Software and Troubleshooting

(See also the tips under “What you should know before you start“)

The AGORA-net software is still in development. As such, some features are missing and the available translations are not yet complete. However, in the spirit of the Open Source philosophy of “release early and release often,” the program is open to use in its current state through the links on the main page.

If you want to discuss a question or problem with other users, sign up for the “agora-net” e-mail list by sending an e-mail to xyz.sympa@lists.gatech.edu.xyz (remove spam protection “xyz” from e-mail addresses; write into the subject line: Subscribe agora-net Firstname Lastname). After that, simply send an e-mail to xyz.agora-net@lists.gatech.edu.xyz.

Some common problems that you might experience: 

1.  If something unusual happens while you are constructing an argument, e.g. text boxes are not properly located, lines are missing, etc.: Click on “Save and Home.” This way you will get back to the entry page where all maps are listed. Simply re-open the map on which you were working. You will see everything that is stored on the server. Keep in mind, every change on your map will immediately be stored on the server after entry. Thus, the button “SAVE and home” is kind of misleading since saving is not necessary. It is named this way only because people get scared if there is no “save” button.

2. If you get too many error messages, and if the suggestion above does not work: Create a new map in another browser or browser window and copy all the text elements into the new map. After that, delete the old map. We apologize for the inconvenience.

4. You need to complete an argument before you can proceed. Click on the text field where it says “Enter your reason” and fill it out. After that you have to select an argument scheme for your argument. You can change the scheme any time after completing the argument by clicking on the name of the argument scheme that shows up under “therefore.” You can delete an argument only after it is completed.

5. If you get caught in a repeating loop of error messages, refresh your browser window and sign-in again.

6. Use only the navigation within the AGORA application. If you use “back” in your browser, you will leave the Flash application and you have to restart the software. Don’t worry, nothing will be lost since any entry is immediately saved on the AGORA server.

7. Since AGORA-net allows collaborative argument mapping, there cannot be an “undo” function. And you can only change or delete what you created.

8. If the Flash Application does not start or gets stuck while launching, try one of these:

  • download the newest version of the Adobe Flash Player
  • try another browser; Chrome seems to work most reliable
  • sometimes it helps to clean the cache of your browser
  • restart your computer (Flash often causes problems when your computer was in sleep modus)

Open source

AGORA-net is published under  the  Affero GPL (v3 or later) Open Source license. The software’s source code can be found on GitHub. It would be nice if you could acknowledge our work if you use the code. The AGORA Project at agora.gatech.edu.