[GUIDE] NEW TO XDA. Take a look inside.

Hi fellow XDA members,

As you all may have noticed there has been a few changes in the moderation committee. There are new moderators for devices. New people, but that does not mean new rules. eagleeyetom had asked members in his proposal thread, to help out with the moderation. I asked if I could do an updated XDA behaviour thread and he agreed.

The rules of XDA stay the same no matter what, and apply to every member, even to Senior Mods. Heck, it even applies to the Admin himself. And as such, I feel it's only fair that we ourselves abide by them.

Therefore, this thread acts as a guide for new members and old ones alike, on how to behave on XDA. SpyderX has already made a thread on this, and it was even made a sticky, but still some members fail to abide by the rules. They still disregard the rules and, as a result, end up getting infractions or, in the worst cases, bans.

So if you want to avoid bans and infractions, read on.

1. Read through this: http://xdaforums.com/announcement.php?a=81
You must go through the rules, at least once. The above link is the latest set of them. Keep your eyes open for any new announcements. They're usually visible on the upper bit of the website.

2. Do not steal others' work. Or in other words, as SpyderX has explained in his sticky, don't post work, usually ROMs, that:
- Is not your own original work (usually ROMs with your own code, not to be confused with soft-mods, are acceptable)
- Is ported from other devices without the permission of the original creator
- Is just a soft-mod over someone else's hard work
Only stock ROMs are exempt from this rule. And as kernels have to be compiled from source, meaning there is no way to soft-mod them without some work done, they too are considered development.

3. Behave with others. Do not use foul language; it doesn't make you any wiser than you already are. There are members who are just kids, therefore any pornographic content, vulgar comments and other “smart” ways of abusing your freedom on the Internet is strictly prohibited on XDA. Post anything that falls under such categories and you may find yourself banned the next day. No personal insults, trolling (except in the OT) and flaming. Trust me on this, it'll get you nowhere except out of XDA. And always use English in the threads. What language you use in groups doesn't really matter to us.

4. Post in the appropriate sections. More on that later. For now, just remember, both the Development sections are for development-related stuff, like bug-fixes, sharing source codes, bug-reports etc. Don't spam there. It's really annoying for any user to see their favourite threads full of spam and being closed down. Act wisely. Like an XDA-ian. Don't create unnecessary threads. If you wanna talk about anything non-dev, visit the OT. Do not ask for ETAs or for the dev's help in your problems, without a proper bug-report. There's a thread on how to do a bug-report: http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1935567 Read it thoroughly.

5. Instead of posting “Thanks for XXX”, click the THANKS button. This is a growing concern among many members. There are at least 1000 posts in every section that just say “Thanks”. These are considered spam and will eventually be deleted by a moderator and the poster may receive a warning. So instead of wasting time and energy to write thanks, click the THANKS button. It was made for that purpose. Use it.

6. When creating threads, be extra careful. Think, search and then discuss, in the words of SpyderX, not the other way round. Threads you create should be based on, or have valid content that can be discussed or used. And like #4, open up threads in the appropriate sections. Also before you create a thread, make sure there are no similar threads in the same device forum based on the same problems. And please don't create useless threads asking stupid questions.

7. Always be super kind to devs. They are not paid to bring you the stuff they do. Therefore if you can't donate, which you should if you can, always hit the thanks button when they are trying to help. If you misbehave with any dev, or any member alike, XDA will look after you.

8. Learn to post in the appropriate section.
- General section is for discussions and the all-famous OT thread
- Q&A section is for questions and answers
- Android Development section is for ROMs that are built from others' source, improved versions of others' ROMs etc.
- Original Android Development section is for original development like building ROMs from your own source, modifying someone's source and using it to build a ROM, self-compiled kernels, AIO toolkits etc.

Keep these guidelines in mind and you'll be able to stay in XDA for a long time. And please read all of it. Don't go TL;DR. Please feel free to drop in suggestions, or advice, here in the thread.

- Skeleton taken largely from SpyderX's "Behaviour guide" (which also you guys fail to follow. Thanks, bro.

SOME THINGS YOU GOTTA BE CLEAR ABOUT

Well, if you've read the first post, you'll know by now what XDA expects from you. You should also know that there are certain things that XDA finds very important. You may also not understand a couple of things here-and-there. This post intends to clarify all that.

1. Reading:
Reading posts on XDA will enlighten you. Really. Try it some time. As a newcomer you should read through all the stickies of your device's forum. It will not only help you find things, but also get used to XDA little by little. Even Senior Members read, so why can't you? Your motto here has to be: "Read more, post less useless stuff". Trust me it's the only way you'll ever survive in XDA (we're not that bad but we do know how to behave with ignorant people).
Basically, you wanna say on XDA, you need to read. A lot. You have to learn to understand that the OP (like me) usually works super-hard to post a new thread (again, like me), and expects you to read the whole of it before making a "smart" comment. You have to learn to respect that. It helps reduce spam, too, because there's a great possibility that the answer to your question is already in the thread.
So just read. Read before you post, even if it takes ages to read just the OP.

2. Searching:
The button's there for a reason. Search before you open up a new thread. It doesn't help any of us. 90% of the time the question's been answered already. That means there's a thread for that particular problem. Post there. Why create useless duplicate threads when you can find the answer in the other thread? However if, in the thread, your question has no answer or only part of the answer, you can create a new thread, provided the first one is really old and hasn't been updated in a long, long time. Posts that revive a thread after a long, long time are considered spam some times, especially ones that just say "Thanks for xxx and yyy". You can also search XDA with Google. Just add this to your search terms:
site:xda-developers.com
Please. Search. Reduce spam. Help yourself. Help XDA. Help the world (okay this bit's unnecessary).

3. Giving and getting thanks
Like I've said in the past, thank any developer who has been working hard just to bring you the stuff he/she brings. Not just devs; themers, contributors and, mostly, normal members help out a lot too. They ask for nothing really, except for a little recognition. Please thank them. It acts as an encouragement to continue their work, to continue helping members. It's not like clicking the button will rob you of your soul, or anything. It's free of cost.
That being said, don't go about thanking spammers. It only encourages them to spam more. We don't want that.
You'll see every member has a thanks meter. It's basically a count of the thanks they have got over time. It's not meant to be some kind of "prestige" meter, and therefore one must not post with the sole purpose of getting thanks. It gets you nowhere, trust me.
Anyways, this is how the bar fills up:
1st bar - 26
2nd bar - 51
3rd bar - 101
4th bar - 201
bug here, never gets to 5 bars, probably 501 if fixed.
6th bar - 1001
7th bar - 2001
8th bar - 5001
9th bar - 8001
Maxed! - 10000

4. User titles
If you've spent some time on XDA, you'll have noticed there are some titles given to members. Here's how they are given:
- Junior Member - New members with less than 30 (?) posts.
- Member - Members with more than 30 (?) but less than 100 posts.
- Senior Member - Members with 100+ posts.
- Recognized Contributor - A title given to members who have helped people with various problems. You can apply for this position or ask a Forum Moderator, Senior Moderator, Recognized Contributor to nominate you. They don't give it away for free though; you have to meet some requirements.
- Recognized Themer - A member who's known for original themes. You can apply to the Senior Moderators yourself, or ask a Recognized Contributor to nominate you.
- Recognized Developer - A title given to a member for his/her work in his/her device-specific development. You can apply to the Senior Moderators yourself. I don't think anyone can nominate you here. The developer committee assesses your overall activity and decides whether you're eligible for this position.
- Elite Recognized Developer - This title is given to Recognized Developers who have provided outstanding work, way beyond the knowledge of us mere mortals. A Recognized Developer is re-assessed by the developer committee before being given that title.
- Forum Moderator - This title is given to Recognized Contributors who are responsible enough to handle a forum on their own with some other such members of course. They have to fill out an application (which is no longer available now) and then the moderator committee approves of them.
- Senior Moderator - Senior Moderators are in charge of the whole site-wide support for Forum Moderators and nitty-gritty business that Forum Moderators cannot look after.
- Administrators - Next comes the admins who are responsible for everything as a whole. Each look after a specific part of XDA.
- MikeChannon's the dude behind all this. He's the Forum Administrator.
Other titles you may come across are
- Moderator Committee - sits on the Mod Committee
- Developer Committee - as above, but for Developer Committee
- XDA Newswriter - publishes articles for the Portal (front page)
- Retired xxxx - have since officially 'left' their XDA position

-Skeleton of this part taken largely from mf2112's guide. Thanks a lot, bro.

5. Reporting posts
XDA has given you the freedom of reporting posts. It basically brings posts to a moderator's attention, and is 10^10x better than notifying a moderator via PM. You, being a member of XDA, must report posts that you feel are a violation of the rules of XDA. You must report spam, other than that in the OT thread. XDA is a humongous website. Moderation isn't entirely possible by the selected panel. We need your help. And we hope that you are not one of those whose posts need reporting. It's not a really pleasant feeling. Anyways here's an example of how you can report posts:
Suppose member XXX has posted a question in the X8 general forum. Now you know that it's not appropriate to post questions in the general section; there's a Q/A section for that. So you click the triangular button beside the birdy on the OP. It basically represents the report button. In the reason box, type in a valid reason like "Please move to X8 device Q&A forum" for example, and select "Thread/Post moving or maintenance" in the drop-down box, and hit "Send report". This will notify the panel of moderators for that particular device, and one of them will definitely move the thread if he/she feels it necessary.
Please use this feature properly. We need your help.

6. A good signature that expresses your awesomeness
As a member, it is your responsibility to make a good signature that informs other users of what your phone is running on currently. This kind of signature can help in avoiding follow-up questions when you ask for help or advice. A good signature may also contain helpful links for new members. You can also include pictures, but use Dropbox or photobcuket for that purpose, because when you copy a link directly from some pic, it may be considered stealing.
You can edit your signature by clicking this link: http://xdaforums.com/profile.php?do=editsignature
Here's a good guide on how to make a good signature: http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1636804
Need ideas? This should help: http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1761276
And please remember, signatures are not meant to be billboards.

7. Donations
Donations are never expected nor required, but are always welcome. There are "DONATE TO ME" buttons below the avatars of users. Click that if you want to send donations for their hard work. In many cases, as in mine, donations are not possible. Use the Thanks button instead. It's almost equivalent in our eyes.
You can also donate to XDA by clicking this link: http://xdaforums.com/donations.php
When you donate 10 euros to XDA, you are awarded a star, which is displayed below your avatar. When you are rewarded with ten stars, that is 100 euros (I may be wrong here), an even bigger star with the number 10 appears.
Just keep in mind, developers provide top-quality ROMs and Kernels and what-not, which are results of their hard work. They don't do it for donations; they do it to help others, just like they were helped by some other benefactor. So, please, if you find someone's work worthy of a donation, do not hesitate. Even a small amount is great encouragement.

8. Some helpful links
- [HOW TO] make a good THREAD, POST, QUESTION and POLL
- Help Your Threads Get More Search Hits with Better Titles and Thread Tags!
- [TUTORIAL] How to logcat
- [GUIDE] How to give constructive feedback to developers
- [ADB/FB/APX Driver] Universal Naked Driver 0.72
- Chef Central
- [Ultimate Guide][Part 10 released][12/11/2011]Android App Development - From Scratch
- XDA Recognized Developer Program Expansion
- The history of XDA - Part 1
- A visual history of XDA

-Skeleton again largely taken from mf2112's guide. Thanks again, pal.

The 10-post rule

You guys may know by now that there is a slight restriction in the development fora; you cannot post there if you do not have 10 posts beforehand. This means you have to have 10 posts anywhere on XDA before you can post in any development forum. Keep in mind, however, that it doesn't mean necessarily that the development fora cannot be accessed by you new members. The only restriction imposed is on posting there.

A member of the Moderator Committee here at XDA, Fallen Spartan, has said this regarding the rule:
http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=30513893&postcount=87

The 10-post barrier is extremely easy to overcome. You can post in the General, Q/A, Accessories or the Themes and Apps section, or even the Off-Topic section of XDA. Trust me, once you start posting there, getting 10 posts will be as easy as spelling your name (provided your name's easy to spell, of course!). However, that does not mean your first 10 posts on XDA, your shining road to global recognition, should be spam. We are going to infract you if you spam the fora.

Most of the posts in the development fora hardly contribute to any development. These posts are usually off-topic, and then a moderator has to interfere. Why do you guys do that? It doesn't help any one of us. Instead post in the Off-Topic section. And if you really wanna thank the developer, you can still hit the Thanks button (it also helps to maintain your postcount to thanks ratio, although it is something you better not worry about). If you are still dissatisfied, hit the Thanks button again on another post by the developer. Still dissatisfied? Then donate some money to him. As mf2112 has said any developer will appreciate a few dollars way more than any post howsoever appreciative it may be.

Please don't spam to overcome the 10-post barrier. Here's a good guide on how to get 10 posts easily: xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1069298

And if there's something you really have to post in the dev section without having 10 posts beforehand, check this: http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1841030
Use it wisely, for the moderators are watching your every move.

Post #2 updated! Seriously guys don't go TL;DR. You're missing the point of it all if you don't read.

Point #2 of post #2 covers that bit. The rest is up to the members. Hopefully they'll read this through.

Will have to include a new topic, "Bumping".

@dagger
Will do that. Later, though. Too tired right now.

Good to know that.

Thread Updated! New members, please read this. It will really benefit you.

@kaazek1993
It's good to know that you found this guide helpful. But even after reading it, if you post "Thanks for xxx" (this topic has been covered in rule no. 5), it has pretty much rendered my hard work useless. Please keep that in mind. No one's asking for thanks (because the Thanks Meter is not a kind of prestige meter or something), but instead of spamming with "thanks" posts, just click the button that does the job far more elegantly.