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What differentiates General from Q&A?

With all these threads being moved about quite actively, and that may be a good thing, I myself am not schooled on the difference between what constitutes a general purpose thread versus one that should be considered more of a Q&A type thing. For instance, aren't 90% of the threads here in this forum begun as questions that are missing a question mark in the title? Ether the OP had forgotten to indicate the existence of a question in the thread title or the title is misleading, because invariably, you will find in the OP, you guessed it, a question. So, what's the dealy-o?

General: "The MyTouch 4G looks AWESOME in red!!!"
Q&A: "Does the MyTouch 4G look awesome in red???"
That's about the only diff I've been able to tell

I have to kinda agree. I tried to implement a well known and proven successful thread from WM here, to have place for answers to commonly ask questions with answers in a single thread closed to other post where anyone with a question could look to see the answer before posting. Mainly for Android development but it go shot down by the Moderator. IMHO General should be a place to ask all general questions so the Q & A section is pointless.

Shouldn't this be in the Q&A thread? LOL, just kidding
Sent from my HTC Glacier using XDA App

Q&A section is for questions that have a clear cut answer. General if for a community discussion about a subject. I try to evaluate each thread as if it is for discussion or for Q&A, and sometimes it's hard and I get it wrong. If I do and you feel I made a mistake, feel free to shoot me a PM with your reasoning and I'll take a second look.
Thanks,
Korey

Whosdaman said:
Q&A section is for questions that have a clear cut answer. General if for a community discussion about a subject. I try to evaluate each thread as if it is for discussion or for Q&A, and sometimes it's hard and I get it wrong. If I do and you feel I made a mistake, feel free to shoot me a PM with your reasoning and I'll take a second look.
Thanks,
Korey
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Why not put a list of all the questions that have answers on the first post of your Q&A thread? Then once people get used to checking there first before posting, it will reduce asked question and unnecessary post.

bobsbbq said:
Why not put a list of all the questions that have answers on the first post of your Q&A thread? Then once people get used to checking there first before posting, it will reduce asked question and unnecessary post.
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Well that's kinda the point of the Q&A section. Users good just get use to searching as well

Whosdaman said:
Well that's kinda the point of the Q&A section. Users good just get use to searching as well
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Click to collapse
Well whatever but as you and I know the majority of users will still not search so in theory it is good but in reality we know what happens. I had my doubts when the WM thread in chefs central started but I can tell you it made a positive impact and works very well, and to have all the solved questions and links to the solved thread in the first post for easy reference helps everyone. Sometimes even the search fails us. It is just a friendly suggestion take it for what it's worth.

Well if someone makes a FAQ thread and makes it look nice, and promises to update it often. I promise to sticky it

I think the two sections are pointless and should be merged as one or too many things are being moved to Q&A, i dont remember every single question being moved into Q&A on the vibrant forum

PolishDude said:
I think the two sections are pointless and should be merged as one or too many things are being moved to Q&A, i dont remember every single question being moved into Q&A on the vibrant forum
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o they do.... go look , and not everything is being moved from general sections. only cut and dry q&a threads. and im more efficient then most moderators as well jk'ing

[Q] this phone is best or not?

give ur votes

You're in a Note 3 forum
You're still in a Note 3 forum
Everyone here bought it and they're now in.... you guessed it... a Note 3 forum
What do you think?

Thread Closed
Wrong sub forum but that is beside the point, we're not opening a best phone vote thread on XDA.

[Completed] samsung galaxy grand prime android development

Hello, the newly released (2014) grand prime has no thread on your forum, which is pretty surprising cause it carries more muscle than the grand 2.
when will a thread likely be put up so we can share ideas?
thanks

Hi,
Devices need a lot of member interest for a device section to be created. With a new device that isn't a flagship, that can take a bit of time.
But feel free to register on XDA and make a request here,
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1660354
In the meantime, try searching Google with the device name and XDA name added to search, to see what threads may exist on the device in the general xda sections already, or in the future.
Good luck!

[Completed] Car stereo for galaxy and android

Hello
I am in the market to buy a new car stereo. I have the galaxy note 4 and an iphone 6s plus. I need a stereo that can communicate with both phones, that is double din, 7" screen, and under $500.
Any ideas?
Thanks

Hello,
Welcome to XDA.
Try posting your question in the general Q&A forum linked below.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/general/help
Remember to register an XDA account so you can post and reply in the forums. Good luck

Why page look like this?

I change phone two days ago for Xiaomi 11T pro. First thing that I always do , I go to XDA community of course
my questio is , why is not like on my previous phones Poco f2 pro and Xiaomi Mi 10 T lite. no categories , no segments for each stuff like:
Acessories
Themes ,Apps
ROM ,kernels
Guides , News​Question , Answers
Real Life Review
why we dont have that ? is it because phone is relativly new ,and dont have much support yet... I saw firt custom rom come out today.. Paranoid OS...
when will you create this categories?
this is what I mean:

tze_vitamin said:
I change phone two days ago for Xiaomi 11T pro. First thing that I always do , I go to XDA community of course
my questio is , why is not like on my previous phones Poco f2 pro and Xiaomi Mi 10 T lite. no categories , no segments for each stuff like:
Acessories
Themes ,Apps
ROM ,kernels
Guides , News​Question , Answers
Real Life Review
why we dont have that ? is it because phone is relativly new ,and dont have much support yet... I saw firt custom rom come out today.. Paranoid OS...
when will you create this categories?
this is what I mean:
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Click to collapse
Not every device gets its own forum, it depends on how popular the device is, how large its communiry of users is and how much "original" custom development is available for. If your device is a cheap, low end device or if it does not have a lot of users here or if there are no original custom developments or if there are only a small number of custom developments, the device will not get its own forum.
Wait a while, if more people use the device and if there are a lot of custom developments made available for it, then it "might" get its own forum.
XDA does not create new forums for every device on the market just because the device exists. It takes time and work add a new section to XDA, they can't afford to waste time or server space to create a forum for every device that is released. It would be a waste of server space to create a forum for devices that are not popular, does not have a large community of users or has very little or no original custom development. Even if a lot of development is made available, it still wont get a forom unless it is "original" development, meaning, if it is not something created by someone else for another device then modified to work on your device, that is not "original development", that is only "development".
In the future, don't buy a device and THEN come here to XDA expecting custom development without checking XDA before you buy the device. A better idea is to check XDA before you buy a device to see what devices it supports and what is available for those devices then decide which device you are going to buy based on what is already available at XDA. Otherwise, you take a chance buying a device that may or may not ever be supported by XDA.

tze_vitamin said:
I change phone two days ago for Xiaomi 11T pro. First thing that I always do , I go to XDA community of course
my questio is , why is not like on my previous phones Poco f2 pro and Xiaomi Mi 10 T lite. no categories , no segments for each stuff like:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
@tze_vitamin
I assume you're referring to the layout of the forum of your new device:
Xiaomi 11T Pro
The Xiaomi 11T Pro is a 6.67" phone with a 1080x2400 resolution display. The Qualcomm SM8350 Snapdragon 888 5G chipset is paired with 8/12GB of RAM and 128/256GB of storage. The main camera is 108+8+5MP and the selfie camera is 16MP. The battery has a 5000mAh capacity.
forum.xda-developers.com
Slightly more than a year ago, XDA transition from vBulletin to Xenforo, and for several reasons but mainly to speed up XDA our site owners decided that new device fora won't have section/sub-fora any longer but use prefixes in the threads to indicate the respective category and to allow filtering for easy searches.
So, the fora of your previous devices were created prior to the transition to Xenforo, and the Xiaomi 11T Pro one after the transition.
A XDA search might have brought you to this post by @sd_shadow; please ahve a look into it for further explanations and how-to-use suggestions:
[Index] XDA 2021: How to Navigate the New Site Layout
XDA 2021 [INDEX] Helpful Information Welcome, this thread has been created to encompass everything you may need to navigate the new site layout. Please only post in this thread with feedback on how to improve this document. Do not post "Thank...
forum.xda-developers.com
Regards
Oswald Boelcke

still we have Q&A subforum in older device forums, and even more confusing contradictory sticky threads like this
*** Questions do not go in the General Section ***
The General Sections are for information sharing only, not for questions, support, requests... Etc... Etc. Please use the Q&A section for questions of any kind. Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting Thanks! Your Moderation Staff
forum.xda-developers.com
General Questions and Answers
This forum is for all questions, big or small, you might have. Please read the rules in this forum before submitting any Q&A.This forum is a Questions section, which means each reply is treated as an answer that can be up/down voted by the community. Then, the original poster can choose the best...
forum.xda-developers.com

aIecxs said:
still we have Q&A subforum in older device forums, and even more confusing contradictory sticky threads like this
*** Questions do not go in the General Section ***
The General Sections are for information sharing only, not for questions, support, requests... Etc... Etc. Please use the Q&A section for questions of any kind. Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting Thanks! Your Moderation Staff
forum.xda-developers.com
General Questions and Answers
This forum is for all questions, big or small, you might have. Please read the rules in this forum before submitting any Q&A.This forum is a Questions section, which means each reply is treated as an answer that can be up/down voted by the community. Then, the original poster can choose the best...
forum.xda-developers.com
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Thanks very much indeed for your post and especially the first link. I've removed that thread. For whatever reason it was indeed at the wrong location.
Not as an excuse but as a probable explanation: Please count the number of moderators here who are all dedicated XDA users who do this "job" voluntarily and for free besides their real life, real family and friends, real business and occupation. And on a website with more than 3.5 million threads and 75M+ posts we highly depend on hints from our users like e.g. your post.
And regarding, the second linked forum, I've to admit I didn't find the confusing sticky. Can you help me out please? PM is also fine in order not to clutter this thread. Thanks for your cooperation.
Regards
Oswald Boelcke

I will send PM when I find more. just to clarify, the second link is the recent one and therefore the valid one. So all questions (regardless if development/device specific or not) belong to the general Q&A threads?
- General Questions and Answers
where each answer is expected as solution (no comments) and can be upvoted, or
- Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting
where each reply is a comment and we like to chat about our issues/ideas as usual (no voting feature)
... right??

aIecxs said:
I will send PM when I find more. just to clarify, the second link is the recent one and therefore the valid one. So all questions (regardless if development/device specific or not) belong to the general Q&A threads?
- General Questions and Answers
where each answer is expected as solution (no comments) and can be upvoted, or
- Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting
where each reply is a comment and we like to chat about our issues/ideas as usual (no voting feature)
... right??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree it's hard to distinguish between the two fora. First, as you correctly said the first one has a voting feature that was set up by the site owners briefly after the transition to Xenforo.
Personally, I distinguish between them that the latter one is for items related to Android while the first one is open for everything related to XDA's subject and objectives. There's a lot of grey in it, and I try to view it very flexible.