Every week free software activists from around the world come together in #fsf on irc.freenode.org to help improve the Free Software Directory. This recaps the work we accomplished on the Friday, September 2nd, 2016 meeting.

This week's meeting had a special theme of looking at the categories and other user interface elements of the directory. The directory is one of the most frequently visited resources maintained by the Free Software Foundation, often by users who may not be familiar with free software. So we want to make sure the way that it presents itself is welcoming and useful. The first hour of the meeting was dedicated solely to discussing these issues.

johnsu01 pointed out that the categories are based on tags from Debian, and that we need to maintain some conformity to enable ease importing packages. GuiltyDolphin set about to investigate the format for adding new categories. mattl noted that the site currently doesn't work well on mobile. bill-auger found many issues related to how search results and other pages displayed, particularly how text-filled and intimidating they appear. They also called for a clearer interface for downloading packages, since that is why many people come to the directory in the first place.

For volunteers, VictorM wanted a better way to find older entries that hadn't received a recent update. GuiltyDolphin was able to create a search that pulls up the entries and added it to the participation guide, meaning that next week's meeting we can focus on 'Golden Oldies'. For other items discussed, we've put together a good list of things we'd like to see fixed that we can work on in the future.

For the rest of the meeting we set about updating and approving entries, getting a bunch added and filing bug reports for projects with licensing issues. If you would like to join in on the fun, meet with us every Friday in #fsf on irc.freenode.org from 12pm to 3pm EDT (16:00 to 19:00 UTC).

• adns-1.5.1
• binutils-2.27
• dico-2.3
• diffutils-3.5
• fontopia-1.7
• freeipmi-1.5.3
• gama-1.18
• gcc-6.2.0
• glibc-2.24
• gnudos-1.9
• gnuhealth-3.0.3
• gnupg-2.1.15
• gnutls-3.5.3
• guix-0.11.0
• hyperbole-6.0.2
• java-training-wheels-2.8
• parallel-20160822
• xboard-4.9.1

For announcements of most new GNU releases, subscribe to the info-gnu mailing list: https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/info-gnu.

To download: nearly all GNU software is available from https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/, or preferably one of its mirrors from https://www.gnu.org/prep/ftp.html. You can use the url https://ftpmirror.gnu.org/ to be automatically redirected to a (hopefully) nearby and up-to-date mirror.

This month, we welcome Ricardo Wurmus as a new co-maintainer of GNU Guix, Benno Schulenberg as the new maintainer of GNU nano, and Robert Weiner as the maintainer of the new package GNU OO-Browser.

A number of GNU packages, as well as the GNU operating system as a whole, are looking for maintainers and other assistance: please see https://www.gnu.org/server/takeaction.html#unmaint if you'd like to help. The general page on how to help GNU is at https://www.gnu.org/help/help.html.

If you have a working or partly working program that you'd like to offer to the GNU project as a GNU package, see https://www.gnu.org/help/evaluation.html.

As always, please feel free to write to us at maintainers@gnu.org with any GNUish questions or suggestions for future installments.

Join the FSF and friends Friday, September 2nd, from 12pm to 3pm EDT (16:00 to 19:00 UTC) to help improve the Free Software Directory.

Participate in supporting the Free Software Directory by adding new entries and updating existing ones. We will be on IRC in the #fsf channel on freenode.

Tens of thousands of people visit directory.fsf.org each month to discover free software. Each entry in the Directory contains a wealth of useful information, from basic category and descriptions, to providing detailed info about version control, IRC channels, documentation, and licensing info that has been carefully checked by FSF staff and trained volunteers.

While the Free Software Directory has been and continues to be a great resource to the world over the past decade, it has the potential of being a resource of even greater value. But it needs your help!

This week we're having a special theme focusing on improving the usability of the directory. In particular, we'll be discussing updating the categories of software to make finding the software you need easier. We'll also be looking for other suggestions on improving the usability of the site. It's an opportunity to have a big impact in making the directory as useful as possible. So please join us for the discussion, and stick around to help update and add entries to the directory.

If you are eager to help and you can't wait or are simply unable to make it onto IRC on Friday, our participation guide will provide you with all the information you need to get started on helping the Directory today! There are also weekly FSD Meetings pages that everyone is welcome to contribute to before, during, and after each meeting.

Every week free software activists from around the world come together in #fsf on irc.freenode.org to help improve the Free Software Directory. This recaps the work we accomplished on the Friday, August 26th, 2016 meeting.

This week's meeting got off to a great start as there had been many updates during the week that needed reviewing. Many packages had updates and other new ones were added, including Unknown Horizons and GNU Fontopia. adfeno added documentation for their script to the wiki, so now volunteers can have a bit of an easier time checking the packages. The channel also discussed a licensing issue with a game remake and some potentially non-free data, and adfeno set out to file an issue with the project. The meeting also saw the return of jgay, who initiated and previously ran the weekly meetings. He reviewed a bunch of updates in record time, so it was great having his experience and knowledge back at the meeting. GuiltyDolphin updated Shutter, but found some issues with the available categories and user interface with the directory. So the channel decided that next week's meeting will have a theme of looking to improve the categories and other user interface aspects of the directory. juri_ joined in the meeting and announced that they had succeeded in upgrading the license on their project to the GNU Affero General Public License version 3 by contacting each previous contributor, a truly impressive task. The channel caught a small issue with the package in that the license document hadn't been updated yet! We'll be helping juri_ get their project listed in the directory next week, along with many other packages. If you would like to join in on the fun, meet with us every Friday in #fsf on irc.freenode.org from 12pm to 3pm EDT (16:00 to 19:00 UTC).

Join the FSF and friends Friday, August 26th, from 12pm to 3pm EDT (16:00 to 19:00 UTC) to help improve the Free Software Directory.

Participate in supporting the Free Software Directory by adding new entries and updating existing ones. We will be on IRC in the #fsf channel on freenode.

Tens of thousands of people visit directory.fsf.org each month to discover free software. Each entry in the Directory contains a wealth of useful information, from basic category and descriptions, to providing detailed info about version control, IRC channels, documentation, and licensing info that has been carefully checked by FSF staff and trained volunteers.

While the Free Software Directory has been and continues to be a great resource to the world over the past decade, it has the potential of being a resource of even greater value. But it needs your help!

If you are eager to help and you can't wait or are simply unable to make it onto IRC on Friday, our participation guide will provide you with all the information you need to get started on helping the Directory today! There are also weekly FSD Meetings pages that everyone is welcome to contribute to before, during, and after each meeting.