User Profile (Public Profile)

Profile URL

Your profile is accessible at:

• https://hogwartslive.com/user/[your-username]
• https://hogwartslive.com/user/[numeric-id] (redirects to clean URL)

If your username contains capital letters, the system will automatically redirect to the lowercase version because apparently we're civilized people who don't shout our URLs.

What's Displayed

Your public profile showcases a delightful mix of real-world information and in-game achievements:

Personal Information

• Real Name - Optional (max 60 characters). Displayed as "YourUsername aka Real Name"
• Avatar Image - Custom HTTPS image or Gravatar fallback. Must be.jpg.jpeg.gif, or.png format
• Age and Birthday - If you're brave enough to admit how old you are. Displays as "X year old (DOB: Month Day, Year)"
• Pronouns - He/Him, She/Her, They/Them, or custom pronouns (max 25 characters, no naughty words)
• Location - Where in the Muggle world you're hiding (max 50 characters)
• Bio - Your life story, condensed to 2,000 characters or less. Good luck fitting your entire personality into that

Wizarding Information

• Blood Purity - Pure-blood, Half-blood, Muggle-born, or one of the other options. Because apparently that matters
• Wand Details - Length, wood, and core. "The wand chooses the wizard, Mr. Potter" but you get to choose your wand specs here
• House and Rank - Displays as "a member of," "a prefect of," "a senior member of," or "the Head of" your House
• Favorite Harry Potter Book - From the original 7. Fantastic Beasts doesn't count, sorry
• Favorite Harry Potter Character - Up to 50 characters. Yes, you can say "Dobby" and yes, we'll judge you

Activity Feed

Your profile automatically displays recent activity from the HogwartsLive blog/community system:

• Recent blog posts you've written
• Recent comments you've made
• Recent forum threads you've started
• Recent forum replies you've posted

Amazon Wishlist

Staff members with the appropriate permissions can add an Amazon.com wishlist URL to their profile. Because nothing says "I'm a professional game administrator" like prominently displaying your wish for more Harry Potter merchandise.

Editing Your Profile

Access the edit form at /user/[your-numeric-id]/edit when logged in. You can also edit other players' profiles if you're a superuser with the SU_EDIT_USERS flag, which is definitely not an invitation to abuse your power.

Validation Rules (Or: Why Your Profile Edit Failed)

The system has opinions about what you can and cannot put in your profile:

• Age Restriction - Must be 13 or older to play. If you lie about your age, well, that's between you and your conscience
• Avatar Requirements - Must start with https:// and end with.jpg.jpeg.gif, or.png. Must be a valid, accessible image. Maximum 255 characters for the URL
• Birthday Validation - Must be a real date. February 30th is not a thing, no matter how special you think you are
• Custom Pronouns - Maximum 25 characters, must pass the profanity filter. Yes, we check for naughty words. No, we won't tell you which ones
• Wand Selection - Most players get 24 wood types and 8 core types. Donors who've contributed $50+ and staff get access to 32 woods and 12 cores because magic (and money) has its privileges
• Bio Length - 2,000 characters maximum. If you can't express yourself in 2,000 characters, you probably need therapy, not a longer bio
• Wishlist - Staff only (SU_POST_MOTD permission). Must be an Amazon.com URL. Maximum 255 characters

Gender-Neutral Language

The profile system automatically adjusts language based on your selected pronouns:

Pronouns	Subjective (wields)	Possessive	Magic User Term
He/Him	He wields	his	wizard
She/Her	She wields	her	witch
They/Them	They wield	their	wix
Custom	[Username] wields	[Username]'s	magic user

Example profile text: "[Username] is a [age] year old [wizard/witch/wix/magic user] living in [location]. [Subjective] wields a [wand description] wand, and is [rank] [House]. [Possessive] favorite Harry Potter book is [book] and [possessive] favorite character is [character]."

Profile vs. Biography

To clear up the inevitable confusion:

Feature	Player Biography (bio.php)	User Profile (/user/username)
Purpose	In-game character stats and info	Public real-world persona + activity
Focus	Game stats, accomplishments, house info	Real-world info, bio, social activity
Bio Length	255 characters	2,000 characters
Shows	Combat stats, recent news, donations received	Avatar, birthday, wand, blog posts, forum activity
URL	bio.php?char=[name or id]	/user/[username or id]

One's for showing off your in-game prowess, the other's for showing off your out-of-game personality. You need both if you want to be a well-rounded member of the community. Or you can ignore both and just lurk in the shadows like a proper Slytherin.

Integration with Game

Changing certain profile settings affects your in-game account:

• Pronouns - Updates your sex field in the accounts table, which affects how NPCs refer to you throughout the game
• Title - Automatically updates based on your Voldemort Encounters and selected pronouns, pulling from gender-appropriate title options

This integration means your profile isn't just a static page—it's connected to your actual game experience. Change your pronouns here, and suddenly Hagrid will use different language when he greets you. It's like magic, except it's just database updates.

Privacy and Visibility

Important notes about what's public and what's not:

• All profile information is publicly visible to anyone who visits your URL, whether they're logged in or not
• If you don't set a value for optional fields, they simply won't be displayed
• Your email address is never publicly displayed (it's only used for Gravatar generation)
• Your exact birthday is shown if you enter it. If you don't want stalkers sending you birthday owls, maybe don't fill it in
• There is no "private profile" option. If you don't want information public, don't put it in your profile

Tips and Best Practices

• Use HTTPS for avatars - The system requires secure URLs. Find a reliable image host that supports HTTPS
• Keep your bio updated - Stale bios from 2004 are nostalgic, but also make you look like you abandoned the game. Unless you did, in which case, welcome back!
• Choose a memorable username - Your clean URL is based on your username. "DarkLord2004" seemed cool when you were 13, but.
• Fill out your profile - Empty profiles make you look like a bot or a lurker. Put some effort in, at least pretend you have a personality
• Remember the 2,000 character limit - Write your bio in a text editor first so you don't lose it when you exceed the limit
• Update your pronouns - If they change or you want to be more specific, the system fully supports you. And if you select custom pronouns, the game will respect them throughout

Common Issues

Q: My avatar won't upload!
A: The system doesn't actually upload images—you need to host them elsewhere and link to them. Use an image hosting service (Imgur, your own website, etc.) and make sure the URL starts with https:// and ends with an image extension.

Q: Why does my profile show a weird avatar I never set?
A: That's your Gravatar, generated from your email address. Go to Gravatar.com to set it up, or just add a custom avatar URL to your profile.

Q: Can I change my username?
A: Not through this system. Your username is tied to your game account. If you desperately need it changed, petition the admins and prepare to beg.

Q: Why can't I add a wishlist?
A: Because you're not staff. This feature is restricted to people who run the game, presumably so players can shower them with gifts in gratitude for all the free entertainment.

Q: My birthday is wrong but I can't change it!
A: Once set, birthdates can be changed through the edit form. If you made yourself 100 years old as a joke, congratulations, you can now fix it.

Q: What's the difference between blood purity options?
A: Pure-blood, Half-blood, Muggle-born, and a few other options. It's purely cosmetic for your profile—it doesn't affect gameplay. Choose whatever fits your character's background or your personal preference.

Technical Details (For the Curious)

• Profiles are stored in the profiles database table, separate from the main accounts table
• Clean URLs are cached for 1 hour to reduce database queries
• Numeric profile IDs automatically redirect to clean URLs
• Uppercase usernames in URLs automatically redirect to lowercase versions
• The system validates images by actually attempting to access them and checking dimensions
• Gender-neutral language is dynamically generated based on an array of pronoun-specific terms
• Title updates happen automatically when you change pronouns, pulling random titles from the appropriate gender column in the titles table
• Avatar fallback uses Gravatar's API with PG rating and a default HogwartsLive image