Forum is too fragmented

[Guest rapidone]

Agreed. Much better solution than trying to scare them away with zero-tolerance moderation anyway.

Another measure would be to make sure that ALL possible newbie questions are answered in the stickies.

Also, removing legacy stickies would make finding the relevant information easier.

P.S.

On xda it's the other extreme :unsure:

The main problem for noobs is that they have to read many threads to get some knowledge about their smartphone. And they're threatened about linux, get their smartphone broken and so on.

Therefore they ask the same questions. I think a kind of manual/wiki with all the tips/workarounds and hacks would be perfect.

Maybe in 3 sections:

beginners:

[What is root and how do i get it]

[What is CR and how doe i install it]

[How can i unlock phone]

[How can i backup restore apps/settings/whole rom]

[stock roms <-> customised roms]

[How to setup correct apn/list of apns]

...

advanced:

[How to change boot animation/splash screen]

[How can i install themes]

[How to change boot animation]

...

devs section (repository)

source codes

kernel documentation

libraries/developers tools

imgs/apks ...

[Guest meir747]

I think we a moderator will that join similar threads together and a new sub-forums to make things easier.

[Guest rwalton159]

I wondered if any of the Mods had any comments to make on this idea

:unsure:

[Guest jtc42]

Just to quickly post my view. Very simple. We need subforums. It's almost intimidatingly fragmented here at the moment, and even with search somewhat difficult to find anything.

[Guest AndyHibberd]

This forum is about to burst.

Sub-forums to maintain quality or it'll crack under its own weight.

Simple.

(Just dump all old posts into Archive and start fresh with subs, anything worthwhile move over, eg popular posts)

That way it doesn't take ten minutes to find a post that isn't chaff.

Andy

[Guest ndubz]

^Not really, most people who make such threads are really newbies, who dont know a lot and are confused easily.

They assume making a thread with their specific issue will help, even though it just might be something who is a regular on the forum is aware of.

Instead of banning such people and not helping them, a seperate sub-forum will keep the clutter out and people who actually want to help can still reply.

yh i agree with you!! i am a newbie sortof and this was the first forum i ever used, and somepeople are quite rude and inconsiderate and assume we are all "stupid" and i thought making a thread to ask about problems was the right way to go about it.

Edited January 4, 2011 by ndubz

[Guest StevenHarperUK]

yh i agree with you!! i am a newbie sortof and this was the first forum i ever used, and somepeople are quite rude and inconsiderate and assume we are all "stupid" and i thought making a thread to ask about problems was the right way to go about it.

Yes we definitely need a Questions Subsection

[Guest 90180360]

How about just "General" and "Development", therefore giving the developers some air to breathe?

[Guest Matty-p]

How about just "General" and "Development", therefore giving the developers some air to breathe?

yes and newbeis/questions section people are always downloading the 2.3 rom even tho we say 'alpha and devs only' then compaining about it

[Guest 90180360]

yes and newbeis/questions section people are always downloading the 2.3 rom even tho we say 'alpha and devs only' then compaining about it

Giving them a separate section section would almost feel like encouraging such behavior...

[Guest mikhd002]

Personally, I joined only yesterday, and to be honest, although this is a minefield of information, it is a bit overwhelming, as for a newbie (like me) looking at topics, that are written using Linux jargon are pretty hard to understand, although I think I understand most of it now, subforums would be a lot of help. Also I have a couple of other ideas to make this place a bit easier to understand.

1. Make Mods a different colour so that they are easily distinguishable ( although I think this already the case)
   
2. I have not seen a single mod on this sub-forum, and I do not even know who they are, so maybe a few more moderators?
   
3. Possibly - to enhance the colour coding, we could have red for develers, green for moderators - yellow for SF users - orange for pros, and blue for unclassified
   

Definately sub-forums:

Potential Catagories include:

Custom ROMs

Help

Developers

Apps

General

And possibly - Off Topic?

Possibly - to enhance the colour coding, we could have RED for developers, GREEN for moderators, ORANGE for SF owners, YELLOW for professionals, i.e. people from google, or ZTE. and BLUE for unclassified users

Also we could have for

pinned topics:

FAQ- frequently asked questions here's an example - for a game called Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket Powered Battle Cars - as a member I can say, there are rarely any repeat posts or stuff like here there, and as long as you check the FAQ first you are unlikely to get flamed. http://www.psyonix.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=1128

The Android guide, how it works an how to use it

Forum Rules - such as search before you post etc

Although all this would take a lot of work, all it needs is for a couple of people to be temporarily given administrator privileges. I could probably sort all this out, given a couple of weeks, The benifits would be absolutely huge.

Also so far exactly 21 people have asked for subforums. ( I just wen't through and counted).

Form what I said above, there are quite a lot more catagories that could be added. If this plan gets the go ahead, there will probably be a discussion topic first anyway, but if we really wanted to we could also sort out the other phone specific forums into catagories, but only those with lets say 1000 topics or more. If you have ever seen the administration board for this sort of forum, you will see that it is extremely simple to sort out and move topics.

At the end of the day, it is not that complicated to establish a forum, and if we really wanted to and we had no other realistic option but to do so could move from modaco, onto our own separate boards.

Edited January 4, 2011 by mikhd002

[Guest Ash_P]

At the end of the day, it is not that complicated to establish a forum, and if we really wanted to and we had no other realistic option but to do so could move from modaco, onto our own separate boards.

It's not that hard but can be very expensive and time consuming. Remember, this forum isn't a democracy Paul and others can do whatever they like here - be grateful for that for what you have. Yes, subforums would be good (and more moderation) but I seriously doubt any of the useful regulars are going to jump ship because of it.

Maybe we should setup a new newbie blade forum :unsure:

[Guest trishmac]

I'm +1 for some sub forums :angry: There are so many topics and posts that a search on the forum does not always culminate in an answer. Something that should be considered when feeling the need to be rude in response to a newbie's question. On the whole..the guys are awesome on Modaco. :unsure: New to android myself..i'm learning a bit more each time time I come on here..and may even take the plunge to root and rom :o The majority of members on here try to help where they can and it is much appreciated B) xx

Edited January 4, 2011 by trishmac

[Guest mikhd002]

It's not that hard but can be very expensive and time consuming. Remember, this forum isn't a democracy Paul and others can do whatever they like here - be grateful for that for what you have. Yes, subforums would be good (and more moderation) but I seriously doubt any of the useful regulars are going to jump ship because of it.

Maybe we should setup a new newbie blade forum :unsure:

Time consuming - maybe - expensive, no - if anything all you have to pay for is the domain name. And personally, if it wasn't for this forum I would probably have brocken my San Fran by now. In reality, all this forum needs is a bit of a tidy up. Even without sub-forums, if we got rid of all the basically duplicate topics, and form a FAQ, then the forum will be al lot tidier, and much easier to tidy, and personally I think ranting and raving about newbies who post queries which have been answered before, are very intimidating, and possibly even reduce the membership circle of this forum,

oh and 23 for subforums.

[Guest Hopelessness]

Subforums! I believe that makes me #24.

And the 'Questions' subforum should be labelled as 'HELP ME' so that people who think their problem is more important than everyone elses feel they can post there.

Edited January 5, 2011 by Hopelessness

[Guest Stuart_f]

Time consuming - maybe - expensive, no - if anything all you have to pay for is the domain name.

This may be true if you are hosting pictures of your cat but when you try and support a high-profile news site with tens, probably hundreds of thousands of front-page views before you even start counting the forum posts from over 800,000 users and then add all the refreshes from people checking for the latest additions it adds up to a HUGE amount of bandwidth that you need to buy. I'll assure you that MoDaCo is not hosted on a £2.99 a month personal plan!

[Guest mikhd002]

This may be true if you are hosting pictures of your cat but when you try and support a high-profile news site with tens, probably hundreds of thousands of front-page views before you even start counting the forum posts from over 800,000 users and then add all the refreshes from people checking for the latest additions it adds up to a HUGE amount of bandwidth that you need to buy. I'll assure you that MoDaCo is not hosted on a £2.99 a month personal plan!

Lol, of course not, but there are websites such as forummotion (http://www.forumotion.com/), that provide free hosting for forums, anyway, hopefully it won't come to making a new forum. I really do hope Paul takes the time to read this topic, and that he does something, however fi he doesn't, I'm not gonna protest, this is the best forum for this sort of thing, and the resources on here aren't worth losing over a slightly cluttered forum.

[Guest Ash_P]

Lol, of course not, but there are websites such as forummotion (http://www.forumotion.com/), that provide free hosting for forums, anyway, hopefully it won't come to making a new forum. I really do hope Paul takes the time to read this topic, and that he does something, however fi he doesn't, I'm not gonna protest, this is the best forum for this sort of thing, and the resources on here aren't worth losing over a slightly cluttered forum.

Sure, you can get cheap forums hosting for a small site with a low amount of members on the cheap. But, with hosting you get what you pay for. Reliablity, security, support, scalability, international bandwidth cost money.

Can you make a reliable, popular, forum on the cheap - the simple answer is NO.

[Guest orangephone]

I agree for a sub forum too, and anyone whose topics are not named properly should be renamed by a mod.

[Guest IronDoc]

People say 'a mod' as if there're more than one. Big Bear is the only one AFAIK.

[Guest veehexx]

People say 'a mod' as if there're more than one. Big Bear is the only one AFAIK.

wrong! :unsure:

http://android.modaco.com/index.php?act=members. 15 mods + 2 admins.

not sure how many are in the SF forum, but theres a few around B)

i dunno if it's just because of this thread, but there seems to be more and more threads being opened thare are a duplicate of another (or atleast warant a merge!)

edit: looks like paul hasnt been online since the 2nd, so quite possible he hasnt yet seen this thread!

Edited January 6, 2011 by veehexx

[Guest spatch]

+3

I was going to say to replicate the search bar at the botton of each page of posts also the top of the pages.

Then I saw that there is a search at the end of the titles just below the main logo on the right. B)

OK then can the search bar be replicated at the top area for higher visibilty?

Most peps would should recognise it and use it as a search function.

I am fresh but i have been reading since November and the information and requests is a bit much now that the 2.2 Rom is released!!

+1 for subforums.

EDIT- the search at the top is wholesite whereas the search at the bottom is topic specific! :unsure:

In any case make the search at the top more visible then.

Edited January 7, 2011 by spatch

[Guest rwalton159]

Loads of comments and views but will there be a change in the forum setup?

[Guest Arr Too]

Stage one is making better use of our friendly moderators, notably WearTheFoxHat. To do this, please press the Report button on the left-hand side of a post that is a duplicate or answered clearly elsewhere -- don't react by using the Reply button on the opposite side and engaging in flame wars. In your report to the moderators, they have asked that you include a link to the most relevant thread or post that the poster should have found for themselves -- this will speed up the closure of the thread.

[Guest WearTheFoxHat]

wrong! :D

http://android.modaco.com/index.php?act=members. 15 mods + 2 admins.

not sure how many are in the SF forum, but theres a few around :P

i dunno if it's just because of this thread, but there seems to be more and more threads being opened thare are a duplicate of another (or atleast warant a merge!)

edit: looks like paul hasnt been online since the 2nd, so quite possible he hasnt yet seen this thread!

I'm here ... but have a fulltime job too. All mods get notified of reports, so please feel free to use them.

Paul is on off boarding at the moment.

Stage one is making better use of our friendly moderators, notably WearTheFoxHat. To do this, please press the Report button on the left-hand side of a post that is a duplicate or answered clearly elsewhere -- don't react by using the Reply button on the opposite side and engaging in flame wars. In your report to the moderators, they have asked that you include a link to the most relevant thread or post that the poster should have found for themselves -- this will speed up the closure of the thread.

Great post Arr Too B)

Indeed, I'm happy to moderate any posts ... BUT please help me to help you. If it's mentioned elsewhere, I'll close the thread and link to the primary thread. Then it can sink. Ideally, in the Report, please link to the primary so I don't have to search. An alternative is to post in the thread saying "Mentioned here : <link>" ... but there might be more replies by the time I get to close it.

All SPAM and "For Sale" threads will be closed with a warning.

Healthy discussion can from time to time get a little heated, and generally I'll let that continue. However if it gets abusive or full of swearing then I will interject. However everyone needs to realise that it is the internet, opinions vary and people do use stronger language than your grandmother might use in church!

Oh lastly I'm not sure that Paul would be open to further sub-forums ... but it's worth asking him I guess. I can see a value in having certain sub-forums such as "FAQs" or "ROMs" etc. But I still think most posts would end up in "General" ... or just be in the wrong section.

On another thread I suggested that some knowledgeable souls create a "FAQ", and then add to it as appropriate, with a rapid succession of reserved posts, so that they can edit the reserved posts when they run out of space. This keeps everything on the front page too. I'm happy to sticky that kind of helpful post too.

Cheers