Certain parts of this website are running in a secure environment to protect you and your information. All forms (especially those involving payment processing), the User Portal, and some other minor resources require the use of SSL/TLS. If you are running Internet Explorer, the simplest way to fix the certificate warning issue is to try using Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome to access the website instead.
Technical details: The warning happens for two reasons. The first reason is that some old OSes and web browsers don't recognize the StartCom root certificate authority. You can try to install the StartCom root certificate to see if that fixes the problem. The other reason is that Internet Explorer under Windows XP is unable to handle a protocol known as TLS Server Name Indication (TLS SNI). The Festival website sits on a web server that also hosts other websites. Without TLS SNI support, the web browser will get back a broken response from the web server. There is no way to work around this issue without incurring significant cost to the Festival. Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome both correctly recognize the StartCom certificate authority and have TLS SNI support even under Windows XP.
If you have access to the User Portal then you will (eventually) receive information containing your credentials, typically through email along with important instructions. With few exceptions, access credentials will come from the appropriate Festival committee member(s) as soon as it makes sense to go into the User Portal. If you are expecting a message and the message isn't in your inbox, check your spam folder. If it isn't in either place, reach out to your Festival committee member(s) and ask them to resend your access credentials to you. Note that we require a current email address on file associated with your account or you won't get your password because emails are sent to whatever email address we have for you.
If you have your credentials and are encountering difficulties signing in, try this useful tip: Highlight the password, right-click, click "Copy", switch to the User Portal, right-click on the Password field, click "Paste".
User Portal credentials are automatically reset by the system shortly after each Festival. This is intentional to kick everyone out while we prepare for the next Festival and adds some security by automatically changing access information once a year.
The User Portal is the method by which the Festival communicates important personalized information to a wide variety of participants except visitors, collects payments, and offers a printer-ready format of the relevant information. Access to the system is a privilege, not a right. Users are sent credentials as soon as it is relevant to go into the system.
Great! Well, not great. We are always trying to improve the website and the software powering it. As a result, bugs and other issues arise from time to time. Just fire up your email and politely write in detail what specific steps you took so that we can replicate the issue(s) more easily. Then plug in help@tucsonfestivalofbooks.org into the "To:" field and click Send. We'll take it from there and get back to you as soon as the problem is fixed.
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