I Need a Little Help

You must be a registered user to make comments, rate, or friend museums. If you are already registered, simply go to the link login located in the upper right corner. If you aren’t already registered, go to the sign up button (also top right corner) and take a minute to provide your user name, email address and password.

Careful, if you’ve already signed up, select login (not sign up)!

You don’t have to register to browse through OpenMuseum, but registering makes it possible for you to comment, rate, friend museums, join in wall discussions, receive announcements from museums you like, and customize your home page so you see more of what you want to see, and less of what you don’t. You also receive the Object of the Week, an object we choose from a different museum each week and send to members in a brief email.

It’s easy to register and we never give, sell, or lend your email address to anyone else.

The log-in link is at the top right of every screen on Open Museum. Click on “log-in” and you’ll be taken to a screen that asks for your email address and password. If you’ve forgotten your password, click on the linke that says, “Forget your password?” and we’ll send you a link via email to reset your password.

If you’ve forgotten your password, click on the linke that says, “Forget your password?” and we’ll send you a link via email to reset your password.

Go to the museum’s home page and scroll down to the lower left sidebar. This is the Friends sidebar. You’ll find a link with a red heart that says, “Friend this museum.” Click on the red heart and you’ll be a friend!

To unfriend, simply click on the grey broken heart near the red one fro friending.

Friending museums helps you customize your home page, so you see more information about museums and collections you like, and less of those you don’t. When you friend a museum the events from that museum will appear on your home page Events feed—that means you’ll know when new objects are added to collections, when other people make comments or favorite objects in the museums, and when other people become friends of that same museum. You’ll also receive announcements from the museums you friend.

Friending and unfriending museums is very easy and doesn’t require a major commitment. Simply click on the red heart to friend a museum, and on the broken heart to unfriend it. It’s as simple as that.

When you click on an object, you go to its display page. If you click on the thumb that appears next to the star in the right side bar, you have favorited that object.

To unfavorite, click on the grey broken star next to the yellow star.

The objects you give stars to appear under Objects in My Public Profile section of your Home.

You can add or omit objects in Objects simply by favorite-ing or unfavorite-ing them.

The 10 or so most recent Happenings automatically appear on your HOME page. Click on “More Happenings” at the bottom of the Happenings list to view more recent events.

To add happenings from more different museums, friends some new museums.

You can modify your notification preferences very easily.

To change museum announcements, go to the any museum you have friended and unclick the box for any announcements you don’t want to receive. (See attached photo.)

You can also set your notifications on a global level by going to HOME (in the navigation bar at the top of the page ), selecting My Account Settings (next to your profile photo) and selecting the tab Email. You can change the email notifications with a simple click and save.

_ My Museums_, found under your profile photo on Home beside the red heart, lists museums you have friended. From “My Museums” you can go directly to those museums.

You easily unfriend a museum at any time by clicking on the grey broken heart.

You must be registered and signed in.

Click on the box “make a comment” and type your text and attach your photo in the drop down browse (choose file) box that appears. Select save. The image is automatically sized to fit and will appear in your post on the wall.

To create a live link in a wall post, put double quotes around the word or phrase you want to be live-linked, followed by a colon. Then cut and paste the entire URL of the page you want to link to immediately after the colon (no spaces in between the colon and the address). There are more formatting tips provided in the “help” link below the comment box.

Remember you can also always edit your comments in Open Museum.

Also remember that wall posts are ephemeral; the wall shows a certain number of posts, and then they slide off the bottom into oblivion, unless a curator chooses to promote them with a gold medal, thereby keeping them at the top of the comment stream as part of the exhibition. You can always delete (but not edit) a promoted comment.

Your personal Wall is located in Home (when you are logged in) below your Profile Photo. Click on My Wall to check or change your permission settings.

The default setting is for any registered user to see or write on your wall. The wall permits any registered members to leave you a note without gaining access to your private contact information, a feature that many members greatly appreciate. Of course, you are free to control your wall settings.

We have never had an issue with inappropriate use of the walls and would greatly appreciate reports of any inappropriate use of a wall if ever they occur. Such activity would be a violation of the terms of service and might result in the member being blocked from the site.

Following is a feature that allows one member to follow another and receive their updates in the Happenings feed on your Home page. In this respect, following a person is like friending a museum. You see what’s new with that person in terms of comments they make, objects they favorite, museums they friend.

If a somebody you are following follows you back then you’ll be Friends. Friends appear in the ‘People’ tab of your profile – and you’ll be able to send them private messages and write on their wall.

See the attached image for more information and the icons that indicate following (1 Mona Lisa) and Friending by reciprocated following (2 Mona Lisas).