Frequently Asked QuestionsGeneral QuestionsContent Questions
Technical Questions
Answers To General QuestionsWhat is Peoples Archive?Peoples Archive is a company dedicated to filming for posterity the detailed life stories of the world's greatest thinkers, creators and achievers exactly as they remember it. The people whose stories you watch on this site are leaders of their field, whose work has influenced and changed our world as we know it. For more information on Peoples Archive, please visit the About us section of the site. Back to other general questions How do I watch the stories?Click here to view our three-step guide to getting started with Peoples Archive. Back to other general questions Why should I register?Registration is free and allows you to personalise your access to the Peoples Archive website. You can set bookmarks, store favourites and create playlists which you can choose to either keep private for your own use or make public to share with friends, colleagues, students and other users of the site. Click here for more information on registration. Back to other general questions Answers To Content QuestionsWhy are there no younger speakers?We only film people of a certain age as we want to make sure that we are able to document the story of their life and work in the most comprehensive way possible, so that it can be accurately preserved for future generations. Should one of the people we have already filmed go on to accomplish another extraordinary achievement in their life, and should they wish to - we have the flexibility to film them again, and add it to their existing life story. Back to other content questions Why are there so few women on the site?The reason that there are so few women on the site is not through a lack of trying on our part to approach distinguished women to film. We would love to film as many women as we can, but the fact is that due to the generation we are filming, fewer women were given the same opportunities to succeed as their male contemporaries, and therefore the pool of women we have to choose from is significantly smaller. Back to other content questions Why are there so many scientists rather than people from other fields?Peoples Archive started out as a solely scientific archive called The Science Archive. With time, the scope of the project has widened. We are constantly trying to explore new categories and we welcome any suggestions you may have. Click here to tell us who you think we should film. Back to other content questions How do I suggest someone to film?We value your opinion and are always interested in your suggestions on who you think should appear on the Peoples Archive website. Click here to use our feedback form to make a suggestion. Back to other content questions Will the site continue filming new subjects indefinitely?Yes, Peoples Archive is constantly developing, and with time we will be adding new people to our existing categories, and also introducing new people in different fields of work. We are proud to be creating a perpetually growing archive of not only individuals who have influenced our world with their work, but also to be recording for future generations the intellectual and creative history of our times. Back to other content questions Can I purchase any of the speakers' life stories?Yes. Individual DVD-ROMs for each of our speakers* containing their complete life stories are available to buy from our online DVD-ROM shop. With the Peoples Archive DVD-ROMs:
The DVD-ROMs are compatible with both Windows and Apple Mac OSX. *For legal reasons the Francis Crick footage is unavailable on DVD-ROM Back to other content questions Answers To Technical QuestionsWhat does my computer need to use the site?There are a few minimum requirements for using Peoples Archive and making sure you have these will clear up many technical problems you may have whilst using the site:
There is one other requirement that, whilst not neccessary, will make your experience of Peoples Archive that much better:
My computer doesn't have QuickTime, can I still watch movies?Unfortunately not. In order to watch movies available on the Peoples Archive website, QuickTime is essential. You can download it here directly from Apple. Back to other technical questions I have QuickTime but I still can't watch stories, why?There are a number of reasons you might not be able to view movies even if you do have QuickTime installed:
If this still doesn't solve your problem, then contact us directly to explain your problem and see if we can help. Back to other technical questions What does the "'Click to play' Timeout' error mean when I try to watch a movie?When you watch a story we don't provide a direct link to the movie files on our server. We instead provide a "Click To Play" link that is unique to you, but is only available for a short period of time (roughly 60 seconds). If you do not actually click the "Click To Play" graphic to start watching your chosen story before the link expires you will get the "Click To Play" Timeout error. To resolve the error all you have to do is reload the page in your browser to generate a new "Click To Play" link and make sure you click it quickly. The reason that we do not provide direct links to our movie files is that whilst we are quite happy for other websites to link to the pages of our site that contain the movies, we do not want our movie files to be directly linked to or embedded within pages from other websites without our agreement. Back to other technical questions I tried watching a movie, but I got a 'Too Many Users' error, why does this happen?There are two different kinds of "Too Many Users" error that you may see whilst using the site. Although they all mean that there are too many users viewing stories on the site, each will appear for a slightly different reason. Regardless of the reason the error appeared the solution is to try viewing the story again in a few minutes, at which point there may be less users viewing stories.
Back to other technical questions I tried to register but it said someone else already registered with my email address, what can I do?It might be that you have already registered with Peoples Archive and have simply forgotten your password. In which case refer to our answer to the "I forgot my password, can it be e-mailed to me?" question. However, if you are sure you haven't registered, we ask that you contact us from the e-mail address in question and we will provide additional assistance in setting up your account. Back to other technical questions I now use a different e-mail address, can I change my login?Yes. Login with your old details and visit the update details page in the my archive section of the site. You can change your e-mail address here. Please note however that your e-mail address must still be unique to you, and if someone else has already registered with that e-mail address you will be unable to use it. Should this happen contact us for more assistance. Back to other technical questions I forgot my password, can it be e-mailed to me?Yes. We will e-mail you a new temporary password and when you login to the site you will have to change your password before you are allowed to continue. Click here to fill out the lost password request form. Back to other technical questions Is the payment method for your shop secure?Yes. Our payment system is managed by WorldPay. For more information on this company, visit their website www.worldpay.com. Back to other technical questions |
