Hello Members!
So we come to the end of yet another update, one which has been jam-packed full of work, I for one think that we admins deserve a pat on the back, we’ve certainly worked hard for it. Anyway, you don’t want to know my views on things, you just want to know what we did, and I’m more than happy to oblige.
ThemeAs you can all see *Gestures around the screen* we have a new theme. In my opinion it’s the best the site has had by far, a massive thanks goes out to Darren, who’s been working tirelessly on this theme for more or less a fortnight to a month, creating widgets and banners and buttons, it’s all been a very long process for him, I think that each and every one of us owes him a thanks for it, as, in my opinion, it’s a real beauty.
HogwartsA few things regarding Hogwarts have been done this update, all of them have been well planned out for once, so they should start being effective almost immediately.
Anyway, we’ve introduced an attendance policy to give
Students something to do, because right now people are making student characters and refusing to go to classes. Students. Refusing to go to classes... Bah. Anyway, in conjunction with that we’ve told professors they have to be fun-er, or their days are numbered, so no one has any excuses anymore! It was a pain to write, but I think it’ll work quite well.
We’ve also started offering Internships for NEWT students, giving them the opportunity to, should they wish, go and start working in the real world as a part of their studies. You’d better act fast though or else all the good spots will be taken
As well as those two more class based things we’ve also introduced a bunch of new clubs for students, I’d advise you all to go an take a look at them and join up, there’s a few things I would’ve loved to have done, had I been accepted to Hogwarts... I don’t know about you, but at midnight on my 11th birthday, when my letter didn’t arrive, I died a little on the inside.
Also, we're interested in starting a sort of magical summer camp, we're testing the waters so be sure to give your two cents in the discussion forum in regards to it, I think it'd be great fun! But yes, do go and give your opinions, or it mightn't happen. We wont add something for people who don't care about it
And another class, before I forget. It's sort of not a class though :/
It's a temporary workshop on some practical elements of magic, things like occlumency, portkey creation and apparation. I'd advise all NEWTs to sign up for it, as it's valuable stuff to have your character know IC. Sorry Basic students, too young
But that’s not on the topic. What is on the topic is that we’ve also given PA and the Dark Followers a little something more to do, in particular we’ve worked in our plot with their little personal ones, soon enough there will be a massive battle for Hogwarts, and no one will be safe O.o
I suppose that’s as good a segway as any for
Plot/Yes, we’ve been laying a trail for awhile, but now we’ve finally come straight out into the open about the plot. The basework, where nothing had been revealed, but we all knew
something was going on. Well, we figured that could only go on for so long, so the update was the best time to come out and tell you all what was happening. If you’ve not read the plot already, I think you should along with the timeline of events that’ve already occurred, in order to catch up on what you might have missed. Our trail was a decent one, I thought more people would have figured it out by now, what with the app sitting in the open for a few days, the Death Eaters all knowing about it. But as far as I know not many people actually figured it out :S
Oh well, we’ve planned for all contingencies in this one, so you’re all free to go nuts, we’ll know what to do
Misc.There’s also a bunch of things we’ve done just to improve the site as a whole, with no specific aim of who to benefit, it’s really for a bit of everything.
First thing is we’ve opened a plot discussion forum. This varies from the section where we post plots, in that you can all discuss your personal plots (Things like the pranking and the half blood stuff) as well as the site plot, working out all your own little things to do to be involved. Admins’ll be checking it in order to answer any questions or sort out any queries so that the plot runs as smooth as possible.
Businesses are looking at a bit of a revamp, with all inactive shops being given a death warning, and with a business league being set up, I personally don't know what this is about, but I think that it'll pan out well if it goes as Khaat has suggested it will, I hope that the shopkeepers all become involved in it.
We’ve also updated the application! Gone are the days when you had to write your app, then apply in 15 different topics, and be added to 30 different lists which each had hundreds of names in them, now we’re including things like classes in the app themselves, so we’ll just add you straight into the classes when you apply. It’ll be easier for everyone really.
We do still have somewhere to change your classes though, so don’t worry if you want to change your classes later in the year, you’re more than welcome to.
Um. We’ve done a lot of work on permissions, we’re no longer using presets to allow you to post, you now have to be a part of the accepted members group to have access to RP. It’s only something small, means nothing to you really, but it is helpful to us.
Darren’s posted up a roleplaying guide for everyone. It’s really good, I would actually advise that everyone now goes and takes a look at it, because old and new RPers are bound to gain something from it, even if just an insight into what we’re always talking about in regards to character.
Oh, and on that note we’ve updated our character creation policy. The summary of which is that we’re not allowing people who can’t maintain 15 characters to have 15 character. Genius right?
We’ve updated the rules as well, read them. Like actually do. We’re cracking down, everyone is sick of people saying “I didn’t know about that”. The rules are posted for a reason, from now on they are your warning, break them and you’ll be punished on the first strike, unless you have a really good explanation. Every one of our rules is there so, you’ve no excuse to not know them.
And really that’s all that you guys need to know.
Of course, we admins have done a fair bit more than that, most of it is just stuff that we do as we potter about to make life easier for everyone and to make things look nicer. It’s normally very time consuming, very effort filled work, but it all pays out when you guys come on, when new members join, and when we sit up till 3 in the morning next update to fix whatever it is we stuffed up this time around. And we could tell you about all the buttons that we fixed, and all the threads we replaced, but I doubt you care that much, so we’ll just leave it at ^ That.
Please comment on things in their topics, or on everything itself here. This isn’t me offering you to do so, this is me asking that you do, because everyone has an opinion, but not many people share them with us. We also like to hear what you think of our work, it’s all very hard to do, and we all put ourselves through hell doing it, but the most rewarding thing isn’t using the site and finding it easy ourselves, but it’s in fact hearing you guys tell us what’s good, what’s bad, and what can be improved. It’s a very nice feeling to know that someone cares, even if it’s bad feedback we’re getting, about what we did, and that you’re all not just indifferent.
Signing off for a rest,
The Admin TeamP.S. Ever dramatic as I always am, I've posted this at 12 exactly, and taken the site off at 12 exactly. You're all welcome, and aren't we spiffingly good with our timing!
P.P.S. Congratulations to Jack for her first update!
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