SUGGESTION: A thread to post wanted bios.
Am not entirely sure if this suggestion has been posted already. Some/most sites have wanted bios. Although H.io is an exception because it has a 1 character limit ;-;, it would still be possible for new players to take on the character or those without an iNPC or players who want to deactivate and create a new one. This does limit the characters age to likely around 1st year. But it would be a good idea for those who want familial relations eg younger bro/cousin or simply friendship for their PC or iNPC. Or even wanted bios for professors, if a professor wants a child... or if a student wants a professor uncle.

Wouldn't that go in RPG requests?

No. Wanted bios are basically.. characters you can adopt when... making a character if that makes sense. Though there are details provided on the character, it's mostly just the basics and vague and the writer who takes the character on can develop more on how they please.

Plus RPG req goes too quickly. A forum would be great as a place on its own.

Ah, okay

Basically she is referencing a common practice in other communities where prospective users have a greater initial view of the community and can sometimes find someone that wants a brother, sister, etc. It does not tend to work as well here because a lot of new players start the site and then drop the community after a week or two, basically filling roles for a short time before dropping the community. A lot of players will instead re-register with Index with an addendum where they explain that they students are childhood friends, half-siblings or even full siblings previously unmentioned. As long as it does not betray what was previously roleplayed the Index Team is generally amendable. If you have clearly stated in roleplay you are an only child, you are out of luck (even if you are looking for a new account sibling). A lot of players are choosy, they like to see that someone will be around for the long-haul. There are a few players that seek connections to keep an eye out for, but be aware of the fact that many of them have been burned by a user that unceremoniously dropped the community leaving the player that remains 'holding the bag.'

Still, a notion worth discussing. I have seen it before, it tends to work better in smaller communities admittedly.

Another suggestion.

I've been having a few complications with having my inpc set up something similar to an already existing club, S.W.A.G. Club -- which have been hosting non-official player moderated games for almost 2 years now -- but as an iNPC exclusive and without the players involved acknowledging IC a club. The verdict as clarified being no clubs/collectives for iNPC be it IC/OoC. Hosting events are okay. Individual sign-up threads for events are ok. IC staff supervision is a must if spells are utilised.

To set up an individual sign-up thread instead of one main 'club thread' whenever one decides to host an event is not the most convenient. So I would like to suggest a collective thread/forum. For when a player wants to host an unofficial event, moderated or not. It gives a collective space for players to post to advertise and promote individual creatively thought off events. They can choose to link their post to a sign-up thread or the event thread itself or 'owl me to join/if interested'. These events could range from family pureblood party, a picnic, to spell based moderated games. Those keen can subscribe to the thread/forum and easily keep track and not miss out. Additionally, staff can easily monitor the events and approach the event host early OoC if anything is not right.

I had created S.W.A.G club in late 2019 as player moderated games weren't very common and duelling was not out and an active system yet then. The only other player moderated game that made it to completion that I could remember before S.W.A.G was Serena's snowball fight in 2018. Therefore, S.W.A.G was had become The collective game club. Which was a really big hit before duels. *flips hair at my genius-ness* Since then, there had been a lot of other individual player-moderated games. Now that they are being more common, this suggestion suits well in my opinion.

The concept is very similar to the RPG thread request thread, or heck, an entire forum similar to the errand forum. There can also be guidelines included to host moderated events. For example, no-god modding, school broom borrowing info, information that hosting a game involves spells requires IC staff supervision in order to avoid the party-pooping if spells are involved. The forum intro could also include which IC staff are available to oversee and facilitate events that players can easily approach via owls and discord to ask.

((For the first year of s.w.a.g (3 games) 2019- early 2021 didn't occur to me the necessity and rationale of staff supervision as there weren't many player moderated games, so much that we went all 3 games without *sweats*))

^.^ let me know what you think. I personally think it's brilliant. Of course, something like this may require some moderation.

Players have independently performed player-driven events, some requiring moderation and others merely T2 roleplay for years. Serena's snowball fight is an example but there is also the dorm-based activities that have been held by users such as Opeila as well. They are infrequent because we have a lot of other activities that are ongoing and many users interested in moderation serve on staff roles already.

If the frequency of player-driven activities become high enough, this might be a worthy consideration but we already have the OC discussion thread, the PRG partner request thread and the discord thread sharing channel to communicate the fact that there is an activity planned and to direct interested users to the sign-up thread be it in the Common Room of your house for a house-based activity or Leaky Cauldron for a visible public sign up place.

That said, this is an off-the-cuff statement and reply that has been said with minimal consideration and without the feedback of the administration or the moderation team. They may be aware of greater activity in this regard than I am aware of. A link has been forwarded to both.

just to add, in terms of the frequency, although I do not think that player-driven events are that infrequent, i do feel that a forum idea as suggested, who knows, may encourage more players to host their own activities. That may also be something to put into consideration. : )

To Staff,

Hello! I know that this thread is meant for forum suggestions, but in lieu of a better place to express my opinion to staff I have chosen to leave my feedback here. I hope that is ok. First, I would like to make it clear that I respect all decisions made by staff, but I am hoping to express my opinion on the matter openly. I would like to address the recent changes to rewards for the monthly House Cup winners. It has been stated that the winning house will no longer be offered Main Story rewards as a possible reward for winning. I can only speak for myself here, maybe there are others that feel the same way, but this comes as a huge loss. I feel the Main Story makes this site unique compared to others like it. The opportunity to actually be involved in the Main Story is always such an exciting prospect and every time it is offered to us I can't wait to get involved. Not only is it a great role playing opportunity for myself, but also a great way for me to get involved in a group setting and interact with other writers I may not have otherwise. The announcement stated that this decision was reached because of complaints brought to staff. It is not my wish to disrespect the opinions of other players, but to remove this opportunity for everyone because of the complaints of a few just seems imbalanced. Surely there must be a way to find a compromise between those who don't enjoy or agree with how the Main Story functions and those that very much do. One party may have felt like they were losing, but to completely strip these opportunities from everyone only seems to make us all lose. Again, I will respect whatever decision staff makes regardless of my personal opinion. I know that job is not an easy one and I highly appreciate all the hard work and dedication that goes into running this site. Thank you in advance for hearing me.

-Howard

Not sure if this is the right place but- I absolutely second that. The excitement that I had when stumbling into main story (literally stumbled as I just joined a thread with a character who I didn't know was played by Lear at that time) was one of the things that kept me on hogwarts.io actually. It gave me a feeling of being seen and included on site, as this is a huge place and it's easy to feel lost and unbelonging especially with a playerbase as big as this.
Self made player interactions are great, that is clear, but few things bring people together in the way main story does.
I feel the same as Howard.

To end this with a suggestion: It would be nice to find a way to see how many are pro and how many contra, maybe through a poll, maybe there's an even better way. Because I think there are many who enjoy main story.