As a member for some time, I have seen many people post looking for advice on which ROM might best suit their needs.
Typically the response is anything from a small flame to a raging inferno. The most common response from the learned people here is for the OP to "try them all."
Well, I am finally fed up with those lame and rude responses. You see, there is absolutely nothing wrong with soliciting advice from those who have tried things and ergo have more knowledge and experience. That is why "user reviews" are so important. Think about it, have you ever asked a salesman about a product or do you just try them all? Do you eat everything on a menu, or do you ask the waiter what's good... what would best meet your needs? If you are a normal person, you ask if you have questions!
Also, there is much made about creating different threads asking for the proper advice. Well, the very nature of the request requires a new thread. Each OP might have a different set of preferences that are unique. To use the waiter example: "I don't like salty and greasy foods. I do however like light foods. What would you recommend?" You see how asking for advice has a certain individual and unique set of components?
Some people have told the OP to search and read up on all the ROMs. Well, unless your Einstein or have made ROMS your passion, no sane human can even begin to digest all the information. Some ROMS have hundreds of pages in their thread. One ROM might be a novel to itself. Some people simply don't have 40 hours to read up. Worse yet, those who do have the time, won't have a clue as to which ones to invest it in. Seriously, there are a LOT of ROMs.... with new ones being released almost daily. Unless you live here, you cannot learn about them all.
I think a fair solution would be for the fine people here to focus a bit more on creating a sticky thread of User reviews. However, it has be quite organized and kept current. There is nothing worse than sifting through a couple dozen pages in one ROM thread just to find out the bugs never were addressed in that release, rather the author issued a new separate release.
In conclusion, I think that until ROMs have a better system for Peer Review, which can be easily understood by visitors, people should lay off those seeking advice. Actually, people should be more than willing to be of help and not be so quick to blow the OP off. As for the ROM reviews, I suggest a new sub-forum for just that. It would go a long way to servicing all parties; those who seek advice, those who don't want to see it in these sub-forums, and those who want to help by giving reviews.
Well that is that.
Nice words and I partly applaud, however, you also have to see the other side. Let me reply by copying a user complain and the mod's reply out of his guest comment:
ashleyhall said:
Can I just comment that closing this thread...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=443839
...is simply ridiculous. As the owner/moderator of a large internet forum myself, my moderators and I actively encourage discussion and the airing of personal views - if someone asks an opinion, you expect responses based on personal opinion, otherwise what is the point of a forum?!!?
Absolutely ridiculous, bad moderation, pathetic infact, very disappointed...
Regards, Ashley Hall
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JimmyMcGee said:
Ashley,
Thank you for your opinion. The Guidelines for the Kaiser Section were not invented by me solely and for no reason.
The reasons most Kaiser Mods discourage this type of thread, is these threads not only can create hard feelings between chefs but has been known to lead to all out flame wars
If you want to know peoples personal opinions on ROM, you are more than welcome to ask these questions in the ROM thread.
Also, the Kaiser forum is very active and placing peoples opinions of ROMs in the ROM Thread, where the chef can see and respond to such opinions, is more helpful to the community at large.
This guideline was not created to stop person opinions and speech. But to lead to a better organized Forum Section.
Thanks,
Jimmy McGee
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As you see, it is not always easy to justify a thread, especially not if you're talking about a forum with the size of XDA Developers. If people think they want a review of the particular ROM, why not asking directly in the THREAD of that ROM?
"If people think they want a review of the particular ROM, why not asking directly in the THREAD of that ROM"
That only works if you want a review from a SINGLE ROM.
If chefs have that fragile of an ego....
jimlivingston said:
... If chefs have that fragile of an ego....
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As you now can see for yourself, this is where flaming begins - exactly the reason why threads like that are mostly not welcome!
I definitely think there's room for a single, stickied "ROM discussion" thread. People always have opinions, and it'd give people a place to vent them. The reason there's so many clutter-y "WHAT ROM?!" threads is because there's nowhere to ask that question, and new users have no real reason to understand how repetitive that question IS because all the threads get closed and deleted.
Simply telling them "you can't ask that!" makes it awfully tricky for new users, since they often don't even know WHAT they're looking for. By keeping a "ROM discussion" thread around, they might be able to at least get an idea of what people like about different ROMs. Heck, even if the place turns in to a pit of snarky vipers, it'll at least serve as an example of why people don't like ROM comparison threads!
The problems with just directing people to the ROM threads are thus:
1. Most ROM threads consist largely of bug reports or feature requests from long outdated versions of the ROM, so the information isn't really relevant.
2. Some (not all!) chefs are better at creating their ROMs than they are at describing them -- making it awfully hard to get an idea of what the author was "going for."
3. This makes it even LESS likely that some of the small, less popular ROMs will get noticed because the most popular, most updated threads are the ones that get bumped onto the first few pages.
4. ROM threads generally do not (and should not) contain information comparing different ROMs. This is, however, useful information -- if there's two ROMs claiming to be the "fastest and lightest," for example, users should be able to make their observations about those claims.
There's ALWAYS going to be a chance of getting people's hackles up and of some folks getting defensive of upset. At the same time, there's MORE chance for some chefs to get appreciation for what they've done, there will be a better starting point for folks new to this whole ROM business, and I think there's even a chance that the ROMs themselves will be improved because chefs might be able to keep their eyes on the rest of the "scene" better.
My 5 cents as a veteran noob.
First of all: This site is free to use. Lets keep it that way, by accepting the rules.
I think we have to realize, that this is not a service organization. This site is created by developers for developers.
Yes, it would be nice, if we could get answers quickly, but that is not the purpose of this site. Help - About: XDA
If you want to make this site a better place, Go Here!
A review-thread might be a great idea, but nothing is keeping you from creating another site for this!
So, you want a brand new ROM doing this, and this and that!
Well, so did I. And by trying different ROMs, I now realize, there are no shortcuts.
No matter how cool a ROM looks, there is always one thing about it you don't like.
One example: The new Manilla 3D looks incredible cool. Even if it is slow, I might still be using it, if it wasn't for one little thing that I just can't live with; The 3D "People" tab is very cool, but it is a pain to scroll through one contact at a time. I find the 2D version so much better.
You just have to try for yourself, what works for you and what don't.
Bottom line: To get the ROM that makes you most happy, you've got to make flashing your phone a hobby.
Read the stickies. Start flashing. Stay cool.
Happy hunting
I know this thread is closed, But I wanted to add to the statement of mine that was quoted earlier in this thread.
If you are going to get an objective Comparison or "Reviewed ROMs Thread" That would mean the reviewer would need to be unbiased. In order to do so they would have to flash EVERY version of EVERY ROM that was released. A difficult proposition at best.
I, like most people, will try a few and then Stick with one I find I like. There might be a better one that I haven't tried yet. But that's the fun of this Forum.
There was at one point a ROM Reviews thread. That thread was never closed. As it gave unbiased comparisons between ROMs. Something Impossible to get from just creating a thread saying "What's the Best?" Well ultimatly, "BEST" depends on your tastes.
The ROM review thread gave The features and bugs of a ROM and gave you a pretty clear pictures of the difference between the ROMs, All with the same "spin" from the same guy. By having the same "spin" from the same guy, you can grasp better which ROM is right for you. The effect of Me telling you what I like best and Junner Telling you their favorite is it has different "spin." Also, I may not have tried the ROM Junner recommended.
In the END the ROM Reviews thread died, because it was alot of work. And I believe we have even more ROMs available now!
So you can see why Best of ROM threads serve no purpose then to take up space. With the vast size of XDA's membership, you're not going to get a lot of worth out of a few vocal Fans of a certain chef's offerings.
My original post got lost when the forums had to be backed up.
What I'm looking for is very vague, the reason for this is I myself is someone that is learning 'All Android'. I don't mind if you're new to android or theming, all i need is someone that is decent in graphic design and wants to learn new things. Of course, knowing more about android would be a definite plus. Currently I've been creating a team for cross-platform development of Rom's for android devices. We're getting ready to make our first release and are in need of a graphic designer.
If this seems like something you would like, please PM me with you're desire and possibly some work you've done. Although previous work is not a requirement, wouldn't hurt to show us something.
Hopefully this will be the new thread helping others out who are working with GO Themes Factory for creating new launcher themes. There seems to be a lack of unity when it comes to non-programmers helping each other out with this topic. Unfortunately the GO Dev team does not have their own forum where we are able to post questions or even tutorials for simple tasks.
I'm in the process now of creating a tutorial video (youtube) start to finish on how to create a theme using GO Themes Factory. For now if there are any questions relative to this topic please post it here so when it is answered others can gain from it as well.
If you are posting please title the post as follows:
Ex. [ICONS] Adding new icons not on their list.
Ex. [WALLPAPER] Sizing appropriately.
Ex. [.9.png] WTF!?
Many users on here decide to create their own .apk in eclipse instead but this thread is NOT for those who are educated in the field of programming. This thread will be strictly for users who have minimal knowledge about the process.
Spanks and have a great day
Jeremy
[CANT PACK] Blank Notice and a button "I Got It"
Hello,
I've been trying to pack my edited theme but failed, I keep having the blank notice with a button said "I Got It"..
Is it just me or a server down for packing?
anyone experienced the same?
thanx
For some reason yesterday their server seemed to be having issues. I attempted to simply open a theme and was having issues. Theres definitely a lack of communication between the GO dev team and developers/designers.
Also try a hard refresh on your browser. I use Google Chrome and typically find that if I use the site for hours on end it tends to freeze up more.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using xda app-developers app
Not sure where else to post this, so here goes -
There's always quite a bit of quality development on these forums; enough that it can be difficult to find what you're looking for. I wanted to give my feedback about how individuals' forum-research might be more efficient.
[Original] android development forums might be subdivided, e.g. Kernels; ROMs; other fixes / improvements; etc
Other "index by-" options such as all work in that forum from a particular developer, or all work on a particular android version
A super-thread with all ROMs (and possibly kernels) with a brief description, such as android version, elements working/not working, and a voting template to include the summarized key points of the reviews (so as to obviate the need for 100+ page reading)
-Love XDA, and appreciate all the hard work by devs + mods, just thought these changes might make their efforts more accessible. Cheers!
Nice!
I realize I'm probably talking to myself but beautifully done! Love the new format.
leitlang said:
I realize I'm probably talking to myself but beautifully done! Love the new format.
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Looks like they heard you man, well done
Excuse, but i didn't want to start a new thread.
I believe there should be a group called,
XDA- DevOps
DevOps - Wikipedia
en.m.wikipedia.org
Excuse, but i didn't want to start a new thread. I believe there should be a group called,
XDA- DevOps
DevOps - Wikipedia
en.m.wikipedia.org
Hey guys didn't see a new user thread so i decided to just post in off topic
For those of you who do not know me i mostly do some work on the sony scene of things and recently got interested in android devices
so im just making a quick little post to say hi and ill be here to stay as well
first up im taking a look at a few projects that are quite powerful but need a few updates
this topic is one of my fav's as of late
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1512685
i will be adding a few extra features on the dll and porting it to github for anyone to use
mainly i will be adding small things like alternative dialing methods and so on maybe add a remove apk option and a folder browser
have a good one
xDPx
Feel free to make yourself at home in the thread linked below.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=961655
Thread closed