Talk:Main Page

Note: if you edit this page, please sign your edit with 4 tildes: ~~~~ Iank (talk) 15:20, 25 June 2018 (EDT)

Salutations in other languages (than English)

What is the general policy on how a user is greeted? It seems to be inconsistent at present, e.g. Dutch=informal, French=formal (main page).

Main page grouped by continents?

Hi , Here Ananth ,

It is Great Moment , I Inspired by Richards Philosophy ,

we need freedom to do some thing ,

Thanks and regards,

Ananth , Kiran Kumar

919985430278

I've noticed two sets of redundant information one set more filled out that the other listing activists and continents/countries/states etc I feel this is a terrible way to organize and really there should only be one set of information.

Also, the list of free software related clubs is not well filled out. Should we put regular old Linux User groups (even some members of them feel the whole GNU/Linux thing is too zealous) or leave a trisquel like policy on groups that are included?

I would like to make the wiki better, but I don't want to end up making it worse.

-Lori Nagel

Content and Purpose

The current event and community project pages are intended for, well events and projects. Apparently there is a conflict between the high traffic main page and suitable placement on other pages, potentially causing an edit war.

Clearly, we need to arrive at an agreement and avoid giving the wrong message to other groups (all parties involved are FSF, I believe). Since the issue is about content, this is a good place to discuss it.

To avoid escalating the situation, I have not removed the event link, but believe the one on the current events page is sufficient. There is no apparent culture here, so we should be careful what foundation we provide. Personally, I am trying to expand the wiki and realize it will take time before other users start exploring it again. However, the LibrePlanet event can assist in this process.

The Libre Planet project is specifically for webmasters to lay down the law and everyone else to comment on it. The Libre Planet group is intended specifically for the FSF to provide resource materials for Libre Planet, group networking, and upcomming FSF events.

The ugly banner I added intentionally focuses on the other pages, to create public awareness because they now have important content.

All I have done has been with the best intentions and ability. If I have offended anyone by my actions, I apologize. Blacky 07:17, 10 February 2009 (EST)

Usability feedback and Groups

When I saw a comment on Talk:GNU Generation, I went looking for the PlayOgg page. What I tried:

1. manually type in http://groups.fsf.org/wiki/PlayOgg - blank page
2. go to Main Page and use browser's find function for "playogg" - not there
3. clicked the "… further results" link at the bottom of the "My Group" box on the front page, then clicked the "500" so that I see all entries; use browser's find function for "playogg" - not there
4. Put "playogg" into the search box in the left-hand side of page - no hits
5. Scrolled down a little on the search results page and saw a "Groups" box, ticked it, and clicked "Search" - still no hits
6. Repeated the previous step but this time I scrolled down further and saw there's a second, separate button for "Advanced search", clicked that - Bingo! Group:PlayOgg

But had I not seen the comment on Talk:GNU Generation, and if I wasn't a regular wiki user, I wouldn't have found it. The failure of the second last step is a MediaWiki usability problem, probably not simple to fix. Some ideas for reducing the other problems:

• PlayOgg should be made a #REDIRECT to Group:PlayOgg, and equivalent for all other groups
• The MediaWiki search facility should include "Group" in its searches by default, instead of just "(Main)"
• Maybe the Main Page should somehow offer quick/direct access to the things/groups people are most likely to come looking for
• Maybe pages like Group:PlayOgg should be in Category:Group so that they appear when people click the "… further results" link at the bottom of the "My Group" box on the front page

Other ideas on improving intuitivity? Ciaran 01:42, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

I agree with all those suggestions. I'd noticed the searching problem as well. I think maybe we can change that in our defaults. For right now, I'll ask about fixing the search, and I'll work on putting the groups into the group category. I'm hoping that Semantic MediaWiki will also help with this, because we will give pages properties that indicate that they are groups. --Johns 16:18, 7 August 2009 (UTC)

The search issue is finally fixed. It will now look in the Group namespace by default, so that should go a long way toward helping people find things. We are also working on adding the [[is entity::group]] property to all the groups. I've added a link to what will be a full Group list to the front page as well. Johns 17:02, 24 September 2010 (UTC)

Where do I list my new page?

I've made this page:

• When should firmware be free

It isn't a group and doesn't need a group to form around it, and it isn't an essay either. It's just part of the wiki - an article, which I'll improve from time to time and I hope other transients will too. Does this wiki have a section for normal wiki pages :-) ? Ciaran 20:23, 9 June 2012 (EDT)

And this page:

• Governments developing free software

Should I make a box on the Main Page for these pages?

Maybe the wiki needs a sitemap? The structure of this wiki seems to be missing something. It doesn't have the organic growth model, or the interconnectedness of other wikis. Is it possible that an over emphasis on Groups is harming the structure? Maybe a mixed Groups+normal_pages model would be better? Ciaran 17:26, 26 August 2012 (EDT)

And this:

• When is digital inclusion good?

. Ciaran 13:55, 4 November 2012 (EST)

Pages I made - happy home sought

I've still no idea where to link to these pages:

• Good and bad licence changes
• When is digital inclusion good?
• Governments developing free software
• Programming in elisp
• Programming in Scheme
• Programming in c
• When should firmware be free
• Projects to free phones and handheld computers

. Ciaran 01:10, 22 January 2013 (EST) (UPDATED)

More navigation problems - bells and whistles could be culprit

I'm back complaining again... :-)

I was looking at this page:

• Group:Free_Software_Foundation/Tasks/ModifyNoScript

and I wanted to look at the pages for the other High Priority Projects. So I trim the URL and try:

• Group:Free_Software_Foundation/Tasks/
• Group:Free_Software_Foundation/Tasks

but find nothing. So I do a search for "priority" and pick the two most likely:

• LibrePlanet:About/Priority_Projects
• Group:Priority Projects

but neither give me any way to find the pages for the other High Priority Projects.

On the home page, nothing springs out at me but I look in "Software Groups". I skim the text and find "software groups category".

When I looked at that page, I realised: this wiki is made by a programmer, not a wiki user.

So here's my annual comment (for 2012) about usability: I can't say I'm a guru (my authority is ruined by the lack of a contributor community on en.swpat.org), but I think that libreplanet.org should have a higher ratio of regular contributors to short-term contributors. The abundance of the latter indicates that lots of people are hearing about libreplanet.org and are interested in the idea and they're willing to make a page about something, but the fact that they don't come back and maintain that page or contribute to other pages means there's something wrong with the site. Maybe it's that the site uses too many extensions and departs too much from what people expect a wiki -and particularly a MediaWiki wiki- to be.

Wikis are pages of editable text where bits of that text can link to other pages and they should, IMO, generally resemble what people are familiar with: Wikipedia. From years of editing wikis, I've seen that contributors tolerate inefficiency, and I suspect that they don't tolerate complexity or surprises. ...but until I've built a wiki with a thriving community, these comments are just one person's thoughts.

Happy New Year! Ciaran 15:16, 31 December 2012 (EST)