Trina Tadpool
Replies: 31

Criselda Parkinson
Replies: 14

Rosalina Montez
Replies: 9

Rosalina Montez
Replies: 19

Ginny Weasley
Replies: 131

Matthew King, Nicole Henderson, Joel Reese, Gweneve Primus, Cole Abott

Ohai it's 5:23AM. I hate opening shifts. :/

Anyways! Happy sweet sixteen to Eleonore Collins, one of the site's longest standing members. Have a good one.

So today I noticed that I'm nearing 1,300 posts on this account (yay me?), so I decided to go into the admin panel and type in my email to add up all the posts across all my accounts. Doing so is a useful tool, not only for adding up post counts to see my grand total (1,900 across all characters, about as many as Tristan has on one character alone, lol), but it also let me see how many characters I have.

Now, as an administrator, especially the head administrator, I like to be aware of everything that goes on in and around the site, which also includes knowing who owns which characters and such (and believe me, I do know). Usually finding out how many characters a person has requires putting in their email and voila, but I've noticed that some people have used different emails for different characters. This is understandable, as a lot of us have alternative characters whose identities we'd like to keep a secret for the sake of not being treated special (including myself, can you guess who my other characters are? :D), but emails are only visible to the admins anyway, so it's not like anyone would know.

Therefore, I would like for everyone who has multiple/alternate characters to please ensure that all the emails are the same so that the administrators have an easier time keeping track of people. All you have to do is log in on your characters and go to the "Change Email" option under your preferences (or click here!). Alternatively, if you have over 9000 characters (like some people), feel free to PM me a list of your characters, along with your main email, and I will verify the emails and change them for you if required.

Please be sure to do this immediately in order to help us organize the site a little better. Thank you.

The provider of the skin we've been using for about a year has crashed, causing a need for a new one.

There may be some technical difficulties over the next couple of days as we iron the kinks with a new skin. Your patience will be appreciated.

Alright everyone, the First Task has ended and Christmas if fast approaching. I'm sure you all know what that means. The Yule Ball will soon be here! We'll be holding it in the Great Hall the night of Day 5 of this year, so if you have a character that plans on going, but doesn't have a date yet, be sure to snag one before all the good ones are taken!

Triwizard Champions, you MUST have a date. In fact, It'd be best if the champions were made aware of this sometime today. The three champions and their partners will be opening with the first dance of the ball.

So keep in mind that the Yule Ball will soon be here when posting today (Day 4), and try and snag them some dates in the RP.

--The HIRP staff

Posted here for plotting convenience, this is the planned days for year 5 (2011-2012):

Summer - Quidditch World Cup (Ireland VS. Kenya [Hey, they kick our white asses in all other world sports, why not quidditch?]) Prefects receive badges in the owl post.

- welcome, ride to school. Start of Year feast. Triwzard Tournament announcement made -
1 - Classes - Tournament commencement feast. Durmstrang and Beauxbatons students arrive. Goblet of Fire introduced, students invited to submit names. Feast.
2 - Classes - Halloween. Champions chosen. Yet another feast.
3 - First Task
4 - Classes
5 - Christmas Holidays & Yule Ball.
6 - Second Task
7 - Hogsmeade Weekend
8 - classes - Career Planning Day*
9 - O.W.L. Exams
10 - Third Task
- End of Year Feast, train ride home -

Phew. This year is going to be PACKED. Don't forget that O.W.L.s are also this year, so incorporate that into your lessons, Professors.

*Career planning day is the day that everyone will be going to speak with their head of house, individually, in order to discuss their plans for their future and what classes they'll need to take at the NEWT level in order to achieve their long-term goals.

So I was sitting down being lazy tonight and Kiki and Katy both spammed me to sort Kiki's character, which somehow had been waiting to be sorted for a good few days or so. Anyways, at that point I figured, why not employ even more people so I don't have to do anything.

Therefore, allow me to be the first to welcome ex-moderators Kiki and Emma to the official administrative team. Here's to hoping they don't break anything.


In addition! Katy and Ella will be taking Kiki and Emma's places as global moderators. May your bansticks always fly true.

Congratulations on the promotions.

Just so all the students know, I will be posting each Professor's requirements for N.E.W.T. level here. (Professors, please post here and I will add you). If your character does not achieve the minimum standards on their Ordinary Wizarding Level exams, they will not be allowed to take that class at the N.E.W.T. level.

Bannishtar - Divination: A minimum score of "Acceptable" on the Divination O.W.L.

Professor Charles Tortal - Magical Theory: A minimum score of "Acceptable" on the M.T. O.W.L.

Professor Vinnsla - Herbology: no less than an "Acceptable" on the Herbology O.W.L.

Professor Aphelion - Transfiguration: No less than Exceeds Expectations on OWLs. The coursework is quite complex and a solid grasp and knack for Transfiguration would be required.

Professor Karolina Sneckenberg - Potions: No less than Outstanding on the Potions O.W.L.

Professor Taylor Nicole Stuart - Defense Against the Dark Arts: No less than "Acceptable" on the DADA O.W.L.

Sister Evelynn Saint-Clair - Charms: Acceptable for theoretical Charms work and Exceeds Expectations for practical Charms on the O.W.L. examinations. If students receive lower grades then expected, I will be willing to meet with them personally to discuss their admittance into my class.

Professor Adelina Belmonte - Care of Magical Creatures: A minimum grade of "Exceeds Expectations" on both the practical and written O.W.L. exams.

Professor Demetria Aviza - History of Magic: No less than an Exceeds Expectations.

Later this year, you will all be meeting with your Head of House to discuss your future plans and what will be required of you to achieve those goals over the course of your remaining years at school.

Note that if you want to say your character is taking Arithmacy, Ancient Runes, ect. then you may simply state that your character got such-and-such on any OWL for any class that we don't bother RPing.

Okay, so we've lately had a huge influx of newbies wanting to create adult characters or characters with special powers.

Now, the thing with adult characters is, they have a strong influence on the plot. This being a Hogwarts role play, our main focus is Hogwarts. External citizens exist only to add to the experience or for plot reasons. That's not to necessarily mean that all adult characters perform absolutely necessary actions to move the plot, but they contribute in some way.

So you see why we don't want everyone arbitrarily creating adult characters (especially ones that have no real purpose or function other than to be toys for their creators). Our plan was never to have a fully-featured role play outside of Hogwarts. You notice only the locations that have some importance actually exist. So it doesn't make sense for everyone to have an adult character.

Now, when is it appropriate for someone to make an adult character? I'll explain.

1.) If the member who wants to create one has been around for a while, or they've managed to show that they are dedicated and able role-players, and they have a character that will add something to the overall experience of the site, or they REALLY need an adult to serve for their plots (and even then we prefer that this plot have some kind of consequence outside of that specific character's life--and then we would certainly have to approve it). This happens often. Most of my adult characters are members of my main student character's family. And it was a little while before I was ever allowed one.

2.) If an Administrator ASKS a member if they will create an adult character. Most of the Professors you see here were not created because their creators arbitrarily decided they wanted a professor. Here at HIRP, if we are in need of a Professor character, we tend to ask a member we feel would be up to the task.

Now, even if you've met one of these criteria, you must MUST ask an administrator FIRST. DO NOT MAKE AN APPLICATION. Most adult characters that make it through are pre-approved by the time their applications are posted. And even if you do ask, the administrative staff reserves the right to deny you an adult character outright for whatever reason they see fit. Often, though, we try go over the issue with our members, trying to make sure they churn out an acceptable character. Some of you have already gone about it the right way, some of you have us at our wits end, here.

The best way to insure that you DON'T get an adult character, is to make an applications without contacting an admin about it first.

With characters with special powers, its much the same. We want people to be sure to contact us first if they make a character that comes fresh out of the application process with a special power. Again, we reserve the right to deny you any powers you request. We do this, not to be mean, to be preserve the focus (and sanity) of the site. We can't have people running around with special powers for no reason.

And lastly, if we do deny your adult/special power please, please, please DON'T BOTHER US ABOUT IT. I've made several attempts to be tactful--and I know that many of the other mods and admins have been as well--and those attempts were often interpreted by the other party, generally, as "please, keep pestering me about it".

I think what everyone just needs to keep in mind here is that we are a Hogwarts role play. Not everyone has special powers. There are plenty of ways to make a character special, and not all of them include them being half-vampire, half-mermaid, or half-dementor or whatever crazy people keep coming up with. Adults and powers generally serve plot purposes, not the whims of the member who has them.

As you've no doubt realized, we've got new banners that rotate when the page is refreshed. These banners were made by the wonderful and amazing Constanta and Katy.

WORSHIP THE GROUND THEY WALK UPON, PUNY INSECTS. SERIOUSLY, YOU'RE NOT EVEN WORTHY TO LICK CLEAN THE SCUM FROM THEIR SLIPPERS!

*ahem* Well, anyways, you know who to thank, now for the lovely banners. We hope to be adding many more to the rotation in the days to come.

This has been part of the effort to beautify our site in hopes that pretty pictures can distract new members from the site's faults. Thank you.

Seeing as so few know that these even exist, I thought I'd bring the Joinable Groups to your attentions. To find them, all you have to do is hover your mouse pointer over the "Preferences" icon at the top right of any page, and click "Update Profile" in the list that drops down. From there, you'll see two boxes, the one on the right should say "Joinable Groups". Click on it, and you're there.

Now most of these are invitation only, and you will be invited only after fulfilling certain requirements, or creating a character that belongs there. However, there are three groups to which you can apply for, and the group leader can choose to allow or deny your request.

The first two represent political parties in the Ministry of Magic. They are The Coalition of Warlocks and Mages, and the United Magical Confederation. The Coalition is a right-wing organization that favors Wizard-rule and often votes against anything seen as too "pro-muggle" or "pro-creature" their defense for voting against these bills is that they believe that their own kind must be looked out for first, and that they don't want to jepordize the stability of our hidden world. Hugh Logan is the current party leader and Minister for Magic (due to the fact that The Coalition now holds the most seats in the Wizengamot. If you can't tell, the Ministry is done here on HIRP in a simplified version of a parliamentary system).

The U.M.C., on the other hand, is more left-wing and more pro-equality. We currently don't have a single member of this group, so we'd like to add some more "left-minded" individuals to this one. The UMC is currently struggling and, as of the last election cycle, they have lost most of their seats in the wizengamot (the one with the most seats in the wizengamot is the leading party. The leading party then gets to chose a party leader to be Minister for Magic. The parties with less support simply do their best to please their constituents who had supported and voted for them).

Mind you, these groups are for ADULT characters who are MINISTRY OFFICIALS. We don't allow everyone to make one so you'll have to have a good plot reason to have on in the first place before you apply to a party. If something every happens to the current party leader/Minister for Magic, then a new party leader will be chosen from either part to be made the new Minister.

The other group is known as SAVIOR. This group is for any adult that wishes to fight the Dark Lord and his forces. Right, now, its only open to aurors, but after this RP day is over, it will be open to any adult. Once again, adult characters are not given freely, and you should already have good reason for making one other than just to have a SAVIOR character. They've got to be involved in something else as well.

For more information on these groups, please go to the Joinable Groups section, and read their descriptions, or you can PM me or the leaders of those groups.

Cheers,
--Hogwarts Interactive Roleplay team

(Please note that Alphonse de Ponte du Lac, Anton de Ponte du Lac, Jacob Surla, Belladonna de Ponte du Lac, and Hugh Logan have already been added to the Coalition group, so those members need not apply).