my experience with XDA - General Questions and Answers

I've never been any good at using the XDA website/app so i was wondering if I could get some help in what it takes to be an XDA Expert.
I've been using it for years, but I just can't get the knack of using it because any thread I participate in I just can't communicate properly. Am I a "noob" at this? Its really triggers anxiety for me
Kindly acknowledge my question. Thanks

... no reply.
I'm done with XDA. Uninstalling this useless app from my phone it looks good, but underneath the app it's just a headache for me. Thanks anyway.

What exactly are you seeking?

I was having a bad day. I realise I need to post in appropriate places I probably would find it easier to interact in a different forum than XDA , probably more relevant to my inadequacies , because XDA , from my years* of experience has been totally dead for me. I have only interacted with moderators about threads like this or to one guy who unlocked the lg G4 after donating him a bunch of money but now he just sees no sense or any worth in talking to me. Anyway,v whatever,

XDA is kind of for the hardcore Android user. A lot of the posts here are about rooting, ROMs and really getting into the heart of your phone. It sounds like you're looking for something a little lighter, where you people are just talking about their phones or certain apps and not how to recreate their phone. I would suggest that you try AndroidCentral.com. I'm not saying that their tech level is any less than XDA, people there talk about rooting and things like that but it is a less intimidating experience. It's also a little more laid back and casual. Both sites have very knowledgeable, friendly and helpful people but the atmospheres are very different and it sounds like that might be what you're looking for.

Related

Rooting for n00bs!

This is NOT, and I repeat NOT a guide for rooting. It is a warning. Helpful advice if you will. It is here to deter you from making your life as well as those here who help others a nightmare. We are here to help those who want to help themselves. As mentioned in another thread, this forum is here to HELP people. This advice is here to help as helping also includes prevention. The advice below is for the sole purpose of preventing those who don't know what they're doing from bricking their devices prematurely.
If you don't like my advice or my opinion; that is your given right. Remember the forum rules and keep it impersonal, clean and respectful.
I am here to help people and if that includes encouraging members to learn first before they do harm to their device then so be it. If I can prevent even one person from ruining their phone before they learn how to use it then I accomplished something.
Note: Whosdaman; please feel free to move this to whatever section you feel this better fits in. I took a shot putting it here.
Disclaimer/Advice/Humble Opinion:
My advice (without trying to hurt anyone's feelings too much) is DON'T ROOT. I would suggest you familiarize yourself with everything (Linux, ADB, XDA, Google) before diving in head first.
Despite popular belief, having root does NOT in fact make you cooler.
Way too many new users are trying to root because they think it's cool or heard it's cool. Well; it's not cool to be a n00b and attempt root. You need to learn your device first.
If you don't know how to perform a Nandroid backup, or restore a previous ROM backup, flash updates, install custom ROM's, boot into Safe mode, Mount R/W, run shell commands or Terminal Emulator etc, then you should NOT root. You should browse the forums here, read, read and re-read everything until you know it well. Google search related topics. Exhaust all available avenues, then ask questions. After you've executed all of these options you might consider rooting and starting to tinker with your device.
If you don't even know what some of the things are that were mentioned, then you should absolutely NOT root your phone. You will likely brick or screw up your phone and then be right back here asking for help in a new thread most definitely created by you out of haste or costing [insert phone manufacturer/carrier here] money by sending your phone back and asking for a replacement simply because you had no idea what you were doing. JMHO
#include <std_disclaimer.h>
/*
* Rooting voids your warranty.
*/
Again, this is not here to offend anyone's sensitivity or hurt your feelings. Many have argued that bricking and recovery is the way they learn. That's fine [for them]. I highly doubt those same people started running before walking, or walking before crawling. But the majority of people need to learn first. Preventing someone from ruining their device is MY best advice.
I didn't know android had a safe mode.
Sent from my HTC Glacier using XDA App
bubonik said:
I didn't know android had a safe mode.
Sent from my HTC Glacier using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1.) Power Off>remove battery>WAIT for at least two minutes.
2.) Power On Phone while Holding MENU key until you get to the lock screen>At the bottom left corner of the display in transparent text will be the words "Safe Mode"
When in safe mode, Android does not load any third-party apps, and you can uninstall the application that gave you trouble from Settings > Applications > Manage applications.
To exit Safe Mode:
1.) Power off phone again>remove battery>wait two minutes
2.) Do a normal power on ...
So after reading this I still couldn't figure out how to get this root stuff you were talking about. I don't know what this "search" or "google" is. But if this makes me cool then I'm all about it- maybe I could get a girlfriend finally.
Sent from my HTC Glacier using XDA App
WHY?
The advice, while a successful deterrent, is not very useful. If people are here on this website, chances are they are here to learn something new about how to improve or customize their phones. We were all noobs at one point in time an I know that I benfited greatly from all the guides and reference threads here. Why not post some links to some helpful threads and say "Read these BEFORE you try anything," not "Don't try it at all and if you want to do it, find your own way to." Just a thought.
t-mo123 said:
If people are here on this website, chances are they are here to learn something new about how to improve or customize their phones.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And that is exactly my advice. LEARN FIRST. Browse through the threads and see how many are beginners who jumped too soon and are now asking for help. It's ridiculous. If you don't like my advice move on and troll another thread. Many here agree with what I've suggested. Take it or leave it.
In my experience, the ones who have a problem with this are the ones who are guilty of it. People who want to be 'cool' and root without learning then clutter the forums begging for help.
Honestly I think you're making a sweeping generalization assuming that anyone who roots their phone without reading everything there is to read first is just trying to be "cool".
Granted, there are a lot of folks out there that could stand to take a lesson or two in common sense, but I don't think it does anyone any good to tell all the "n00bs" to essentially eff off until they've done more research than I think most people on this forum who've successfully rooted would normally do.
There are numerous disclaimers that tell people to stay away from rooting unless they either know what they're doing or are willing to take a risk, and there are numerous people who learn by doing rather than reading.
In fact I would venture a guess that, were people to subscribe to your suggestion, this forum and indeed the entire Android dev ecosphere would suffer greatly, because many devs learn by tweaking and fixing... usually something that they themselves broke!
I don't ask that you change your opinion. Simply that you ask yourself what you really hope to accomplish with this post. It would seem to me that the people you hope to deter would just be insulted and ignore it.
As a previous poster had mentioned, it would be more convincing if you provided resource links to help educate those you are trying to reach.
Also, before you sling that "troll" moniker my way as you did a previous poster, you might do well to remember that just as you have the right to post your opinion, others have the right to disagree.
Sent from my HTC Glacier using XDA App
well sir, maybe some of us noobs got tired of not being able to use any apps over wifi on our blackberry without data a blackberry plan and bought an android phone so we can have more freedom.
maybe some of us noobs are diving into rooting so we can use setpcu and squeeze more than the stock 2 hour heavy use we get from a stock MT4G
maybe some of us want to learn more about the system but we ask so many questions because we dont know where to get VISIONary plus since its no longer in the market place.
i dunno about other noobs but a thread with links to what to read to learn more is way more beneficial to me than this one telling me to stay out the circle of android trust.
perhaps you are the one who thinks being rooted is "cool"?(no disrespect meant)
some of us do really want to learn and we appreciate every help and every answer we get to our questions from you veterans.
so please have a little patience and/or noob tolerance. someday we'll learn and stop asking the same question that had been answered a doze times already
A simple Google search turned up 302,000 for Visionary. Maybe if you stopped and thought before you posted you might have better results.
Again, this thread wasn't meant to hurt anyone's sensitive feelings [as it seems it has]. It was meant to deter new members/rookies from diving into something before they learned it. Obviously with the new breed of youngsters these days that just isn't the case. Common sense seems to have taken a back door to rushed gratification. Intelligent strategy is how many of us learned, not jumping in and screwing things up.
By jumping in and messing things up, you not only make things harder on yourselves but waste our time helping with things that have been answered a thousand times and a simple search would have taught you that.
As with anything in life, you need to 'learn' before you do something. Cognitive retention is key to mastering anything.
Your logic of diving in without thought or regard for yourself or others that will end up helping you is almost insulting. You will find that many of the longtime users/devs/veterans here enjoy helping people who take precautions and want to help themselves. But almost none of them/us really care to help those who jump blindly.
JMHO. Take it however you like. And you don't need to take it from me; just try and get help in here when you do something dumb and see how much help you get from senior members.
CBConsultation said:
A simple Google search turned up 302,000 for Visionary. Maybe if you stopped and thought before you posted you might have better results.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know what you did there, but I just did a simple google search for Visionary and got "About 9,880,000 results (0.11 seconds)"
Maybe your google fu is weak or something..
On another note back on topic, I couldn't disagree more with your OP.. As a newb I think diving right in is the best thing to do to learn.. I Can read a wiki for hours about a phone, but that doesn't give you the same experience of 10 minutes hands on does..
My biggest suggestion to a newb to this **** is dont start with a high end device.. Buy a HTC Wizard or Excalibur off craigslist & play with & tweak them 1st.. Then maybe a g1 or something.. That way if you do **** up & brick your device your not toast..
IMHO there is no better way to learn something then to do it.. But also when you have problems, don't think your unique & that nobody has ever posted your question before, Search for it 1st & then only post asking for help if you cant find it..
bastage said:
.. But also when you have problems, don't think your unique & that nobody has ever posted your question before, Search for it 1st & then only post asking for help if you cant find it..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And search further then the first page.
Sent from my HTC Glacier using XDA App
I think I'll leave it in here, maybe even sticky it later
CB, while I can understand your frustration I believe your attitude could be seen as elitist.
I think that perhaps what we should be doing is trying to come up with a root cause solution that might work instead of telling people not to try something like rooting. As another poster implied, it's not that people shouldn't be rooting, but that they shouldn't be asking questions for which there are already answers.
This seems like the problem you're trying to address, not the problem of someone rooting their phone or not.
So let's put aside the discussion of how one learns and who has the right to root and focus on the issue of "inappropriate" posts.
Does that sound like a reasonable alternative?
Hopefully whatever comes out of this discussion could be used to improve the forum experience for everyone.
I should mention that I'm not really sure this thread should be in the dev section of the forum... Seems more like general discussion since the OP is more of an ideological opinion piece at this point.
Sent from my HTC Glacier using XDA App
OP, does your soapbox come with a salad? Someone likes to hear himself talk...sheesh.
Swyped on my rooted MyTouch4G
viper3ez said:
well sir, maybe some of us noobs got tired of not being able to use any apps over wifi on our blackberry without data a blackberry plan and bought an android phone so we can have more freedom.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As much as I HATE blackberries, I have to correct you. You do NOT need a data feature to use web over wifi on a Blackberry. How the hell would that make sense, seriously? But yes keep in mind, I am still not a BB fan lol, hate those pieces of crap.
Sent from my HTC Glacier using XDA App
yo
so im not cool?
teamsilence said:
so im not cool?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're still cool in my book.
teamsilence said:
so im not cool?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your the bee's knees! Lol
Sent from my HTC Glacier using XDA App
teamsilence said:
so im not cool?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your so cool your like an iced glacier.
Sent from my HTC Glacier using XDA App
CBConsultation said:
A simple Google search turned up 302,000 for Visionary.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good lord, does anyone here actually have the time to go through 302.000 pages? Maybe I am the only one who has kids and a wife, but I know I don't have time to take a freaking computer programing course to teach myself how to use freaking cmnd lines. The crap I have seen on different forums that walk people through different rooting procedures on different phones acts as though everyone know WTF they are doing and/or has the time to spend hours a day learning. Guess what? Not everyone does. I spend hours a day teaching people the basics of how to use their phones and I have to give directions my grandmother could follow, is it to much to ask for detailed instruction that someone who has a very basic understanding of how to use these phones could follow? I don't think so. If you "seniors" could realize that you aren't cooler because you know what you are doing, and did the responsible thing and shared your knowledge without *****ing, moaning, and complaining about n00bs, you could help more n00bs become 'seniors' themselves and have more people out there able to help others.

Why is this site so rude....

I can't stand to read this site these days. Everytime there's a post some self important ass has to jump and tell the person posting just how stupid they are for making the post. If you xda experts don't want to the rest if us here then lock it down. It would be no great loss. There's nothing here that can't be found in 100 other places.
For some reason this site seems to encourage rude moderators that love to trash people especially if someone failed to find existing threads using the terrible search tools provided. Maybe xda just can't carry the weight created by its success. One thing is sure and that is if it doesn't change a lot of people with go elsewhere....
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Tapatalk
Just take it with a grain of salt man...there are douches everywhere but I mean without the developers we wouldn't we able to accomplish much, if anything. And most of the other forums I've seen directly get their info or sources from XDA. Its ok, hug time?
Thanks for the hug... It's not about me I can hold my own and enjoy giving it back. What bothers me is when someone clearly struggling to post and is asking for hlep (And English may not even be their language) then one of these dicks trashes them. I just looked at one where a guy asked how to find a specific item, he got an answer that said check the xxxxx forum and we are not your slave so don't expect us to do it for you. Who talks like that and why aren't they stomped on for acting that way. He gave an answer then added the boot. I see that everywhere here.
The people who respond here do it for their own reasons. It's nice when people help and I have found some helpful threads. Still when I see stuff like the one above I start to think there are people here who get off on acting that way. Being a developer doesn't mean doing sick stuff is OK.
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Tapatalk
Yeah I agree but I mean some people are gonna be douches regardless of the question asked. I'm also inclined to think there are more decent people on XDA that like helping people as opposed to bashing them so even if the douche answers first, doesnt mean he represents XDA...
and this is why people lurk...
...or ... why i have lurked for so long
but now i just dont care...
so.... here goes nothing
There should be a Douche button, just like a Thanks button.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
Because ppl cant Read and have very poor direction following skills and it gets old quick.
rdbwpb said:
I can't stand to read this site these days. Everytime there's a post some self important ass has to jump and tell the person posting just how stupid they are for making the post. If you xda experts don't want to the rest if us here then lock it down. It would be no great loss. There's nothing here that can't be found in 100 other places.
For some reason this site seems to encourage rude moderators that love to trash people especially if someone failed to find existing threads using the terrible search tools provided. Maybe xda just can't carry the weight created by its success. One thing is sure and that is if it doesn't change a lot of people with go elsewhere....
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sent From Space Using My ICS Flavored Sensation
Cactoes Gel said:
There should be a Douche button, just like a Thanks button.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1
Sent from my HTC Inspire "4G" using Ice Cold Sandwich 3.0.0
While I don't agree with people being rude please understand that this is a developers site. Not a tech support site, not a rom flashing site, and not a cool place to be site. It was made by developers for developers. And sometimes people can get rude. That is what the report button is for.
I like this site, and the way I see it,
They are sick of repeat posts, it's like people aren't bothering even looking anymore for what they need, they just post... As I have made that mistake a few times... That said i my self use the Site for my personal use or for the work I do but I ALWAYS give credit where it counts and is a great site for this Canadian to learn the ways of the DROID...
Also i mean maybe some devs like to poke fun, maybe they are tired of people taking time away from thier great works... Who knows, I talk to, a few decent people on here and have learnt alot and intended on learning more when my desktop is back up and running...
Sent from the past on my Nexus S using the XDA... The cake is a lie... Answer is 42...
People can read and most do try looking before posting but even if they don't it doesn't give you a right treat them poorly.
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Tapatalk
i agree, xda really needs a douchee button. im also new here, but i been using the forums for a while, just rencently registered and i have gotten all the info i need, so basicly yes, the douches are somewhat right, but they should just say it a little more politely
I just saying that there is no excuse for treating posters badly. I've been a registered user for more than a year but I find myself coming here less and less because I can find as good or better info on other sites and most don't have the xda attitude.
I want to be clear that most people don't act this way and that plenty of nice helpful people respond here every day. The point I'm making is that there are a few that need to be cleaned up. I hadn't thought of the report button but in the future I will use it freely. Maybe that will get the attention of the powers that be.
It would be interesting to start a thread on the xda **** of the day. People could cut and paste insulting behavior into the thread including the name of the poster. Every day/week members could vote. I bet it would dry up fast....:thumbup:
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Tapatalk
Same Old Same Old
zelendel said:
While I don't agree with people being rude please understand that this is a developers site. Not a tech support site, not a rom flashing site, and not a cool place to be site. It was made by developers for developers. And sometimes people can get rude. That is what the report button is for.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Really, Really???
Makes me laugh when people chant that mantra of "this is a developers site. Not a tech support site, not a rom flashing site......". maybe when the site was made 5,6 years ago it was a developers site. But things grow and evolve as is in the human nature. XDA has evolved into more than just a Dev site, its a site for development, education and learning.
It amuses me when people try to alienate the devs from the users. Don't give excuses for rude or egotistical people, if someone is in doubt, use your knowledge to help him or shut up. afterall, the great devs of today all learnt from scratch. Nobody was born with code in their brain from the womb (except chuck norris ). Because the way this site is going its going to drive users away from its fold.
And when you succeed in alienating the noobs, and xda becomes a dev-only site, who will test the bugs in the developers' software? how will developed apps get publicity? I know some devs who've made alot of money from donations for their software; heck, this site's servers are supported by donations from users.
XDA is a leader in development and mobile collaboration and we've seen the amount of clout and influence XDA has, the mobile companies HTC,Samsung, motorola all hear the voice of XDA (as evidenced by htc's bootloader unlocking, htc dev, making motorola answer for locking bootloaders) but dont think that XDA will have such influence if all of the over 4 million users are gone and like 1000 developers ( if they are even that many) remain.
Also I'm not excusing some very stupid people who ask the wrong questions, and don't follow rules.for example, I only registered here last year but I've followed this site for 3 years. If I had a problem, I also come here to search and I always got my answer. I only had to register when I got the lenovo thinkpad, which didn't have any active development forum so I could post a question. So I guess I'm one of those who likes to search before posting.
The summary of everything I just said is help people who are truly in need of it, (not the silly ones) and XDA isn't a dev only site.
rdbwpb said:
People can read and most do try looking before posting but even if they don't it doesn't give you a right treat them poorly.
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well I disagree on this one point, if they don't take the time to try and look it up and find it on their own it does give you the right to be a little rude, because that's pretty rude of them, expecting you to take time out of your day to give them an answer when they don't take any of their own time to even try..but, of course, I'm not in favor of going crazy on them..just enough let them know that's unacceptable
I don't like rude people too, and I met quite a few here...
I do am agree thus, that newcomers should look VERY well into the proper thread and all over XDA site.
I like to help when I can and if I can, but I have seen more and more often people asking simple questions like:
"someone can show me some guide?" or " does an xperia thread exist?"
Well don't need help really for this question, is just enough to search..
I guess developers or user generally can get tired of this.
However I am agree that some users normally answer by jokes or in a rude way, although people like this could be everywhere..
Sometimes you have to be rude to let people know they should google first before they post a question
zelendel said:
While I don't agree with people being rude please understand that this is a developers site. Not a tech support site, not a rom flashing site, and not a cool place to be site. It was made by developers for developers. And sometimes people can get rude. That is what the report button is for.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes I agree with you
Sent from my HTC_A510c using XDA App
thewarhawk said:
Well I disagree on this one point, if they don't take the time to try and look it up and find it on their own it does give you the right to be a little rude, because that's pretty rude of them, expecting you to take time out of your day to give them an answer when they don't take any of their own time to even try..but, of course, I'm not in favor of going crazy on them..just enough let them know that's unacceptable
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think most users dont consider themselves entitled or expect any helpful posts in regards to their questions, I'm sure they're just hoping someone can point them into the right direction. I've searched and gathered everything I needed to know myself but its not like I ever expected another user to help me. I figure if users want to help other users, awesome, but don't give attitude when doing so.
Hasht4g said:
Sometimes you have to be rude to let people know they should google first before they post a question
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I understand but to a point, there's no need to curse at someone and be rude just because he asked a question even if its been asked before a 1000 times, if you don't like the question he asked then don't answer it, I see that a lot on here, noob ask a question then gets an answer "why do you ask so many questions?" I thought to myself why does it matter to you its a q&a forum, just skip over the post or answer the question with some respect without rude remarks
Sent from my HTC_A510c using XDA App

My first smartphone, the HTC ONE X (at&t)

In an attempt to not step on the lawn, I am going to try and make my first post useful to other noobs, regardless of my own ability level.
I see that others have made a "my first phone" thread in other sections using search, and I did not notice one in this forum yet. I don't know if this post will make it past muster or not, or if it will be the same as other kinds of posts, but the way I see it, it would be rad if I came to xda/htc/attonex and found a post identical to this one, that had started a couple months ago. Alas, time travel isn't available.
My problem is that I am literally experiencing this phone as my first smartphone ever, and I am too ignorant to even know what a good question is. So I find myself with a quandary. On the one hand, I am tech savvy enough to know that my phone is capable of more than at&t/htc wants to let on, and I know that there is this sea of people that know a lot about this stuff. On the other hand, I don't even know what phones can really do, why I would want it to do those things, or how to go about learning the smart and safe way to do those things without fear of "bricking" my new toy.
It's really daunting to look at this forum for a noob. I need some good info on android as well as good info on my phone, and just browsing the forum for the last few days has led me to more questions and more complex questions before I have the basics, and I feel like that's going to get me in trouble here.
If people could do the following in response to this post: point me in the right direction for informative posts/websites/forums/etc on android, specifically basic OS functionality & rooting basics for people who do not understand/use linux; point me to informative beginner oriented (not just reviews or w/e, but basics) posts/websites/forums/etc on the at&t1x, specifically anything that is not on the htc site or the at&t site, which is basically my understanding level right now; if i ask stupid questions about your thought-out posts in here and i totally miss your point, please be patient with me; point me to apps and app stores, I have only used the play store - I know there is more out there, but freaked out about viruses and stuff.
I know I'm asking for a lot of hand-holding, but I promise that after the movie we can make out if you want. I'm not stupid, but I am certainly ignorant about androids. HALP.
YouTube is you friend, there are some great walkthroughs on there. Along with read,read,read. Welcome to XDA, ENJOY your time here, you are off to a very advanced start, great phone choice along with grea first post...the force is strong with this one:thumbup:
Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2
@MichaelHaley
You wouldn't happen to be from Buffalo New York would you?
Sent from my Rooted Hox
What I did when I started was just look at posts and any word or anything at all that I didn't understand i just Googled it. I learned alot like that.
Sent from my HTC One X using XDA
http://droidlessons.com/
E.Cadro said:
@MichaelHaley
You wouldn't happen to be from Buffalo New York would you?
Sent from my Rooted Hox
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nope. California.
bradleyG said:
What I did when I started was just look at posts and any word or anything at all that I didn't understand i just Googled it. I learned alot like that.
Sent from my HTC One X using XDA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't have a problem with understanding words, but thanks.
filthyfnj24 said:
droidlessons - link which i can not post yet
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This is the kind of stuff I'm looking for, I figure people here would know which ones like this are quality vs. time wasters. This level and slightly above is about where I'm at. Thanks a lot.
MichaelHaley said:
Nope. California.
I don't have a problem with understanding words, but thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't think he meant basic words. But stuff like adb shell. Asop. Root. S off. S on. Just to name a few. If you don't know this basic words, your time here will be a pain.
Sent from my HTC One XL using XDA
tae_254 said:
I don't think he meant basic words. But stuff like adb shell. Asop. Root. S off. S on. Just to name a few. If you don't know this basic words, your time here will be a pain.
Sent from my HTC One XL using XDA
Click to expand...
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Lists of useful words and terms are awesome! Thanks! Please add!
MichaelHaley said:
Lists of useful words and terms are awesome! Thanks! Please add!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're still missing bradleyG's original point. If there are esoteric terms you don't understand, just Google them. This will help you out:
http://bit.ly/KSfCM7
Boom. That was easy.
Seriously, Google is your friend, as is the XDA search. You're not going to think of a question that hasn't already been answered at length on XDA. Maybe not for the One X, specifically, since the device is so new. But for general Android stuff, just doing a general search using the XDA function, of Googling will probably get you an answer within a few minutes. For that matter, just spend some time browsing through the General, and Q&A forums, and reading the threads that look of interest to you. In no time at all, you'll have some decent working knowledge. The learning curve may look intimidating from where you are. But don't worry, its really not that bad. Seriously, just a few hours of reading on XDA will probably put above the knowledge level of the majority of smartphone owners.
If you are truly stumped after searching and reading on your own, post a question in Q&A. But do your due diligence first. Simple reason for this is that the forum would become useless if it was clogged up by every single question that beginners think up.
And welcome to the club. The One X is a helluva first smartphone.
redpoint73 said:
You're still missing bradleyG's original point. If there are esoteric terms you don't understand, just Google them. This will help you out:
http://bit.ly/KSfCM7
Boom. That was easy.
Seriously, Google is your friend, as is the XDA search. You're not going to think of a question that hasn't already been answered at length on XDA. Maybe not for the One X, specifically, since the device is so new. But for general Android stuff, just doing a general search using the XDA function, of Googling will probably get you an answer within a few minutes. For that matter, just spend some time browsing through the General, and Q&A forums, and reading the threads that look of interest to you. In no time at all, you'll have some decent working knowledge. The learning curve may look intimidating from where you are. But don't worry, its really not that bad. Seriously, just a few hours of reading on XDA will probably put above the knowledge level of the majority of smartphone owners.
If you are truly stumped after searching and reading on your own, post a question in Q&A. But do your due diligence first. Simple reason for this is that the forum would become useless if it was clogged up by every single question that beginners think up.
And welcome to the club. The One X is a helluva first smartphone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ai ai ai. Thanks for the help dude, but my whole point is that I don't even know enough to know what kinds of questions I should be having. Once I get started, I can use forum searches and google well, so for specific questions I will need very little help. I'm just not coming up with any questions.
Picture me sitting there, staring at the phone, hoping it will do something, looking puzzled when it doesn't, and then start posting links.
I see what you're saying. What you are asking for is really too broad a topic to write a guide or anything like that. As a start, just try looking through the threads in the various forums. Development subforum has mods (modifications) and stuff along those lines. The Themes and Apps subforum will give you some ideas on some cool apps and widgets. You'll quickly get a good idea of what possibilities are out there. And trust me, plenty of specific questions will pop up in your mind soon enough.
Since you are brand new to the smartphone world, apps is a good place to start. Just Google around for best Android apps and see what interests you. Even the Play Store has some issues with malware and other malicious software. But these are usually less popular apps, made by shady software developers. If you read up on best apps at reputable websites like PCMag, Gizmodi, CNET, you shouldn't go wrong. The more popular, tried and true apps tend to be very safe. Lots of the best functionality of smartphones is through apps, so this is a good place to start.
My advice would be to use the device for a while, and see what it can do running stock before you think about rooting and other mods. Unless you are looking at specific mods (removing bloatware or adding back some of the things that AT&T removed like FM radio and flashlight) you probably shouldn't be considering root just yet.
Android Central is a good website with lots of information that you should find interesting if this is your first android device. They have put together a really good android dictionary which is found here: http://www.androidcentral.com/dictionary
They also run an android a to z series on their blog which has a ton of info and goes a little more in depth than just giving definitions.
Enjoy your phone, for a first smart phone you picked a serious winner! There are a few quarks (which are all outlined pretty well in this forum) but for the most part this phone is great.
bradleyG said:
What I did when I started was just look at posts and any word or anything at all that I didn't understand i just Googled it. I learned alot like that.
Sent from my HTC One X using XDA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cant beat this advice. Read everything, assume your questions has already been asked. The more you read, the more questions you'll have and then the more reading you'll want to do to find the answers. This website is really a PHENOMENAL resource, but I find myself constantly googling terms/comments/procedures that I dont understand. I'm quite technologically inclined but relatively new to the android world and have only been using XDA for a couple months. However, I find myself mostly only posting on very topical threads. For the hardcore technical research and development, I prefer to sit back and just read about the amazing work that the developers are doing. Welcome!
I'll second what everyone else said. I was where you were a few months ago. Though I came from four years on iOS, I was an Android noob. I've been reading and browsing xda and other sites just trying to get my bearings. It's very intimidating at first, but you've just got to start somewhere. Start reading, trying to get the general gist of things before worrying about the exact terminology. Bit by bit things will start sounding familiar, and you'll have some context to start framing your searches. Really, they're not kidding about 99.99% of noob questions being already answered somewhere; you've just got to know the right way to ask.
Just be patient and don't give up. Three weeks into my One X ownership, I'm rooted and gradually getting some confidence in modding my phone. (I was an experienced iOS jailbreaker, but life is different over here in a lot of ways.)
redpoint73 said:
You're still missing bradleyG's original point. If there are esoteric terms you don't understand, just Google them. This will help you out:
http://bit.ly/KSfCM7
Boom. That was easy.
Seriously, Google is your friend, as is the XDA search. You're not going to think of a question that hasn't already been answered at length on XDA. Maybe not for the One X, specifically, since the device is so new. But for general Android stuff, just doing a general search using the XDA function, of Googling will probably get you an answer within a few minutes. For that matter, just spend some time browsing through the General, and Q&A forums, and reading the threads that look of interest to you. In no time at all, you'll have some decent working knowledge. The learning curve may look intimidating from where you are. But don't worry, its really not that bad. Seriously, just a few hours of reading on XDA will probably put above the knowledge level of the majority of smartphone owners.
If you are truly stumped after searching and reading on your own, post a question in Q&A. But do your due diligence first. Simple reason for this is that the forum would become useless if it was clogged up by every single question that beginners think up.
And welcome to the club. The One X is a helluva first smartphone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is exactly what I meant. There is no all powerful guide that will teach you everything you need to know. It takes time to learn all these things and only diligence will prove to give you what you need. I remember when I first got my g1 I didn't know anything. I started looking for mods/hacks I could do to it and stumbled upon xda. Then I found out about rooting so I looked up stuff about rooting like what are the benefits of it, the risks, and tutorials. Then one thing leads to another rooting leads to ROMs and kernels, kernels lead to overclocking, etc. You'll soon be an expert and have advice to give other people. The more you read, the better. But you will never get to a point where there is nothing new to be learned, you will eventually make a habit of looking up different things after you do it for so long. Just stick with it and you will get the hang of it.
Sent from my HTC One X using XDA
redpoint73 said:
I see what you're saying. What you are asking for is really too broad a topic to write a guide or anything like that. As a start, just try looking through the threads in the various forums. Development subforum has mods (modifications) and stuff along those lines. The Themes and Apps subforum will give you some ideas on some cool apps and widgets. You'll quickly get a good idea of what possibilities are out there. And trust me, plenty of specific questions will pop up in your mind soon enough.
Since you are brand new to the smartphone world, apps is a good place to start. Just Google around for best Android apps and see what interests you. Even the Play Store has some issues with malware and other malicious software. But these are usually less popular apps, made by shady software developers. If you read up on best apps at reputable websites like PCMag, Gizmodi, CNET, you shouldn't go wrong. The more popular, tried and true apps tend to be very safe. Lots of the best functionality of smartphones is through apps, so this is a good place to start.
My advice would be to use the device for a while, and see what it can do running stock before you think about rooting and other mods. Unless you are looking at specific mods (removing bloatware or adding back some of the things that AT&T removed like FM radio and flashlight) you probably shouldn't be considering root just yet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes thank you for that, I know that apps are about my speed right now but my sights are set UP!! Hehe. I really was trying to figure out about the flashlight and FM radio already, but couldn't find a setting in the phone. Is that a root thing? I also hate bloat ware, even if i can disable it, i know MOG Radio & AT&T IdiotWare is there, just taking up space, and it bugs the hell out of me! I also want to do things like check out vanilla android so I can know what sense is, but i understand that requires a bootloader? Which I am reading about.. but that seems like some pretty advanced stuff.. I'll get there hopefully.
bmolloy said:
Android Central is a good website with lots of information that you should find interesting if this is your first android device. They have put together a really good android dictionary which is found here: http://www.androidcentral.com/dictionary
They also run an android a to z series on their blog which has a ton of info and goes a little more in depth than just giving definitions.
Enjoy your phone, for a first smart phone you picked a serious winner! There are a few quarks (which are all outlined pretty well in this forum) but for the most part this phone is great.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes thank you very much, this is exactly the kind of specific stuff I'm looking for, not that general advice isn't great too!
bradleyG said:
This is exactly what I meant. There is no all powerful guide that will teach you everything you need to know. It takes time to learn all these things and only diligence will prove to give you what you need. I remember when I first got my g1 I didn't know anything. I started looking for mods/hacks I could do to it and stumbled upon xda. Then I found out about rooting so I looked up stuff about rooting like what are the benefits of it, the risks, and tutorials. Then one thing leads to another rooting leads to ROMs and kernels, kernels lead to overclocking, etc. You'll soon be an expert and have advice to give other people. The more you read, the better. But you will never get to a point where there is nothing new to be learned, you will eventually make a habit of looking up different things after you do it for so long. Just stick with it and you will get the hang of it.
Sent from my HTC One X using XDA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think I may have come off more adversarial to you than I meant to.. I wasn't trying to minimize what you said.. Of course research is essential, and I plan to not bug you guys with stupid questions as much as possible.. I'm just trying to build a repository of reference for complete noobtards like me here in this thread so it's all in one place. When I have specific questions about terms and things I will of course employ due diligence before I bring that stuff to the community, but like I said, I'm not even there yet..
OK so I have a question that I tried to search for and came up with nil. Every so often, when I run this or that program, or sometimes on start up, some of my icons do one of two things: 1.) they lose the text under the icon, 2.) they lose the text under the icon and the icon turns into the generic android icon.
Wutdo?
MichaelHaley said:
OK so I have a question that I tried to search for and came up with nil. Every so often, when I run this or that program, or sometimes on start up, some of my icons do one of two things: 1.) they lose the text under the icon, 2.) they lose the text under the icon and the icon turns into the generic android icon.
Wutdo?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Restart/ force close the launcher. Or get a new launcher like go or nova.
Cryosx said:
Restart/ force close the launcher. Or get a new launcher like go or nova.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I feel like a complete tard, but after searching and finding nothing, I can't figure out how to do what you're saying.
Cryosx said:
Restart/ force close the launcher. Or get a new launcher like go or nova.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is that just like the proper way to say restart the phone?

[OFF TOPIC QUESTION] Is Arrogance so important to XDA community

I understand that here, on XDA, you get nice and civilized answers if your thanks-meter is high. My question is: Is the XDA strategy built to make users leave XDA for other communities? Or is it just that the arrogance is directly proportional with the thanks-meter?
Ruwin said:
I understand that here, on XDA, you get nice and civilized answers if your thanks-meter is high. My question is: Is the XDA strategy built to make users leave XDA for other communities? Or is it just that the arrogance is directly proportional with the thanks-meter?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I understand that here, on XDA, you get nice and civilized answers if your thanks-meter is high.
Not really true.
Is the XDA strategy built to make users leave XDA for other communities?
There is no XDA strategy. It's just a place for people to tinker with their phones.
Or is it just that the arrogance is directly proportional with the thanks-meter?
No it is not directly proportional to the thanks meter.
There are a lot of grumpy people around though.
I think the best thing you can do is to report arrogance and hope the user gets some sort of warning. I have also witnessed some comments that were unnecessary and that could really put new users off asking questions here. That is a real shame imo.
dc211 said:
There are a lot of grumpy people around though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dmwitz said:
I have also witnessed some comments that were unnecessary and that could really put new users off asking questions here.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1 to these, some people who are new just don't understand how the forum layouts and whatnot work, but rather than being more polite about it, the more experienced ones go off at the new people. Pretty hard for the new people to get help that way.
Tapatalked from my HTC One S running CM10
I only really see "arrogance" displayed in two fashions:
1. The occasional Dev war drama. This really only happens rarely and has settled down quite a bit since some ROM devs have moved on to other devices.
2. Noob squashing. The fact is, Android is a victim of it's own success. In the G1 days, XDA was a true home for hackers to exchange information. Now that Android has such a large worldwide marketshare, more and more folks are coming here to enhance their devices and free them from their cell provider's greed and bad decisions, regardless of their technical level. I'd bet the CM10 thread could be condensed into a one page FAQ which would eliminate hundreds of pages of repeat questions, but in reality, the types of people that frustrate us so much wouldn't even take the time to read that. The only solution here is help or ignore...flaming just triples the number of pages dedicated to a noob mistake.
You get nasty responses when you refuse to read and the question has been asked soo many times.. or you post a question in the general section... or break any rules
I've had people not read the downgrade thread and pm asking what to do.. when if you read it, you realize its nearly noob proof
Sent from my HTC One X-
I think that one of the problems is that the pros try to distance themselves from the noobs. The problem with that is that the noobs will only feel more ignored and try harder to get their voice heard. It's a problem almost all forums have, but it seems more serious here on xda than anywhere else I've been. I think much of the talent here gets wasted. Answers get hidden away deep in overly long topics and poor communication skills make things worse.
I get the feeling that many of the threads here would have worked better in wiki-form, where each issue has its own page, instead of each topic.
But these are just a noob's impression after a few days here.
el_smurfo said:
The only solution here is help or ignore...flaming just triples the number of pages dedicated to a noob mistake.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
^^^ So much this. ^^^
@OP: I don't think what you're seeing is arrogance. More likely frustration. <S>About those damn n00bs who keep pissing all over 'our' forums.</S> But flinging poop at them doesn't result in neater cleaner tidier forums.. The catch22 here is that there is no real way to tell people (noobs and grumps alike) to stop polluting the forums without engaging in forum pollution yourself.
Also, it is not related to the thanks meter. If anything, the 'thanks' feature is meant to keep the forums cleaner, by eliminating "Wow thanks!"-posts.
(Maybe we need buttons for "Wrong section!" and "Use the search!" too. Actually, we do have a button for "Wrong section!", it's labeled "/!\ Report".)
-Jobo
As was previously was stated it frustration over most issues.
If people took a few seconds to try and search or post in correct sections things would be a tiny bit easier. Though since its the internet conflicts or bad attitudes will never subside
Sent from my HTC VLE_U using xda app-developers app
JN3141 said:
+1 to these, some people who are new just don't understand how the forum layouts and whatnot work, but rather than being more polite about it, the more experienced ones go off at the new people. Pretty hard for the new people to get help that way.
Tapatalked from my HTC One S running CM10
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No reason to be polite, when the answer or rules are stickied or found on the first page. For instance, development forum is only for development, and there's a sticky emphasizing that. Try they post questions there anyway.
So while it's understandable they don't know the layout yet, they can read. If they ask a question, they'll obviously be reading the post in case is has their answer. So they can just as easily read the stickies.
Not to mention, it's always good to take a moment and read stickies or the first page, before asking questions.
Sent from my HTC One S using xda app-developers app
No matter how wrong they are, you still don't need to get rude like I've seen happen. Yes, there are a lot of frustrating situations, but that still doesn't constitute the flaming. If you were new, maybe you might make a mistake like that, and wouldn't want to have people flaming you, it'd just get more confusing for you.
Tapatalked from my HTC One S running CM10
JN3141 said:
No matter how wrong they are, you still don't need to get rude like I've seen happen.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exactly. There is no excuse, ever. You either answer and help, or ignore, or report.
Making an unhelpful off-topic post to verbally smack someone in the face is a waaaay worse offense than posting in the wrong section or asking something that's already been asked and answered in the post right above it. It also has much more negative impact on the forums than some stray posts.
I see it as arrogance and frustration. There are many of us that are unseasoned in the knowledge of phones. When we have knowledge in a particular field and become wise, we sometimes become impatient with others for what is simple to us. Very few people knew years ago what they know now. Life is about development, meant to cultivate and refine, and it happens in stages or seasons. To the well-seasoned people, (pros) please try to understand our ignorance or unfamiliarity. When a noobie asks something, try to understand you didnt always know what you know. Show some humility, you can better help us by understanding we are students to the knowledge you have. When you teach, we can learn, and go away more intelligent in that field, then we can help others on a lower level. . Example: The Pros have level 10, some noobies may have level 5. But that level 5 noobie can help a level 3 noobie, easing the burden on the level 10 pro.
On the other hand, many noobies may start asking questions and expect the pro to do allllllll their work, NO GOOD. There is a friend of us all, his name is Google, he has helped me many times. I dont expect for the pros to do all of the work for me, as none of us should. We as noobies do need to spend more time reading and researching, if we fail to understand, then ask the question. Sometimes we all overlook things and it may take a noobie to make a pro recall that thing that was overlooked. As the commercial says, "you can learn alot from a dummy' (noobie). I even see some pros ride the coat tails of other pros and more or less follow their leads. If the first pro is hard on a noobie the second pro adds his two cents. Thats not necessary.
Let us both, pro and noobie, do our part to develop and keep good karma here at XDA. I do like XDA very much and recognize and respect the abundance of talent which is here. It is fascinating for us to learn and share what we know with others and to see we have helped someone. Im interested in learning and if possible over time to share what I learn with others in a humble manner. So if the community will have me, I plan on being here.
One other productive point of dialogue. I have noticed that recently when you create a new thread XDA automatically searches your subject line and shows you threads with similar subject lines. I think that is helpful.
But it all goes to show that maybe the search functions could be reviewed a bit more with newer members input.
I really like XDA btw, but just thinking about ways to make it better. It may be that those kinds of auto search functions should appear when you are posting in a thread, and not just creating a new one.
There may also be ways to make the search functions more intuitive. Sometimes, for example when you search threads (and not just posts) the default screeen sends back a bunch of threads and it becomes hard to judge which thread may actually contain the most relevant info you are looking for (since the subject line may not be helpful). There may be other info the search could show you (ie how many times the word comes up in that particular thread, etc).
I am sure XDA is always looking at ways to make things better. But it would be interesting to hear what new folks have to say and the challanges they face when searching for information.
AKToronto said:
I have noticed that recently when you create a new thread XDA automatically searches your subject line and shows you threads with similar subject lines. I think that is helpful.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree with you AK, It is very helpful and a nice feature. It reduces the amount of clutter. I went looking to start a new thread on the subject titled "Arrogance vs Humility", and boom, the search suggestions showed me a few threads on the subject. It does become time consuming when cleaning up the forums. Most times when we want to know something we want it on the spot and dont take the time to look first. More so than not, the question has already been answered.
Another issue is the xda app does not have an option to filter the search results. It's pretty well useless. Main reason I switched to tapatalk.
One S | Xparent Blue Tapatalk 2 | Viper 1.2.1 | Bricked Beastmode
There's also not a lot of stickies in the Q & A section... I think we might want to start a project with moderators to propose some stickies and have folks volunteer to create and update the original posts in such stickies.
For example an RUU FAQ, and a Wifi faq, perhaps another on different hboot versions what that even means, one on custom recoveries, kernels, etc. I posted what I thought was a more comprehensive review of sd card issues people have had and fixes and asked it be moved to q & a (since the one stickied there is pretty basic and hasn't been updated). My explanation is still getting buried in the general section for now http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=36372149#post36372149... It's not a big deal though.
But I do find that really good OPs (ie original posts) can do a world of good for someone who is new. Stickies and other OPs should be updated frequently especially as people start explaining their issues.
Another good example of a post that should be stickied in Q&A but is lingering in General is http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2076086
Sent from my HTC One S using xda premium
Dmwitz said:
I think the best thing you can do is to report arrogance and hope the user gets some sort of warning. I have also witnessed some comments that were unnecessary and that could really put new users off asking questions here. That is a real shame imo.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
AGREE completely, some people just believe that just because they've been here for what seems forever and (believe) they have put in their time that they can actually treat people like they're complete idiots and that is just WRONG! I have been around for awhile and never that I can remember have ever treated members like this plus each individual may have better understandings of many other devices or aspects of several other types of electronics compared to many, than again some just are not too familiar with this or that type of device possibly because there are as we can agree slight differences in each. Why can we not just treat everyone as people of a large and (sometimes) great community also, just explain things like the way you wanted them explained to you when you first arrived or switched devices and I just received the BEST experience in my thread for the past week from 'Darknites' and another member whom I'm having issues with writing his username lol but he knows who he is. I try to learn from what has been taught to me through trial and error and lots of it but members like above stick in and help even though I know they were getting irritated lol, when I can I help those with similar issues or with issues I possibly know the answer to. PLEASE just help, no need for rude degrading comments to anyone no matter how much they may not be catching on also you can type many things in 'Google' or even in this forum's search but may not get exactly what your looking for especially like me when this is your daily driver device and can't afford or are not into testing many different devices.
Thanks.
TheCrow1372 said:
AGREE completely, some people just believe that just because they've been here for what seems forever and (believe) they have put in their time that they can actually treat people like they're complete idiots and that is just WRONG! I have been around for awhile and never that I can remember have ever treated members like this plus each individual may have better understandings of many other devices or aspects of several other types of electronics compared to many, than again some just are not too familiar with this or that type of device possibly because there are as we can agree slight differences in each. Why can we not just treat everyone as people of a large and (sometimes) great community also, just explain things like the way you wanted them explained to you when you first arrived or switched devices and I just received the BEST experience in my thread for the past week from 'Darknites' and another member whom I'm having issues with writing his username lol but he knows who he is. I try to learn from what has been taught to me through trial and error and lots of it but members like above stick in and help even though I know they were getting irritated lol, when I can I help those with similar issues or with issues I possibly know the answer to. PLEASE just help, no need for rude degrading comments to anyone no matter how much they may not be catching on also you can type many things in 'Google' or even in this forum's search but may not get exactly what your looking for especially like me when this is your daily driver device and can't afford or are not into testing many different devices.
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
:laugh:

My observations being a noob in the Android world

Coming from being an iPhone fanboy, I was well aware of the snooty attitudes that are rampant over there. Now that I have a taste of the Android side, I have learned a few things, some the hard way, and one thing I've noticed is how the attitudes are much the same. I have met some cool people with some great ideas and skills, and there are even a few that will answer questions. I get that some get annoyed at the asking of the same questions over and over. However, as a Dev, you should be expecting this. As Android takes more and more market share, new people are coming into this (like me) and trying to learn as much as we can. Some want simple answers, some want more complicated ones. I did a lot of the research myself, watching videos, Google searches, etc. But some people don't know how to, or just aren't computer literate.
XDA is a GREAT resource for information. But like other sites, sometimes you have to word your searches just right or you get nothing close to what you are trying to find out. Not the site's fault, it's just the way search engines are. So a hoard of people head into the threads, asking questions, and mostly getting good answers, But, as I have trolled through, I notice a lot of attitudes coming from devs, or friends of devs as they attack people because they didn't have 4 hours to troll though 500 pages in a thread, reading each and every post. Hoping their question was asked and answered before. If that makes you angry, maybe you should just make your ROMs and share them with a few friends and call it a day. From what I can see, most of the ROMs are pretty much the same in a lot of respects. I know the difference between TW ROMs and AOSP ROMs. I did the homework. I learned the hard way by soft bricking my phone, and I researched and got myself out of that jam thanks to the videos and postings of some nice people. There are a lot of people that don't have the PC skills or the time to do that. And even more that have no idea about message boards and how they work. BTW, the term "flaming" someone is as irritating to me as those people that ask the same questions over and over are to you. This is almost 2013. Terms like that are the exact reason I hate having to use message boards. Not everyone is as knowledgeable as you are. It doesn't mean they are dumb, they just don't want to learn, or they don't have the time.
I guess I'm trying to say, if you are going to put yourself out there by developing a ROM for free, and then complain because someone asks you a question or bugs you because you haven't updated it, maybe you should just all start charging for the ROMs. I will go back to stock myself, but I'm sure there are a few that will pay to have a few extras a little ahead of time. Then your base will shrink, allowing you to breathe easier knowing you are getting paid for your time. Maybe then, you will have to be a little nicer, more customer friendly. If you don't think you are getting the recognition you deserve, then don't do it. I know many would miss the customization, but they would quickly forget about it and find something else to do. And by the way, I have never had an issue like this. I'm strictly speaking from an observers point of view. Matter of fact, I may start doing some reviews, that will include not only the ROM itself, but the developers attitude when it comes to helping people through their issues. I think people should have the right to know if they are going to get help or not when choosing a ROM or other custom feature.
In closing, a lot of questions could be answered if some threads were created and "stickied" that explain the basic functions and directions dealing with flashing ROMs. It seems a lot of the "bugs" people experience are actually explainable because they had no clue what a clean flash vs dirty flashing was. Or that if you had Nova on one ROM, then flashed another ROM and Nova auto installed along with your other apps, that you would have to uninstall Nova to avoid problems. Or that CM kernels are not compatible with TW kernels and if the new ROM you are flashing doesn't install a new kernel, your new ROM may not be compatible with the one left behind form the old. Stuff like that. Sorry for the long post. Again, I have had no problems with anyone on here, dev or not, I just have seen a lot of this happening. And a lot of the attitudes are from dumb little things. You wanted to make ROMs, we all didn't force you to. And if you stop, others will take your place. I have seen that recently too, as soon as the new Nexus hit, a ton of devs left the SGS3 in the dust. But a few new guys showed up and have done a great job with their stuff. Congrats to them, I have found a good stable ROM because of this, and have received great support from this guy. He also regularly updates and interacts with the people taking the time to possibly brick their device to load his ROM. I hope more of those people show up in the future. Those are the people I will keep following and being patient with.
Most people usually help out, some don't. I just have a problem with developers thinking their **** don't stink as you'll learn if you venture out of this forum.
This thread is kinda out of line. Devs deliver us ROMs for free, who's to say what's expected and what's not? The only thing XDA requires devs to do is make their process or code open source, that's it. Devs aren't customer service reps, nor do they have to answer questions and play nice. They are doing us a favor by releasing the latest and the greatest bottom line. If your going to run a ROM, you should read the entire thread because there may be things you have to do, and if it weren't for people asking the same question over and over, threads would be half as long. If you dont have the time or the patience to do the research, you shouldn't be modding your device to begin with.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2
Elite49 said:
Most people usually help out, some don't. I just have a problem with developers thinking their **** don't stink as you'll learn if you venture out of this forum.
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Yes, that does seem to be an issue. I notice too that the Original Android Devs are a little more snooty than the TW devs. Just my observation.
Do you honestly blame them? If they are going to spend hours and hours of their time coding, learning, and releasing ROMs for you, for free, and on top of it have you spend 10 mins maybe searching for an answer and then bothering them? I honestly don't blame them.
I've spent hours breaking things just to figure out how they work. Flashing things over and over and over again.
I wouldn't want to do that for hours on end, to have someone spend 10 mins, give up, and cry to me for help, then get mad when I didn't hand them the answer.
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Shibby87 said:
This thread is kinda out of line. Devs deliver us ROMs for free, who's to say what's expected and what's not? The only thing XDA requires devs to do is make their process or code open source, that's it. Devs aren't customer service reps, nor do they have to answer questions and play nice. They are doing us a favor by releasing the latest and the greatest bottom line. If your going to run a ROM, you should read the entire thread because there may be things you have to do, and if it weren't for people asking the same question over and over, threads would be half as long. If you dont have the time or the patience to do the research, you shouldn't be modding your device to begin with.
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You're right, they do deliver them for free. But people are trusting them and risking bricking a very expensive device to try their ROM and push their ROMs on other people. They willingly put themselves out there. We all could buy and use phones without customizing them. I'm just saying they act a little too fancy sometimes. Not all of them. Just a few.
Why is this out of line? I posted this in the general section. If I would have posted it anywhere else you would have said it should be in the General forum. See, you made one of my points for me. And last time I checked, I can say whatever I want. If the forum wants to cut it, fine. I'll deal with it on my outlet. No big deal.
Not going to lie, I think Android fanboys are worse than Apple fanboys from what I've seen. I was on a YouTube channel where a woman was talking about how she got an iPhone after selling her Galaxy Nexus and the comments were, "Go kill yourself iwhore", "Traitor sheep", "iSlut", Dumb bimbo etc. The most I see on Mac rumors are "poorphone" or no apps, or cheap looking. Whereas here, if you say iPhone you'll have a ton of people start calling you a sheep. I don't know, I think its incredible how ignorant some people are. Some people just like other things.
Galaxy SIII/Soon to be Note 2 owner once it comes in ftw.
Oh as an edit. That Instagram thing was awful a few months back when Android got instagram. iOS users were saying, "Oh now we get to see what poor people do" Terrible. Simply terrible.
nosympathy said:
Do you honestly blame them? If they are going to spend hours and hours of their time coding, learning, and releasing ROMs for you, for free, and on top of it have you spend 10 mins maybe searching for an answer and then bothering them? I honestly don't blame them.
I've spent hours breaking things just to figure out how they work. Flashing things over and over and over again.
I wouldn't want to do that for hours on end, to have someone spend 10 mins, give up, and cry to me for help, then get mad when I didn't hand them the answer.
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I doubt people are giving up in 10 minutes and running for the forums. Most people don't want to risk any of this to possibly ruin their expensive phones. The point is, they put themselves out there and make themselves available on the forums. If they don't want to deal with noobs (which every one of you was at one time or another) then throw up a ROM on some site and leave it. I'm not blaming anyone for anything. I figured out a lot on my own too. I have asked very few questions of anyone. But there are a lot of people that don't have the time or knowledge to find all this out on their own. If they are being asked the same question over and over, maybe put those answers in the OP to begin with. I have seen quite a few ROMs posted with very little info in the OPs. They aer banking on everyone knowing what they are doing right off the bat.
And lets really clear some things up. Some of these "Devs" aren't really developing anything. They have the time and/or patience and utilize the kitchen to strip down a stock rom. They throw in some mods that real devs made and slap their name on it. Then ask for donations like they just did something incredible. I've tried just about every modified stock rom on xda and there was really no difference. And God forbid someone has anything negative to say about a rom.
And in regards to the aosp devs, if they dont want to be asked questions or don't want their work criticized they shouldn't be making roms for the public. This forum is filled with smart asses that think everyone should know what they know. Everyone at one point had to ask someone else for help because how else do you learn.
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RCITNet said:
And lets really clear some things up. Some of these "Devs" aren't really developing anything. They have the time and/or patience and utilize the kitchen to strip down a stock rom. They throw in some mods that real devs made and slap their name on it. Then ask for donations like they just did something incredible. I've tried just about every modified stock rom on xda and there was really no difference. And God forbid someone has anything negative to say about a rom.
And in regards to the aosp devs, if they dont want to be asked questions or don't want their work criticized they shouldn't be making roms for the public. This forum is filled with smart asses that think everyone should know what they know. Everyone at one point had to ask someone else for help because how else do you learn.
Sent from my Galaxy S III
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This. This is the cancer invading xda lately. Ungrateful ****s...
my tapatalk signature sucks more than yours.
RCITNet said:
And lets really clear some things up. Some of these "Devs" aren't really developing anything. They have the time and/or patience and utilize the kitchen to strip down a stock rom. They throw in some mods that real devs made and slap their name on it. Then ask for donations like they just did something incredible. I've tried just about every modified stock rom on xda and there was really no difference. And God forbid someone has anything negative to say about a rom.
And in regards to the aosp devs, if they dont want to be asked questions or don't want their work criticized they shouldn't be making roms for the public. This forum is filled with smart asses that think everyone should know what they know. Everyone at one point had to ask someone else for help because how else do you learn.
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That is why they are guides and info posted in op if bugs and such?
I sure did not post here when I was rooting oh I need some help with adb fastboot Odin what's the problem there are plenty of guides that cover everything
People just tend to give up so easily; that's how lazy the generation has become. Those guides posted helped me out and such. I didn't ask someone else for helped I did this on my own with a guide up on here now I know more than just rudimentary things of the android world I help people out but still gets annoying when you have 5 if the same threads I mean if I could find them why can't they? It's really not that hard.
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This thread is getting heated I see a monitor locking it soon
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As someone buying a G1 and not even knowing what rooting was, I have no sympathy for the winers. I soft bricked, got almost no sleep reading up on recovering it, and I never once posted a question. Now I'm flashing/recovering/restoring any device I want.
The devs spend countless hours working on making roms and apps for us, the least you could do is research (hours if necessary) before asking the same questions that have been answered previously. If you can't handle common sense tasks then a) don't root or flash b) stay with your iPhone
Not trying to rip anyone, but this is a pointless thread Imo.
Sent from the Matrix
dnar56 said:
As someone buying a G1 and not even knowing what rooting was, I have no sympathy for the winers. I soft bricked, got almost no sleep reading up on recovering it, and I never once posted a question. Now I'm flashing/recovering/restoring any device I want.
The devs spend countless hours working on making roms and apps for us, the least you could do is research (hours if necessary) before asking the same questions that have been answered previously. If you can't handle common sense tasks then a) don't root or flash b) stay with your iPhone
Not trying to rip anyone, but this is a pointless thread Imo.
Sent from the Matrix
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Endorsed.
Replace G1 with D1 and that's my story. I googled. I bricked. I bricked a lot. And I read. End of story.
You make it seem like phone tinkering and flashing are a right, a service if you will. It's not. This is a site for phone geeks to share their work. You should be grateful it's not a paid service. Why fix something that's not broken? If you don't like the way it is, you have plenty of options out there. You are complaining about forums in general - it's not limited to xda.
For the record, your post was pretty good until the last paragraph. Didn't agree with that one, however - that's Ok. Your opinion. Just like this is mine...
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I do have to add though that out of like the 15 touchwiz stock ROMs out there, most of them are the same. And personally I think dev's should accept and take in whatever criticism they get for their ROM. As constructive criticism, so they can make their ROM better.
If they have no desire to make it better, then they should outright say their will only be one release. If they feel someone is being disrespectful, they should be the better person and tell them politely to not be so disrespectful. Just my opinion, and yes I am grateful for all the devs do here.
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NightxFall said:
I do have to add though that out of like the 15 touchwiz stock ROMs out there, most of them are the same. And personally I think dev's should accept and take in whatever criticism they get for their ROM. As constructive criticism, so they can make their ROM better.
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Constructive criticism is fine. What's annoying (even from a non-dev perspective) is the same question getting asked over and over again. Sometimes a dead horse is kicked up for 4-5 pages. Then once it finally dies down, some dude asks the same question. It's silly and unnecessary. If they Google their question followed by ", xda" they would have found the original answer.
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First, I have no problems with XDA. That wasn;t the intention. XDA provides a great service to people who want to customize their phone AND devs that want to put their work out there.
Second, if you feel like this thread is useless, why are you spending the time to respond?
Third, the statement I made wasn't a slam on anyone. I am well aware of people that are too lazy to search things out for themselves. The point I was making, is we need each other. If we refuse to tinker with our phones, the devs are essentially doing this for themselves and a few friends that want to join in. If they aren't creating ROMs, we don't have a way to customize our phones. However, we can get along without each other too. I know if the ROMs weren't there, I would still enjoy the use of my smartphone. If we weren't downloading, devs would still tinker with building ROMs. The whole issue is how we treat each other on ANY forum. If you are getting asked the same questions over and over, maybe a the first post should be updated with those Q&A's. I have seen very few OPs do that. In fact, a majority of the AOSP threads have nothing at all posted regarding issues or potential problems. They just expect everyone to know everything. Everybody learned from somebody else. Whether it was through Google search, this forum or YouTube videos. MOST of the people complaining about the same questions being asked have very little info on their thread.
Again, props to those devs that don't mind helping people out. And props to XDA for providing the forum. The rest should put up pay sites maybe, but their ROM downloads would quickly fall. I have enjoyed my experience thus far tinkering around with something new. But the few in the community that whine about people asking questions should settle down and realize how you act. That goes for the "customer" that can't ask nicely too. I'm not anti-dev. I get what they do is tough and time consuming.
Real_JESRadio said:
First, I have no problems with XDA. That wasn;t the intention. XDA provides a great service to people who want to customize their phone AND devs that want to put their work out there.
Second, if you feel like this thread is useless, why are you spending the time to respond?
Third, the statement I made wasn't a slam on anyone. I am well aware of people that are too lazy to search things out for themselves. The point I was making, is we need each other. If we refuse to tinker with our phones, the devs are essentially doing this for themselves and a few friends that want to join in. If they aren't creating ROMs, we don't have a way to customize our phones. However, we can get along without each other too. I know if the ROMs weren't there, I would still enjoy the use of my smartphone. If we weren't downloading, devs would still tinker with building ROMs. The whole issue is how we treat each other on ANY forum. If you are getting asked the same questions over and over, maybe a the first post should be updated with those Q&A's. I have seen very few OPs do that. In fact, a majority of the AOSP threads have nothing at all posted regarding issues or potential problems. They just expect everyone to know everything. Everybody learned from somebody else. Whether it was through Google search, this forum or YouTube videos. MOST of the people complaining about the same questions being asked have very little info on their thread.
Again, props to those devs that don't mind helping people out. And props to XDA for providing the forum. The rest should put up pay sites maybe, but their ROM downloads would quickly fall. I have enjoyed my experience thus far tinkering around with something new. But the few in the community that whine about people asking questions should settle down and realize how you act. That goes for the "customer" that can't ask nicely too. I'm not anti-dev. I get what they do is tough and time consuming.
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We spend time to respond to actually have you realize no one is gna be here all the time for you some things you have to be done by themselves, I'm 16 I wonder when you'll realize that. No one is gna be up your ass changing your clothes for you either learn the hard way or just not at all.
I have seen multiple threads of people complaining that their data is gone on cm10.1 and not one has bothered to even look at the op's post clearly showing the way to fix it. They just want the easy way out to ask and have someone redirect them there and I have but it gets tiring doing it over and over and over again.
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Despite me being new to XDA I am not new to the process of rooting android phones. I have been rooting other people's phones before I bought the Galaxy S 3. I don't ask questions in forums I research my own answers to my questions. I noticed the same things as the person who started this thread I just don't see the point in bringing it up as it will continue to happen.
Unlike all the badass geniuses in here I have asked questions since I got my first smartphone less than a month ago.
I think it's pretty stupid how people think they're so cool because they figured out how to root, there are so many details in rooting/flashing ROMs and kernels and these high end smart phones are very expensive especially now because of the **** economy, people just don't want to brick they're phones they invested so much in.
People aren't supposed to know all the bugs in a new ROM they flashed and you guys are giving this "issue" too much priority.
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