control the thread on their behalf to get back to the great examples set by omega,bobcat ,phoenix ,resurrection dr keten
there are some fantastically helpful and nice people on these forums and some incredibly bright ones but society is what it is
personally I blame Facebook