[directory-discuss] To the Directory sysadmins and volunteers

[Svetlana A. Tkachenko]

Hi all.

Today I read a new software supporter issue which mentions the Directory 
meetings. It's full of excitement for the project. I fully appreciate and share 
this feeling (which is why of all things on the planet, I still am on this list 
-- I'm only on two mailing lists after a few months of work on unsubscribing 
from most, and this list is one of them). 

Nevertheless like it was one, two, three, and six months ago, I have the same 
issues about the FSF Directory software. I feel that things would be useful to 
do.

1) Show a countdown on the main page of the Directory, so that I know when the 
meetings _are_. Step-by-step instructions which may or may not be feasible 
(this was unnoticed and wasn't discussed): 
http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/directory-discuss/2015-04/msg00022.html
2) Show a useful search and browse interface, via e.g. 
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Semantic_Drilldown which would appear 
at http://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Special:BrowseData . Example screenshot at 
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/File:Semantic-drilldown-page.gif .
3) Profile the wiki locally as suggested at 
http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/directory-discuss/2015-06/msg00001.html 
because the Directory is so slow to load at times.

I have had a number of unsuccessful attempts to deal with MediaWiki on my local 
computer -- it behaves contrary to my expectations, it's a poorly designed 
piece of software, it's a pain to administrate for me or to work with (or I 
don't have the proper mindset); I am not touching it again and I ask you to 
volunteer for these tasks for the Directory users' sake.

-- 
Svetlana A. Tkachenko
Member of the Free Software Foundation
www.fsf.org  www.gnu.org