Announcements

[Professor Albus Dumbledore]

While this announcement is mainly for the newer members, this pertains to everyone.

1) You cannot change your character model, ever. The only way this would be possible is to ask the admins and they would have to approve the change along with the other staff, this usually will not happen.

2) Do not edit your character application, we know if you did and it is just stupid to go in and add things for no reason

3) Do not put a special powers application in your character app.

4) Read the instructions, every important bit on the board has instructions, this includes both apps and the graphics request board. When you don't follow the instructions everyone else thinks it is okay for them to not follow them either

5) Do not expect us as the admins to decide things about your character, it is not our job to decide what goes on with your characters, we have far better things to do with our time than deal with people like this.

6) This is new so pay attention, unless you are one of the characters who already has multiple characters or you are a long running member of the board, you will now have to ask the admins for the following: Additional characters, powers, famous character relatives or anything of the like, any other special attributes as well.

7) Be realistic. Don't pick a model that doesn't match your character, it is really annoying. Especially when you say that (for example) your character is of a different ethnicity or nationality than basic white/caucasian or English, etc.... Pick a model that matches that.

8) We as the admins reserve the right to delete and/or edit posts, banners and pictures if they are inappropriate, contain bad spelling, are too large, etc... If this happens to you and you can't figure out why, by all means message us.

9) Don't message Dumbledore or General Staff. These accounts are only used for major board maintenance or things of the like. The proper accounts to message would be Elizabeth Black or Kerri Barre as those are the most frequently used accounts.

10) Use your common sense, this board doesn't exactly go by the novel or movie plots, but it is still Harry Potter. Muggle devices will not work at the school so don't post them like that. Do not say that your character has a pet dragon or anything else like that unless you have asked us and we approve.

11) Post according to the rules of the board. Use past tense and keep with our timeline. We can't have members posting in October if we're in March or anything else like that. Brief backtracking is allowed within reason, but no more than a month, unless approved by us. And it also must be stated in the first post of the thread that it is back tracking.

12) If you are told to stop doing something, stop doing it.
Examples. If you're told to stop posting in a style inconsistent with the rest of the board then stop. If you're told to stop messaging someone, then stop. If a member wants you/your character to stop doing threads with their character then please do as we try to do our best to appease everyone and if they don't want to rp with you or they don't like your character, please respect that.

13) If you have an issue with a member than message them about it, if need be the admins and staff can be used as a go between to resolve conflicts. If you really don't want to message them them message us admins and we'll see what we can do. If there is an issue with something about the board let us know so we can fix it.

14) As pertaining to the site calender, it is not for personal use. It is only to be used for the site. For example, if you know you're going to be leaving for a while, you could put that on the calender, but nothing else. We will delete stupid additions to the calender.

This is not directed at any one person or group of people, simply observations that we have been making or issues that have been brought to our attention.

Be aware that if we receive multiple complaints about anyone or anything, it will have to be dealt with and that if you are a serious offender of the site rules, we will have to delete you if you don't heed warnings.

If anyone ever has any questions please let us know.

[Elizabeth Connolly]

New system put in to play for members that frequently break rules. Account disables

Depending on how many offenses a member has depends on the amount of days.

1 day, 5 day, 2 weeks then deletion

[Elizabeth Connolly]

To any member who has not yet responded to the PM about the new poll, please do so.

[Elizabeth Connolly]

Polls for favorite and least favorite characters are up, everyone get to voting

[Elizabeth Connolly]

So for the sake of cleaning things up in the relationship chart area, from now on if everyone could just make a thread in the plot area if they'd like to set something up, please and thanks. We think it'll make it much easier to keep track of so that we don't have to keep posts there or not edit because we aren't sure what is up.

[Elizabeth Connolly]

To any and all members who have not voted in the 3 polls, please do so.

[Elizabeth Connolly]

Due to various issues that have arisen in the site, it has become time once again for the Dumbledore messages that we hate having to send out because we try to avoid making big crack downs on things. As annoying as these can be to read, please take the time to read ALL of the message because it is all important and we don't want to get messages from someone upset with us because they broke a rule and their post or graphics got deleted or anything like that. This isn't directed at one person or another, just issues that need dealt with.

Another important reason for this message is because finals are coming up for the staff and that means that we can't spend all hours of the day checking everything and updating important threads. We can't spend all our time messaging people with many open threads to make sure they update those threads and we can't keep harrassing people to give us info for their character.

So, listed below in alphabetical order are the main issues we've been facing.

Character Models/Graphics

• Don't pick a model for your character if they don't fit, if we see this happening, any graphics for that character will be removed from your profile.
  
• Don't pick a model that is too old for your character. If you character is supposed to be 15, don't pick someone in their twenties or thirties. The only acception to this is there being a reason that the character looks older, even then if we think the model looks more than 5-7 years older than your character, we will delete the graphics.
  
• Don't pick a model that doesn't fit the looks of your character, this one ends up broken a lot. Don't say that your has dark hair and brilliant blue eyes if the character model has light brown hair and brown eyes. If you are dead set on a model but their coloring doesn't match what you want your character to be, message us and we'll try and see what we can do, but don't use a model that doesn't work for your description.
  
• Don't pick a model if their nationality doesn't match your description. I don't mean don't use an American model for a British character or anything like that. If you say your character is Japanese, you have to use a Japanese model, NOT an emo or scene model. If you say your character is Hispanic or Latin, don't use a white model. There are few things more irritating than models that aren't even close to what they should be. If you're having a difficult time, message us and we'll do what we can to help!
  
• Don't use a model if their physical attributes don't match your character's. If your character is large and buff, don't pick a skinny model. If your character is pregnant, don't pick a model who has never been pregnant and use those images in your graphic. (Pertaining to when a character is starting out mostly) The exception to the pregnancy images is if the character wasn't pregnant when you started them and it wasn't planned. If you plan on your character getting pregnant when you make them, try and find pictures of them as being pregnant, or at least have graphics where you can't see the stomach. If your character is covered in scars that would show, don't pick a model with perfect skin. These are examples, please don't think they are directed at anyone.
  
• Model changes aren't allowed! We don't want people messaging us saying they changed their model. There are very few exceptions to this rule. We will not allow a model change because you decide you don't like how the model looks, you want to have a model that has pictures with other people's models or anything like that. We don't harass people about not having a model, we won't even mention it for at least a week which is more than enough time to find a model. If you have a good reason for wanting to change your character model, then message the staff and we will decide.
  
• This isn't a huge issue currently, but Graphics Sizes everyone, please. We don't enjoy having to resize graphics so they fit right on the screens. Don't use icons that aren't meant to be square, especially when you don't bother to change the size so that the picture isn't distorted. Making it a 100x100 icon isn't hard, and we do have a graphic request board for this reason. Banners/Signature is where the most trouble comes from. For the sake of simplicity we don't have a required size for banners, but we have on occasion had issues with oversized images. We would prefer that banners be kept to no more than 300 pixels high by 600 pixels wide, that is the maximum and even that is larger than most everyone's images. The staff all uses a 250 high by 500 wide set up and in our opinion, it looks the most appealing and doesn't stretch any screens.
  
• This hasn't been a problem very often, but there have been one or two issues with it. Don't steal other people's graphics. You don't have to put something in your signature saying it was made by that person, but do not try and pass anything off as your own if you didn't make it. Our site has been lucky enough to have quite a few members that are good with making graphics and I would hate to have anyone upset because they made something for someone's character and that person was trying to claim it as their own. If we find out that someone has been claiming another person's work, there will be consequences, starting with a likely two-week account disable. It doesn't matter if it was a banner they made or if they photoshopped a picture of your character, do not say you made it. Again though, thankfully this has not been an issue and we hope that it doesn't become one.
  

Participation

• There aren't a great many things on the site that require member participation, but even still we have too many people that don't.
  
• If there are polls open then please vote in all of them, keeping with our requests that you don't use multiple characters to vote as it throws off the results. We don't do many polls or even do them that often so we don't really feel that it is too much to ask that you vote in them when you get online.
  
• Give us the information we need for the appropriate threads. When members don't provide us with information needed like their character models, ages, years etc... we can't maintain those threads and we end up with issues that aren't caught like members potentially having the same model or having characters that aren't the correct age for the years they are supposed to be in.
  
• Check the threads at the top of the board! Make sure that all of your threads are on the open thread list, check the announcements board regularly, check for new polls and check your messages to make sure that you didn't miss any. If you're prone to forgetting about your threads, bookmark them and have it email you when you get a response. If you tend to not notice you have a message, change your settings so a little pop up tells you that you've got a new message. (If you do that, still be sure to look since mass PM's don't pop up for some reason) We understand that everyone has a busy life with whatever they do, be it school, work or whatever else. But every also needs to understand that we have busy lives too. We have to go to school, do things in our personal life and maintain this board as well as updating our own threads. All we ask is that you make things a bit easier for us by taking like 10 or 15 minutes to look at the top two sections of the board and make sure we have our information correct.
  

Posting

• While most of the posting issues will fall in to the thread category, there are a few things that need said about posting in general.
  
• Spell check!!! Most of you either know how to spell or use the spell check feature which is great, few things are more annoying than reading a post with a ton of spelling errors. That being said, still use spell check. We hate reading posts with spelling errors, especially since there isn't any excuse. True, spell check doesn't catch it when you use the wrong word, but reading your post before/after you post it does wonders.
  
• Another bit of importance, if you see that your post has been modified, we will generally say why we edited it, but if not our apologies. Due to issues with certain people using a mod power when they shouldn't have, this power is not reserved exclusively for the staff. This also means that we really need everyone to check their posts over so that we don't have to worry about going through and doing that.
  

Threads

• Biggest issue with threads is this. Update All Your Threads. There is no excuse for not updating threads when you can update them. There is an open threads board that is updated fairly often. When you start a thread you should post on that board telling us that you started one so it can be added to the list. If checking a board is too much for you to handle then bookmark your threads and set it to pm or email you when the threads have responses. We don't want to get back in to people having upwards of 5-8 threads and most of them don't get posted in.
  
• Due to the rising issue of threads not getting responded to, if you have more than 5-8 threads, then you are no longer allowed to continue making new threads and we will start deleting new threads if this happens.
  We understand and know that some people only get on maybe once or twice a week, but that is only an excuse for a thread with those people, not threads with people that get on often and certainly not an excuse when you have 5 or more threads that you need to respond to and have not.
  
• Post threads in places appropriate to the character you are posting with. An adult/non-student would not be wandering around Hogwarts, the only places in the school that an adult can post would be in a Professor's office or the hospital wing given that it isn't starting a thread and it would be appropriate. A student would not randomly be shopping in London, if they are outside of the school there needs to be a valid reason.
  
• If we find threads that don't follow rule and/or don't make sense we will be deleting them, likewise if a new thread is made by a member who hasn't been responding in their other threads. If your thread is deleted and you don't know why, message us and we will tell you.
  

Various Other

• Please don't make characters that have no use/point. Don't just make them for the sake of having them, we want them to have a purpose.
  
• As a reminder, if you don't get on for some amount of time and you have multiple characters, we will begin deleting those extra characters, beginning with canons as it is important that they are played by active members.
  
• Check the important threads and participate!
  
• IMPORTANT: Make sure that the email account that is attached to your profile works. We do make use of the mass email feature and we need to be able to get a hold of you should you become inactive. All emails pertaining to the site will either be from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry or that will be the subject of the email so please check them if you get one.
  

This will be posted in Announcements and in the Getting Started area. We will also be sending it out via the Email All feature so be expecting it that way as well. All questions, comments and concerns can be directed to the staff, please do not send them to this account as it is likely we won't get it for a period of time.

[Elizabeth Connolly]

Several skins have been deleted, due to us being unsure who exactly was using which skins we haven't switched people over. Worry not, we still have quite a few left so everyone can go ahead and choose a new skin if need be.

[Elizabeth Connolly]

Hey all, so I got this message from someone on Proboards Support about doing some sort of joint board type deal. I'm going to post the message so everyone can read, if you have an opinion on it please message me and let me know what you think.

Hello!

I noticed your recently-updated ad in the Advertise Your Board roleplay section.

I was thinking about hosting something like a Triwizard tournament for any and all ProBoards Harry Potter roleplay forums. The tournament would take place during the summer. Competitors from different forums will be representing their 'school' to compete in the challenges. After the challenges, a winner will be crowned and the forum they're representing will be named the winning school.

Nothing definite is planned yet; I'm just starting to compile ideas and suggestions, just to see if this is do-able and people will be interested.

If you're interested, please reply with any suggestions/ideas you have as well as the easiest way to contact you for updates on the tournament (email or ProBoards Support PM would be best; I cannot join everyone's forums to send a PM there).

Once the ideas start rolling and we have people interested in competing, I'll be looking for a group to run the tournament: the Board of Directors that will be made up of delegates from each of the participating sites. This group will shape the tournament and create the rules/competitions.

Feel free to pass this message along to any co-admins/staff, or friends from other HP RPG boards you think would like to compete.

You can contact me here at ProBoards Support (username:ghbraingle) or via email: [e-mail]

Thank you for your time, and I hope you're interested in the Triwizard Tournament.

- Trill
- Godric's Hollow
- [e-mail]

[Elizabeth Connolly]

New feature from proboards!

Click here!

[Elizabeth Connolly]

Also, don't forget to go to the new poll!

[Elizabeth Connolly]

The Hogwarts school year is almost over, the official end will be marked by a graduation thread for the seventh year students (won't include 6th years or other years that aren't returning). We aren't going to do threads for the O.W.L's or the N.E.W.T's just because the threads would never get finished and it would be way too much work for everyone. Once the school year has ended we'll move in to a summer break. Any suggestions or requests for things please send to Liz or Kerri so they can be discussed and put in to action. Suggestions can be for anything, whether it be vacation spots or plotting.

[Elizabeth Connolly]

Superlatives! A Few More!



Also, due to the generally small number of 7th years (While we'd prefer the nominations go to mostly the 7th years) If there is someone you'd really like to nominate but is a lower year, you may do so. You may also come up with your own category.

[Elizabeth Connolly]

Attention everyone, we've sent out a mass pm we need everyone to respond to (only with one person if you have multiple though)

[Elizabeth Connolly]

Don't forget about the superlatives pm! A handful of people have been getting on but never responded to us. Just to be clear, it isn't just 7th years that can nominate, we want everyone to respond to the pm. The sooner we can get this stuff done the sooner we can continue with more important things on the site.

[Elizabeth Connolly]

Any members that have not submitted superlatives, please to so within the next week.

[Elizabeth Connolly]

Anyone who has not done superlatives, we really need you to send those to us. We can't finish off things until we have those from you all!!!

[Elizabeth Connolly]

All polls have been locked and superlatives decided. Do not start any new threads at the school areas as the year will be ending and moving in to summer.

[Professor Albus Dumbledore]

As a side note not mentioned in the mass email, do what you can to finish any open threads as they will likely need to be put on hold to take care of graduation. In the event a thread still needs a bit of work after graduation then it can be finished.

Also, as has been pointed out, due to the difficulty we'd have in trying to do an organized entrance for the 7th years please just place them in the thread, likewise for professors and other students or adults attending the ceremony. If you have any questions post them in the OOC preferably or message them to staff (Myself or Erin).

[Kerri Barre]

You'll now notice that "Open Threads" and "Announcements" have been stickied/posted to each board. This way it's easier to keep track of the goings on for everybody. Currently there aren't many open threads so feel free to start new ones if you wish. Any current threads that are unfinished and abandoned have a week before they get locked. If you have a reason they're not active, let me know and we can hold off. There's been a lot of use of adults lately and it'd be nice to see a student or two be active.