********** How can we improve Mobiles & PDAs? **********

Random

Right folks ... it's your turn to have your say.

We don't want this thread to turn into a complete bitching session. We don't want it to turn into one user giving out about another. We don't want you to single out a user or a mod you don't like.

We want to know what we can do to make this forum better for everyone. What do you like? what do you not like? what could we do more of?

All thoughts welcomed. We'll let the thread run for a while and then the mods will sit back and have a look through it and see what we can get from it.


Thanks

Ah-Watch

Its not a bitching session but really something needs to be done about all the iphone threads that keep coming up, a sub forum at least.... I know we keep saying it but if we don't say it to you then who do we suggest it to?

Other than that I'm happy:)

gpjordanf1

Random wrote: »

Right folks ... it's your turn to have your say.

We don't want this thread to turn into a complete bitching session. We don't want it to turn into one user giving out about another. We don't want you to single out a user or a mod you don't like.

We want to know what we can do to make this forum better for everyone. What do you like? what do you not like? what could we do more of?

All thoughts welcomed. We'll let the thread run for a while and then the mods will sit back and have a look through it and see what we can get from it.


Thanks

Hi

Break it into sections:

By network provider etc,

I Phone,

New & upcoming phones,

New Tariffs / deals,

PAYG / Billpay etc

CivilEx

Random, there are a huge amount of iPhone threads in here and if a separate forum is not possible, then one or more additional stickies are needed to deal with the same questions that keep coming up over and over.

The use of data in most phones these days causes a lot of discussion...a section on that that would be useful.

Considers the heading "Mobiles & PDAs"...is it still the right one? Do so called "Smartphones" etc need to be considered

Is there any interaction between this forum and the "Midband" forum...3G on phones is midband is it not....

Overall I'd say that some further sub-forums are needed along the lines indicated by others on this thread

Random

I should probably add that the mods aren't gonna get involved in this thread as mods until it's run it's course. We want the feedback from all the users before we sit back and try and make some positive changes based on it.

Jonathan

Improve Mobiles & PDA?

Ban drunkmonkey.

Davy

Random wrote: »

We don't want this thread to turn into a complete bitching session. We don't want it to turn into one user giving out about another. We don't want you to single out a user or a mod you don't like.

jmccrohan wrote: »

Improve Mobiles & PDA?

Ban drunkmonkey.

tut tut tut :pac:

Would like to see the iPhone going to its own sub-forum also.

Tom Dunne

jmccrohan wrote: »

Improve Mobiles & PDA?

Ban drunkmonkey.

Please keep the posts relevant.

Columba Rad

I'd like to see a new unlocking Q's thread. The current one is over 5 years old. People are always asking the same questions over and over again, most posters are too lazy to search the thread because it's so long.

A new thread with updated information in the very first post should be implemented, this thread should also link to the old unlocking Q's thread, so posters can search it first before they ask a question which may have been asked before.

I'd be more than happy to provide updates for the thread so that a mod can edit the first post with the latest information on unlocking mobile phones.

Sam Vimes

i still think the settings sticky needs work. there's a lot of information there for how to set up email and older handsets, stuff that almost no one needs but they don't know they don't need it and so don't know what to look for. it can be quite difficult to follow


something like this would be better:
http://powermyphone.com/gprsmms.php
written by me of course
straight and to the point with guides for how to enter the settings. btw Random, you should add the below to that page. it's how to set up vodafone isp on an S40 nokia that i'm always asked


settings->configuration->personal configuration settings->add->access point

account name: vodafone isp apn
go into access point settings
data bearer:gprs
go into bearer settings
GPRS access point:isp.vodafone.ie
authentication type:normal
username:vodafone
password:vodafone

settings->configuration->personal configuration settings
highlight vodafone isp apn and press options->activate

settings->configuration->activate default in all applications->yes

then if you want your browser to use isp as well as java apps:
**************
settings->configuration->personal configuration settings->add->web
account name: vodafone isp
homepage:http://google.ie/pda
username:vodafone
password:vodafone
use preferred access point:yes

settings->configuration->default configuration settings
highlight vodafone isp and press options->set as default
settings->configuration->activate default in all applications->yes
***************

Rsaeire

If required, I can provide the handset APN settings for the following versions of Windows Mobile handsets:

- Windows Mobile 2003 SE Smartphone
- Windows Mobile 2003 SE Pocket PC Phone Edition
- Windows Mobile 5 Smartphone
- Windows Mobile 5 Pocket PC Phone Edition
- Windows Mobile 6 Standard
- Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional

Keano

Sticky for what phone should I get and another for all things iphone - that really seems to be cover most of the threads around here.

besty

Again to reiterate much of the above, an iPhone subforum would really clear up the Mobiles & PDA forum IMO. Other than that, I'd agree that a new unlocking thread would probably not go amiss.

TrueDub

besty wrote: »

Again to reiterate much of the above, an iPhone subforum would really clear up the Mobiles & PDA forum IMO.

Have to agree with this one - it seems to be the easiest way to tidy things up!

JTMan

An iPhone sub Forum.

Seriously.

Walkman

I think everyone who uses this forum on a regular basis will agree an iphone sub forum is needed. Also sub forums per network would be good IMO.

Tom Dunne

I know the moderators said we would keep out of this discussion, and we are, but to those of you requesting an iPhone forum, I draw your attention to the link in my signature.

That's all.

nava

Hi

For sure an Iphone subforum.

Maybe a good idea will be subforums per brand (5 top brands) or a sticky with the FAQ by brand.

As mention by gpjordanf1 with separate sections.

Mr Bloat

I think an iPhone sub-forum would be a mistake, to be honest. As most people probably would agree, the iPhone questions are the same ones, over and over. A sticky would cover most of them and would cut down on the amount of posts.
If the iPhone gets it's own forum, it's just going to be swamped by the same repeated posts and there could be very little in the way of meaningful content.
Also, breaking this forum into sub fora to cover many flavours of provider and/or brand plus other topics could get very messy. I also read the games forum and that's a pain in the rear to navigate as there are half a million sub fora in there. Maybe an initial breakdown by network provider or the more popular brands but I'd stop short of separate fora for new phones/tarriffs/deals/etc.

Ah-Watch

Mr Bloat wrote: »

I think an iPhone sub-forum would be a mistake, to be honest. As most people probably would agree, the iPhone questions are the same ones, over and over. A sticky would cover most of them and would cut down on the amount of posts.
If the iPhone gets it's own forum, it's just going to be swamped by the same repeated posts and there could be very little in the way of meaningful content.
Also, breaking this forum into sub fora to cover many flavours of provider and/or brand plus other topics could get very messy. I also read the games forum and that's a pain in the rear to navigate as there are half a million sub fora in there. Maybe an initial breakdown by network provider or the more popular brands but I'd stop short of separate fora for new phones/tarriffs/deals/etc.

If it were in a sticky- which I dont mind ,if anyone decided they were lazy enough not to read it and open a thread with an already answered question in the sticky, the OP should be whacked with a ban, thats the reason that theres so many different threads, people are too lazy to look for the answer!just my opinon

Sam Vimes

Ah-Watch wrote: »

If it were in a sticky- which I dont mind ,if anyone decided they were lazy enough not to read it and open a thread with an already answered question in the sticky, the OP should be whacked with a ban, thats the reason that theres so many different threads, people are too lazy to look for the answer!just my opinon

this is true. there is already iphone information in one of the stickies:
http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=58418545&postcount=2
but people still post asking the same questions. at least with its own forum i wouldn't have to look at them

and it'd make them easier to search because they wouldn't be mixed in with non-iphone threads and the non-iphone threads wouldn't be swamped any more

iphone forum ftw.

and make sure Random is the main mod of it. he loves iphones :P

Ah-Watch

Sam Vimes wrote: »

this is true. there is already iphone information in one of the stickies:
http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=58418545&postcount=2
but people still post asking the same questions. at least with its own forum i wouldn't have to look at them

and it'd make them easier to search because they wouldn't be mixed in with non-iphone threads and the non-iphone threads wouldn't be swamped any more

iphone forum ftw.

and make sure Random is the main mod of it. he loves iphones :P

OK I'm back on the idea of a iphone forum ha, I'd never make a good mod anyway, I'd smack people with a ban for not bothering to read through the forum for their answers and creating a new thread. Iphone forum FTW!!!!!!

Columba Rad

Ah-Watch wrote: »

If it were in a sticky- which I dont mind ,if anyone decided they were lazy enough not to read it and open a thread with an already answered question in the sticky, the OP should be whacked with a ban, thats the reason that theres so many different threads, people are too lazy to look for the answer!just my opinon

The unlocking thread has that problem. The same questions are asked over and over again, I'd say for every question asked on it there are 10 answers to that question already posted...

Davy

Sam Vimes wrote: »

at least with its own forum i wouldn't have to look at them

Sounds good to me :pac:

Mr Bloat

Whether there's a forum split or not, there will probably be changed or additional stickies. +1 to the idea of a ban to anyone who doesn't search for an answer themselves before posting a question.

long_b

What about a dedicated user review threads.
Maybe with a [Review] tag so you can easily search for them ?

Handsets, software, peripherals.
Not network operators !
With no back and forth maybe, just how you've found the item as a user.

TheAlmightyZeus

iPhone subforum gets a thumbs down from me. I dont see it making things any easier other than the mess of threads will have their own subforum. Giving the iPhone its own subforum isn't really dealing with the problem of the constant duplicate question threads but just moving them somewhere else. A dedicated iPhone forum is just asking for people to post their problems without searching.

If a mod could put an announcement at the top of this forum directing all posters with iPhone questions to a iPhone sticky FAQ, (every question that has ever been asked about the iPhone has to be in there!) then I think it should be sorted.

Other than that.. Annual Costume Party! Come as your favourite mobile/PDA!

Rsaeire

I agree that an iPhone sub-forum is required. I understand that there is a sticky with the answers to practically every question frequently asked, but for those who have new questions and for everything else iPhone related, a sub-forum is desperately needed.

With regard to the duplicate posts that the moderators need to close, it would be much easier to deal with these in a sub-forum and this would deal with the issue more effectively.

Random

Right, so the iPhone forum has happened now (see the other sticky at the top of this forum).

Can we move toward suggestions to improve Mobiles & PDAs as a whole now without iPhone threads etc?

kaimera

would tags work in M&PDA?

op tags - o2/vfe/met/3 perhaps?

Davy

kaimera wrote: »

would tags work in M&PDA?

op tags - o2/vfe/met/3 perhaps?

Dont think so tbh, in bargain alerts they didn't go down very well. Doesnt seem like an advancement imo

Rsaeire

kaimera wrote: »

would tags work in M&PDA?

op tags - o2/vfe/met/3 perhaps?

I'd like to see this too. Tags in colour and in bold would look really good.

drunkmonkey

jmccrohan wrote: »

Ban drunkmonkey.

get back in your box:P

Random

drunkmonkey wrote: »

get back in your box:P

Right, I'm gonna give you that one.. he probably deserved it .. now keep on topic or get infracted!

Random

Gotta start making moves on the feedback received here. You've got your iPhone forum now

I'm gonna try make some moves on the FAQ. Any thoughts on that? I'm thinking 2 stickys:
- Charter
- FAQ

And then in the FAQ we can break it down in different sections
- Internet / MMS on your phone
- Phone Unlocking
- Voicemail
- Premium Texts
- Third Party Applications

Any more thoughts?

Tom Dunne

When I was Mod of the Laptop forum, we used to get a lot of "Recommend me a laptop" - that was it, no detail, no intended use, etc. I see a few threads like that here. So, how about a "info required when asking for phone recommendation" sticky?

drunkmonkey

good idea but who reads the sticks before anyone points them out..

Recommend me a phone?

"Oi YOU READ THE STICKY"

can't see it working, gread idea for an app though....

Tom Dunne

drunkmonkey wrote: »

good idea but who reads the sticks before anyone points them out..

Recommend me a phone?

"Oi YOU READ THE STICKY"

can't see it working, gread idea for an app though....

Rest assured, with a gentle nudge from a kindly moderator, people will read the stickys.

Rsaeire

Tom Dunne wrote: »

Rest assured, with a gentle nudge from a kindly moderator, people will read the stickys.

I hope when you say "nudge", it isn't a euphemism for something more sinister, e.g. rhymes with can...?

I do agree with your idea though. A recommend me sticky would be great, as practically everyone uses a mobile phone and would benefit from knowing what information to put in a thread if they're looking for information on what new handset to buy.

Tom Dunne

Rsaeire wrote: »

I hope when you say "nudge", it isn't a euphemism for something more sinister, e.g. rhymes with can...?

Absolutely not.

Coming down hard on somebody over something relatively trivial like that is a sure fire way to get yourself a name as an asshole of a moderator.

Usually, what I used to do was a simple reply along the lines of "Have a quick look over the sticky XXXX and come back to us with the info". I think the lads over on Laptops still do that.

Rsaeire wrote: »

I do agree with your idea though. A recommend me sticky would be great, as practically everyone uses a mobile phone and would benefit from knowing what information to put in a thread if they're looking for information on what new handset to buy.

I found it worked very well over on the Laptops forum. And it sitll does. My legacy lives on....:D

long_b

What about a thread / sticky for phones that are coming up for release by the networks, or even phones that they've confirmed they're not going to carry ?
Might need official network buy in to get useful info here but hey, who else are they going to give it to ?

Columba Rad

Mr.S wrote: »

iPhone sub forum is all thats needed tbh

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=1176

Random

rad, is the offer of an unlocking faq still open? If it is i'll take it from you please

Random

rsaeire - if you have some walkthrough guides for the devices you mentioned on page 1 could you send them on please?

As for the suggestions of tags. Personally i can't stand them. I think they make a forum look complicated and cluttered. I think the main problem we have here is people not using descriptive thread titles. Would it be better if mods edited thread titles to reflect the content more often where a user has failed to do so?

Columba Rad

Random wrote: »

rad, is the offer of an unlocking faq still open? If it is i'll take it from you please

Sure, I'll do up some good info and send it to you asap.

Rsaeire

Random wrote: »

rsaeire - if you have some walkthrough guides for the devices you mentioned on page 1 could you send them on please?

I already have some of them in the handset section on my website with screenshots here, but if you want, I can email you the text based versions instead?

Random wrote: »

As for the suggestions of tags. Personally i can't stand them. I think they make a forum look complicated and cluttered. I think the main problem we have here is people not using descriptive thread titles. Would it be better if mods edited thread titles to reflect the content more often where a user has failed to do so?

I like the idea of moderators editing users’ thread titles to better reflect the actual issue, as sometimes you go to a thread with a random, pardon the pun, title and upon reading through the post you think to yourself “ok, if I knew this post was going to be about that, I wouldn’t have bothered looking here in the first place.”

I still think tags would work in bold and colour, as long as they’re only used for operator related posts. At this stage, I’m sure most people know that orange = Meteor, blue = O2 etc, so it would make it very easy to see what network the post relates to.

Random

any more thoughts on mods editing thread titles from others?

Re those guides, if you could send them on in a vbulliten friendly format (or even pm them to me and i'll copy to the relevant thread down the line). Thanks

I really dislike the idea of multi colour tags but if others have thoughts on it?

Davy

Random wrote: »

any more thoughts on mods editing thread titles from others?

Yes - maybe we could have a standard of titles aswell though:

Put the network first; Phone brand and model next; more detail of problem

Random wrote: »

I really dislike the idea of multi colour tags but if others have thoughts on it?

Down with tags........

Ah-Watch

Davy wrote: »

Down with tags........

+1 they drive me mad, they wont be used correctly and make forums look cluttered!

Random

Right lads, we got a new FAQ here..

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055516939

Give us your thoughts, tell us what's missing / wrong / outdated etc.

Thanks

Jonathan

I'd get rid of this Parachute fella tho.. I hear he is a blow in..


In all seriousness tho. Tom, try to cut down on the amount of name changes.

I dunno how any of the non regulars are meant to know who is who.