# About the overheated 3DS homebrew & emulators forum



## SLiV3R (Jan 4, 2016)

I read that some of the greatest developers at gbatemp dislike the situation in the 3ds homebrew & emulators section. The "real" threads go down to second page in less than one hour. And there are 100s of threads about downgrading, cfw, hacks etc. Most of those stuff should really be in the cfw & flashcart section imo.


Personally I want to read about new homebrew and/or emulators in that forum. And I dont want to browse through 100+ of cfw threads. 

What can be done with this problem?  Or should something be done with all those"spam" threads?


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## SLiV3R (Jan 5, 2016)

I came up with a possible solution. Why don't we start a new subforum. Called something like "CFW, hacks, entrypoints,  downgrading etc."

By doing that we can also remove CFW from the flashcart & CFW section.


Then there would be 3 subforums instead of 2.

- Homebrew & emulators
- CFW, hacks, entrypoints,  downgrading etc
- Flashcarts

That would help everyone involved!  Or what do you think? 

Edit: There are 25 threads on the first page in the homebrew & emulators section. Guess how many contains mainly homebrew & emulators? 25? 21? 15? 3?

This is written January 5th. It may change a little if you look tomorrow or next week. But the answer will still be obvious to anyone


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## Reo (Jan 8, 2016)

There also needs to be a little more strictness about what goes where. Threads about downgrading and other questions shouldn't go into the "Homebrew Development & Emulators" subforum. Tutorials shouldn't be in the "Flashcards & Custom Firmwares" subforum.
I like your idea of having another subforum but it sounds like a general discussion forum so maybe it should have a simpler name.


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## BORTZ (Jan 8, 2016)

I dont know what the rest of the staff thinks, but my personal opinion is that its already too much of a burden for people to post their topics in the right place as it is, and another subforum would only confuse the masses even more. However, I am not the end all for decisions like this.


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## Plochan (Jan 8, 2016)

it is already winding down, give it a week-two and cfw downgrade threads will be few and far between.


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## DinohScene (Jan 8, 2016)

Problem with Nintendo sections here is that it's filled with noobs and fools that flame and spam.
Not to mention people that want to pirate at all costs and want to have it done for them.

Tho having a subforum called "CFW & hacks & downgrading" would clear up a lot.

I can't imagine the horrors the staff has to undergo just moderating that section.
Saw an entire page of deleted replies the other day...


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## p1ngpong (Jan 8, 2016)

This thread is a few days old and in the last few days I have moved dozens and dozens of threads out of the homebrew section into the CFW/tutorial/etc sections they should be in. The problem is n00bs being n00bs and not caring what section they post in and not having a clue where the appropriate place to post is. As Bortz said you could create as many new sections as you want these n00bs will still post in the wrong places. I even considered making a thread telling people to be more careful in what sections they post in but I didn't bother because I know the people at the heart of the problem would never bother reading it so it would just be a waste of my time.

Anyway the current flood of new users should hopefully calm down soon, there has already been a reduction in the craziness. Moving a thread only takes a couple of seconds so if you see something in the wrong place just report it and we will take care of it.


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## SLiV3R (Jan 8, 2016)

p1ngpong said:


> This thread is a few days old and in the last few days I have moved dozens and dozens of threads out of the homebrew section into the CFW/tutorial/etc sections they should be in. The problem is n00bs being n00bs and not caring what section they post in and not having a clue where the appropriate place to post is. As Bortz said you could create as many new sections as you want these n00bs will still post in the wrong places. I even considered making a thread telling people to be more careful in what sections they post in but I didn't bother because I know the people at the heart of the problem would never bother reading it so it would just be a waste of my time.
> 
> Anyway the current flood of new users should hopefully calm down soon, there has already been a reduction in the craziness. Moving a thread only takes a couple of seconds so if you see something in the wrong place just report it and we will take care of it.



Ok. That sounds fair. I hope it will calm down, so my former favourite subforum (homebrew & emulators) will be something like it was during the last half of 2015. As it is today,  I see only disorder and chaos  

But, perhaps this problem is made up by me. Perhaps Homebrew hasn't the same definition as during the nds/psp days. Words do change their meaning/content over time..


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## [Truth] (Jan 8, 2016)

It´s good to hear that moderators are doing their job by moving threads, often it looks like the forums are not moderated at all.

I´m also interested to know if there are any internal discussions about making moderation more strict, hand out warnings because of spamming and posting crap threads, delete threads and ban users.
I know it´s more work for you moderators, but in the long term i think it would make the forums much more enjoyable and useful information can be found quicker.
It´s a pain to read threads, that contain a catching headline, an uninformed and not up-to-date first post and 150 pages of spam, just to find a useful post on page 148.
I think being more strict helps a forum to teach their community some discipline, especially when their users are so young like on this forum.


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## BORTZ (Jan 12, 2016)

There are multiple facets to the problem at hand, Truth. The forums are huge, and we cant sit here and read 147 pages of useless info, nor is it that easy to remove all of the off topic chatter at the same time. As for being more strict, I think that what we are going to have to be, but there is still the issue of some of the new members are young, rebellious, and simply dont care about the rules. Trust me, we are working on it. If something needs modded, report it, please.


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## Jim~ (Jan 13, 2016)

I would like to see a separate forum category specifically for help/support/questions. This would cut down on the clutter in the homebrew and flashcard/cfw forums considerably.


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## Deleted User (Jan 13, 2016)

Jim~ said:


> I would like to see a separate forum category specifically for help/support/questions. This would cut down on the clutter in the homebrew and flashcard/cfw forums considerably.


We have an Ask gbatemp section for all of the questions and stuff.


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## Jim~ (Jan 13, 2016)

Voxel Studios said:


> We have an Ask gbatemp section for all of the questions and stuff.


Uhm... no we don't?

A forum specifically for user support and questions related to 3DS homebrew/hacks/flashcarts/cfw/downgrading/piracy would free up the main forums for actual content.


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## Deleted User (Jan 13, 2016)

Jim~ said:


> Uhm... no we don't?
> 
> A forum specifically for user support and questions related to 3DS homebrew/hacks/flashcarts/cfw/downgrading/piracy would free up the main forums for actual content.


Uhm... Yeah we pretty much do?
https://gbatemp.net/ask/3ds-hacking-questions/


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## Jim~ (Jan 13, 2016)

Tomato Hentai said:


> Uhm... Yeah we pretty much do?
> https://gbatemp.net/ask/3ds-hacking-questions/


I had no idea this section of the site existed  (and judging by the severe lack of questions, I don't think anyone else does either)


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## Deleted User (Jan 13, 2016)

Jim~ said:


> I had no idea this section of the site existed  (and judging by the severe lack of questions, I don't think anyone else does either)


Yeah. I wish it was used a little more often so the main forum isn't flooded with clutter.


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## Jim~ (Jan 13, 2016)

I bet if it was a forum category, people would know about it and use it


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## Ruby Gloom (Jan 13, 2016)

DinohScene said:


> Problem with Nintendo sections here is that it's filled with noobs and fools that flame and spam.
> Not to mention people that want to pirate at all costs and want to have it done for them.
> 
> Tho having a subforum called "CFW & hacks & downgrading" would clear up a lot.
> ...


I'm a regular in the 3DS hacking scene and I don't see a lot of spam. I especially don't see a lot of flame. ( Unless it gets deleted, obviously. ) But, I think there should be stickies for that stuff because it's an endless cycle of people posting their own threads for popularity. Like, " 1 thread is enough, shut the hell up." But, you can't just say that here.  But, I wish they'd get the point.


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## FAST6191 (Jan 13, 2016)

Jim~ said:


> I had no idea this section of the site existed  (and judging by the severe lack of questions, I don't think anyone else does either)


It was fairly well used when it originally hit, following a hack the site was pared back and ask was lost (not that I really minded). It then became one of the more asked for features after that and it was brought back somewhat recently, seemingly to become one of the "asked for but ultimately not very used" forum features we see.

If http://gbatemp.net/new/ is to become the replacement for new threads ( http://gbatemp.net/find-new/threads?recent=1 ) search then I imagine it will become more travelled. Bonus is you can disable certain forums in that search so right now I am having a great time as I can keep up with the rest of the forums* and leave the non ROM hacking 3ds forums to fester.

*post C3 the thing seemed to explode and 8 hours was enough to render the new threads thing not able to go back far enough (and at times the first page of new threads spanned only some 20 minutes) and I had to resort to browsing forum sections, with this I can still see Monday morning.


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## Deleted User (Jan 13, 2016)

Jim~ said:


> I bet if it was a forum category, people would know about it and use it


Glad you found it anyway.


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## SLiV3R (Jan 4, 2016)

I read that some of the greatest developers at gbatemp dislike the situation in the 3ds homebrew & emulators section. The "real" threads go down to second page in less than one hour. And there are 100s of threads about downgrading, cfw, hacks etc. Most of those stuff should really be in the cfw & flashcart section imo.


Personally I want to read about new homebrew and/or emulators in that forum. And I dont want to browse through 100+ of cfw threads. 

What can be done with this problem?  Or should something be done with all those"spam" threads?


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## Alex658 (Jan 14, 2016)

Hi, long time lurker here... 

I'm here almost everyday lurking threads, i do have an account but i'm mostly here to inform myself of all the hombrew, cfw, releases and 3ds discussions in general. Thus, i see almost no need in posting if it's already been answered.

I figured, how about requring a certain number of postcounts before being able to start a thread? Most n00bs are kids that are lazy to search for answers before blatantly ordering you to give it to them on a silver plate. 

What i'm saying is, if you that post count on let's say 100 posts, the person would have to stuck long enough to search for answers (or reply in an already existing topic) so while old threads would get kind of more spam (and that happens anyway) the rest of GBATemp would be cleaner after itself.

What do you think?


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## Deleted User (Jan 14, 2016)

Alex658 said:


> Hi, long time lurker here...
> 
> I'm here almost everyday lurking threads, i do have an account but i'm mostly here to inform myself of all the hombrew, cfw, releases and 3ds discussions in general. Thus, i see almost no need in posting if it's already been answered.
> 
> ...


Maybe 50 posts would be better?


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## Clydefrosch (Jan 15, 2016)

cant we just have really active forums showing like, three times the topics on the first page or so?


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## Attacker3 (Jan 15, 2016)

I agree, without even having a reason to go into the 3DS forums I see that it's cancer and it bugs me.


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## Deleted User (Jan 15, 2016)

How has the 3DS forum been lately? I've been too busy WiiU-ing to notice the 3DS section.


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## zoogie (Jan 15, 2016)

Voxel Studios said:


> How has the 3DS forum been lately? I've been too busy WiiU-ing to notice the 3DS section.


Honestly not as bad as WiiU section for a change. Things have calmed down quite a bit.
Busy, but not insane like that first few days after the Event.


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## SLiV3R (Jan 15, 2016)

Alex658 said:


> Hi, long time lurker here...
> 
> I'm here almost everyday lurking threads, i do have an account but i'm mostly here to inform myself of all the hombrew, cfw, releases and 3ds discussions in general. Thus, i see almost no need in posting if it's already been answered.
> 
> ...



I would say both yes and no to this. Yes. Because as you described,  we would get rid of 100s of spam threads. 

No. Because there are actually some very talented developers that only has like 10-50  post. But it is atleast an idea. Something similar could perhaps be made.

 They have that posting system over at Vgchartz. It's both good and bad...


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## daxtsu (Jan 19, 2016)

I just wanted to say another thank you to the moderators for helping to clean up the 3DS HB Development section. There are still some threads to be moved (probably because they're not reported), but I'll keep on reporting 'em as I see 'em.


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## SLiV3R (Jan 19, 2016)

daxtsu said:


> I just wanted to say another thank you to the moderators for helping to clean up the 3DS HB Development section. There are still some threads to be moved (probably because they're not reported), but I'll keep on reporting 'em as I see 'em.




Haha.  I was just posting the same thing! Thank you, the moderator,  very much for cleaning up so nice!  

There are 8 unrelated threads in the first page that has been moved away. Now I can finally breath again


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## Heran Bago (Jan 19, 2016)

We used to have this section of the site called *Ask GBAtemp*. Small questions went there and really cleaned up both threads and subforums. There was some kind of karma system that really worked for encouraging people to respond helpfully. It was also great for searching when you were sure someone else has had the same problem as you.

It was eliminated in on of the site redesigns. Since then there has been an emphasis on removing helpful parts of the site like releases and the cheat section, and more of a focus on maing the default front page layout increasingly terrible.


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## VinsCool (Jan 19, 2016)

Heran Bago said:


> We used to have this section of the site called *Ask GBAtemp*. Small questions went there and really cleaned up both threads and subforums. There was some kind of karma system that really worked for encouraging people to respond helpfully. It was also great for searching when you were sure someone else has had the same problem as you.
> 
> It was eliminated in on of the site redesigns. Since then there has been an emphasis on removing helpful parts of the site like releases and the cheat section, and more of a focus on maing the default front page layout increasingly terrible.


ASK GBATEMP made a comeback, and is pretty much used as well since v5 though.


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## Heran Bago (Jan 19, 2016)

VinsCool said:


> ASK GBATEMP made a comeback, and is pretty much used as well since v5 though.


Haha shit you're right. It could be more prominently featured or mods could move threads there. I'll do my part to link folks there.

A higher bar of entry could keep posting quality up. Think Sonic Retro where you have to pass a test (to show your knowledgeable about the subject or capable of googling. Or Something Awful's paywall for new registrations, not that I'd advocate a paywall here.


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## SLiV3R (Jan 19, 2016)

Heran Bago said:


> Haha shit you're right. It could be more prominently featured or mods could move threads there. I'll do my part to link folks there.
> 
> A higher bar of entry could keep posting quality up. Think Sonic Retro where you have to pass a test (to show your knowledgeable about the subject or capable of googling. Or Something Awful's paywall for new registrations, not that I'd advocate a paywall here.



If we help each other and report all these threads in a couple of days/weeks. Perhaps all newbies will learn.  Then the most alert problem will be permanently fixed


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## SLiV3R (Mar 2, 2016)

It's been two months since this thread started. The situation is still very, very bad. I understand that this is a difficult situation for the moderators. There is probably no easy solution for this deep infection. 

One suggestion would be to create a [Post your question here] sticky. And remove ALL threads with questions or help me on topic. That would hopefully clean up rather much!

Please?


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## pbanj (Mar 2, 2016)

maybe they could make it so there is a 3ds help section so people can post there for help. they could also make it so you have to be approved to start a thread in the homebrew section. that way homebrew devs can post stuff and it doesnt get clogged up with people posting threads looking for help. i think people get confused as there isnt a clear place to post for help so they just post where they think it goes.


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## AutumnWolf (Mar 3, 2016)

Guy50570 said:


> I honestly think we should enact a reputation system for all members, where your likes, behavior, and everything, and posts go into that number. Post may have some effect, but idk. It's just an idea.


I would like to see something similar to this


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## FAST6191 (Mar 3, 2016)

I would be heavily opposed to a reputation system. Never seen one work well.


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## pbanj (Mar 3, 2016)

FAST6191 said:


> I would be heavily opposed to a reputation system. Never seen one work well.


ya if its a normal thanks type system that doesnt go towards anything, those go fine but the moment it can be used to hurt a user it gets abused.

----------------------------------
the section is really lacking in the sub forum department. look at say xda each phone has a general chat(offtopic area), a help/Q+A/troubleshooting section, then the sections for releasing stuff. sure a random user may post in the wrong section from time to time but its nothing like it is here. i think adding at least the help section and putting a sticky at the top of the other section that if the user needs help to post in the help section would cut down on people posting in the wrong sections. it would also help de-clutter the other sections so people can find what they are looking for. if the mods needed help moving everything i could lend a hand, i use to mod ps3hax(i stepped down), and was an admin on tortuga-cove(before a hard drive crash wiped it out). but something does need to be done as the entire 3ds section is a mess


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## Touko White (Mar 6, 2016)

Perhaps you have to search the forum for what you're looking for, and then you have to say if the post helped you or not before you make a new thread Or something like that.


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## Rinnegatamante (Mar 31, 2016)

Solutions are four:


*"Good" solution: *New subforum for general help.
*"Racial" solution:  *Threads can be opened only by users in a particular usergroup (Developers) instantly and normal users must wait an approvation by moderators.
*"Bye-bye devs" solution: *Rename the "Homebrew Development & Emulators" section in "General Help" section so devs can finally move to wololo.net for their releases.
*"Braindead" solution: *Don't do anything.

I personally think both solution #1 and #2 are pretty good solutions.


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## SLiV3R (Jan 4, 2016)

I read that some of the greatest developers at gbatemp dislike the situation in the 3ds homebrew & emulators section. The "real" threads go down to second page in less than one hour. And there are 100s of threads about downgrading, cfw, hacks etc. Most of those stuff should really be in the cfw & flashcart section imo.


Personally I want to read about new homebrew and/or emulators in that forum. And I dont want to browse through 100+ of cfw threads. 

What can be done with this problem?  Or should something be done with all those"spam" threads?


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## Margen67 (Apr 1, 2016)

Rinnegatamante said:


> Solutions are four:
> 
> 
> *"Good" solution: *New subforum for general help.
> ...


Something tells me they're gonna go with 4...


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## Rinnegatamante (Apr 1, 2016)

Margen67 said:


> Something tells me they're gonna go with 4...



You're absolutely correct since they don't give a fuck about how much forum is clean and readable (since this problem has been reported months ago and they never gave a fuck). They only give a fuck about how much views they get so they can increase ads earnings and having idiots shitposting in wrong threads generate ads views 

Just go watching the first page of Homebrew Development section COMPLETELY full of shitthreads, nice job staff 

EDIT: Bye bye GBAtemp http://gbatemp.net/threads/easyrpg-3ds-rpg-maker-2000-2003-player-for-3ds.419889/page-7#post-6221658


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## FAST6191 (Apr 1, 2016)

Don't let the door hit you.
Also on full of noise then I am not seeing a massive cleanup happen so it was some combination of the following as you posted that

 
Click to enlarge (no sense making everybody download a 1 meg image).

Not the best signal to noise ratio but pretty on point as far as these things go.

Similarly if you think this place is about views and ads then... well yeah we have to pay for the cocaine somehow.


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## SLiV3R (Apr 1, 2016)

I'm just curious how the staff could get the homebrew section so totally out of control?

And Rinnegatamante is one of the best and most important developers at gbatemp. So it would be a huge loss if he leaves. Sadly, the staff don't seems to care or take notice about that :/


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## zoogie (Apr 1, 2016)

SLiV3R said:


> I'm just curious how the staff could get the homebrew section so totally out of control?
> 
> And Rinnegatamante is one of the best and most important developers at gbatemp. So it would be a huge loss if he leaves. Sadly, the staff don't seems to care or take notice about that :/


It happened really fast. It seemed like an hour after the first april fools thread there was 15 of them. One unfunny sheep after another.


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## Ev1l0rd (Apr 1, 2016)

SLiV3R said:


> I'm just curious how the staff could get the homebrew section so totally out of control?


Because the span of what the section covers is too wide. As there is no ´Noobs, Get help here´ thread and a rule that forces users to post in those threads if they´ve got issues with their homebrew, everyone just creates a thread when they have issues.

Therefore here's my two cents:

Create a "Beginner support" thread to help new users.
Add to the rules of the Homebrew and Development section that beginner questions (how to downgrade, how to work with browserhax) must be posted in the "Beginner support thread".
These are at least the rules on /r/3dshacks, and it seems to work there.


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## Santaros (Apr 1, 2016)

I think that the only real viable solution is, as has been mentioned already, to instigate a no thread creation until X number of posts policy. Noobs will just keep flooding in and will of course shitpost without reading anything, regardless of how prominent or visible the messages advising against what they're doing is.


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## Ev1l0rd (Apr 1, 2016)

Santaros said:


> I think that the only real viable solution is, as has been mentioned already, to instigate a no thread creation until X number of posts policy. Noobs will just keep flooding in and will of course shitpost without reading anything, regardless of how prominent or visible the messages advising against what they're doing is.


A no thread creation might also deter those that need genuine help with their device. 

 A (stickied) support thread or help section + the rule to force posting in that section/thread is more useful than preventing them from getting their requested support. (Also, noobs will start shitposting in threads to get around the limit.)


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## xtheman (Apr 1, 2016)

They won't mod a post of user until they have so many posts. I already asked on the site discussions. They said it will add more work which is true and I wouldn't want them to work harder. (Though it would nice). Maybe adding the 3ds ask section as a sub forum for the main 3ds forum will help. Also the part of modding post is pointless since you know if it was just a question then why would a mod disapprove it? It would mean the guy/girl never gets their question answered


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## Minox (Apr 2, 2016)

zoogie said:


> It happened really fast. It seemed like an hour after the first april fools thread there was 15 of them. One unfunny sheep after another.


The problem with the 1st of April is that you have to let people have their "fun" and then you get to clean everything up afterwards. There is little to no point to deal with these posts today as people will just get upset.


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## Ann0ying (Apr 19, 2016)

Please, do something about it guys/gals, it started to hurt scene already.


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## Feeling it! (May 16, 2016)

SLiV3R said:


> I read that some of the greatest developers at gbatemp dislike the situation in the 3ds homebrew & emulators section. The "real" threads go down to second page in less than one hour. And there are 100s of threads about downgrading, cfw, hacks etc. Most of those stuff should really be in the cfw & flashcart section imo.
> 
> 
> Personally I want to read about new homebrew and/or emulators in that forum. And I dont want to browse through 100+ of cfw threads.
> ...


I agree with you and sadly I was apart of this same problem by being the cause........so I am just going to try sticking to 1 thread instead of making hundreds of shitposts to ask things.


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