Re: Pottermore v.10
 

According to the latest news, BETA will not be ending this month, and Pottermore will be inaccessible for a few days, beginning Nov. 2nd, so they can make some changes based on our feedback.

Interesting......

http://insider.pottermore.com/

Re: Pottermore v.10
 

on the one hand, I want the site to work well, no glitches and no surprises. On the other hand, I will not be surprised if they announce they will not open the site to everyone until the e-books are ready. Why they have to wait for the e-books to be available for sale doesn't make sense, unless there is info. in the e-books that won't be found in the paperbacks.

Re: Pottermore v.10
 

I've just seen the news... Well, to be honest, I'm a little disappointed with them, extending the date when registration will be open to the public again and again. I mean, I understand perfectly that they are trying to make the experience the best they can, and I'm sure they're working on it really hard. I'm not reproaching them anything, you know. Still I think they should've calculated the time it was going to take them to get the site running a tad better. As well as they should have prevented the amount of people during the Magical Quill process so Pottermore and the different sites wouldn't overwhelm. I can imagine how the people that are waiting for the site to open feel everytime the period is extended. Specially now that they say that the site 'will not be opening to new users in the immediate future' which, to be honest, sound like an awful lot of time. I don't know.. I think they should've been more careful about that. What do you guys think?

Re: Pottermore v.10
 

I think that, based on the surveys (hopefully) they have noticed the expectations of their public are rather different from the goals they had set for themselves. Now they must grow into these expectations and maybe change the site considerably before launching it. It might be a big strategy adjustment and it might require a long time. Frustrating for people who are waiting, but there is no point opening the site as it is, since it is not what people want from it. Let's hope they get it right!

Re: Pottermore v.10
 

I hope! I didn't even get a chance to duel because I had late registration so hopefully they'll fix it!

Re: Pottermore v.10
 

To anyone waiting to get in: the site needs A LOT of work done. The site is not ready - there are bugs - there is very limited interaction with other fans - and there is nothing to DO (apart from brewing potions which is a very boring and repetitive process).

Trust me: you don't want to get in at the moment. It is really worth waiting (provided they use this extra time to actually improve the site of course).

Re: Pottermore v.10
 

I'm pretty sure they've already said that the ebooks are in no way different from the original printed versions.

Re: Pottermore v.10
 

Did anyone else get the "pottermore is currently unavailable" screen? I got it for the first time in a few weeks.

Re: Pottermore v.10
 

This is actually what ive been telling people who want in and didnt make it for the beta. I see that the site is now down with a serious update and...whatever. I personally think that, while it was cool to be a part of the beta, that those who will get in after registration opens for everyone are going to enjoy it more. It will be worth it for them.

Re: Pottermore v.10
 

I think the frustration lies in the ways the Pottermore team has handled the situation. Firstly, half of the fans who were guaranteed a chance to use the Beta version did not receive invitations until the end of the initial Beta period. Then Pottermore pushed back the release of the full website one month, and now they have done so again. While I appreciate the team's concern for truly finishing the website, I think it was a severe oversight to expect it was ready by mid-August for even a small number of the Beta users. And while they attempted to appease everyone's interests by setting concrete dates for releases, I think it ends up being more of a disservice to the fans to have to push back those dates, rather than simply say that the best they can do is give an estimation. If fans had not built up such high expectations for content and, possibly more importantly, timing/availability, I do not think there would have been nearly as much disappointment and aggravation as we are witnessing.

And for a quick update, here is what Pottermore.com says on the homepage:
"Pottermore is currently unavailable.
We are making important updates to the site, which may take some time.
For the most up-to-date information, please visit the Pottermore Insider.
Thank you in advance for your patience."

Re: Pottermore v.10
 

What's even more worrisome to me is that the Pottermore team says on the Insider that "The work we’re carrying out is technical, so when Pottermore comes back up there won't be any obvious differences in the site’s content. However, the changes we’re making – although invisible! – are important. To help us test our work, we'd really like you to log in and explore the site once it’s back online."

To me, this means that the site probably isn't fixing dueling at the moment, although it may be trying to solve Potions glitching and the shopping list bug.

Also, on Tuesday, the Great Hall had less than 665,000 students when I checked it. This means that the Beta likely doesn't have nearly the 1,000,000 testers they expected (I can't believe that 335,000 people are in the site and not yet Sorted) and that they really underestimated interest/site traffic.

I do completely agree with the above post: the main problem is how the team has handled this, with the big press roll-out in July, then the failure to explain how they were going to let people into the Beta, followed by the setting (and failing to meet) concrete release dates. The Insider should've been updated more frequently; better communication with the fans was a must, and hopefully they keep that in mind for the future.

Re: Pottermore v.10
 

From the sounds of it, there were quite a few people who made multiple accounts. So I think it is quite possible that there are many abandoned/never activated accounts simply due to that.

Re: Pottermore v.10
 

If that's the case, then Pottermore ought to delete accounts that are either never logged into or that are inactive after so many days... That would free up space on the servers as well as possible usernames.

Unfortunate that people had to be so rude as to keep others who would have honestly used the Beta out by taking up some of those original million user spots...

CM

Re: Pottermore v.10
 

I don't think that the usernames are an issue, given the number of possible prefixes, suffixes, and numbers through 1-999. Even if it was, I think there's something in the TOU that says inactive accounts can be deleted after so many months without logging in, but I could be remembering that wrong, since I haven't read it since August.

But it was really unfair of people (barring the Day 1/2 email snafu people who didn't get their original confirmation and accidentally ended up with 2 accounts and things like that) to make many accounts. Some people were making them for sale on eBay! (eBay took them down before long, but can you believe that?!)

Re: Pottermore v.10
 

My daughter and I both snagged spots on Day 6 of the quill, but never received confirming emails. We did it again Day 7, got those letters and have used our accounts. I think a good portion of the the unused accounts were never even confirmed from P'more. Remember there was a huge glitch one of the earlier days with their letters not being received ...

no malice or rudeness ... just another Pottermore glitch.

Re: Pottermore v.10
 

I've been wondering about this. To me, it suggests that, when Pottermore comes back online, we really aren't going to see any changes at all. The coding techs are working to resolve the glitches - potion loops, lavender landing in the wrong place, accounts freezing, etc. Once they figure out and hopefully correct what's behind the errors, they'll re-open the site and hopefully get the thumbs up from people having problems that the issues have been resolved, and once that happens, Pottermore will be open to the general public.

If they make any changes with how the site operates for the first book, my guess is that it will only be geared towards the Sorting Hat. We could also see more energetic advertising for Sony. But I suspect we won't see any real changes - such as dueling coming back - until CoS, or perhaps when the e-books are added.

Re: Pottermore v.10
 

I found this slightly irritating as well, but perhaps some of those people had to make a second one because the first one didn't work? I know that I almost had to do that too.

This update that they are doing though, I hope it's done soon, since the sites been down for a long time. But hopefully it solves all the potion problems, frozen pages, and pages that take a long time to load.

Re: Pottermore v.10
 

Just a quick info about people unsorted in Pottermore: I have a friend who got stuck in a glitch just after she opened her Gringotts account. She can't go shopping and never got into the sorting... *sigh*

Re: Pottermore v.10
 

If my potion is still frozen after they are done making the updates to the site....I won't know what to do anymore, delete my account?

I only ever made the one account(unlike some who made like 5) and haven't been able to make a potion since August 27.

Re: Pottermore v.10
 

Yeah, I haven't been able to make a potion in weeks either. :(