Amelia's Suggestions

I know many of the admins or mods will already have seen this, as I made many of these suggestions to Darren when he first requested my help several months ago, but I thought since we now had a place to combine the ideas of people on the site, the people "privvy" to this information ought to have the chance to read it as well.


DISCLAIMER: READ FIRST BEFORE READING ANYTHING BELOW
I am willing to help come up with ideas for improvement of the site, but I need anyone reading this to understand that when someone asks me for advice, I am brutally honest. I do not plan to sugarcoat my ideas for your benefit or anyone else’s. If you believe yourself to be capable of taking what I say with a grain of salt, then please continue reading. If you think you will be upset by my honesty or offended by the things I say, please do not read on.

None of the suggestions I have made are targeted at one single character. They are written with many things in mind, mostly focusing around trends I see on the site that I would like to see changed for the betterment of Potter's Army as a whole. If you think one of these suggestions is a direct attack on you, you're wrong. These are patterns that I have seen from several characters and not just one specifically. Keep that in mind as you read.





If you’re still reading, here are my suggestions:
1. I think as a whole, the site needs to be more strict on multiple characters. Many of the roleplayers on the site create multiple characters, even when their first character is not very active. Also, I find that a lot of the roleplayers who have multiple characters have characters which are very similar to one another, so there is really no reason to have multiples of them. I think there should be some sort of system of application to create another character involving a certain quota of activity and number of posts in order to qualify for a second/third/etc. character. In my opinion, 100 in-character posts of decent quality should be required in order to create a second character, in addition to at least 2 months of activity with that character. The requirements should be increased for 3rd, 4th, etc characters. This will help prevent inactive characters, or people who have multiple characters who don’t really add anything to the plot or the site.

2. I think a lot of the rules the site claims are “rules” don’t actually get enforced. I have seen many people with signatures too large. The site claims that there are rules on how many characters can be veela, vampires, werewolves, etc, but I feel like there are so many of those characters! It is simply unrealistic that there would be so many of those types of characters in one area. I think people who already are those characters could be grandfathered in, but in the future, we really need to be more strict. Being a werewolf/vampire/veela stops being cool when every third character is.

3. Classes are, as the admins seem to have noticed, not what they should be. I personally dislike posting in the classroom threads for many reasons, but do so because I am obligated to. There are several reasons for my dislike of the classroom threads: A) they don’t really develop characters or advance plot. B) They are very predictable and don’t really spark creativity, because there is only so much that can be written about a classroom scene. There is a reason Rowling didn’t write many classes into her books. The action just isn’t there. C) People use classes as an excuse to post poorly or without any thought. When a teacher asks a question, not everyone automatically knows the answer or is willing to provide it. Not everyone performs the spell correctly on the first try. But you wouldn’t know this from the classes on the site. Apparently, just about everyone does everything perfectly and can do so in less than three lines of text. I know that this sounds like a rant, but it is really what I feel when I have to post in classes. ((This was an original suggestion from the PM that was already addressed: Perhaps we should do away with many of the classes and just keep, say five of them)) If you think this will make it difficult to earn house points, how about awarding house points for people who write particularly well or take the time to write with new members of the site? Points could also be awarded to those people who win the monthly awards, or who develop their character in some new way. I think these are much more valid ways of earning points than copying and pasting from Harry Potter Lexicon to answer a question in class.

4. ((This has already been partially addressed)) I think we have too many areas in which to post. The forum’s main board is overcrowded and too long, in my opinion. I think some of the categories could be collapsed, and I think making one large section for classes would make it easier for people to see when new posts have been made in the classes they are enrolled in. I don’t think we need Little Hangleton or the Forest of Dean for sure. Hardly anyone posts there, and those who do don’t really need to be posting there because other places are equally appropriate for the threads that are there.

5. There has to be some sort of rule against creating NPC death eaters whenever the mood strikes you. I know there are several threads that seem to crop up where death eaters appear and are miraculously thwarted by whoever started the thread. This just adds to the lack of realism on the site. Death eaters do not just wander around aimlessly. They are not untrained baboons that can be stopped by any spell by just any person. They are deadly individuals, often hand picked by the current leader. People can’t just make NPC death eaters whenever they need something to write about. That isn’t character development, and that isn’t realistic. Roleplay with real death eaters if that is something you absolutely need. Otherwise it’s just a bunch of random showing off and threads that involve slinging spells and always getting out without a scratch. Death eaters kill people. Not always, but they do. And the same person can’t be lucky enough to get away unharmed every single time.

6. Teachers should not be allowed to have grammatical and spelling errors in their writing. I am not going to name anyone specifically because you probably know as well as I do who these people are. Nearly everyone has Microsoft Word or another source of spelling and grammar check. Anyone who has a teaching position – especially when there are so many people who would like to have one – should be capable of using some program to check their writing.

If you are offended by what I have said, I am sorry you feel that way. Feel free to disregard any part or all of what I just wrote. But I was asked for my thoughts, and these are what they are. I have found many things to like about Potter’s Army, but I can’t say I never get frustrated. But I love writing, and I like sharing my writing and thoughts with other people who appreciate them, and that is why I stay. I also have found some people who I really admire for their creativity and writing style, and for that I stay as well.

If you have thoughts on any of this, please feel free to share them.

Amelia/Remy

Ok, i'll address these each individually

1. We're already cracking down on this, just the other day i was talking with jemma about this, we found someone who'd made three characters, all with the exact same history/personality which was clearly copy pasted from character to character. Really, i'd say that we need to be more strict on monitoring who is who, and on accepting secondary requests, as they seem to fill up the site by the bucketful

2.Well we're trying, this is a big site, and our mods are an absolute disgrace, personally i think we should scrap them, but that's just me. We do try to monitor the sigs and avatars, we allow a bit of overflow, as alot of these sigs took a very long time to make, and an extra cm isn't really all that much.
As you hopefully noticed, we have kicked a few of the really over the top ones out, and most are fine now
As for the other rules, nearly everyone on the site ALWAYS posts over a line of RP, which sometimes is all that's needed. This is a site that allows all levels of RP, and sometimes a short content filled reply is much better than a long content lacking one

3. Well, we have a minimum class requirement, and i think that if people are willing to take a subject, they should be able too, as we've said before, if you don't want to RP somewhere, don't, but don't end it for others who want to. Also, i completely agree about people knowing the spell when they enter, as you would've seen in my classes, i tell people to not know the thingy

4. Same as before, don't post there if you don't want to, but don't spoil it for others

5. I can sorta agree here, but at some points, there aren't any enemies, now you need enemies on this site, but no one is willing to fill the role, so sometimes NPCs are needed, just for a bit of posting variance, i mean the battle in the ministry atm, the Death Eaters are letting everyone down, so maybe an NPC would liven it up a bit.

6. Yet again, everyone's human,everyone makes mistakes. This is a site that welcomes people of all levels, so spelling errors can be expected from some of the less advanced members

Those sound like valid comments to my suggestions. I just wanted to put them out there for consideration.

Yup, no worries, that's what we want