The Directory

[David Melik]

The Directory is an excellent idea, but some people (like me) already put most that info on their profile page. Does The Directory have advantages like will it be searchable? I think if it ends up being on several pages one has to page through it may be a bit inefficient once many people sign up... but I do not know how it will work....

[J. Spencer Rich]

I was wondering about this, myself. How can we add personal info to our page? This seems a much better way to learn about each other than the Directory. Furthermore, I'm having trouble finding the Directory.

[Joe Fulton]

I am certainly open to suggestion on this. The ultimate solution would be to dig into Open Social and write some code for a database of some sort.

[Martin Euser]

A search function for the whole site would be very useful too. Isn't it possible to add a Google search this site form?

[J. Spencer Rich]

There is a search function in the top right. That's how I finally found The Directory again, which is in "groups," not "discussions."

[Martin Euser]

Thanks, I overlooked that.

[Joe Fulton]

The "Groups" category was put into the site to accommodate this "feature". The idea originally came up as an idea from Morten (M. Sufilight). I have no idea why I didn't think of the solution below at that time..."momentary" dumbness, perhaps.

As long as we're thinking about this, perhaps the thinking can be extended to the other "groups" ("Theosophical Groups, Publishers, and Websites) which work the same way and are as equally inconvenient. Ning doesn't provide a ready solution for those types of entries.

[Joe Fulton]

We can update the profile page pretty easily. Currently we only have one question, which is required when you sign up for the site. David Melik pointed out a problem with Catpcha a while back that requires us to have at least one question that requires a coherent answer (to us) so that we know that it isn't a spambot trying to get in. In the period around late Jan - March we had over 40 spambots overrun the site, causing a number of people to leave.

If you would like more profile questions added, please generate a list and feel free to collaborate with others here. We'll be more than happy to modify this page to make it easier for members to search for information about other members.

[Joe Fulton]

The profiles section has been updated with instructions on the front page of the site for current members to update their profiles. In addition there is a sub-tab that allows detailed searches on all fields in the database.