Post by Head Girl Andi on Jul 22, 2009 6:45:11 GMT
Frequently Asked Questions
Written by Catalina Cavales
Written by Catalina Cavales
In Character Questions
Do I have to sign up to go to classes?
Some professors will put up a post in the Plots board asking for students to sign up to attend their class. This is generally used to help the professor get an idea of how many will attend so they can set up their class accordingly. If you didn't sign up you can still attend the class.
A class has already started, can I still go? Will I be late?
If the class has already started you can still attend. If this is the case, simply post that you had been there from the beginning of the class. If you post walking into the class late, you will certainly lose house points.
Can I be an Animagus or a Metamorphagus?
Becoming an Animagus is a very long and difficult chore; as such no student is allowed to be one. Metamorphagus is an even rarer power and likewise no student is allowed this power. If you do want one of these powers you must ask Staff for their approval.
Can my student apparate?
To be able to apparate, a student must be at least 17 years old.
Can I play Quidditch?
To be a member of your house Quidditch team, check the Quidditch board and look at the house rosters. Feel free to try out. There are always openings as reserves, regardless of whether there are openings on the starting teams.
How many Quidditch games are there?
When possible, each house plays three matches a year: October, January and April. Unfortunately, due to illness, vacation and many people busy with school, we do not always manage to get the full set of games in every year.
I want to duel, where can I do that?
If you wish to duel you must first find someone willing to practise with you. It's easiest to do this in the Plots board. Once you have a partner, go to the Class board and post in Professor Suivant's Duelling Club post. He will then set up the classroom for you and let you know when you may begin.
Why do some posts have names in parenthesis?
Names in parenthesis let everyone know who the post is intended for. A post entitled 'In the Library ((Harry & Ron))' means that the post is meant only for the person who wrote it and Harry and Ron. Some posts don't have names in parenthesis, meaning anyone can join them. Others with '((Open))' also indicates that anyone may join.
Out of Character Questions
Everyone is required to start with a first- to fourth-year student. After two weeks you may apply for another student. If Staff feels you are posting well they will be grant you a new character. If Staff feels you are not experienced enough yet for a second character (First to Seventh Year) you will be asked to wait a couple of weeks and work on improving your role-play. Occasionally, a player who Staff recognise is very active but is not ready to role-play at a First- to Seventh-Year level may be granted a second character at First- to Fourth-Year level.
A month after you've gotten your second character, you may apply for a third student, First- to Seventh-Year, a graduate, a book character or a professor. Again, Staff will decide if you are experienced enough. The third character is a bit harder to gain as we expect top notch role-playing at this level. Once you have three characters, all with an active bare minimum of ten posts, you may apply for additional characters at any time so long as you are able to actively keep up with all your characters. If you're not able to keep up with all of them you may be asked to drop one.
How can I apply for a book character, grad, or professor?
If you have already been granted permission for a second character, you may apply for a professor or book character. We will judge on a person by person basis if we think you are ready for a book character, grad, or professor. To see which book characters are available, go to the lists of characters in the Approved Characters board. If the person you want is not listed then they are up for grabs!
Why do some people have their names in colour?
Anyone you see with a coloured name is a staff member. Their colours - red, green, blue and yellow - show which house they represent on Staff. Looking at the stars beneath their display name will tell you what rank they are. Purple stars denote the Head Girl/Boy, blue stars denote a Prefect and green stars denote a House Guardian.
Why do some people have ‘IC Prefect’ below their House Group stars?
Characters with ‘IC Prefect’ below their name are In-Character Prefects. This means that their characters are responsible for maintaining order and decorum within the school role-playing boards. If you post your character doing something against the school rules, IC Prefects may interrupt your post to give you detention! There is also an IC Head Boy and Head Girl. You can find the list of IC Prefects here. IC Prefects/Heads are NOT to be confused with staff member ‘Prefects’ (although staff member characters may also be IC Prefects). A staff member will have ‘Staff Member’ below their member group stars.
Can I become a staff member?
We do not take applications for new staff members. We add new staff members when the amount of members and the workload per staff member is very high. In those cases, Staff discusses who the best new staff member would be and we then promote that person. The people who get promoted are those who have the following qualities: 1. they're dedicated to the site, they've been active members for many months; 2. they are good role-players who can be role models to our new members; 3. they're honest (have never tried to fool a staff member) and helpful (either helped out Staff or helpful towards newer players). If you show these traits then you MAY be promoted to a staff member if we need more staff.
I have a question, can I send a PM to a staff member or e-mail the question?
If you have a question the best place to put it is in Talk to the Staff. There, the next available staff member will answer your question. If you PM a question to one staff member, you will have to wait for that one person to log on. Sending an e-mail to the site's address is the slowest way to have a question answered.
I'm going on vacation, do I need to do anything?
If you go on vacation, you need to post in the Vacation List so that people you are role-playing with know that you are away so they don't think you have abandoned the post.
I was on the vacation list and now my character is gone, what happened?
Staff delete characters that they feel will not be coming back. If you posted saying you will be gone only a week, and a full month has passed, Staff may delete your character.
How do I put a picture up and change my display name?
When you log in, click on 'Profile' (it's at the very top of the page). There is also one at the bottom of the page just above the colour-coded wands. You can also just click on your own name. All of these will bring up your profile. From here, click on 'Modify Profile', which will let you edit your display name, add a picture and change other personal settings.
My profile says 'Select skin', what does that mean?
We have created five colour schemes called a 'skin'. There is the default one that shows the Hogwarts crest and generic colors; there is also a skin for each house that features their house's colours and their crest. Choosing a skin simply tells your computer what colour scheme you want. You can change your skin as many times as you want.
What is karma?
Karma is a reflection on a character's actions on site. A person with a high karma is most likely someone who has been on the site a while; they're a very experienced role-player and they're generally helpful towards others. This, however, does NOT mean a character with little or no karma points is a bad role-player. Some characters are used less frequently than others and therefore have much less karma, yet they can be played by some of the most experienced players on the site.
How can I keep informed about important dates?
The best way to stay informed on this site is to check the Important Notices board whenever there is a new post. Also, the site's calendar is useful for classes, homework, Quidditch games and other events. The calendar can be found on the menu bar right next to your profile.
I want to change my character's year, can I do that?
When you are approved for a new character, you are allowed to move your current character up a few years to your new status level. However, we encourage people to simply create a second, older student. By changing your character's year during the school year, it is a major change to your character and all his/her friends. Many times these changes lead to the character being too difficult to role-play with and that character has to be dropped back down their original year anyway.
I heard this site closes during the summer vacation. Is that true?
No, that is not true! When it's time for summer vacation, the site does NOT close down! But, some things do happen. The SCHOOL boards are all closed during summer because it's vacation time and there wouldn't be any students at school anyway. Instead, all students are to post outside of Hogwarts - that could be Diagon Alley, Hogsmeade or the Outside Hogwarts board. Vacation time is a very fun time since students get to hang out and get to do many things they normally wouldn't, such as go to the movies and play soccer with friends.
This site is cool, do you guys get paid to run it?
Staff does not get paid to run this site. All the staff work here on their own free time. Eventually we would like to get the site to the point where we can make a little money to pay for yearly internet fees, but that is a way off still.
Miscellaneous
Do I need to read all the Harry Potter books before I can join?
Certainly not! You can join even if you haven't read any of the books! However, we do follow the books fairly closely so if you haven't read all the books you may run into a few spoilers here and there as to the fate of certain characters. Also, we follow the BOOKS, not the movies, so if in doubt about something, refer to the book, not the movie.
I have not finished reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Will I run into spoilers on this site?
We have one post on this site where our members discuss Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. If you have not finished the book, do NOT go into that post or you will find tons of spoilers. Most spoilers will be in black to make it easier for you to avoid reading them if you do stumble across them. Now for role-playing: for the 2007-2008 year, we will be playing the second year after Harry’s graduation, so two years on after his seventh year. However, we decided to go off of the plots that have developed on our site since 2004. We don’t want to lose all the work and unique ideas that members and staff alike have put into the plots over the years.
The board keeps saying 'too many connections'. What is that?
There is nothing wrong with your computer - the server is just too busy for the timebeing, so there is nothing you can do but wait 30 seconds and try again.
I didn't receive an e-mail yet with my password and activation code, what do I do?
Many e-mail systems treat e-mail from Proboards as spam, so check your junk mail folder, it might be there. If it's not there, click the button to have Proboards re-send you the e-mail and look for it. If you still don't get it, let Staff know.
Can I advertise my own RPG site?
You may NOT advertise any other website here without permission. If you have a site you'd like to advertise, PM the link to a staff member. Please note that we will NEVER allow the advertising of other Harry Potter RPG sites.