Recognized Developer Minimum Requirements

To be able to provide some transparency on how the reviews for RD are rated we’ve set up these minimum requirements. Please understand that the RD program is not just a reward for people that try hard on XDA, it is more than that. Accordingly not just any projects meets the standard of development. We will use these minimum requirements with enough room to budge if the circumstances require this, but please use a somewhat critical view of your projects, and only apply if you have at least met these requirements.

Make sure you uphold the RD code of conduct and the regular XDA rules. Should you have infractions on your account, contact the Developer Committee if you want to know if you are eligible to apply. As a general rule of thumb, wait one month per infraction point before applying, and can’t accept members with more than 10 points to their account. Of course exceptions may be made but contact us if you have a question about this.

All Projects

Members must be actively involved in the community
Team accounts can’t receive the RD title. It’s a program which rewards developers for their individual work and team accounts don’t fit that idea.
A minimum of two full-fledged, markedly different projects are needed to apply for RD, only very special projects are considered otherwise
Any project needs to have at least three months of active development before it will be taken into account for the application
No history of bans and/or serious infractions
Changelogs must be readily available inside the thread, with updated information for each version
Feature lists and changelogs need to be free of blurry expressions like “tweaked ext4 performance” and other meaningless terms. Instead it should be explained what was done in detail and why it was done

ROM

They started from an official manufacturer or source base (stock ROM or AOSP-like source).
Threads show a clear overview of changes made, in a way that DC can clearly see what has been developed by the user
The ROM isn’t the product of an online kitchen or otherwise derivative development (i.e. themed stock ROM)
ROMs need to identify what kernel they are using
- If 100% stock then they must state that
- If custom they must provide a link to the kernel on XDA (if available) or a link to the kernel source. To accomplish this there are two options:
  - Option 1: They provide links to suggested kernels but do not include them in the ROM
  - Option 2: They include the kernel but must provide full, buildable source with all GPLv2 requirements met

Apps

Very simple applications may be excluded (very basic UI or functioning)
A free version of the application is available on XDA (no trials)
The developers are either active on XDA or really helpful in their support thread

Kernels

Sources must be posted and downloadable with build comments, toolchain used, and must compile
Sources must be released via forking + commits rather than “lump releases”
Link to source must include which branch in use

Guidelines:
In order to make sure the DC is able to find the information we need make sure your threads hold all the information necessary. Here’s a list of things we like to see.
Threads should include:

Clear introduction
An overview of what the project does (i.e. its purpose) and what is included
2-8 screenshots that are posted alongside each other
A clear changelog in a [code][/code] or [list][/list] tag, that shows the non-trivial updates to the project
Installation instructions and links to download and github (or like services) for source code, as applicable
Credits with links to the projects that have been built upon, or have been included, in this project
Provide a check sum if you can (md5, sha1 etc.)
The DC set up a template thread which highlights the important parts for most project threads. Try to follow this template to have an organized and clean thread. You can find the template thread here.

Recognized Developer Minimum Requirements

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