Root DroidMod-The Negative Effects

[dmobile5]

Recently, I have seen TONS of posts with people that say just rooted what should I do next? All these people have rooted with DroidMod and now they are "stuck" because they pretty much avoided learning about the ways of Rooting and installing ROM's that are NOT included in DroidMod. Now I am not bashing people that need help with it, just saying that DroidMod doesn't really help people, it just makes people skip over the essential part of Rooting, understanding what you can do with the ability to have superuser access...now on the other side of things...maybe we should have another sub-forum inside All Things Root...Beginner and Advanced so the forum can seperate Beginner Q's from Advanced...again I really hope that I am not rude to some new "root" members just saying that sometimes taking the easy path in life will haunt you...so unless your comfortable for being "confused" about installing ROMS, I would reccommend rooting manually just to get a "feel" for the rooting experience and what you can get from it....Again please don't take this the wrong way, I'm not trying to be mean to anyone just stating my thoughts and opinions.

 

[cookiemonster79]

I think something like DroidMod helps two main groups:

1) People who understand the concept and the point of rooting, but are too worried about screwing up a manual step. Having an "easy" way helps them root.

2) People who understand the concept, and probably can handle the technical aspect, but are just too lazy. Sort of like your math teacher showing you the manual method -- forget that, I want to use my HP or TI calculator.

I recall someone posting a statement that summed it up very well -- if you don't understand how to root, or why you need to do it, then you probably shouldn't do it.

Since DroidMod makes it so easy, they really should have a prominent section of their website targeted to help people understood rooting, and more importantly help them determine a simple question I often seen on this forum -- why should I root?

At the end of the day, if you educate a person and they decide not to do it that is not really a bad thing. As Android becomes more popular, it attracts a wider range of users -- no need to end up giving anyone a negative experience.

 

[johnlgalt]

The problem with the GUI - the problem with most things that just do it for you.

It's the world we live in - people don't want to learn the basics, the theory behind the application - they just want it done.

I am a non-traditional Comp Sci and Math major at a local university, and one particular professor has a really *good* habit of delving into the how and why in his classes - Cal III, Complex Variables, Statistics, Probability, and Discrete Mathematics. Invariably, in his class, there is the age old question - "Can you show us an example, b/c we don't understand all that mumbo-jumbo you're doing up there on the board?"

They fail to realize that if they attempt to understand the underlying theory, they can solve any problem that makes use of the application of said underlying theory.

Same holds true for people everywhere - society today is chock full of people that don't care about the how and why, they just want it done.

As long as we keep making things easier for people they will keep coming back with these sorts of questions = and for the exact reason that the OP mentions.

 

[snake_fist_gung_fu]

and here we go.... People wanting to feel superior because they rooted by a terminal. Who really cares how you got root the only thing that matters is that you have it and it kicks ass. Here's a thought help out your fellow man and show him what to do next after root. You will be teaching a man to fish and he will also be able to help someone else because of you.

 

[dmobile5]

I'm not feeling superior in anyways it just that I have a friend who rooted with DroidMod and he feels that he is totally clueless about what is going on...and I told him that he should learn the basics of rooting before messin around with his phone and now about a week later, by rooting manually, he knows the basics and is getting better daily

 

[johnlgalt]

You're missing the point - it is not about feeling superior, it is about preventing a large scale mass infusion of "What do I do now?" posts specifically because they used a tool that does it all for them.

Thankfully I *did* root before knowing about SMupdater / DMUpdater. I tried to brick my phone because I went in with Astro, deleted older Nandroid ROMs (and accidentally deleted my backup) and then wiped my Data and Cache files and tried to restore - with nothing in the folder.

Some quick thinking on my part allowed me to extract the ROM I wanted into a folder in the adb directory and push the entire folder to my phone - leaving me down for all of 10 minutes, and without panicky posts on here on "What do I do now?"

The OP makes a valid point, in fact a couple of them, and the responses are also thought provoking, as well. Although I don't see folks coming in here and actually posting in the correct forum, nevertheless it will still probably be a good idea to separate advanced rooting topics from beginner questions and help....

I'm not feeling superior in anyways it just that I have a friend who rooted with DroidMod and he feels that he is totally clueless about what is going on...and I told him that he should learn the basics of rooting before messin around with his phone and now about a week later, by rooting manually, he knows the basics and is getting better daily

Exactly. If I hadn't learned it for myself (albeit with tons of questions and general fear when I first started) I wouldn't have been able to solve my own problems - and now hep others.

 

[messenger13]

Who really cares how you got root the only thing that matters is that you have it and it kicks ass.

If nobody cares how I got root, how come I get PMs every day from people that need technical advice??? I guess from now on I'll just point them at the DroidMod app. If that can't solve their problem, then screw em!

 

[cruud]

I took the time to learn what was going on. I prefer the convenience though now, I don't want to spend a lot of time rooting. Freakin luddites

 

[droidpcguru]

I started with SMupdater because I was intimidated by the rooting process..but once there I experimented around and learned what I "should" know fairly quickly. So for me, the all-in-one updater was a jump start

 

[johnlgalt]

If only more were like you, D-PC....

 

[droidpcguru]

Maybe so.. One thing I have to agree is that the updater leaves it a bit too easy for those who just want the easy way out. Then they find out the hard way that the updater is one of the few apps out there that does all the work for you. One of the best pieces of advice I can give to anyone starting out with the updater is to actually look around and do a bunch of reading before just jumping in and asking questions that have been answered many times over I saved myself a lot of embarrassment by doing just that

 

[alex2010]

Thanks for all post member. It’s true some new don’t understand what this is. We want learn about this. So any body help?

 

[milrtime83]

"Why should I root?" and "I've rooted, now what?" are basically the same question at different stages in the process. I don't know that they "avoided learning about the ways of Rooting and installing ROM's" as the OP put it but using Droidmod is easy so they just do that and then ask the second question instead of the first.

The response to either of the questions is really..."I don't know, what do you want to do?"

I personally rooted so I can change my notification bar and icon colors, change the clock color, add the 2.1 gallery, wifi tether, etc. If you don't want or care about any of those things the simple answer is that you don't need to root. At some point you may say "I wish I could....." and can't. You've just found your reason to root.

 

[Timaphillips]

Quit your bitching. Nobody is more deserving of a special rooted phone because they took long way around town to get to where they were going. Maybe the rest are smarter for taking the short cut. And a proven one at that.

Maybe the OP should be reading posts like, "what do I do next," from a different angle. Maybe these people are actually curious what else is available for them since they rooted. Not everyone is a tech. major or a fly by night programmer.

I think the idea that you don't "learn," anything when you use DroidMod is wrong. In fact, I know more now only because DroidMod (Sholes back then) was made available.

If anything, maybe we should start a subforum for those who just wanna bitch that there's more people in the rooted party now.

 

[alex2010]

[FONT=&quot]Thanks for sharing. I’m already read this Article. It’s nice to know more![/FONT]

 

[UBRocked]

Quit your bitching. Nobody is more deserving of a special rooted phone because they took long way around town to get to where they were going. Maybe the rest are smarter for taking the short cut. And a proven one at that.

Maybe the OP should be reading posts like, "what do I do next," from a different angle. Maybe these people are actually curious what else is available for them since they rooted. Not everyone is a tech. major or a fly by night programmer.

I think the idea that you don't "learn," anything when you use DroidMod is wrong. In fact, I know more now only because DroidMod (Sholes back then) was made available.

If anything, maybe we should start a subforum for those who just wanna bitch that there's more people in the rooted party now.

What's Root?

I don't want to get knee deep in this conversation again but the people posting in this thread have conversations everyday on this forum answering the same questions and trying to help people who thought they would get root and the skies would part...and a better phone experience would rain down on them. People use the droidmod app but then don't even have a clue what Nandroid or Recovery is. They are going to have to learn all of that information anyways so I get the "who cares how you root" argument now.

Having said that, it is like jumping off a cliff without putting the parachute on until you are ready to pull the chute open. Wouldn't it be a smoother ride if you were wearing the parachute BEFORE you jumped?

It just seems that it is twice as hard to explain things to people when they are halfway into it without having a clue...It's just simplier to start from scratch...for the people rooting and the people who are trying to help them.

 

[johnlgalt]

Recently, I have seen TONS of posts with people that say just rooted what should I do next? All these people have rooted with DroidMod and now they are "stuck" because they pretty much avoided learning about the ways of Rooting and installing ROM's that are NOT included in DroidMod. Now I am not bashing people that need help with it, just saying that DroidMod doesn't really help people, it just makes people skip over the essential part of Rooting, understanding what you can do with the ability to have superuser access...now on the other side of things...maybe we should have another sub-forum inside All Things Root...Beginner and Advanced so the forum can seperate Beginner Q's from Advanced...again I really hope that I am not rude to some new "root" members just saying that sometimes taking the easy path in life will haunt you...so unless your comfortable for being "confused" about installing ROMS, I would reccommend rooting manually just to get a "feel" for the rooting experience and what you can get from it....Again please don't take this the wrong way, I'm not trying to be mean to anyone just stating my thoughts and opinions.

The OP was doing anything but bashing and bitching. The rest of the posts here were very even keeled a well. In fact, the only two posts 'bitching' were the two aimed at bitching the OP and anyone supporting his POV....

 

[Timaphillips]

How about we just make the search button 10x the size it already is. That would solve a lot of these headaches.

 

[UBRocked]

The OP was doing anything but bashing and bitching. The rest of the posts here were very even keeled a well. In fact, the only two posts 'bitching' were the two aimed at bitching the OP and anyone supporting his POV....

I guess it is easier to criticize when you are not helping these droidmod folks out. I see johnlgalt and many others on here EVERY DAY helping people in these "now what" situations. When these people helping others (not paid for the help...just because they want to) offer some advice in the terms of saying the easy way may leave some people MORE confused, the criticism starts. If your willing to be on here at all hours of the day and night helping recurring problems...they should be able to voice that opinion and maybe save themselves a few hours of repetitive work for the benefit of everyone. How can you argue with that?

 

[alostpacket]

Dunno, I rooted the old fashioned way (with a pitchfork and 3 slabs of butter) and I use DroidMod, it's a nice ROM -- simple as that. It's got the apps and overclocking and stability I want without a fugly theme.

If anything, the only problem is the updater being on the market. It's almost too easy to get at. Though I guess they get more donations that way, which is nice, but they also get some people who aren't fully aware of the consequences.

 

[UBRocked]

Dunno, I rooted the old fashioned way (with a pitchfork and 3 slabs of butter) and I use DroidMod, it's a nice ROM -- simple as that. It's got the apps and overclocking and stability I want without a fugly theme.

If anything, the only problem is the updater being on the market. It's almost too easy to get at. Though I guess they get more donations that way, which is nice, but they also get some people who aren't fully aware of the consequences.

I liked the pitchfork line I don't think that droidmod's updater is a bad thing...hell, my wife has an unrooted Droid cause this root, rom, theming thing isn't her speed. If she wanted to root tomorrow...I'd probably grab the droidmod updater cause it's quick. That a good thing but like the OP said, there are negative affects when unknowing people find it and think "cool, I'll root my phone now" without knowing what that even means.

 

[alostpacket]

oh yeah, I totally agree UBR, the updater itself is great, but it being out on the market makes it easy to find. which does lead to interesting, uh, results

 

[johnlgalt]

Funny that I did not think about this earlier - I know for a fact that I have seen similar posts on *nix forums as well - OK, I've installed Ubuntu / Debian / FC / Mint / Mepis / Slackware...no what?

Hell, IIRC, Part II of the Gentoo handbook says that almost verbatim. It's rather obvious that having just the tool to simply the process is not enough anymore - there needs to be support, FAQs, documentation....

In a human design and interface class, I learned the shocking truth about writing help manuals (as opposed to technical manuals) - they need to be written at an 8th grade reading level.

8th
grade
level

And we wonder why there is a flurry of "Now what?" posts after an AIO tools is released into the public?

EDIT: added the following

I have got to stop posting while alp does - I keep having o edit my posts to accommodate his replies as well....

 

[alostpacket]

hehe we are certainly a pair of forum junkies, eh?

 

[UBRocked]

Funny that I did not think about this earlier - I know for a fact that I have seen similar posts on *nix forums as well - OK, I've installed Ubuntu / Debian / FC / Mint / Mepis / Slackware...no what?

Huh? See this is where people differ. I am not a linux guy so I don't even know what the hell you are talking about here! I am a windows guy so I know that OS but if I wanted to get into the "Ubuntu" world, I would HAVE to start by figuring out some history on that OS. A quick "all-in-one" installer would leave me without enough knowledge to know what to do if I had problems. Some people don't want to know...but they want the benefits and that's all good...just could put them in a bad place in the future.