User forum
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This page includes some basic information on the AtoM User Forum, Artefactual's support policy for the Forum, our Code of Conduct, and some suggestions for information to include when making a support post, so we can get back to you with useful answers.
Contents
- 1 What is the AtoM User Forum?
- 2 Who can post in the forum?
- 3 How can I register for the AtoM Forum?
- 4 Why isn't my post showing up in the forum?
- 5 Is the forum just for technical support?
- 6 What is Artefactual's policy on support in the forum?
- 7 Code of conduct
- 8 What should I include in a support post?
- 9 Tagging your support post
What is the AtoM User Forum?
The AtoM User Forum is the main place where users come to seek help, make announcements, share resources, and discuss issues relevant to the software and the community. Whether looking to troubleshoot an issue, share some good news, connect with other users, or ask a question, the User Forum is the best place to get interactive feedback from other AtoM users and developers.
Artefactual, the lead developers of AtoM, moderates the user forum, and we try whenever possible to post responses to straight-forward user questions within 48 hours of their posting (during M-F business hours - we are in the Pacific time zone). See below for further details on our support policy.
Who can post in the forum?
Anyone is welcome to join, but due to a mass influx of spambots, we now require registration to be able to post in the AtoM User Forum. Otherwise, there is no cost or barriers to joining the conversation. All you need is an email address, a google account, and an interest in AtoM. The forum is open to both amateurs and experts; archivists, system administrators, and developers - and more!
See the section below for registration instructions.
How can I register for the AtoM Forum?
Because we are using the freely provided forums hosted by Google, you will need a Google account if you don't already have one. First, navigate to the AtoM user forum:
If you are not currently logged into your Google account, you will see a sign-in option at the top of the page:
Click this button - the next page will give you the options to either sign in to an existing account, or create a new account if you don't have one. Sign in or create an account, and follow the prompts
Tip
Did you know? You can create a Google account with an existing email address, even if it's not a Gmail address. For all general information on creating a google account, see Google's resources:
When you next return to the AtoM User Forum and are logged into your Google account, you will now see a button next to the forum name:
Click the button, and a pop-up will appear. Please provide a display name for your forum posts, configure your preferred subscription message delivery, and provide a reason for joining.
Important
You MUST provide a reason for joining so we know you are not a bot - if you are unsure what to write, you can write "Access to Memory" in the field.
Your request will be submitted to the forum maintainers for review. Please be patient as we review requests!
Once you have been approved, your posts will also be moderated for the first month - meaning there will be a delay between when you post and when the post is delivered to other members and visible in the web forum. We apologize for the inconvenience but this is the only way for us to avoid an influx of bots.
If you have any issues, and/or you feel that your request has been rejected in error, feel free to contact us at info@artefactual.com, and we will investigate!
Why isn't my post showing up in the forum?
Are you a new member who has joined the AtoM User Forum in the last month? If so, your posts will be moderated at first, to prevent spam from being sent to all our members accidentally. We apologize for the inconvenience! Odds are good that your post will be visible soon, once it has been reviewed by our moderators. If we reject your post, you will receive a message - otherwise, it's still in the queue
If you have any issues, or it's been a very long tim, and/or you feel that your request has been rejected in error, feel free to contact us at info@artefactual.com, and we will investigate!
Is the forum just for technical support?
No! Though many people post in our forum looking to troubleshoot an issue, we encourage users to share success stories, strategies, resources, workarounds for known issues, and thoughts related the cultural heritage community. Let us know about AtoM-related events in your area; help spread the word about a new AtoM site; make plans connect with other AtoM users at upcoming conferences and events; talk about your ideal workflow and features you'd like to see in a future release. The forum is only as interesting as you help to make it!
What is Artefactual's policy on support in the forum?
We are happy to freely provide support to straightforward issues as we are able. In general, if you have a support question, Artefactual will try to post an initial response with some suggestions within the first 48 hours. Remember, we are available Monday-Friday, 9am-5pm Pacific, so if your question is posted at the end of the week, we might not get back to you until the following Monday.
This is a freely offered service we provide as we are able, and we hope to see more community users become active over time in answering each others' questions. When we think a particular query is beyond these free support parameters we will inform the user that it may be necessary to address it as paid, commercial support. Examples include questions that are too in-depth and time-consuming to investigate and answer or questions that involve unsupported tools or platforms. Please keep in mind that we have to prioritize our client assignments so that we can pay our bills and continue to provide free software and free community support.
Tip
If you are interested in commercial support from Artefactual, please see our website for the services we offer.
Please be patient, and always be respectful. If for some reason we have not responded to your question within the initial 48 hour period, please do not repost your question as a new Topic. If you don't receive a response to your question within a week, then it is appropriate to "bump" your Topic by adding a new message in the thread. Thanks!
Note
Spamming the User Forum with marketing materials or other irrelevant content will result in immediate expulsion. Additionally, please read the Code of conduct included below.
Code of conduct
As contributors and maintainers of AtoM, we at Artefactual pledge to respect all people who contribute through reporting issues, posting feature requests, updating documentation, submitting pull requests or patches, and other activities, including participating in our User Forum.
We are committed to making participation in the AtoM project a harassment-free experience for everyone, regardless of level of experience, sex, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, ability, personal appearance, body size, race, age, or religion.
Examples of unacceptable behavior by participants include the use of sexual language or imagery, derogatory comments or personal attacks, trolling, public or private harassment, insults, or other unprofessional conduct.
Project maintainers have the right and responsibility to remove, edit, or reject comments, commits, code, wiki edits, issues, Forum posts, and other contributions that are not aligned to this Code of Conduct. Project maintainers who do not follow the Code of Conduct may be removed from the project team.
If you feel you've encountered instances of abusive, harassing, or otherwise unacceptable behavior, please let us know.
Seealso
This Code of Conduct is liberally adapted from the Contributor Covenant, version 1.0.0, available at http://contributor-covenant.org/version/1/0/0/
What should I include in a support post?
First, please try searching the AtoM User Forum for previous posts that may answer your question. We also encourage you take a look at the AtoM documentation.
If you can't find any documentation or previous Forum posts that are relevant, then please start a new topic on the User Forum, and be sure to include:
- A subject line that briefly describes the problem (e.g. "Error when I try to move my description to another Fonds")
- A detailed description of how to reproduce the problem
- The full error report you see in your browser. The best way to do this is to take a screenshot of the error page, and attach it to your post, or to save the page itself as HTML and attach that
- Which browser you are using (e.g. "Internet Explorer 8", "Firefox 10")
- Which version of you AtoM are using (e.g. 2.1.0, 2.2, ICA-AtoM 1.3.2, etc)
- If you know about your installation environment, telling us more about it can really help! Are you installed on Linux (which flavor?), or are you virtualizing on another OS? What version of PHP do you have installed? Are you hosting your own instance, or using an external hosting provider? Etc.
- What have you already tried to resolve the issue?
Screenshots are always appreciated as it lets us see exactly what you are doing when the error occurs.
Thanks!
Tagging your support post
We have enabled topical tagging in the user forum to help with searching and browsing. If you wish, you can tag your post with keywords - the forum administrators may also add or remove tags later on as we see fit. For more information about what each tag refers to, see User forum tags.