Re: Pottermore v.10
 

It's true that they are very clear about being super family friendly. I guess I just always feel that outright banning someone with no warning is really harsh but maybe I'm just too nice/lenient with people. It is surprising though how they could type certain words that are violent in nature and have those apparently not go through moderation first. If Pottermore wants to be as super family friendly as they claim to be, those kind of comments shouldn't be able to become publicly viewable to begin with and that would also mean no one would have to be banned because it would never be visible to begin with and those people would probably just stop trying to post those comments if they noticed they never managed to pass through moderation anyway.

________

On another note, anyone else notice how in JK Rowling's description of the Hufflepuff common room(not the general Hufflepuff common room that is yellow coloured, the link to JK Rowling's description of the place), there are no comments what so ever? I'm pretty sure there used to be some but one day they disappeared and I've never seen comments there again.

Just wondering if it's the same for other houses.

Re: Pottermore v.10
 

I'm constantly amazed at how family-friendly sites are moderated. For instance, in COS here I once used an example of the ill-effects of nazism to illustrate a point; I didn't go into specifics, I kept things very very general, I included no description of anything but I included a name and one two-word phrase (that didn't contain any banned words or bad language, might I add) and my post was deleted for "not being appropriate."

But in another forum we can debate murder, poisoning, death, serial killers and other such nasiness in detail and at length and the posts are allowed.

It's a mystery.

Re: Pottermore v.10
 

As you (should) well know, we don't discuss CoS moderation policies in any other forums than The Wizengamot Administration Services. And we don't discuss individual cases there either. For that, use owls.

Re: Pottermore v.10
 

For a few weeks after I was able to jump in and join the site, there were some pretty heavy role-playing going on in the Great Hall, and there were a few folks from different houses that were borderline bullying some from other houses. It's the kind of stuff that needed to be banned, and I was uncomfortable with things that were said.

Comments are not moderated unless there are key words used, or any numbers at all, that flag the comment. The system itself is designed, I believe, to stall the comments for a minute or so as to keep people from directly chatting. At times, the site will even post comments out of order and intentionally post new comments four or five places below comments that were previously posted. Very difficult to follow, but I think the comments section is not being used as it was intended. People want very much a chat-style arena, and they're using the comments section as that forum. Moderation (often referred to as Umbridge) is not based on language or subject, but by keywords...

Anyway, I haven't been back to the Great Hall since my negative experience. I spend a bit of time (less than an hour a day) in the Common Room, but that's it. I give about 5-10 duels a day and brew a potion about once a month. The Great Hall has certainly lost it's appeal, but the role-playing is still going on.

Re: Pottermore v.10
 

That's too bad to hear that some people were bullying other houses. I accept friends from all houses and dislike house hate. House pride/rivalry is nice and all....but it sounds like some people take it too far.

Anyway if some people want an actual chat feature somewhere it would be nice if Pottermore added one although I'm guessing that they won't because it would probably be even harder to moderate and keep family friendly I'm guessing.

I've only posted in the Great Hall maybe about 3-5 times ever? I just went in there and posted a simple comment just now, but yeah, it's actually confusing reading through most of the comments. Luckily, I don't see any house hate going on there right now and haven't personally witnessed it.

Re: Pottermore v.10
 

I'm green with envy you got in, but I agree on the House hate. However, I guess that's the irony that J.K couldn't have foreseen, the things she was so adamant against in her books and how people seem to have glossed over all that.

Re: Pottermore v.10
 

I suppose it's a straight red card offence rather than a yellow card one. I think that glamourising the DEs into something appealing and fun is something completely out of line. And it's occurred to me, too - there were people who tried to have the HP books banned. It would add to their criticism if an official HP website like Pottermore allowed its members to promote violence. Even fictional violence. It's not an 18-Rated video game, after all. I imagine it would be off-putting for parents whose kids want to, or already do, use Pottermore.
And some might stop at a warning, but I doubt all would - and all it takes is a few for the site to gain a bad reputation for allowing such stuff.

I wonder - I guess some words get through because they would be part of comments and discussion and they come up on the site - like people murdered by Voldemort, the unicorn's blood. And it's not the words themselves that are offensive, it's the combination in which they're used - for example, "muggles" "kill" "let's", can be arranged to be DE role-play. As the series involves a lot of murder, "kill" could be part of a conversation to do with the plot, rather than violent role-play.

I think the comments can't all be moderated - it would take too long, especially when it becomes available to all. And people who want to post offensive stuff will find ways around the autocensor.

:sigh: That's disappointing.

Ah, so that's why all comments take a bit of time to show up. Thanks for the info. :D

Yeah, it's kind of off-putting. I've only looked at the Great Hall a few times, and I don't think I've ever posted there.

:agree: I think the people banned for glamourising the DEs glossed over quite a bit, too.

Re: Pottermore v.10
 

This is a really good point, and quite disheartening in that. I always think of Potter fans as a cut above the rest in regards to maturity, kindness, and intellect, but Pottermore has really shown me how a few bad eggs can ruin something with such potential. The competitiveness, possessiveness, and disdain of some of the users truly makes me reflect on my interpretation of the Potter fandom. Despite all the efforts to make Pottermore as family friendly as possible, a few still seem determined to belittle others (especially houses in general - I don't think I have ever seen so many attacks on Hufflepuff and, worse, how so many members are flat-out depressed and angry that they were put in Hufflepuff house). I enjoyed the unity of the fandom when Pottermore was first announced and released, but that positive effect has been short-lived, in my opinion, and now it is replaced with a lot of frustration and anger - especially directed at Pottermore. To me, that is not what Pottermore was intended for, and it is extremely disappointing that a piece of the fandom views Pottermore so angrily. I thought it would unite fans and bring us into the world of Harry Potter, but the world that is most visible on the site is really a competitive, unfriendly atmosphere.

Re: Pottermore v.10
 

I'm sorry that you aren't in Pottermore yet, if that is what you mean(not sure if you're meaning you didn't get into Pottermore or that you got in but wished you were in Hufflepuff). I do feel really bad for people not on the site yet, it's taken a long time for them to open it to everyone. :( I only made the one account, it kind of bothers me that some people make accounts for bad reasons like to try to sell them on e-bay.

Anyway, these people might think roleplaying as DEs is cool and fun, maybe because it's just fictional so they don't take it as seriously....I mean I think it's fine that some people cosplay as Death Eaters, I have friends who do but they are actually really nice people(just like how I sometimes dress up as Envy from FMA who is a villain....but it doesn't make me go around acting like a villain to people at conventions or anything, it's not right to actually act like an jerk to people....I'll do some evil looking expressions in pictures to emulate the character but I always treat everyone with respect and never go around actually acting like the character). Anyway, I've never seen my friends roleplay killing people though or bashing certain houses and bullying people or anything(and these friends of mine are not on Pottermore, for the record).

So there is a difference....yeah....emulating a villain character/villain group is fine, as long as you don't take it too far and as long as you do it in the right place.

Well honestly whenever a series or anything is really popular....there is no way that every single fan is going to be a nice person. It's just impossible, there are going to be some that aren't very nice. There are also going to be a lot of people who are also just immature.

It's the same reason why famous celebs have body guards. I'm sure they know that most of their fans are nice people who would never harm them....but when you have millions of fans, millions......some of them are going to be dangerous or mean. There is always going to be someone who is when there are that many fans.

It's too bad what happens to Hufflepuff, yeah, I got sorted there and I'm cool with it, despite being a Slytherin fan and indentifying more with that house before being sorted in Pottermore. What's funny is on Facebook earlier today someone pointed out one of my posts as being an obvious Slytherin trait. Since other people also see my Slytherin aspects, I know it was never all some farce on my part, but I completely see the Hufflepuff aspects in myself as well, and overall, I probably have more of them than Slytherin, which is why that's where I am on Pottermore, and that's fine. If I hated being a Hufflepuff I wouldn't have earned over 13,300 house points so far(not saying Hufflepuffs who haven't earned house points hate being in Hufflepuff...some people just either don't have the time or don't care about house points and go to the site for other reasons like the new info only, it's just that I don't think anyone can say I don't accept being sorted there when I have that many points). That's part of it though....I don't want to potentially look like an abandoned Hufflepuff account to people, which is why I work hard to make sure I don't when people view my account. I'm motivated to do fairly well on the site and be successful enough there....probably won't ever be one of the house leaders though, really hard to get that many points. My ambition is to someday make it into the top 20 Hufflepuffs since that is up to the point they show on the site but I don't know if that will ever happen. lol. Doesn't stop me from slowly trying though.

Does anyone else here get repeatedly sent duel requests by the same person on a regular basis? The person currently with the 3rd highest amount of house points on Pottermore(one of the Ravenclaws) sends me duel requests on a pretty regular basis.....I almost always lose to this person though....I've beat him/her but more often than not, I lose. LOL. I still always accept his/her duel requests though.

EDIT:

I was just looking at some posts in the Great Hall and saw some sexually explicit posts. x_x

I refreshed and it seems to be gone now....but I really was surprised to see that. You'd think words that are words used for stuff like 'certain' parts of the human body would be words automatically blocked on the site to begin with.

I also noticed this post: "Note to mods: We wouldn't be this inappropriate if these words were allowed from the start. We are simply testing and will calm down soon. "

^ It is kind of true. Maybe some of these people are just testing to see what shows up so the mods will make sure they block these words before they open it to everyone and run the risk of even more kids seeing those kind of posts.

Re: Pottermore v.10
 

I'm still not sure what to make of it all. I'm looking forward to comparing the users of Pottermore with those who join myHogwarts. The latter allows you to select your own house, and I don't get the impression it will be aiming for an ultra family friendly feeling. House pride will never be an issue, but inter house fighting may be more intense.

I guess the cheating didn't bother me so much, since we're Beta testers - you want people to find the holes during this period, so they can be plugged up before Pottermore opens to the regular public. And I blame some of the frustration on Pottermore itself, with all the technical issues, potions loops, and occasionally odd house sortings. And it still isn't open to the general public.

I am equally surprised by the animosity towards Hufflepuff and the popularity towards Ravenclaw. I thought people would be complaining about being sorting into Slytherin, and Gryffindor would be battling the hardest for the House Cup.
I personally think it's bored teens testing the rules. Someone saw the earlier posts and thought they'd join in. Could be a Beta tester doing their job, though, but I'm a little suspicious.....

Re: Pottermore v.10
 

Well, I didn't get in at all. Sort of missed the mark on registration. I've been sadly checking the website every day in vain and hope of the beta tag being taken down.

[staff edit]



I agree with that assessment.

Without wanting to sound like a dork, J.K through Professor Slughorn once said "When you have seen as much of life as I have, you will not underestimate the power of obsessive love.", I think a lot of these people who we would seem to deem as perhaps a bit on the extreme side, do believe that they are genuinely in love with whomever they obsess over. Perhaps it might seem far fetched, I would tend to think that it isn't in some ways. Every person has a some element of obsessive compulsion. Some might hide it better than others, or think that they are not; but it does show itself in different ways.

Well, I think if anything J.K shown us throughout the books is that the sorting often gives us options, whether or not we make the conscious decision. Every person has a choice of how they live their life, no one is one hundred percent Hufflepuff or Gryffindor. Severus Snape was dealt a hard blow by the mere statement of Dumbledore that he thought that sorting is oft done too soon after Dumbledore told Snape how brave he was for what he was doing. A man whose life was filled to the brim with regret over a single word uttered to the love of his life in their fifth year would undoubtedly take this as a huge blow. Snape undoubtedly spent much of his time wishing he could take it all back (hence why it was his worst memory) and would have done anything to have been sorted into Gryffindor if he could have had a chance to be with Lily. As for yourself, well, I'm sure you have plenty of traits which are rewarded within both houses.

I've always identified with Ravenclaw personally, but even if I was sorted into Hufflepuff I'd be happy.

Anyway, that's enough of my ramblings. Sorry for having taken a while to reply.

Re: Pottermore v.10
 

I've actually never heard of myHogwarts before.

Anyway on another Harry Potter forum that I joined after being sorted on Pottermore....you could pick your own house and I picked Hufflepuff because I trusted what was given to me on Pottermore as being the closest choice, even though I'd say I have elements of Slytherin and Ravenclaw also. I haven't checked that forum recently though, I should again at some point.

Also yeah, you do want people to find holes during the Beta process....if everyone in Beta was really against cheating, the holes wouldn't be as likely to be found. I totally agree. I won't personally attempt to cheat to find holes though, it's just against my nature. I remember back when I was a young child, about 8 years old....I cheated on a test at school....I felt so horrible about it and bad(even though I didn't get caught) but I felt so bad about it and felt like getting a good mark didn't even make me feel better because I considered the mark to be 'fake' since it wasn't really me. I never did it again.

Anyway, what do you mean by occasional odd house sortings?

Also, yeah it seems like every house on Pottermore is popular....except Hufflepuff. Well, I guess Gryffindor seems less popular to people than what would be expected, perhaps because people thought almost everyone would want to be in the house of the majority of the heroes in the story and therefore it just became boring to a lot of people. I dunno.

I think Slytherin has always been pretty popular and the only people really complaining about being sorted there are generally people who feel it somehow makes them evil/a bad person due to how Slytherins were often represented in the series....but it's of course not true.

I'm not that surprised by the reaction to Hufflepuff on the site though because that's generally how Hufflepuff has always been seen. I knew it would be the least popular because it always has been the least popular.

Sorry you missed out. :( My boyfriend, sister, and most people I know didn't get an account either.


[staff edit]

EDIT:

Oh and by the way everyone....my points glitched up on Pottermore earlier but they eventually were fixed without me reporting it. Anyone else had their house points glitch up but then fix on their own at some point later?

Re: Pottermore v.10
 

Okay dressing up as Nazi's or God or whatever is seriously off topic even as example.

Re: Pottermore v.10
 

Indeed, although I'd like to augment and perhaps clarify my statement; I think it's best not to continue this thread of discussion.

Anyway, I'm curious as to what those who are on Pottermore, what do they think about how long it will take for the website to transition from Beta into finalization? Will they be able to keep the 'Early 2012' promise?

Re: Pottermore v.10
 

Yeah, I admit it was starting to go kind of off topic. If you want to leave me a VM or PM me more about it you can. Although I can see how the topic went from people on Pottermore role-playing as Death Eaters killing people(and they shouldn't have done that) > People dressing up as Death Eaters > People dressing up as Nazis since there are similarities....so I can see how it happened....but it is certainly getting to the point of being too far off-topic now, yeah.

Anyway, by early 2012 promise do you mean when they said that the 2nd book would be released on the website in early 2012?

I highly doubt it at this point. I'm expecting late 2012 for the 2nd book at earliest to be honest. I could be wrong, it might come earlier, but I'd rather not get my hopes up about it.

By the way, what does everyone else on the site think the lock icon is up at the top to the far left? I honestly think that's where the link to the online store will be whenever that opens. I don't really think it will be something new to explore, just the shop.

Re: Pottermore v.10
 

You are right - it is the shop. :) When Pottermore was first announced, several screenshots were released to the press, and that icon was labled as the shop.

Re: Pottermore v.10
 

Wasn't the original timeline for Beta to end around around Halloween, and CoS to be available on Pottermore in early 2012? Here it is, mid-February, and Beta continues. There seems to be some servers getting too much traffic (I log in and much of time I get the Magenta Screen of Death, but many don't, so I'm thinking it's the server I'm on), but overall the site is running normally and is ready to be opened for new users. JKR recently ended her connection to the Christopher Little Agency, and Sony gets a new CEO on April 1st, so my best guess is that they're waiting for the dust to settle.

I predict June for Beta to end, and Halloween for CoS.

Re: Pottermore v.10
 

It was a rather ambitious project to take on, I think they made a mistake of rolling it out as soon as they did without getting the majority of the glitches fixed. Than Beta should have happened to see how people respond and if there are things they ought to fix or add.

Re: Pottermore v.10
 

Well, the purpose of Beta is to find and fix glitches. Although we could argue that they should've known Harry Potter fans will use whatever you give them that's Potter-related, there's no way they could have known that so many people would remain interested in staying on the site and competing for the House Cup. (Same goes for their server issues; there's no way to model having over half a million people using the site unless they're actually...well, y'know, using the site.) I mean, we could say they should've found some things earlier with in-house testing - obvious Potions glitches. But they couldn't have anticipated people using the Time-Turner potions cheat, RPing in the Great Hall, testing the boundaries of the comment censoring system.

I think they really only expected people to log on, read the new stuff once, and leave, never to return. That's how most betas are using it: of the dozen or so people I know from real life, I'm the only one with over 100 House points, and the only one who still logs on from time to time. They couldn't have anticipated the really involved people, with tens of thousands of House points.

I do think they should've done a couple things: namely, not had the huge press conference and promised a hard release date. A release to Mugglenet and the Leaky Cauldron would've gotten them all the betas they needed, and not promising a hard release date would have avoided the debacle of the broken October promise. They should also be running actual updates on the Insider instead of releasing fanart, and they should've acknowledged the mistake and apologized.

(I also think they should let some more people in now: there are around 687,000 users on the site now, and I don't think that number's going to increase by much. They could have had a second wave where they let another 250,000-300,000 people into the site; however, I think the team is probably quite small and will focus on getting their revenue stream open and stable before they admit anyone else; they do have enough people to test the site and it makes more sense in terms of profit to focus on the store.)

Aside from working on the e-Book store, I'm not sure what else the team is doing at the moment: there are still some Potions glitches (namely the false accusation of Time-Turning that explodes cauldrons when the Potions tab is left open), but the site itself seems generally stable. I haven't been on all that much, just the occasional duel/potion or to re-read parts of chapters 5 and 7, but would other Betas agree that it doesn't seem like much will change?

EDIT: Pottermore was having major problems with both the comment system and the House points being frozen for the last day and a half. That's fixed now, but there are still issues they need to fix if they want to make it a family-friendly Great Hall: leafing through, there are links to off-site chat rooms in the Great Hall, along with more references about "needing a Muggle-born to kill" and other RP about killing people.

...and there's a Guardian article out that Mugglenet, Hypable, and a bunch of other sites have reported on. I don't think that it tells us anything we didn't already know - I think the reporter just sent a message to Pottermore and got the automated response anybody would get, I don't necessarily think it means delays on top of the delays. Although the Potions bug and some other site issues (the reporter mentions the site crashing) still need to be fixed.

Re: Pottermore v.10
 

I honestly can't even guess when Beta is finally going to end at this point.

Also, I get the magenta screen pretty often too. It doesn't usually last for that long before I can get into the site though.

They're seriously going to have to upgrade those servers when they start letting more people on....if they get too busy with just the few people on the site right now(and how many of those accounts are even active anymore?) I wonder what will happen when they finally do open it....the servers definitely need to be better then than they are now.

By the way, I keep realizing more and more why I ended up a Hufflepuff....earlier today I went on the biggest duelling winning streak I think I have ever had. I was duelling Slytherins and I swear I won about 20 or more duels in a row.....and although winning was nice I actually started to feel a bit bad about not losing for that length of time, especially because it was often the same Slytherin that I kept beating. I started to feel bad about always beating that person. I didn't know though that I would keep beating that person since when you do the duel it doesn't show who you came up against until the end when it shows who you beat. I do start to feel bad when I repeatedly beat the same person because I care about if maybe it is hurting their feelings for all I know. :( This seems like it's probably more of a Hufflepuff trait to me.