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Forum responses (None or too complicated)

Hello everybody on XDA developers,
I found a lot of useful information on this site, don't get me wrong BUT.
More and more I'm getting under the impression that new topics often get no or little replay because the user is either a newbie or he asked a question which has been asked before. Now, I'm no newbie although I'm not an expert either. I asked several questions and the responses are poor.
There is so much information (most of the time too complicated for non computer specialists) that it is often easier to launch a new topic. However, if one doesn't talk or know about, changing .nbf files, writing Batch files replacing HimaUpgradeUT.exe files and only God knows what else, you get little or no response.
The day somebody asks me, in some aviation forum, about the pressure changes in a JET engine which is going from SUBSONIC to SUPERSONIC flight or the aerodynamic effects on a helicopter rotor which is going into autorotation or other pilot related stuff, will get an answer adapted to his knowledge so he will understand what I'm saying. What else is the use of a forum?
Maybe XDA-developers should add a forum for the "less gifted" in the Forum index.
Anyway, Happy New Year to all of you.

well maybe if the problem is that the specialists have little patience or problems transfering their knowlage into something mear humans can understand the new forum would just have a pile of unanswered threads
i think the problem you address are really 2 problems
1
general pocketpc questions mainly i think from people who are used to cellphones and cant call themselfs superusers on normal pc's they need it explained in a cellphone kinda way. these are questions like
how do i make IE stop displaying pictures and stuff like that
2
people who dont really know that much about complex stuff like changing their rom and manualy intering all the grps settings, in the new rom
and adding things to their extented rom and such
these people often would mostly benefit from a guide with pictures and possible a list of the most used cellphone company settings

I'm not sure I understand your first point, but I do agree on your second one.
Now we only need someone with lots of time and motivation to make such guidelines with step by step instructions and pictures...
Greetings

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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Click to collapse
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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Click to collapse
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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Click to collapse
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
Click to expand...
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!!

[Q] How to get the ball moving on becoming an app developer

Hey guys,
I realize this might not be a correct section but there's not a Q&A section on android as a whole. I've had a G1 since it's release date, and since then am now on a vibrant, so i've experienced Android for a considerable amount of time. Over this time, I've flashed a lot of roms, and used a lot of mods that come through these forums. I'd say I have well above average knowledge on android and how to utilize the devices to their fullest potential over anyone who simply buys a phone and uses it.
That said, I've become interested in taking this passion to a new level and joining app, and maybe even ROM developers in the future. Now I know there's a lot to read on these forums about particular problems and solutions, but I'm looking for direction on where I can find sources to kind of introduce me to app development and explain the Android OS on a much deeper level, whether it be a huge guide, website, whatever. I want to take this head on and not half ass so simply searching through the forums for thousands of things just doesn't seem like the most efficient way to truly understand how everything comes together as a whole on app development. Truthfully, I really don't know any details on the process of signing up etc etc. It's also not like I can look up a class to take (which I would actually prefer) so I can really get a grasp and not have to come crying to these forums every time something tedious gets in my way, ya know?
So any app devs, I'd greatly appreciate any guidance to how you got started. I'm not a total geek by nature so it's not like I really understand things that some people might call common sense about linux/android. Whether you copy and paste a link, or give me some advice, I'd greatly appreciate it. Thanks guys.

[Q] Samsung infuse Update firmware

Hi:
I have a samsung infuse 4g which is AT&T unlocked. I wanted to update the phone. Is there any updates available from 2.2.1 to higher version. I there can any1 please tell how to update my phone.
Thank you,
yeshwanth.

You need to spend some time reading around the Infuse forums.... Posting this only shows you have not even tried to read any threads in development as the answers to this are all over the place...
Sent from my Samsung Infuse 4G - 1.6ghz

Yup. We're far more forgiving of posts from people who haven't done their research in Q&A than in Development (as in, you would've been yelled at quite a bit if you posted this in the Dev forum) - but there's a point at which the only thing we can say is "read".
People come here expecting way too much handholding.

Thanks for ur reply..i believe this forum will help in finding a quick solution..people like you who know what to do can tell which post to read....i expect what to read and from where but not a direct process. I searched all the forum and then posted this. Experience guys like you can help in recommending few threads or posts.

I'd suggest that u read the same thread where u read about 2.2.1
Cranky...

And I suggest some of the people who have replied to this thread would have better spent their time maybe being helpful instead of trolling forum NAZIs. Guess what kiddies, some people actually have lives other than spending 10 hours wasting away on a forum. I have to say this is absolutely the worst forum I have ever seen in this regard. If you really just can not stand these "noob" posts as I am sure you refer to them, maybe best to just make a completely private forum so that you can get on to the really important matters. Because we all know just how vital and important the work done here is to society.

Simply put - any custom firmware has the potential for bugs or "oddball" quirks.
If you can't spend the time to read and research, stick to stock. You don't have the time or technical skills to deal with any bugs or oddities that might come up.
Whenever I get a new device, I spend at least a few hours researching before I flash anything. I spend a few days before I post anything.
Basically, I don't want anyone who can't even spend an hour reading the forums flashing something I have involvement with and then contributing reports of "bugs" which are either user error (because they didn't read) or already known issues (because they didn't read). Someone who can't even skim the first page of the dev forums is obviously on the road to reporting "bugs" of their own creation in a dev thread. Same goes for other developers. We've had developers take breaks or hold back releases due to the poor signal to noise ratio of many threads. With people constantly asking about known issues and reporting "bugs" which don't exist because it's just them screwing up, it makes development much harder because real bug reports get missed or don't get the attention they need.
Not having time is not an excuse. If you don't have the time to spend 2-3 hours skimming the dev forums to understand what's out there and learn about how your device works, you don't have the time to debug when you screw up because you didn't read, because if you didn't read you WILL screw up.

I have to completely agree with Entropy here. I'm a big-time n00b myself here so I can only speak from experience as to investing the time to find out vs. asking for a lot of help.
I've posted some threads that were general in a sense and didn't get much of a response. At first I was a little turned off by this but it caused me to search a bit more here and other places to find out myself. It's made me more resourceful and it's actually better this way.
I've got some friends that always ask me for help and if they simply took the time to find out the answers and investigate it like I do, they'd be much better off. But I put the partial blame on myself because if they have someone to always ask and get the answer, why look? I think this forum works under the same premise and I completely agree.
Stuff like this needs to be done carefully and people have to be willing to put in the time to know the basics so they know what to do when something goes wrong. Planning and being thorough is vital to doing things right with modding firmware, etc.

I'm all for helping people out who need real help....
And all we did was point out that spending a little more time reading around the different roms in the dev section would have given the answer....
This is xda developers.... Not xda anybody....
This place is going down hill cause all the devs are leaving due to the increase in people who don't spend the time to read on what development is and don't understand that if what is done here was meant to be 100% stable we'd all be on stock roms...
I'm sorry but this and what Entropy said are the facts...
If you want to upgrade from stock Froyo 2.2.1 to a nice gingerbread rom.... There are some good one in the dev section..... And some have instructions and how to do it while others expect you to already know how...
Sent from my Samsung Infuse 4G - 1.6ghz

New owner of 16GB Nook Tablet looking to switch to CM7 or CM10

I am fairly lost on the process for updating my nook tablet 16GB to CM7 or CM10. This forum is like an information overload for a noob like me.
Two things I want to accomplish:
(1) Decide on CM7, CM9, or CM10
(2) Once I decide, update my nook
This is going to be a family tablet. Kids (older than 10) might use it a lot. I have read that CM10 is too unstable right now (especially for kids to use). Is this still true? I got the impression from this thread that there may be vast improvements:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1877217
Cam someone tell me which version has the best combination of stability/performance? Is CM10 even close yet? Not crazy about the idea of going with gingerbread.
So, once I have decided, its not clear how I should update my nook. Are there simple instructions somewhere?

I'm sorry if I offend with this post, but it needs to be said - to you and the hundreds of other newbies coming on here with similar questions ...
If you can't figure out the basics of what you need to do by reading the information already posted across the existing threads on your device's forums then you should not even consider trying to do anything other than leave it well alone on the 'Stock' build.
The potential to break your nice, new, shiny device and find yourself in a position where you cannot recover it is high unless you are sure what you are doing, and the benefits really aren't enough for what you are trying to achieve.

SimonTS said:
I'm sorry if I offend with this post, but it needs to be said - to you and the hundreds of other newbies coming on here with similar questions ...
If you can't figure out the basics of what you need to do by reading the information already posted across the existing threads on your device's forums then you should not even consider trying to do anything other than leave it well alone on the 'Stock' build.
The potential to break your nice, new, shiny device and find yourself in a position where you cannot recover it is high unless you are sure what you are doing, and the benefits really aren't enough for what you are trying to achieve.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your post does not offend me. I think I can figure out the basics. That's not a fair assumption about me. The problem is that I am seeing a lot of info on the web, and it is a little difficult for me to separate what I need from what I don't need. I see a lot of different info about which sd card to use or how the sd card needs to be formatted, etc, etc.
I just need one set of instructions that seems to work for most people.
But that only addresses one of my questions. The other question is whether CM10 is mature enough at this point or not?