Hogwarts Live Blog

Have some Bertie Botts beans just sitting in your pocket? Use them to win some points, both for your house and for you. A Raffle is going on right now, the prize? 500 points for your house, and 5,000 donator points for you, that's a good prize, so trade in your beans and win some points! 5 winners. Enter fast, this raffle ends tomorrow!

PvP and its affect on the House Cup AND Alignment has been changed. It now costs your House AND other Houses points. Here are the highlights:

Attacking

- If you kill ANY person in PvP, you GAIN 3 points.
- If the person you kill is in another House, you gain 2 EXTRA points.

It's here, the 800 word prequel to Harry Potter is now online.

The original sold today for 25,000 pounds, just under $50,000 US.

But now you can read the original at:

http://www.waterstoneswys.com/.

Click on "Read our authors stories" and then on "JK Rowling" and you can read the story for yourself. It involves James and Sirius, and two policemen.

Enjoy!

If you want to have this story in a limited edition book, you can pre-order the limited edition book here. Proceeds to go to charity, so you get words from JK Rowling, more story, and you help a great cause.

This is just a quick reminder to everyone: When a staff member is handling a situation in chat where players are breaking rules, DO NOT interfere and make comments, it only makes things worse. If a staff member tells you to drop it, drop it. Do not try to get in the last word, if you do you will only get one more warning before you're muted. If you have any thing else to say about it, owl that staff member or petition it for another staff member to look at.

Now if you see a staff remove more or give more then what is listed here either Owl Edmund, Myself, Bellatrix, LilyAnnKnight, or SpinalRemains, or feel free to petition it. Now when you owl or petition it you need to include in the chat where they removed or given points from the person and that persons bio, where we can see the name of the person and the points removed or given. Now I understand if said part is unable to be shown therefore just in the daily prophet where they removed or gave the points will do. And we will take care of the points that were not justified. The staff member will lose points double in some cases. And the player will be credited back what they lost or will lose what they unfairly gained.

Losing Points.

-25 to -50 points for a simple infraction. This is your warning and if you continue on you get muted but do not lose more points.

-100 points for a serious infraction. This is your warning and if you continue on you get muted but do not lose more points.

Point deduction is now your warning.

-250 to -500 points is for Senior Admins or Head of Houses. If there is another staffer taking away this many points then report it.

Gaining Points.

25-50 points for helping a player out.

There is no reason to gain 100-500 points outside a game if you see this done please owl one of the three of us.

There is more detailed rules in the Staff Room for our staffers to see. And be assured we will take care of the abuse on our players points.

As of today, Staff are allowed to dock points with no warningfor breaking the rules. If you break the rules, prepare to lose points for your House. This is not generally done. But this is how it was done in the books. Now bear in mind that it is the punishing staffers judgment on how many points you will lose. Some staffers may not take away as many as others.
Here is a reminder of the rules for you all.

1. No circumventing/evading the foul language filter. If a word shows up as symbols (!@#$) then leave it alone; don't change the spelling of it or try to add you own symbols to it (***). This includes using foreign languages in chat; they are not allowed either.
3. No cheating. Trying to hack into the server, trying to crack other user's passwords, or otherwise doing something detrimental to the integrity or security of HL is strictly forbidden. Do not use scripts or bots to automate game tasks as they may burden the server. You must report any bugs or exploits you discover using the Petition for Help link. Failure to do so will result in a temp ban. Those who report bug abuse or means of doing so will receive a reward. A bug is a problem in the game code that permits you to gain an unfair advantage over other players, it is a form of cheating.
4. No Sexual Conduct. Again this is a reminder that this is a PG13 site. The use of offensive or sexually explicit language in chat and owls is not allowed. Do not use innuendos and do not name private body parts.
5. No excessive harassment of other players. Do not harass other players (ridicule is allowed to an extent). Please mind your attitude and language at all times. Be polite and have fun. Taunting opponents is fine as long as it is roleplayed, but personal attacks are not allowed. Personal attacks(bringing someones real life into it) and insulting remarks should be kept off the public channels such as the forums and the chats. It is preferable that you keep arguments off the site or ignore players that irritate you.
6. Drugs, Alcohol and other Bannable Subjects. Any reference to illegal drugs, alcohol use(other than site-related,) cutting, suicide or other forms of self-mutilation will not be tolerated. There is no need for any of that on this site. Walking off a cliff is NOT self mutilation, even though some have warned for it. Saying you want to die to get a New Day is not suicide talk either, mentioning that because I've seen it warned for before. Some of these acts though can get you perm muted. Any reference to rape is an instant ban. Also included in this rule is any controversial subject such as politics, religion, abortion, etc. If ANY subject is causing a disruption in chat, staff will stop it and mute those players that continue.
6. Spam. Spam is using more then 3 of the same character in a row, which generally we do not mute for, unless you do it over and over, and things such as "shsdfgesrhshsryery" are spam, which if you do we will mute you. Smilies are included in the no more then 3 rule. Do not advertise other websites or post useless or repetitive text. If you want to advertise your website, use the Link Exchange. If you are reported by several players with evidence that you are randomly owling them websites, you'll most likely be banned. Also included under spam is posting messenger addys in chats(email addresses also). If a friend wants them, owl it to them. All caps in one or two posts is FINE. Using it every post isn't.
7. Alternate characters (alts) are no longer allowed UNLESS it existed prior to August 2007. For those with an alt, they should not interact. Don't attack each other, talk to each other, place bounties on each other, or refer your own alts. That sort of cheating is just in bad taste. If you share a computer, Internet connection, or Network with another player we will assume there is only one person at the keyboard and you will be held responsible for all activity that originates from your account or IP address.
10. Personal Information. Your contact information is private. Posting your email, phone number, address etc. in a public chat is not only against the rules of the site but puts you at risk. If you wish to share this information with others on the site, please use Owls to do so.
In the end, listen to the admins and other staff, do not argue with them. If you have an issue with a staffer please Petition for Help so another Staffer can handle/look into it. If instead you decide to lash out at them, argue with them in chat or disregard their authority, you will be punished.

Edmund has explained how he would like the House Prefects to work. At the moment, being a Prefect is just a title, but the whole system is still a work in progress. Edmund does have some ideas about some special privileges for these players but has not yet completed the coding for them, so please be patient for those. This is kind of a test run to see how this system works so we can make any necessary adjustments before any substantial benefit is gained.

The following are the SITE-WIDE Requirements:

1. The player MUST be at least a Fifthyear.

2. Every month, two new Members (one BOY and one GIRL) will be chosen as a Prefect from each House and they will remain a Prefect for the next three months, after which they will be demoted back down to Member. Each month represents one year at Hogwarts. As two new ones come in, two will go out. This will allow us to have 6 Prefects per House at any one given time, on a rotating basis.

3. New Prefects will be appointed every month.

4. It is up to each House as to how they want to appoint their own Prefects under these requirements. If you have a question about how your OWN House chooses your Prefects, please ask your own Head of House. Generic questions about how the basic system works can be answered by any Staffer.

Thanks!

sampaz, billybobjoe and Adrienne each won 750 points for Gryffindor, and Acerbity and Hypnos each won 750 points for Hufflepuff.

Congratulations to each of you.

Being this is becoming a common trend for players, if you accuse another house/staff of cheating at the House Cup in chat obnoxiously you'll be penalized points. If you think thats happening petition it and other staff will look into it. There should be no doubts about them being looked into either, us HoH's and other Staff wouldn't want our houses to lose because another one cheated.

Having some house rivalry is alright, so is having house pride until it starts causing fights to break out in chat. While having rivalry/pride in chat, please do not try to instigate players from the house you may be saying things about to respond in a rude way that'll start a fight. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion about which house is the best and which they don't like. They can say it in chat. If you don't like what they have to say, ignore it, don't attack them for their opinion about that.

Well the results of the poll last week were clear, most people would prefer the house identification and for clubs to be separate.

So all clans have been disbanded, and you are now in a "clan" that matches your hogwarts house. The Guildhalls have been replaced with your Common Room, and the dorms have moved there.

Dorms will get a rewrite in the near future to be house specific, but I can only do so much at once.

A quick note about the upcoming Club system...

Yes, we know that some of you miss the old clans. However, Edmund's idea for the new Clubs will essentially become the old clans. As far as I know (and I may be wrong about this), anyone will be able to make a Club. The only requirement is that you need 3 members to actually be able to access your Club. PLUS...you will able to join MULTIPLE Clubs. So as you can see, the old clan system is not completely phased out. No, it will not be exactly the same as before, but it WILL be VERY similar.

He is still working on the code for the clubs so please be patient until they are added.