Sitewide Announcements and Updates
A sad announcement --
Caradoc Browne is going to be stepping down from his role as Head of House for Hufflepuff. Caradoc Browne has been a contributing member of the staff team for 3 years. He is loved for his positive attitude, his fatherly demeanor, his singing and his humor. He was an ethical, friendly and kind asset to the team that will be greatly missed. He is not leaving the community and leaving the administration in good standing, he will be continuing to interface with the community on his student account (Hugh Lowe) and possibly on his adult account in areas such as Hogsmeade and London.
This does mean that there will be applications for a new Head of House. The Head of House position is an administrative role that is only available to present staff members as well as past staff members who are in good standing with the staff and community. This may mean some shifts in the staff areas as well if a present staff member becomes a Head of House. Applications will be opening up shortly and will remain open until Friday, July 29.
There is something about ambition, how it not only propels you but also defines you.
Caradoc Browne is going to be stepping down from his role as Head of House for Hufflepuff. Caradoc Browne has been a contributing member of the staff team for 3 years. He is loved for his positive attitude, his fatherly demeanor, his singing and his humor. He was an ethical, friendly and kind asset to the team that will be greatly missed. He is not leaving the community and leaving the administration in good standing, he will be continuing to interface with the community on his student account (Hugh Lowe) and possibly on his adult account in areas such as Hogsmeade and London.
This does mean that there will be applications for a new Head of House. The Head of House position is an administrative role that is only available to present staff members as well as past staff members who are in good standing with the staff and community. This may mean some shifts in the staff areas as well if a present staff member becomes a Head of House. Applications will be opening up shortly and will remain open until Friday, July 29.
There is something about ambition, how it not only propels you but also defines you.
Sitewide Announcements and Updates
Bug when creating new characters
We have been experiencing an error with the creation of new accounts that apparently goes as far back as July 13th. Newly created accounts cannot access forums, change their avatar or edit their bio. If you have a friend, colleague etc. who is trying to get into the site, please let them know what we are working on the issue. Accounts that were created during this time still exist, but they don't have any functionality right now. Creating multiple accounts will not be a workaround for this, so we're asking any waiting players not to create double accounts in hopes of getting into the site.
We are working on fixing this as soon as possible.
We have been experiencing an error with the creation of new accounts that apparently goes as far back as July 13th. Newly created accounts cannot access forums, change their avatar or edit their bio. If you have a friend, colleague etc. who is trying to get into the site, please let them know what we are working on the issue. Accounts that were created during this time still exist, but they don't have any functionality right now. Creating multiple accounts will not be a workaround for this, so we're asking any waiting players not to create double accounts in hopes of getting into the site.
We are working on fixing this as soon as possible.
Cu ochii deschiși.
Sitewide Announcements and Updates
Bug fixed!
The bug for the creation of new accounts has been fixed. If you have friends, family members etc. who made an account, please let them know to create a new one. Unfortunately, all the unvalidated accounts created recently will have to be deleted because they are bugged permanently. All newly created accounts will be able to go through the normal validation process.
The bug for the creation of new accounts has been fixed. If you have friends, family members etc. who made an account, please let them know to create a new one. Unfortunately, all the unvalidated accounts created recently will have to be deleted because they are bugged permanently. All newly created accounts will be able to go through the normal validation process.
Cu ochii deschiși.
Sitewide Announcements and Updates
Welcome to Finley Greer
Please join the staff in welcoming Finley Greer, our new caretaker! The student behind this account is June Selwyn, a relatively new face in the community, but someone who has made a significant impact on our members by showing a real passion for the site and the caretaker role.
This means we are saying farewell to our previous Caretaker Kit Paine, who has been taking care of the castle and its inhabitants for nearly 2 years. Please send him your thanks and acknowledgement of a job well done.
PC: Aaron Jones | iNPC: Madeleine Nakamura | Former staff account: Marcus Iwasaki
Best way to contact me? Discord or owl Aaron Jones
Sitewide Announcements and Updates
Complaints, Concerns and Reports
Players are always welcome to voice their concerns to staff members, but you are also encouraged to engage in Internet safety. Please do not share real life information regarding yourself unless you are certain that you feel safe with it being shared and if someone is harassing you from this community please block them, speak with them if you feel comfortable or reach out to the staff and we will help you mediate. If a concerning event happens, screen grab the incident because people can edit/alter or delete evidence later, this can be done to facilitate a lie, protect themselves from consequences or to gaslight you. If you do not know how to screen grab, I will personally explain it.
When you reach out to the staff, be prepared to answer questions and provide logs of the incident. It is a basic expectation that we address matters once we have evidence and context of what happened to the best of our abilities. Your reports will be as confidential as we can possibly keep them, but there are some facets we may not be able to keep in confidence. For example, if you report to us that someone has been harassing you in DMs, when we approach that person since you were the only one involved, they will know that you shared. We cannot prevent retaliatory efforts done in side servers, such as banning you if you shared concerns with staff members, however we also cannot help you without information. You have the right to reach out for help from us and the accused has the right to not be vilified without evidence, this can only be done with valid, clear and complete logs.
Is information from private conversations or side servers ever relevant?
The honest answer is yes. 1If someone does well managing communities on other sites, servers and is here with us, their work in those places is very relevant and supports their interest in staff roles. We have hired some members because they did a great job with side servers and managing members or their work on another community that staff or players are familiar with. The opposite is also true. If we are told that someone is essentially a tyrant in non-public areas, we would not want them representing the staff or given control over community members. That said, we are not actively asking or looking for members to reach out and essentially narc/rat on other members or to report to us every time someone is mean or vents about a policy they dislike in a side server. If you feel that it is important for us to know something we will always listen and log what you share as well as attempt to maintain your confidence. 2We have had members attempt to destabilize the community in the past, encourage people to harass members and overstep boundaries (some of them breaking laws), and sometimes this information is sourced off-site. We have banned some very dangerous members based off of off-site information. Admittedly, we also get a lot of 'junk' as well, petty arguments where I never needed to get involved or a screen grab where I see someone dislikes me. Myself and the rest of the staff are capable of deciding for ourselves if it is a 'waste of our time' which I should be clear -- it is not. If you need someone to talk to, I'm there as well as the rest of the staff. We are capable of speaking for ourselves regarding our boundaries so if you go too far, you annoy us, etc. we can ask you to stop, forward you to another staff member or simply bock you like any player can.
Your rights and our expectations
There is something about ambition, how it not only propels you but also defines you.
Players are always welcome to voice their concerns to staff members, but you are also encouraged to engage in Internet safety. Please do not share real life information regarding yourself unless you are certain that you feel safe with it being shared and if someone is harassing you from this community please block them, speak with them if you feel comfortable or reach out to the staff and we will help you mediate. If a concerning event happens, screen grab the incident because people can edit/alter or delete evidence later, this can be done to facilitate a lie, protect themselves from consequences or to gaslight you. If you do not know how to screen grab, I will personally explain it.
When you reach out to the staff, be prepared to answer questions and provide logs of the incident. It is a basic expectation that we address matters once we have evidence and context of what happened to the best of our abilities. Your reports will be as confidential as we can possibly keep them, but there are some facets we may not be able to keep in confidence. For example, if you report to us that someone has been harassing you in DMs, when we approach that person since you were the only one involved, they will know that you shared. We cannot prevent retaliatory efforts done in side servers, such as banning you if you shared concerns with staff members, however we also cannot help you without information. You have the right to reach out for help from us and the accused has the right to not be vilified without evidence, this can only be done with valid, clear and complete logs.
Is information from private conversations or side servers ever relevant?
The honest answer is yes. 1If someone does well managing communities on other sites, servers and is here with us, their work in those places is very relevant and supports their interest in staff roles. We have hired some members because they did a great job with side servers and managing members or their work on another community that staff or players are familiar with. The opposite is also true. If we are told that someone is essentially a tyrant in non-public areas, we would not want them representing the staff or given control over community members. That said, we are not actively asking or looking for members to reach out and essentially narc/rat on other members or to report to us every time someone is mean or vents about a policy they dislike in a side server. If you feel that it is important for us to know something we will always listen and log what you share as well as attempt to maintain your confidence. 2We have had members attempt to destabilize the community in the past, encourage people to harass members and overstep boundaries (some of them breaking laws), and sometimes this information is sourced off-site. We have banned some very dangerous members based off of off-site information. Admittedly, we also get a lot of 'junk' as well, petty arguments where I never needed to get involved or a screen grab where I see someone dislikes me. Myself and the rest of the staff are capable of deciding for ourselves if it is a 'waste of our time' which I should be clear -- it is not. If you need someone to talk to, I'm there as well as the rest of the staff. We are capable of speaking for ourselves regarding our boundaries so if you go too far, you annoy us, etc. we can ask you to stop, forward you to another staff member or simply bock you like any player can.
Your rights and our expectations
- You are not expected to provide us with logs. We will not threaten you with a ban if you do not share a log. However, we also cannot help you with a complaint if we do not have logs of what happened.
- Do not lie to us. If we ask you something, you do not have to answer but if you fake evidence or lie and say something that is not true to 'protect' someone, it is likely we will be asking you to leave the community.
- You are welcome to speak with me or any staff member at any time about anything. We will keep what you say as confidential as we reasonably can.
- You do not have the right to know the source of logs against you.
There is something about ambition, how it not only propels you but also defines you.
Sitewide Announcements and Updates
Welcome to Tala Takagi
Please join the staff in welcoming Tala Takagi, our new Care of Magical Creatures professor! The student behind this account is Aly Salinger, a tenured member of the community who has shown a real passion for this subject! We're all really excited to work with her and see what she brings to the table. Congratulations!
PC: Aaron Jones | iNPC: Madeleine Nakamura | Former staff account: Marcus Iwasaki
Best way to contact me? Discord or owl Aaron Jones
Sitewide Announcements and Updates
Attention 6th Years!
Information on O.W.L.s
Information on O.W.L.s
We have our first sixth years on the site! That means canonically you all took your OWLs in June! Congratulations! Here's a glimpse at how OWLs will work on HiO. Please check out the projects announcement and details here: viewtopic.php?p=451289#p451289
PC: Aaron Jones | iNPC: Madeleine Nakamura | Former staff account: Marcus Iwasaki
Best way to contact me? Discord or owl Aaron Jones
Sitewide Announcements and Updates
Solicitation
A reminder: we are a solicitation-free community. DO NOT SOLICT OTHER MEMBERS TO SHOP AT YOUR SHOP, JOIN YOUR ROLEPLAY THREADS, JOIN YOUR PRIVATE DISCORD COMMUNITIES, OR RP SITES. We have threads to advertise your shop, to seek roleplayers and to even point out an interesting ongoing thread. We do not offer partnerships with other roleplay sites, we are not a platform for youtube or twitch fame. Do not blind owl players, do not spam the OC chat threads with adverts, do not blind DM on discord members.
There is something about ambition, how it not only propels you but also defines you.
A reminder: we are a solicitation-free community. DO NOT SOLICT OTHER MEMBERS TO SHOP AT YOUR SHOP, JOIN YOUR ROLEPLAY THREADS, JOIN YOUR PRIVATE DISCORD COMMUNITIES, OR RP SITES. We have threads to advertise your shop, to seek roleplayers and to even point out an interesting ongoing thread. We do not offer partnerships with other roleplay sites, we are not a platform for youtube or twitch fame. Do not blind owl players, do not spam the OC chat threads with adverts, do not blind DM on discord members.
There is something about ambition, how it not only propels you but also defines you.
Sitewide Announcements and Updates
Welcome to Polonius Frogge
Welcome to Gregor Aarden
Welcome to Gregor Aarden
Please join the staff in welcoming two staff members today!
Polonius Frogge is our new School Nurse. The student behind this account is George Henry, a well-known fourth-year who may or may not have escalated a massive explosion in the floor during a Hufflepuff emergency several years ago. This user was previously our beloved Divination professor Rosalind so he is no stranger to staff work. We are very pleased about his return to staff, and to see what he brings to the Nurse role!
Gregor Aarden is our new Transfiguration professor! The student behind this account is Hunter Argentum, a familiar face on site and on Discord, and a known Alchemy enthusiast. We are very excited to see him bring his passion for the sciences into the Transfiguration role!
Congratulations to you both!
This does mean we are saying farewell to our previous Nurse, Kelsey Brumby, and our previous Transfiguration professor, Atticus Wade. Thank you both for your years on the staff team!
PC: Aaron Jones | iNPC: Madeleine Nakamura | Former staff account: Marcus Iwasaki
Best way to contact me? Discord or owl Aaron Jones
Sitewide Announcements and Updates
Magdalena Wickham-Deakin, HOH
Welcome Magdalena Wickham-Deakin, our newest Head of house (HOH) for Hufflepuff. Mags would be the fifth HOH Hufflepuff has seen since the start of this site taking over for Caradoc Browne. Previous HOH for Hufflepuff included myself, followed by Alpheus Wordsworth, followed by BonBon, Caradoc Brown and now Magdalena. Magdalena is played by Nicholas McCowan, a Gyffindor student who has been with us for years, he has been active in Broom Racing and has been integral to the continued development of the game. As Magdelina, she developed and release the Potions System and has released an astonishing number of classes in a short time. her shoes will be some big shoes to fill and we will get them filled eventually.
Please thank Mags for her service in the role of Potions Professor and congratulate her on her new role as Head of House.
As for the role of Professor of Potions, we will be looking for a new user to fill this now vacant staff role. Applications will be open from now until Aug 14th. Please send your application to at least 2 Heads of House, Caradoc will be with us a few more days so please do not send applications to him. Also, please thank Caradoc for his years of service to the community, he will be missed.
There is something about ambition, how it not only propels you but also defines you.