Post by Mercy Rosenburg on Oct 22, 2005 0:09:11 GMT -5
Hello and thank you to all who submitted their opinions through the Site Survey. I sent out that survey because I really want your input to make this site better. I am a very reasonable person and will listen to you when and if you have concerns. The biggest concerns about the site I got was:
There's too many students on this site - we need more of the other types of characters!
There's too many house points - there need to be some deductions.
This site doesn't really have a plot.
There's too many people with powers on this site and people are abusing them.
There are people on this site who need to improve their RP skills!
Below I have addressed those concerns as well as others and hope that it will makes things better. If you have anything else to add, please feel free to PM me and let me know.
Activeness There are some people on this site who registered and never posted, never got a character name, weren't sorted, or all of the above. Some people registered and never even signed in after that! I really don't want the site cluttered up with a ton of inactive members who are never going to post or sign in again. I have sent a number of PMs and e-mails out to inactive members to give them the chance to come back and use their account, but very few have responded. I like and want a good number of people on this site, but I also want active members and there's no point to creating an account here if you're not going to use it. That's why I want your opinions on who should be considered active and who shouldn't. What is the minimum amount of activity a person needs to be considered active? 10 posts a week? 1 post a week? I'm asking because I want to set up a 'standard of activity' for everyone to follow. That means if the 'standard of activity' is you have to make 10 posts a week to be considered active, and you only make 5 posts for that week, then you are considered inactive. Also, I want your opinions on what should be done about inactive members. Should they be deleted or kicked off the site?
Biographies There is a section for both in-character (IC) and out-of-character (OOC) biographies in the Muggle World. Writing a bio is not required, but a well thought out character is a good thing to have. Knowing your character's background determines how their going to act in the present on the site.
Character Options Please don't overlook other character options! I have a lot of character options for a reason. I think that a variety will make things more interesting, as well as some characters types could end up being very important to the plot! You never know! For a list of Available Characters and Positions, click here.
Forgotten Character Options
Aurors
Why They're Interesting: They help track down dark wizards to keep the peace. You never know if they might be a former Death Eater of Lord Voldemort...or worse...
Azkaban Prisoners
Why They're Interesting: Azkaban Prisoners can help the plot by volunteering memories that Aurors can look at in a Pensieve. If you volunteer information, they might not send you to the dementors!
Daily Prophet Reporters/Quibbler Writer
Why They're Interesting: The Daily Prophet is a newspaper, so it contains more factual information, while the Quibbler is a magazine and can contain more fun information such as gossip, quizzes, and other stuff. Daily Prophet Reporters get to write stories about what's happening in the wizarding world. With the possible rise of another dark power, don't you want to know if anyone is getting killed out there? The Quibbler writers can make up fun quizzes, write articles about gossip such as 'Are Draco & Hermione officially a couple? The inside scoop page 3!'. Both Daily Prophet Reporters and Quibbler Writers can interview people!
Death Eaters
Why They're Interesting: They are followers/helpers of the new evil. They get to kill people and have their own hideout in Knockturn Alley.
Ghosts/Phantoms/Poltergeists
Why They're Interesting: If you read the FAQ, it says you can be the ghost of a dead Harry Potter character! Sirius Black, Albus Dumbledore, James & Lily Potter - Harry could finally get to know his parents through their ghosts, Dumbledore could offer advice to people, Sirius could meet his family on the site - there's so many possibilities!
House-Elves
Why They're Interesting: They make the food in the kitchens and they have their own dorms! They could belong to a family, or be free like Dobby was.
Mermaids & Mermen
Why They're Interesting: Well, let's see - merpeople were a part of the Tri-Wizard Tournament in the books/movies, so is it possible that they could also have a role in our Quad-Wizard Tournament? There's only one champion from each house, but if you don't get in the QWT as a champion, there may be another way for you to get involved with the tournament! Not to mention they have their own underwater village at the lake!
Paintings
Why They're Interesting: Some students have already written about the paintings on the wall. Paintings can be of dead Harry Potter characters or original characters. You have to figure that hanging on the wall all the time, they see a lot of what's going on and might even know some secrets about Hogwarts since they've been there so long.
Store Owners
Why They're Interesting: They manage the shops in Diagon Alley, Knockturn Alley, and Hogsmeade. You can even create a new shop if you want to. They get to determine the prices of the things they sell.
Unique Positions
These include Goblin Banker at Gringotts, Hogwarts Express Conductor, Leaky Cauldron Innkeeper, Terrortours Travel Agent, Three Broomsticks Barman/Barmaid.
If nobody wants to be the above, then maybe I should just delete them as options. I thought it would be cool to have this site be a bit different and have a variety of character options, but if nobody is going to use them, then what's the point? They don't even have to be your main character - they could just be on once in a while if you want, but it would still be cool to at least have them! Yes, having one of the above types of characters requires a lot of creativity and imagination, but I think it would be worth it if enough people wanted to try it. If you want to be create a new character option, PM me and I'll see what I can do!
Classes Advanced/New Should there be advanced classes for older students such as Advanced Charms, Advanced Potions, Advanced Transfiguration, etc.? Some suggested new classes are: Alchemy, Animagus Transfiguration, Dueling, Legilimency, Magical Cooking, Occlumency, and Wandless Magic. If you'd like to teach any of them, please PM me!
EDIT: I updated the Classes thread with some new classes!
Golden Snitch Awards Nominations for the Golden Snitch Awards are still taking place!
Point Deductions Professors, Head Boy/Head Girl, and Prefects (and the Headmistress) are the only ones who have the power to both give and take away house points. Professors can also give detentions. Detentions should also come with a loss of house points because if you do something that is enough to get you a detention, you should certainly lose house points as well. Detentions are decided and take place in the office of the professor who gave you the detention. Points can be deducted from students for missing class (especially if you're a 1st - 5th year student and it's required, but 6th and 7th years can also lose points), being in/entering the Forbidden Forest, being out of bed after hours, inappropriate classroom behavior, and practical jokes/pranks. They can also be deducted for other reasons if appropriate.
Plot In 1998, Harry Potter became a hero to the wizarding world once again when he managed to do what no other wizard before him could: finally defeat Voldemort once and for all. Harry subsequently fulfilled his dream of becoming an Auror and at the age of 25 became the youngest Head Auror in history, thanks to his impressive triumph over He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. For the past seven years, the wizarding world has calmed down greatly and is peaceful and quiet. Almost tooquiet.
Not everyone was pleased with Potter's victory. In fact, directly following the Dark Lord's defeat, there were a few scattered attempts of his loyal Death Eaters trying to regain power by murdering a few more innocent people. However, most of them were arrested and sent to Azkaban to serve their sentences. They seem lost without their master and are too weak by themselves to accomplish anything. So far, Harry has done a very good job as Auror.
Despite the overall tranquility of the current wizarding world, there are warning signs that another like Voldemort may come to power. The Seer Sybill Trelawney reportedly had a vision of "impending doom" that would come directly to Hogwarts. She quit her Divination position, however, because she was disgusted to find out that she would have to continue sharing classes with Alcippe, a centauress who replaced Firenze when he politely retired from the position.
Many wonder if there is any merit to Trelawney's vision as she tends to be a bit crazy and disbelieved by the public. At the current time, that seems to be the only warning of another rise in dark power. Right now the new Headmistress, Jill Rosanna Briarson, is determined to continue things at Hogwarts as usual, while keeping the safety of her students and staff in mind.
Briarson, a former Muggle Studies teacher and Librarian for Hogwarts, was chosen as the new Headmistress for her intelligence and compassion. Her students and staff are a top priority to her. So far, things have been going smoothly, but will they stay that way forever?
Positions Many people have complained that there are people in positions who are inactive. When this site was first created, I allowed waivers of the requirements I had set for receiving positions because I wanted people to join this site. The site now has over 300 people and has been around for nearly 2 months, so there are now no more waivers for positions. People who have a position (these include: Professor, Head Boy/Head Girl, Prefect, Quidditch Captain, and Quidditch Player) will be evaluated by me to see if they should be able to keep their position. If you are fairly active and a decent role player you have nothing to worry about. People in positions who are inactive or need to work on their role playing skills (I'm referring mostly to spelling and grammer things) will be put on a temporary probation period. If they do not become more active or at least show an effort to improve their role playing skills (there's a RP Help board to help you!), there are plenty of people who will readily fill an open position.
Powers Powers are fun to RP, but having too many powers makes the site less realistic. I allowed students to have one power and one power only, but it seems that some people are abusing their powers. Please remember that in the books/movies, powers are rare. You don't have to have a power - in fact, it's much more realistic if you don't. You could also wait on getting a power and role play your character as learning a power. The Mauraders had to learn how to be animagi; Harry had to learn legilimency and occlumency. I think I am going to have an optional power recall and have Animagi, Legilimency, and Occlumency classes. Professor Artemis Flask has already asked that Psychometry be a power and that students who complete his class gain the power of Psychometry and I agreed. So if you'd like rethink having a power right now and give it up temporarily and re-earn it later through a class (and that way you'll know exactly what your power does - there are people who don't even really know how to use their power or what it does!), please PM me and let me know. If you give up your power now, you can get it back later! If you don't want to give up your power, please just use it wisely and don't abuse it. If you see someone who you think is abusing their power, please PM me and let me know about it.
Quad-Wizard Tournament The Goblet of Fire and QWT Voting end October 30th.
EDIT: There will be 4 tasks. Any ideas for original tasks? What should the tasks be?
Quidditch Gryffindor and Slytherin should have at least one more practice before their match in November!
Relationships Relationships are permitted, but please remember that this board has a PG13 rating and there are some young teenagers here. That means that you must keep it at a fairly tame level. No RPing sexual content on the boards. If anything highly sexual is posted, it should be reported to me and I will delete it. As for Slash (homosexual) relationships, those are permitted as well, but the same rules apply. Just because J. K. Rowling didn't specifically say that anyone in the Harry Potter books was gay doesn't mean that there can't be gay witches and wizards. This board is meant to be open-minded and friendly, so please no gay-bashing.
Role Playing Help There are some people on this site who could use some help with their role-playing. You don't have to be J. K. Rowling to be on this site, but I did create a RP Help board to help those who need it. Please use it! It is perfectly OK to be new to role-playing, but that board is designed to help you and answer your questions about role-playing. Everybody has to start somewhere, and if you try, you will get better at it! I created a new thread at the RP Help board called RP Mentors. I am hoping to get some people to be Mentors to those who are new at role-playing. If you'd like to be a RP Mentor, please PM me so I can add you to the list!
Sorting Chamber First years and transfers - you are allowed to post in the Sorting Chamber! Make a post about your sorting and tell us how scared you are or wonder what house you're going to get put into. Other students may watch sortings as well - the sorting ceremony is a public event in the books/movies, so a first year could make a post about their sorting and say that the hat yelled "Hufflepuff!" as it was placed on their head. Then they sit at the Hufflepuff table and an older student can say "Welcome to Hufflepuff!". Not the most creative example I know, but I hope it gives you the point!
Trophy Room Have older siblings that graduated Hogwarts in your biography? Was your mother Head Girl when she was at Hogwarts? When you write your character biography and include information like that in it, it can also be added to the Trophy Room to make it more official. You are allowed to post in the Trophy Room - your character could be doing research about the History of Hogwarts, or might uncover something that they didn't know before by going in there. When Harry said he was nervous about his first Quidditch match, Hermione pointed out that his father was a Quidditch player before him - something Harry didn't know, but that Hermione had found out by looking at the records in the the Trophy Room. Ron finds out that Tom Marvolo Riddle received an award for services to the school when he's polishing the awards in the Trophy Room for detention! Be creative - you could find out some interesting stuff! Have anything to add to the Trophy Room? PM me and I'll add it!
Unused Boards If you haven't already noticed (which I'm sure you have), there are a ton of boards on this site and a lot of them are unused right now. That also has something to do with the lack of variety in character types. If you're creative and use your imagination, some of those boards could come to really good use! Try to do something different or out-of-the-ordinary sometime and see what happens! It could make the site more interesting!
Well, I know the above was really long, but I'm hoping that these changes will help the site. If you have any more comments, ideas, questions, or suggestions, please feel free to PM me and we'll see what else we can to do improve the site. Thank you all for your input so far and I hope you like the changes I made!
Sincerely,
Jill R. Briarson
Headmistress
There's too many students on this site - we need more of the other types of characters!
There's too many house points - there need to be some deductions.
This site doesn't really have a plot.
There's too many people with powers on this site and people are abusing them.
There are people on this site who need to improve their RP skills!
Below I have addressed those concerns as well as others and hope that it will makes things better. If you have anything else to add, please feel free to PM me and let me know.
Activeness There are some people on this site who registered and never posted, never got a character name, weren't sorted, or all of the above. Some people registered and never even signed in after that! I really don't want the site cluttered up with a ton of inactive members who are never going to post or sign in again. I have sent a number of PMs and e-mails out to inactive members to give them the chance to come back and use their account, but very few have responded. I like and want a good number of people on this site, but I also want active members and there's no point to creating an account here if you're not going to use it. That's why I want your opinions on who should be considered active and who shouldn't. What is the minimum amount of activity a person needs to be considered active? 10 posts a week? 1 post a week? I'm asking because I want to set up a 'standard of activity' for everyone to follow. That means if the 'standard of activity' is you have to make 10 posts a week to be considered active, and you only make 5 posts for that week, then you are considered inactive. Also, I want your opinions on what should be done about inactive members. Should they be deleted or kicked off the site?
Biographies There is a section for both in-character (IC) and out-of-character (OOC) biographies in the Muggle World. Writing a bio is not required, but a well thought out character is a good thing to have. Knowing your character's background determines how their going to act in the present on the site.
Character Options Please don't overlook other character options! I have a lot of character options for a reason. I think that a variety will make things more interesting, as well as some characters types could end up being very important to the plot! You never know! For a list of Available Characters and Positions, click here.
Forgotten Character Options
Aurors
Why They're Interesting: They help track down dark wizards to keep the peace. You never know if they might be a former Death Eater of Lord Voldemort...or worse...
Azkaban Prisoners
Why They're Interesting: Azkaban Prisoners can help the plot by volunteering memories that Aurors can look at in a Pensieve. If you volunteer information, they might not send you to the dementors!
Daily Prophet Reporters/Quibbler Writer
Why They're Interesting: The Daily Prophet is a newspaper, so it contains more factual information, while the Quibbler is a magazine and can contain more fun information such as gossip, quizzes, and other stuff. Daily Prophet Reporters get to write stories about what's happening in the wizarding world. With the possible rise of another dark power, don't you want to know if anyone is getting killed out there? The Quibbler writers can make up fun quizzes, write articles about gossip such as 'Are Draco & Hermione officially a couple? The inside scoop page 3!'. Both Daily Prophet Reporters and Quibbler Writers can interview people!
Death Eaters
Why They're Interesting: They are followers/helpers of the new evil. They get to kill people and have their own hideout in Knockturn Alley.
Ghosts/Phantoms/Poltergeists
Why They're Interesting: If you read the FAQ, it says you can be the ghost of a dead Harry Potter character! Sirius Black, Albus Dumbledore, James & Lily Potter - Harry could finally get to know his parents through their ghosts, Dumbledore could offer advice to people, Sirius could meet his family on the site - there's so many possibilities!
House-Elves
Why They're Interesting: They make the food in the kitchens and they have their own dorms! They could belong to a family, or be free like Dobby was.
Mermaids & Mermen
Why They're Interesting: Well, let's see - merpeople were a part of the Tri-Wizard Tournament in the books/movies, so is it possible that they could also have a role in our Quad-Wizard Tournament? There's only one champion from each house, but if you don't get in the QWT as a champion, there may be another way for you to get involved with the tournament! Not to mention they have their own underwater village at the lake!
Paintings
Why They're Interesting: Some students have already written about the paintings on the wall. Paintings can be of dead Harry Potter characters or original characters. You have to figure that hanging on the wall all the time, they see a lot of what's going on and might even know some secrets about Hogwarts since they've been there so long.
Store Owners
Why They're Interesting: They manage the shops in Diagon Alley, Knockturn Alley, and Hogsmeade. You can even create a new shop if you want to. They get to determine the prices of the things they sell.
Unique Positions
These include Goblin Banker at Gringotts, Hogwarts Express Conductor, Leaky Cauldron Innkeeper, Terrortours Travel Agent, Three Broomsticks Barman/Barmaid.
If nobody wants to be the above, then maybe I should just delete them as options. I thought it would be cool to have this site be a bit different and have a variety of character options, but if nobody is going to use them, then what's the point? They don't even have to be your main character - they could just be on once in a while if you want, but it would still be cool to at least have them! Yes, having one of the above types of characters requires a lot of creativity and imagination, but I think it would be worth it if enough people wanted to try it. If you want to be create a new character option, PM me and I'll see what I can do!
Classes Advanced/New Should there be advanced classes for older students such as Advanced Charms, Advanced Potions, Advanced Transfiguration, etc.? Some suggested new classes are: Alchemy, Animagus Transfiguration, Dueling, Legilimency, Magical Cooking, Occlumency, and Wandless Magic. If you'd like to teach any of them, please PM me!
EDIT: I updated the Classes thread with some new classes!
Golden Snitch Awards Nominations for the Golden Snitch Awards are still taking place!
Point Deductions Professors, Head Boy/Head Girl, and Prefects (and the Headmistress) are the only ones who have the power to both give and take away house points. Professors can also give detentions. Detentions should also come with a loss of house points because if you do something that is enough to get you a detention, you should certainly lose house points as well. Detentions are decided and take place in the office of the professor who gave you the detention. Points can be deducted from students for missing class (especially if you're a 1st - 5th year student and it's required, but 6th and 7th years can also lose points), being in/entering the Forbidden Forest, being out of bed after hours, inappropriate classroom behavior, and practical jokes/pranks. They can also be deducted for other reasons if appropriate.
Plot In 1998, Harry Potter became a hero to the wizarding world once again when he managed to do what no other wizard before him could: finally defeat Voldemort once and for all. Harry subsequently fulfilled his dream of becoming an Auror and at the age of 25 became the youngest Head Auror in history, thanks to his impressive triumph over He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. For the past seven years, the wizarding world has calmed down greatly and is peaceful and quiet. Almost tooquiet.
Not everyone was pleased with Potter's victory. In fact, directly following the Dark Lord's defeat, there were a few scattered attempts of his loyal Death Eaters trying to regain power by murdering a few more innocent people. However, most of them were arrested and sent to Azkaban to serve their sentences. They seem lost without their master and are too weak by themselves to accomplish anything. So far, Harry has done a very good job as Auror.
Despite the overall tranquility of the current wizarding world, there are warning signs that another like Voldemort may come to power. The Seer Sybill Trelawney reportedly had a vision of "impending doom" that would come directly to Hogwarts. She quit her Divination position, however, because she was disgusted to find out that she would have to continue sharing classes with Alcippe, a centauress who replaced Firenze when he politely retired from the position.
Many wonder if there is any merit to Trelawney's vision as she tends to be a bit crazy and disbelieved by the public. At the current time, that seems to be the only warning of another rise in dark power. Right now the new Headmistress, Jill Rosanna Briarson, is determined to continue things at Hogwarts as usual, while keeping the safety of her students and staff in mind.
Briarson, a former Muggle Studies teacher and Librarian for Hogwarts, was chosen as the new Headmistress for her intelligence and compassion. Her students and staff are a top priority to her. So far, things have been going smoothly, but will they stay that way forever?
Positions Many people have complained that there are people in positions who are inactive. When this site was first created, I allowed waivers of the requirements I had set for receiving positions because I wanted people to join this site. The site now has over 300 people and has been around for nearly 2 months, so there are now no more waivers for positions. People who have a position (these include: Professor, Head Boy/Head Girl, Prefect, Quidditch Captain, and Quidditch Player) will be evaluated by me to see if they should be able to keep their position. If you are fairly active and a decent role player you have nothing to worry about. People in positions who are inactive or need to work on their role playing skills (I'm referring mostly to spelling and grammer things) will be put on a temporary probation period. If they do not become more active or at least show an effort to improve their role playing skills (there's a RP Help board to help you!), there are plenty of people who will readily fill an open position.
Powers Powers are fun to RP, but having too many powers makes the site less realistic. I allowed students to have one power and one power only, but it seems that some people are abusing their powers. Please remember that in the books/movies, powers are rare. You don't have to have a power - in fact, it's much more realistic if you don't. You could also wait on getting a power and role play your character as learning a power. The Mauraders had to learn how to be animagi; Harry had to learn legilimency and occlumency. I think I am going to have an optional power recall and have Animagi, Legilimency, and Occlumency classes. Professor Artemis Flask has already asked that Psychometry be a power and that students who complete his class gain the power of Psychometry and I agreed. So if you'd like rethink having a power right now and give it up temporarily and re-earn it later through a class (and that way you'll know exactly what your power does - there are people who don't even really know how to use their power or what it does!), please PM me and let me know. If you give up your power now, you can get it back later! If you don't want to give up your power, please just use it wisely and don't abuse it. If you see someone who you think is abusing their power, please PM me and let me know about it.
Quad-Wizard Tournament The Goblet of Fire and QWT Voting end October 30th.
EDIT: There will be 4 tasks. Any ideas for original tasks? What should the tasks be?
Quidditch Gryffindor and Slytherin should have at least one more practice before their match in November!
Relationships Relationships are permitted, but please remember that this board has a PG13 rating and there are some young teenagers here. That means that you must keep it at a fairly tame level. No RPing sexual content on the boards. If anything highly sexual is posted, it should be reported to me and I will delete it. As for Slash (homosexual) relationships, those are permitted as well, but the same rules apply. Just because J. K. Rowling didn't specifically say that anyone in the Harry Potter books was gay doesn't mean that there can't be gay witches and wizards. This board is meant to be open-minded and friendly, so please no gay-bashing.
Role Playing Help There are some people on this site who could use some help with their role-playing. You don't have to be J. K. Rowling to be on this site, but I did create a RP Help board to help those who need it. Please use it! It is perfectly OK to be new to role-playing, but that board is designed to help you and answer your questions about role-playing. Everybody has to start somewhere, and if you try, you will get better at it! I created a new thread at the RP Help board called RP Mentors. I am hoping to get some people to be Mentors to those who are new at role-playing. If you'd like to be a RP Mentor, please PM me so I can add you to the list!
Sorting Chamber First years and transfers - you are allowed to post in the Sorting Chamber! Make a post about your sorting and tell us how scared you are or wonder what house you're going to get put into. Other students may watch sortings as well - the sorting ceremony is a public event in the books/movies, so a first year could make a post about their sorting and say that the hat yelled "Hufflepuff!" as it was placed on their head. Then they sit at the Hufflepuff table and an older student can say "Welcome to Hufflepuff!". Not the most creative example I know, but I hope it gives you the point!
Trophy Room Have older siblings that graduated Hogwarts in your biography? Was your mother Head Girl when she was at Hogwarts? When you write your character biography and include information like that in it, it can also be added to the Trophy Room to make it more official. You are allowed to post in the Trophy Room - your character could be doing research about the History of Hogwarts, or might uncover something that they didn't know before by going in there. When Harry said he was nervous about his first Quidditch match, Hermione pointed out that his father was a Quidditch player before him - something Harry didn't know, but that Hermione had found out by looking at the records in the the Trophy Room. Ron finds out that Tom Marvolo Riddle received an award for services to the school when he's polishing the awards in the Trophy Room for detention! Be creative - you could find out some interesting stuff! Have anything to add to the Trophy Room? PM me and I'll add it!
Unused Boards If you haven't already noticed (which I'm sure you have), there are a ton of boards on this site and a lot of them are unused right now. That also has something to do with the lack of variety in character types. If you're creative and use your imagination, some of those boards could come to really good use! Try to do something different or out-of-the-ordinary sometime and see what happens! It could make the site more interesting!
Well, I know the above was really long, but I'm hoping that these changes will help the site. If you have any more comments, ideas, questions, or suggestions, please feel free to PM me and we'll see what else we can to do improve the site. Thank you all for your input so far and I hope you like the changes I made!
Sincerely,
Jill R. Briarson
Headmistress