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Should we separate forums for the different S3-versions?

I think it would be a good idea. I don't have one but I just visited over there and it's hard to differentiate between carriers. Not everyone says
 
Yes. Seems a lot more orderly the way Android Central has set it up. Though generally the same devices, the carrier radios and different bloat used creates a lot of issues and are tips of icebergs.


I think so much of this, I might add a new nickname and agree again....
 
I agree as well. Everyday I come here to check out info for the Verizon gs3 and I gotta sort through the posts that aren't labeled Verizon. And the Verizon thread is just a list of tracking numbers and status updates.
 
Absolutely. Postively. Yes.

:thumbup:

Edit: other phones do like the S2, so why not the S3 ?
 
I also agree. Looks like the different versions are having different issues. It can be a bit confusing trying to sort it all out.
 
I too find it confusing to traverse the various threads and conversation trying to figure out if the problem/feature is carrier or version dependent. I first look for Location:, but many posters don't bother with a location or a legitimate location. What would be nice is if each title had a [VZW], [ATT], [O2], [US], [INTL] [UK], .... at the beginning, but that would require more discipline than can be expected. So, I reluctantly support the call for separate forums.
 
Yes, I support separating phones by carrier. Although I admittedly find it amusing when people are arguing about things... "I can assure you the option is there if you click the gear thing!" "Look, I just clicked it and it isn't there!!" :)
 
No!

We'd probably have 50% of the thread just be discussions of the same thing in 4 different forums/threads.

What about a way to prepend a carrier tag to the topic subject? Most people wouldn't do that, but there are enough guides to help.

If it's carrier specific, the thread title gets tagged with the carrier.
 
lexluthor said:
No!

We'd probably have 50% of the thread just be discussions of the same thing in 4 different forums/threads.

What about a way to prepend a carrier tag to the topic subject? Most people wouldn't do that, but there are enough guides to help.

If it's carrier specific, the thread title gets tagged with the carrier.
Click to expand...

I volunteer to be a Guide :captain:
 
http://androidforums.com/suggestion-box-feedback/562739-will-there-forum-na-version-s3.html

http://androidforums.com/suggestion-box-feedback/562493-two-different-network-types-same-forum.html

http://androidforums.com/suggestion-box-feedback/535344-galaxy-nexus-subforum.html

This comes up ALL the time. It has been decided that NO is the answer.

I for one stand by that NO whole heartedly. I think it would be detrimental for all of us.

Here are some of my comments:

SUroot said:
Why is everyone obsessed with sub forums for carriers? What the op requested makes perfect sense as the architecture is completely different.
With carriers, there may be slight firmware discrepancies but the devices are 99% the same. This leads to having to have 56,000,000 threads on the same issue as each person who has the issue happens to be on a different carrier. This actually is detrimental to a support forum. It makes supporting and asking for support so much harder.
Click to expand...


SUroot said:
Its been discussed a lot with all the new devices in the "Suggestion box and feedback" forum.

It has been decided that for root, it definitely needs to be separated (although NOT by carrier, by Hardware) and the general will stay as it is.

The phones are 98% the same when it comes to software. If there was a support forum for each, the same issue could be reported 6 - 8 different times and each time someone would have to try and resolve it. You'd end up with people posting support threads 6-8 times, to get maximum visibility of an issue. It just doesnt make sense to change how it is.
Click to expand...

SUroot said:
I'm not GNEX man, so I don't have a lot of say but I wouldn't want to see that convention continued through out every new device forum.

With other devices with which I am more familiar, there is a CDMA version and a GSM version. Although, yes basebands can be different between CDMA versions (A thread for each iteration linked in the sticky), Generally processes and ROMS are interchangeable, therefore many of the issues and pitfalls will be.

I cant help but thinking this is duplicating/triplicating effort. Theres a danger people will only look in verizon all things root and spend time trying to resolve something thats already resolved in sprint. I would have thouht having as much centralised as possible would be the best thing :(

Couldn't it be called "International / GSM - All things root" and "CDMA (Verizon / Sprint) - All things root"? Or a description that explains which are CDMA examples?
Click to expand...

SUroot said:
I don't understand the need to regularly discuss Verizon in a device specific forum. Doesn't much of that fit in the Verizon android carrier forum?

I understand "wheres my update" but what else fits there?

I don't care if you have Verizon, sprint general sub forums but I will fight to the death to avoid the detriment that is carrier specific root forums. What sim card or what cdma configuration the devices have has NOTHING to do with how you root or what roms you need. All that affects that is physical architecture. Sure maybe only one carrier provides cdma and that could be Verizon, there fore the cdma root section could be labelled Verizon to help identify.

I've been skulking ,around root forums for 2 years and will be skulking around them for the foreseeable future. As whatever is decided here will affect all new devices, please understand why I am so passionate about dividing the root forums as little as possible. I.don't think we need to encourage cliques where there is no separation of devices.

Troubleshooting - slight variance in topics but both architectures have more common ground than not

Accessories - are the phones the same shape?

Tips and tricks - see troubleshooting

Root - yes, maybe one sub forum per architecture as drivers, rooting methods and roms will vary.

General - I really don't care. If this is the only place you can discuss how weak the signal on the gnex is with Verizon, so be it. But how do we know its not weak on sprint too?

I.just don't get what type of device specific, carrier specific issues you guys can't find easily
Click to expand...
 
Although I don't know how feasible it would be to do, but another option would be to augment the existing prefixes (which users are required to specify) when creating a new thread:

Current Prefixes
Accessory
General
Support
Tips

S3 Specific Prefixes
Intl
Verizon
T-Mobile
Sprint
AT&T

Something like:

General - S3 Verizon
Support - S3 Intl

Prefixes could be shortened or order changed, but the basic premise still holds.

That would allow all the Samsung Galaxy S3 threads to stay in the same forum, but would allow users to categorize them by specific vendor as well as utilize the 'Filter by:' option already available.

Just throwing it out there.....
 
SUroot said:
http://androidforums.com/suggestion-box-feedback/562739-will-there-forum-na-version-s3.html

http://androidforums.com/suggestion-box-feedback/562493-two-different-network-types-same-forum.html

http://androidforums.com/suggestion-box-feedback/535344-galaxy-nexus-subforum.html

This comes up ALL the time. It has been decided that NO is the answer.

I for one stand by that NO whole heartedly. I think it would be detrimental for all of us.

Here are some of my comments:
Click to expand...

Well put. I was primarily going for hardware differences, and not carrier based. But I see your point.
 
I for one would welcome separate forums. Who cares if the same issue is being discussed in 4 different forums? They are different phones! Would it make the guides job harder? In all honestly, does this forum exist for the benefit of the mods and guides.......don't think so.
I agree somewhat with the points made by those who disagree with my opinion but i bet a vast majority of the "general" membership would vote for separate forums.

Not holding my breath over this issue however...........those in charge seem to only see one side of the coin :(:(
 
lennydude said:
I for one would welcome separate forums. Who cares if the same issue is being discussed in 4 different forums
Click to expand...

The people who have an issue that translates across all the devices but only gets 25% of the visibility it could have had before forums were separated.

The 75% of people trying desperately to resolve an issue for someone, not knowing that the other 25% of people had already solved it and their efforts were in vein.

Seriously, what is the problem with how it is now? Except for a little bit of hardware and modem, the phone software is the same! Its the SAME phone. If I wonder who else is having an issue with the capacitive buttons, I dont just want to know from International GSM users. I want to know from Verizon users, AT&T users because they all have the SAME capacitive buttons.

There is much more to be lost by separating the forums than there is to be gained.

All we need is for people to prefix their posts if its an issue specific (or they think is specific) to a hardware iteration of the device.

There are a million examples of issues that affect all the devices. Having separate forums for each device for the goal of not having to go through more posts is amazingly short sighted.
 
How about we put a poll on this discussion & see what folks think.
 
Why? The poll will do nothing to change the minds of the Admins. It has been discussed and repeatedly discussed on countless occasions. It has been decided and no amount of polling will change that.

I'd actually leave this forum if it did.
 
General consensus is that the phones are the same. Therefore, there is no reason to split it up based on what carrier you are on.


Having the same question on 4 different forums doesn't help anyone.


If you feel differently about this you need to take it up in the correct forum that was linked earlier.
 
I am in the camp of having one general forum and multiple ATR forums. I'm not the one who makes the call, though. That is the admin. I am stating my own opinion here (just to be absolutely clear): The reason is that I don't seen enough differences between the variants to separate them.

The differences seem to be limited to update schedule, screen settings, and network modes. Outside of that, I haven't seen much difference. I've been helping international phone users by directing them using processes I've figured out for my Sprint SGS3.

Overall, people have been doing good to note what version of the phone they have. Also the Verizon version is new. So it seems like there should be separate forums. Give it a month after the full Verizon release and I'm sure things will settle down to be more of the generic support questions.

Also, SURoot, IIRC you and I have discussed merging the ATR forums. Considering everything that has evolved in the ATR forums, I think that's going to be a mistake. We might be able to merge the AT&T with T-Mo USA forums, but definitely not the Sprint and Verizon ATR forums. Sprint has an unencrypted bootloader, Verizon will not, so there are going to be different processes, different ROMs, etc.
 
I would hate to see the general forum split into different carrier subforums, apart from the technical necessity of sub-categorizing the All Things Root forum.

I feel like we in the UK have been waiting for (dare I say even anticipating) our North American cousins to receive their S3s and share in their joy and possibly ease their concerns. If they now keep to themselves because they have already fallen into cliques in their respective 'waiting for verizon, sprint, whatever' carrier specific threads I feel it would be a detriment to all. This could be the largest phone-based online community, period, on the strength of the success of the S3, but to divide and segregate that community would be to diminish the chances of learning from each other, be it culturally or technologically.

And as has already been said, if a solution to a common problem has been found it would be a tragic waste for that solution to be retained within one subforum that is never read by people outside of that carrier's customer base.
 
Just to quickly address the distinction of different hardware versions - there are only three hardware versions of the S3 (if you count the Korean Exynos+LTE+2GB RAM version.) Unlike most phones which are on CDMA and GSM carriers, the US GS3 uses the Qualcomm S4 "MSM8960" chipset, which supports all of the US radio frequencies.

Now, there are software differences within the hardware, as evidenced by the different bloat and Verizon's locked bootloader/permanent wifi toggle notification.

Root/ROMS will likely need to be carrier specific, but otherwise the only differences are between the Exynos and S4 - it remains to be seen whether troubleshooting will turn up carrier-specific problems.
 
jerofld said:
Also, SURoot, IIRC you and I have discussed merging the ATR forums. Considering everything that has evolved in the ATR forums, I think that's going to be a mistake. We might be able to merge the AT&T with T-Mo USA forums, but definitely not the Sprint and Verizon ATR forums. Sprint has an unencrypted bootloader, Verizon will not, so there are going to be different processes, different ROMs, etc.
Click to expand...

We did indeed.

I still think partly it can. I never wanted to see all of them merged. I just want everything that was distinctly the same, to be together. If AT&T can be merged with T-mob, then great :)

Saauron said:
Just to quickly address the distinction of different hardware versions - there are only three hardware versions of the S3 (if you count the Korean Exynos+LTE+2GB RAM version.) Unlike most phones which are on CDMA and GSM carriers, the US GS3 uses the Qualcomm S4 "MSM8960" chipset, which supports all of the US radio frequencies.

Now, there are software differences within the hardware, as evidenced by the different bloat and Verizon's locked bootloader/permanent wifi toggle notification.

Root/ROMS will likely need to be carrier specific, but otherwise the only differences are between the Exynos and S4 - it remains to be seen whether troubleshooting will turn up carrier-specific problems.
Click to expand...


There's:

GSM Exynos (including Korean)
GSM S4 (AT&T/T-mob)
CDMA S4 (Verizon / Sprint)

Although as jerofld mentions about the bootloader, that is probably enough to warrant the separation of those 2 CDMA S4 versions.
 
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