[bugeyed]

It's no wonder people are confused when trying to sort out issues they are having with the PDN. I have never seen so many hijacked threads on a forum as the ones here. The subject of the thread is more than likely to be relevant for only the first page of posts. I understand that many issues are related & spawn related questions, but it would be helpful if we would make reference to & start a new thread instead of hijacking one. I am guilty too, as it's easy to jump into a discussion & change the subject & it's just as easy to jump in & answer the question, but it is getting increasingly difficult to remember which thread was discussing what by looking at the subjects & increasingly confusing to follow a thread that is trying to address an issue. I think this is one reason we have so many duplicate questions being posted. I, for one, would be reluctant to post a subject-relevant question in a thread that has gone astray. I will try my best to have the discipline to do what I recommend. Cheers,kev

 

[clockworx]

Not only that, I see tons of threads asking about stuff that has been answered already multiple times. I would say a whole bunch of threads here can just be killed (unless they want to make an archive subforum to move old posts to).There must be at least 20 threads of "My market download starts, then fails"

 

[lawman]

yeah, I need to clean things up a bit, but I'm reluctant to delete, so there's only so much I can do. If you find something that you really think should be merged to unclutter, pm me and I'll take care of it.

 

[Mark Adams]

Lawman: I tried to centralize an updated newbie guide to clean some of this up if you want to sticky it.http://www.slatedroid.com/pandigita...551-newbies-guide-getting-started-8-24-a.htmlI'll probably put it on the facebook fan page later today too. (Well, a link anyway)

 

[davidr]

Lawman..rather than getting too consumed in deletion, setting up a separate section for comprehensive posts or threads (such as http://www.slatedroid.com/pandigita...551-newbies-guide-getting-started-8-24-a.html) might be good.. many of the current stickys would go there..as well as some other threads that are particularly instructive... but it would avoid having the first page or two of the normal forum consumed with stickys..Similar to what was done with the development work..

 

[bugeyed]

I agree that it is a huge task, so maybe it does make sense in many cases to either delete posts that don't conform to the subject or, if the hijacking leads to a valuable discussion, then change the subject to reflect the new discussion. I'll do my part to help by pointing to some threads that I would like to see worked on.Cheers,kev

 

[clockworx]

It's sad to say, but I do kind of miss slightly more strict rules I've seen on other forums, where you will either get a short probation and/or the thread is killed if you stumble in and say "Hey, I'm new here, how do I <asks question clearly answered in the FAQ or in a thread immediately below the one they just started>?"I think we need to consolidate some of our stickied posts, as well. One good HOWTO that covered most of the stickied stuff would work well. My Google Alpha could probably disappear into that, as well as oneglory wifi instructions.I honestly think we've covered most valid questions up to this point, so most new threads are now stuff that's already known and answered, or not known currently.

 

[nchntrman]

I noticed that as well, I have been trying to point the n00bs back to the wiki when they ask an obviously documented question.

 

[lawman]

ROFL. Case in point...I will, as soon as life permits, create one consolidated newbie sticky. That should allow some threads to bleed off. Maybe I'll get permission from the admins to create a "hijack" thread, and send all the hijacks there...

 

[nchntrman]

Perhaps a sub-forum for "Newbies ask your question here." It seems like some people are not reading the wiki nor digging through the haystack for their answer. Maybe (although this seems cold) any questions that are asked that have already been asked, should not be answered, simply a response of "This has already been asked" would suffice. I believe that some people are aware that the answer has been addressed, but lack the effort to go and look for it. This would end facilitating those posts. Just my $0.02

 

[clockworx]

and then delete all threads in the newbie forum each night

 

[davidr]

One of the fallouts of the frequent hijacking is that the search function (which is limited to about 20 items displayed.. total) is pretty useless..I am sure there is a good reason for this limit (seems I remember hearing it was a bandwidth conservation measure).. is this still a valid reason? Absent a better search, clean-up seems to be the only way to go.

 

[nchntrman]

Have you tried the advanced search?

 

[davidr]

ahem... (red face).. yes.. but I haven't checked lately and didn't realize the 20 message/thread limit had apparently been removed.. Thanks for pointing out my erroneous statement based on old data!!!!

 

[geebekazoo]

[quote name='nchntrman;44462]Perhaps a sub-forum for "Newbies ask your question here." It seems like some people are not reading the wiki nor digging through the haystack for their answer. Maybe (although this seems cold) any questions that are asked that have already been asked' date=' should not be answered, simply a response of "This has already been asked" would suffice. I believe that some people are aware that the answer has been addressed, but lack the effort to go and look for it. This would end facilitating those posts. Just my $0.02[/QUOTE'] I agree. Perhaps we could also add a newbie "Wall of Shame", a couple of names immediately comes to mind!

 

[nchntrman]

I wonder how long it takes to progress upward from newbie status. I think it was 7-18 when I first got my PDN, been barely a month. Although I never considered myself a newbie, as I have years of hackin, tweakin, moddin experience, but as far as the PDN goes and specifically Android OS I still feel like a newbie some days.

 

[lawman]

No wall of shame. A newbie specific thread may work, and we can ask mike for a newbie specific pdn board...

 

[clockworx]

[quote name='nchntrman;44605]I wonder how long it takes to progress upward from newbie status. I think it was 7-18 when I first got my PDN' date=' been barely a month. Although I never considered myself a newbie, as I have years of hackin, tweakin, moddin experience, but as far as the PDN goes and specifically Android OS I still feel like a newbie some days.[/QUOTE'] Honestly, it's a bit more about being willing to do a bit of work to help yourself. A good percentage of self-professed newbie are the ones who just want to be spoonfed. They'll come in, ask about something covered in one of the FAQs, and then close with "lol sorry I'm a total noob at this." Everyone has to start somewhere, but expecting someone else to do the grunt work for you is really obnoxious.

 

[geebekazoo]

[quote name='lawman;44623]No wall of shame. A newbie specific thread may work' date=' and we can ask mike for a newbie specific pdn board...[/QUOTE'] Check your notifications inbox, I sent you a note about resurrecting what I thought had been a sticky a few days ago.And with regard to "stickies", with the ever increasing number of them, I wonder whether we should consider making them a separate section with a "Stickies: Before asking questions, LOOK HERE FIRST!" title. Its getting tiresome navigating pages of stuff when the first half of every page is covered with stickies.

 

[geebekazoo]

[quote name='clockworx;44656]Honestly' date=' it's a bit more about being willing to do a bit of work to help yourself. A good percentage of self-professed newbie are the ones who just want to be spoonfed. They'll come in, ask about something covered in one of the FAQs, and then close with "lol sorry I'm a total noob at this." Everyone has to start somewhere, but expecting someone else to do the grunt work for you is really obnoxious.[/QUOTE'] LOL, obnoxious, rude and lazy, to say the least!