This handbook serves to give new users and potential HP Hogwarts students an understanding about certain areas of our site. If you are a new member, or a First Year student, I highly recommend that you read through ALL of the material in this handbook. It will help you figure out several areas of the forum, as well as give you the knowledge you will need in order to have fun and remain a member of HP Hogwarts.
To navigate this handbook, simply click on a link to the left provided on the sidebar. Clicking the link will open a content area below this message with the topics information inside it.
WELCOME MESSAGE
Hello new members and potential students! Welcome to HP Hogwarts, your interactive Hogwarts Roleplay forum. We are so excited and happy to have you as a member of our community. We have a lot to offer you and we cannot wait for things to kick off.
Some of the things we offer, here at HP Hogwarts, include but are not limited to:
28 different classes over the course of years 1-7 at Hogwarts
Sorting into 1 of 4 different Hogwarts houses
The ability to create your own groups that will give your group your own forum on the site
The option to join 1/3 different house teams: Debate, Quidditch, & Role Play
Create and Submit books for our Hogwarts library
Over 200 forums site-wide
Auctions
Contests with cool shop item related prizes and galleons
A completely new and unique Harry Potter Hogwarts experience
We hope that at least some of the things listed above have sparked your interest. This student handbook is pretty extensive in several areas. It can be 'a lot' to handle and read. However, that being said, it is worth the time and the effort of reading this handbook as it will explain several things about the forum in, generally, extensive detail.
When you are done with the handbook, click on the menu link in the top nav bar titled "My HP," to go back to your individual home page. From there, navigate to "The Sorting Hat," and get sorted into your house so you can begin your hogwarts journey with us. We look forward to meeting and chatting with you soon!
On your main sidebar navigation, there is a link titled Home. This page is specifically available to members of our forum to keep them updated on any changes we make to the forum and/or website.
Every time an update is made to the forum or website, an update will be added to the page. The update will include the date of the the changes and what changes were made.
If you want to know what's going on with the forum/website, as far as the main administration is concerned, you should check this page often. We will only display a total of ten updates on the page. So, if we exceed ten by adding an eleventh, then the update located at the very bottom will disappear forever.
Also featured on this page is our Forum Information Center. It will display the newest member, latest post, users who are currently online, and users who were online today.
WHAT IS MY HP?
On your main sidebar navigation, there is a link titled My HP. This link is an important link because it will take you to a page decorated in your house colors. At the top of this page, the House Points table is displayed so that everyone can see where their individual houses stand in the race for the house cup.
Below the House Points area, you should see your house banner and written on it will be any house staff member. To the right of it, there will be a promotions box where house promotions are announced and/or other important recognitions are displayed.
Directly below the Promotions box there is a Common Room (CR) Features are. This area displays important links related to your house common room.
Now the second half of the page is where your house team may make announcements that they want you made aware of quickly such as Quidditch Tryouts, or other house team tryouts, matches, contests, etc. That being said, you should check your My HP page often to make sure you don't miss anything important from your house staff.
Also, located at the bottom of this page; you will find a top posters/contributors, today's birthdays, and Owlpost area. These areas are important if you wish to have that kind of information. There will also be a list of some of the most recent threads with activity in them. Be sure to check those out.
FORUM RULES
Welcome to HP Hogwarts! We're so excited that you've decided to join us in our Harry Potter Hogwarts RP Experience. We are very much looking forward to working with you, teaching you, RP(ing) with you, and so very much more. Before posting anywhere on the forums, please make sure you read the following information regarding our forum. The following is a set of rules that are to be followed by any and ALL members, staff, and students.
ADVERTISING
Advertising is not permitted anywhere on the forum, other than the dedicated areas. To advertise in the dedicated areas, please scroll to the bottom of the page and select the advertise link in either the side navigation bar or the footer navigation bar.
You are permitted to include a link to your site in your user profile. You can also provide a link to your site in your forum signature. However, that being said, your link to your site in your forum signature should NOT have ALL CAPS, or any other type of formatting. It should be a generically formatted link.
AFFILIATING
Our forum includes a page for Affiliations. We will affiliate with any of our member's forums, blogs, and websites. Affiliating is only available for members of our forum. We would be more than happy to affiliate with you. If you want to affiliate with us, you will need to send an affiliate request to our admin, Headmistress via Owl.
In your request, you must submit the URL (link) to your site, an 88 X 31 affiliation banner, and a description of your forum/website/blog in at least 100 words, but no more than 150. Our admin checks her messages on a daily basis, so affiliates will be added as they come in.
If you want us to add your affiliate banner to our site, your site must abide by our forum rules and the ProBoards Terms of Service. You must also put our affiliate banner on your site.
Our affiliate banner must remain on your site if you wish to remain an affiliate of HP Hogwarts. Should we notice our banner has been removed from your site, you will receive a PM inquiry into the issue. Should you not respond within 24 hours, your banner and information will be removed from our site.
To retreive our banner and code, please go to our affiliates page located at Affiliates.
RESPECT OTHERS
Everyone should respect each other around the forum/site. There should be no trolling, degrading or putting people down. Respect in this type of community goes a long way and it will get noticed.
CURSING
While cursing is allowed, please keep it to a minimum. This forum requires users to be of the age 13 or older. With that being said, there is a wide range of ages amongst our members and cursing may be deemed offensive and/or inappropriate. *DO NOT curse directly at any member. Really, cursing isn't necessary.
GRAMMAR/SPELLING
While we are not actively checking posts for grammar, spelling and/or sentence structure, we ask that you use common sense when posting to our forum. Please use complete sentences, try to be as grammatically correct as possible, and try to use the correct spelling of words.
Our forum software has a spell checker. If your post includes a word that is misspelled as you are typing it up, our editor will underline it in red for you. Simply click/right click the word and it should give you the proper spelling of the word you have misspelled. It is especially important to follow this rule when participating in Role-Play, Fan-Fiction, Contests, Quidditch, and Debate areas.
POSTING IMAGES/FAN ART
When posting images or fan art to the forums, make sure you have the right to post them. Fan Art should be your own original and creative work. Images should be labeled for reuse, or any of the labeled for reuse options that Google provides in image searches. If your image or fan art is large, we suggest that you take advantage of the Add Attachment option when creating threads or posts. Doing so will result in a clickable thumbnail that users can see.
ILLEGAL/OFFENSIVE CONTENT
Illegal and/or offensive content is NOT allowed on our forums. You are not allowed to post anything illegal such as the use of, or promotion of, using/downloading torrents, copyrighted materials, promotion of extreme violence (outside of obvious Harry Potter stuff), the promotion of and/or use of illegal drugs and substances, etc.
SPAM
Absolutely no spam is allowed on our forum. Spam is any unsolicited advertising, posting that is irrelevant to discussions, etc. Spamming on our forum will result in an AUTOMATIC PERMANENT BAN. No exceptions and no second chances.
HAVE FUN
It's important that all of our forum-wide/site-wide rules are followed by all members, students, and staff. The rules have been put in place to ensure that the ProBoards TOS and copyright laws are not violated. By following the forum-wide rules, you are ensuring that our forum will stay up and not be taken offline.
STAYING SAFE ONLINE
Your safety is very important to us. This section covers the things that you should, or should not, do in order to stay safe online. It also covers certain protocols that are in place about things that we must report to authorities. Please make sure you read and understand the information.
STAYING SAFE ONLINE
Do NOT give our your real "full" name to anyone on the forum/site.
Do NOT share your account email/password with anyone. Staff members will NEVER ask you for this information.
Do NOT give out any personal information such as your physical geographical address and/or phone number to anyone you do not know.
* NOTE: During the Holidays, we will hold a Christmas card exchange and Secret Santa. If you wish to participate in this event, you will have to provide your address to the host of the event. It will be given out to other members accordingly. During this seasonal event, you acknowledge that you are sharing this information at your OWN RISK. We are NOT liable or responsible for any mishaps. The host will NOT give out your information without your express written permission via Owl. That written permission will remain on their account as proof that you gave them permission to give out your information, should anything come up legally.
Do NOT share any credit card, debit card, or bank account information with anyone on this forum.
* NOTE If you chose to purchase any of our services for real money, your payment information will go through PayPal securely. You may be required to provide proof of purchase before any digital upgrade can be made to your account.
PROTOCOLS
To ensure the safety of yourself and others, you are required to report any of the following to BOTHHeadmistress, our main admin and Professor Bean, NO exceptions.
Any threats of violence towards yourself and/or other members of this forum; by any member of this forum.
Any death threats towards yourself/and or other members of this forum; by any member of this forum.
Any threats of suicide by another member of this forum.
If you notice someone who is seriously, or extremely depressed, no matter the reason, it must be reported.
Any stalking of yourself and/or other members of this forum
* NOTE The above list is subject to change at any time, should the need arise, with or without notice. Any of the above reports made to Headmistress, or Professor Bean, will be given to the authorities in order to ensure the safety of ourselves and our members.
SITE-WIDE MODERATION POLICY
The following moderation policy is important and applies to ALL members of the forum, including staff team members.
AUTOMATIC PERMANENT BANS
Spamming
Breaking any of the conditions outlined in the ProBoards TOS.
Threats of violence and/or death threats.
If you are caught breaking any of our forum rules, the following moderation policy will pertain to you.
FIRST OFFENSE
An Owl reminder will be sent to you. It will link you to the forum rules and indicate which forum rule that you broke.
The "Staff Notes" section of your profile will be edited to show the rule that you broke, the date in which the offense occurred, and the staff member who caught you.
SECOND OFFENSE
An Owl reminder will be sent to you. It will link you to the forum rules and indicate which forum rule that you broke.
The "Staff Notes" section of your profile will be edited to show the rule that you broke, the date in which the offense occurred, and the staff member who caught you.
You will no longer be eligible for any staff member position on our forum.
THIRD OFFENSE
An Owl reminder will be sent to you. It will link you to the forum rules and indicate which forum rule that you broke.
The "Staff Notes" section of your profile will be edited to show the rule that you broke, the date in which the offense occurred, and the staff member who caught you.
You will receive a SEVEN day suspension from being able to post on our forums.
FOURTH OFFENSE
An Owl reminder will be sent to you. It will link you to the forum rules and indicate which forum rule that you broke.
The "Staff Notes" section of your profile will be edited to show the rule that you broke, the date in which the offense occurred, and the staff member who caught you.
You will be banned from using the forum for a period of THREE months.
FIFTH OFFENSE
You will be banned from our forum permanently.
* NOTE Each offense that you receive counts against you. It does not matter if it is the same rule, or a different rule, you still broke a rule and it counts as an "offense."
KNOWN BUGS/ERRORS
This section of the student handbook will tell you about any known bugs/errors with the forum/site. If you notice any bugs/errors, you should post them in the Support Forum so that an administrator can look into it. Anything that needs to be fixed that cannot be remedied immediately will be listed here. You should always check this section before posting in the support board to make sure the issue hasn't already been brought up.
Currently, there are no known bugs/errors on our forum or website.
GET SORTED
Upon successful registration here at HP Hogwarts, the first thing that you should do is get sorted into a house. To do this, all you have to do is navigate to My HP, select the link "The Sorting Hat," and, once inside the forum, following the instructions in the Get Sorted into a House thread.
Once you have posted your thread, an staff member with administrative priveledges will sort you into a house based on the answers you provided. Your answers will be inserted into a Sorting Hat application and your house will be generated. When your house is generated, an admin will respond to your thread and then put you in the proper group for your house.
You will either be sorted into Gryffindor, Slytherin, Hufflepuff, or Ravenclaw house.
Once sorted, your house can only be changed if you wish to pay a real money fee. To find out more information about that, see the Shop & Merch section of this handbook.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Upon logging in, you should check the Announcements section of the site. You should check the announcements at least one time per week as important information will be announced there.
Announcements can and will include the following as well as other things:
Forum/Site Upgrades
Contest Winners
General Staff Promotions (e.g. Moderators, Game Keepers, Administration Staff)
Year Promotion lists (students who advance to the next year each school year)
Graduation Lists (students who complete all seven years at hogwarts)
Other
Additionally, announcements will be made when: staff, members, and students, should receive recognition for accomplishments, we need your input about something, and much much more.
Simply put, check the announcements often and be sure to post your comments when warrented.
AVAILABLE STAFF POSITIONS
PROFESSOR
The biggest staff group on HP Hogwarts is a Professor. Professors have the most extensive job apart from the administrators.
As a professor, you will be required to write up a textbook containing 20 lessons for your class in RP Format. You will have to do this for each school year. Each year will have a different book and a different lesson. That being said, each textbook will be used across multiple years for the respective grade. Say you create a text book for first year students in your class, that textbook will remain in effect and be the curriculum for first year students the following school years.
You will also be responsible for grading assignments, awarding house points and homework points, etc.
If you want to know more about professor positions, navigate to Extesive Professor's guide. That guide will explain the responsibilities of a professor in pretty extensive detail. Also, to see the classes that need a professor, navigate to Professors & Classes on the Extensive Professor's Guide. That section lists all of the classes and descriptions as well as the professor's that are teaching the class. If a class has a TBD in the professor's spot, it is an open available class.
GAME KEEPER
Essentially, a Game Keeper is a global moderator on the forum. As a Game Keeper, you will be responsible for moderating all the different areas of the forum, with the exception of common rooms and classrooms. You will ensure that all members, students, and staff are abiding by our forum rules and the ProBoards TOS outlined in the Forum Rules section of this handbook.
Furthermore, you will be responsible for providing support to members who need help around the forums/site. IF you do not have the answer to a member's question, you can contact a Headmaster (Headmistress or Professor Bean) to get an answer.
CONTEST & EVENTS COORDINATOR
As a contest and events coordinator, you will be responsible for presenting contenst and event ideas to the forum staff by way of the "Ministry of Magic." When you've received enough feedback to get a contest or event approved, it is your responsibility to set up the contest, determine the rewards, create the award items, etc. Upon being promoted to this team, you will receive the Complete guide to contests & events, which will detail and outline the position in whole.
EDITORIAL STAFF
HP Hogwarts features four editorial pieces: The Daily Prophet, The Quibbler, Transfiguration today, and Campus News. We are in constant search of contributors and editors for these speciric papers/journals.
As a member of this team, you will be responsible for writing articles for and updating the paper you work for on our main site. This means that you will have to have an account both here on the forum, and our main site.
More details about each individual paper will be given out to applicants prior to promotion to ensure that they understand their duties and to allow them to choose which editorial piece they want to write for.
MODERATOR
Our forum has over 200 forums. Because of this, certain areas of the forum need moderators to ensure that things are running and continue to do so smoothly. The following areas of the forum need moderators.
Entrance Hall
Entrance Hall moderators are responsible for welcoming each and every member to the forum. New members of the forum will introduce themselves in this board and it will be your job to welcome them, and direct them to the Student Handbook.
Great Hall
Great Hall moderators are responsible for ensureing that all topics in the Great Hall remain on topic and are spam free. Dueling between members may take place in the Great Hall, and it will be your job to set up duels between members, referee those duels and determine the winners.
Art & Graphics
As a moderator of the Art & Graphics are of the forum, you will be responsible for making sure that users are obeying copyright laws. You will also be responsible for creating, maintaining, running, and judging Graphic and Art related contests. That being said, you should have the knowledge and ability to be able to create graphics/items that users can receive for winning contests (not just in the art and graphics area) on our forum.
Role Play
The roleplay forums play host to member role plays as well as house roleplay competitions. As a Role Play moderator, you will have to have extensive knowledge about role playing. You will be responsible for not only moderating the role play areas, but coming up with role play contests and prizes for our forum's RPers. In addition, you will hold the house team RP events in the RP Board. You will have to come up with the initial RP that the house teams must participate in.
APPLICATIONS
If you wish to apply for any of our available staff positions, you must do so by Owl. You will send a new Owl to Professor Bean with the following information:
Subject: Application for (position name)
The body should contain:
Your Display Name:
Position Applying For:
Class: (if applying for a professor position, what class do you want to teach?)
Experience:
Age:
Time Zone:
Why do you want to work with us?:
Why should you be chosen over all other applicants?:
How may hours per week can you spend on HP Hogwarts?:
Other: (anything else you think we should know)
PROFILE & EDITING
One of the cool things about our forum is that users have profiles. Profiles can be viewed by clicking on a users name. When you go to their profile you will see the profile information that they have chosen to display. This can include a status update, their username, house, Custom Title, website, whether or not they are a witch or wizard, etc.
Also displayed on the user profile are any items the user purchased from the forum shops in Diagon Alley, and any awards that the user has received.
EDITING YOUR PROFILE
You can navigate to your own user profile several different ways. At the top of the page, there is a sticky main navigation bar. On that bar, you can click the link that says Profile and you will be taken to your user profile summary page. Another option is to click on the orange "cog" icon next to your name at the top of the Sidebar. Additionally, you can opt to click on your display name located anywhere on the forum and you will be taken to your user profile summary page.
To edit your profile, simply click the button that says Edit Profile. This will open up all of the following options and settings for you to edit.
AVATAR
When editing your Avatar, you have several options available to you. Defaultly, your profile will display 'no avatar.' You can choose to use your default avatar, which you can create using the avatar creator. Optionally, you can choose to upload or link your own image for an avatar. Additionally, you have the option to combine both your default and your uploaded/linked avatar.
If you opt to use both the uploaded/linked and default avatar, it is highly recommended that the uploaded/linked one is a background for the default avatar. Otherwise, overlapping the two will look pretty horrid.
PERSONAL
The next tab is the personal tab. This tab allows you to change your personal settings. Normally, the first thing you can change is your display name. Starting on August 1st, 2015, HP Hogwarts will no longer allow the use of this feautre regularly. You will be allowed a one time name change, for free, after intitial sign up, however, if you use it and want to change your display name again, you will have to purchase a name change out of our "Shop."
Also in this section you can change your email address, password, gender, location, website name & URL, update your status, input a forum signature, add personal notes for yourself, and input your age. Additionally, this is where your blood-type, class year, HW Points, and House Points are assigned and stored as well.
SOCIAL
The social tab allows you to add different social media links for users to find you outside of HP Hogwarts. Currently we allow links for Facebook, Google +, LinkedIn, Twitter, and YouTube. Additionally, you can also add your screen names for the following instant messengers: AIM, ICQ, YIM, and Skype.
SETTINGS
When you click on the settings tab, it brings you to your account settings. Here you can change whether or not to show participated areas, signatures, avatars, which forum theme you want displayed, etc.
ProBoards has this neat feature called "Enable Drafts," which allows users to enable drafts on their account. What this does is: If you have a tendancy to type long posts and accidently exit the window/tab and/or hit the back button while in the middle of typing, you will be able to recover the last draft that ProBoards remembers. This is especially important for those that RP, participate in contests that require writing, complete homework assignments, etc. We highly recommend that you enable this feature.
Posting Default allows you to have your editor in preview or BBCode mode when you make a full reply to a post or create a new thread. It is really up to you which option you wish to use for this.
Posting templates are a cool little feature that we've installed just for you guys. This allows users to create posting templates in BBCode that can be used for posting around the forum. Simply create a template and save it. When you go to reply to a post you can choose which template you wish to use. Addtionally, it is recommended that if you make use of these temeplates, you should enable the BBCode posting default.
An important DO NOT TOUCH area of this tab includes the display group. When you create an account on HP Hogwarts, you are not assigned to any groups. Upon registration, you are suppose to be sorted into a House. Once sorted, you will be placed in your house group. However, there are MANY instances where you will be placed into more than one group. If that is the case, your display group MUST DISPLAY your House group. If we catch members changing display groups, we may remove it from the profile all together and let us ensure you that will be bad for everyone. It will cause 10X the work for staff if this has to be done.
Lastly, you can set up how you show the dates and times as well as delete your forum account if you so desire. We hope that you do not delete your account and we hope that you enjoy us enough that you bring along your friends.
PRIVACY
The privacy tab gives you the option to edit your privacy options. You can choose to allow everyone, or members only, to view your profile. You can make yourself invisible. Enabling this option will make you invisible to guests and members, however certain staff members will be able to see when you are online.
You have the option to change your email visibilty, for who can see it. Again, certain staff (admins) will be able ot see your email regardless of the option you choose.
Gender visibility is the next option here. We recommend that all members select a gender and make it visible as that is how we know whether or not to put you into specific groups that you must be a member of in order to access certain areas of the forum.
Birthday visibility is the next option. All members of this forum, per the ProBoards TOS, must be of the age 13 years or older. You can change the options of your birthday display and even change your birthday. Keep in mind, if you falsify any information HP Hogwarts is not liable or responsible for anything you are subjected to.
The least two sections are Activity and Member Block Lists. You can choose who you want to share your forum activity with. Optionally, you can add users to a block list so that they cannot interact with you on the forum. Blocking staff members will not work.
NOTIFICATIONS
The notification area of your profile is particularly important. This is where you determine what notifications you wish to receive. If you receive a notificiation it will display a number next to the "Proflie" link in the top navigation bar indicating that you have notifications.
It is recommended that you opt to receive notifications when someone tags you, quotes you in a post, or replies to a thread that you have bookmarked. Some reasons for this include, but are not limited to: Professor's will tag you in your assignment threads when they grade your work, Staff will tag you or quote you when they respond to a support thread, etc.
If you are one of those that create's groups and you are the "leader" of the group, it is recommended that you leave notifications for group requests and group joins turned on so that you are notified when you recieve requests for a group or someone joines your group.
BADGES
Badges can be purchased for you by you, or for you by another member, etc. from the ProBoards store. This tab gives you the options of how and where to display badges that you have received.
CLASSES
Classes on HP Hogwarts are available for any member who is sorted into a house. Our forum acts as a school and therefore, classess will begin in August each year and end in June. That being said, classes for the 2014-2015 School year can no longer be signed up for and classes for the 2015-2016 school will begin on Monday, August 10th, 2015.
Registration for the 2015-2016 school year will begin July 17th, 2015 at 11:59PM EST. At this time, students can register for classes by way of the Registration link on their sidebar navigation under the "Classes" section of the sidebar. All students must start off as first years and work their way up and through to graduation.
After being accepted into your class year, you will be moved into the appropriate group for that class year. You will then be given access to your class schedule, school supply list, etc. You will also learn about Homework Points and how to progress into the next year for the following school year.
We offer 28 classes with textbooks written by our very own peers and staff. While not all 28 classes are available at the same times, you will have a good bit of classes each year to complete. Some of our classes include, but are not limtied to: Astronomy, Cooking with Magic, Aritmancy, Care of Magical Creatures, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Muggle Art, Magic in Art, Postmortem Studies, etc.
ECONOMY
Our economy section of the forum is pretty easy to understand. Our forum uses a currency called Galleons. We have a shop called Diagon Alley which features individual shops for school supplies, quidditch supplies, herbology supplies, potions supplies, etc. We even have a joke shop, and edible items shop.
GALLEONS
Galleons is our forum currency. Members get a signup bonuse of 1,500 galleons upon sucessful registration to the forums. Addtionally, Galleons can be earned, in very small amounts, by participating in forum conversations. Posting new threads, replying to posts, using the quick reply box, etc., can earn you a small amount of galleons.
Optionally, we host contests throughout the summer and school year. Winners of these contests can win moderate to large amounts of Galleons that will be deposited into their accounts upon a contest ending.
Users have the option and the opportunity to donate Galleons to their peers if they so desire. So, that being said, keep your friends close. If the need arises and you need the extra Galleons, you'll want to have people who are willing to help you by donating to your account.
Also, you can earn Galleons by winning the lottery! For more information about the lottery and how it works, go to My HP and select the Lottery link fron under the Interact section of the sidebar navigation menu.
SPENDING GALLEONS
Users must use their galleons to purchase any items/school supplies required for each class year. Students will have access to their school supply list, upon successful class registration. Each year, the supplies may change as you will be taking different level classes with different books and equipment.
Additionally, you can purchase items for fun out of the shop such as joke items, editables, rare items, etc. If you play Quidditch for a house team, Quidditch supplies and House Uniforms are also available through the shops.
RARE ITEMS
Rare items will be shown in the shop as outrageously priced items. Typically these items are given out as awards of recognition, and/or prizes for winning contests. However, that being said, if a user really wants the item and has the galleons to purchase the item, then by all means they are allowed to do so.
AUCTIONS
We feature a forum that allows users to put items they own up for auctions. That being said, only items that are tradeable can be given up for auction. Typically auctions are for RARE items that people earn and are trying to make enough money to purchase a specific rare item from the shop. Instructions for Auctions can be found in the Auctions section of the forum.
IMPORTANT AREAS
This forum has over 200 individual forums and sub-forums. That being said, it's important that you make sure to check in at some of our important areas from time to time. Below is a list and a description of some of our forums most important areas.
ENTRANCE HALL
The Entrance Hall is a place for all new members to come and introduce themselves to the rest of the community. It's important for members to introduce themeselves, but it's also important for those member to be welcomed to our school. You guys should check this area often and welcome new members as they arrive.
CHAMBER OF RECEPTION
The Chamber of Reception is the home of our Sorting Hat. All new users must come and be sorted into a house upon registration. You can find this area by clicking on The Sorting Hat link under the Welcome Center section of your sidebar navigation.
Please know that while everyone can be sorted and create threads for doing so, only staff members in the admin group (Headmistress and Professor Bean) can see and respond to your posts. No other staff members or members can see your posts in this board. That in mind, it is very important that you are honest on your sorting questionaire to ensure that you are sorted into the proper house.
GREAT HALL
The Great Hall is a place for all members, students, and staff. All four house tables can be found in this area and are not restricted to certain houses. Weekly conversation topics will be posted, polls, etc. The Great Hall is a place for all of our members to relax and have fun together.
COMMON ROOM
Each individual house has their own Common Room. Each common room consists of 11 areas, 12 if you include the common room itself. Upon entering your common room, you are provided with an image map. The image map is a large picture, cut into small pieces, and then put back together like a jigsaw puzzle. Certain pieces link to other areas of the common room. When you hover over a "linked" piece, a title will appear telling you where you will go if you click on that piece.
LIBRARY
The Library is a bit tricky. Not only do we have a library forum area where members can talk about books and such, we have another forum where members can submit books to be published into our "Actual Library" on our main website.
Members can submit their own fiction, non-fiction, sci-fi, fantasy, biographies, fan-fiction, poetry, etc. to be published in "book form" in our library. When a student submits a work of writing, it is reviewed then edited by a staff member. After that, it is published on our main site.
The main site features a plugin that allows text to bed displayed as a book. Meaning that the book has a cover, back cover, and pages on the inside. As you click on the corner of a page, the right or left arrows, click and drag a corner of the page, etc., the pages turn and make a sound as if you were turning a page in a book. Virtually, it looks and acts like a book! We thought it would be a nifty little feature to add for our members.
DUMBLEDORE'S OFFICE
Dumbledore's Office is always open. This forum is dedicated to giving our members a place to vent about real world issues, talk about their depression, anxiety, etc. in a judgement free zone. Members are allowed to and are encouraged to give advice and reply to posts as a means to show support to members who feel the need to share their issues.
Every two months, a member of our forum will be chosen to win a prize for being the most helpful, supportive, active, and caring person in Dumbledore's Office. When this contest begins, we'll post information about what the requirements will be as these users will have to be nominated to win the award.
Please be advised that HP Hogwarts and our members are NOT certified to provide you with psychological advice. Some of your problems might be better evaluated by a professional. That being said, any threats of suicide, homicide, hurting yourself, etc., can and will be reported to the authorities to ensure the safety of yourself and everyone else. We will not and cannot be held liable for anything that happens off this forum as a result of what a member of our forum says, or does.
CONTESTS & EVENTS
The contests & events area of the forum is an important area to check on regularly. All contests and events will be displayed in this area with navigation to individual contests or events. We typically try to have a contest or event going at all times.
Contests include, but are not limited to: RP, Graphic & Art, Writing, Posting, Homework Challenges, House Point Challegens, etc. Prizes for contests can include the following things: sub-domains, email address, galleons, house points, rare items, etc.
Events are things such as House Team Quidditch matches, Debates, RP House matches, etc. Prizes and rewards for events will be determined upon the initial posting of the event.
SUPPORT
The support area of the forum is where all members should go if they need support questions answered. If you have a question about the forum, how something works, where to find something, etc., those questions should be posted in this area. If you are knowledgable about support related things, you are encouraged to help users by responding to their threads. Those that are helpful will likely receive promotions and awards.
Additionally, if you notice any bugs or errors on the forum, you should report them to the support area as well. This way, the Known Bugs/Errors section of the handbook can be updated and kept up to current status.
HOUSE TEAMS
Each of our houses: Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin each have house teams. The teams are for different events around campus such as Debates, Quidditch, and Role Playing/Dueling. When your house is looking for new team members for their teams, announcements will be posted to your My HP page. So, check that often to see if your house is recruiting team members.
DEBATE TEAM
Each house has a debate team. Debate team members compete against memebers of the debate team of other houses. The team that wins a House Debate will win house points for their house and individuals on the team may or may not be awarded individually.
QUIDDITCH TEAM
Each house has a Quidditch Team. Members of this team will role play a Quidditch match based on a specific set of rules and regulations that are set by our Quidditch coach. Houses will compete against other houses during scheduled matches. Dates of matches, as well as the two house teams competing, will be announced close to the time the match is to take place. The winning team will receive house points, and individuals on the winning team may or may not be awarded individually.
RP/DUELING TEAM
Each house has an RP/Dueling team. Team members participate in structured & scheduled role play and/or dueling competitions against other houses. As with the other two teams, winners will receive house points for their houses and individuals may or may not be awarded individually.
HOUSE POINTS
House Points are award to each house several times a day. House points can be awarded for students completing their assignments. Bonus points for assignments are also award when warranted. House points are earned from the lottery, competing and winning contests or events that have House Points as rewards. House points can also be awarded to members of a house who show exceptional traits by participating around the forums regularly, giving advice, helping new users, etc.
All house points will be collected from the beginning of each school year starting on the day that classes start, and will continue through until the last day of school. House points cannot be earned during the summer.
START A GROUP
Members can opt to create and/or start a group. Groups can be open groups, or petition groups. Open groups means that any member can join your group. Petition groups are groups where members have to ask to join a specific group.
To start a group, simply navigate to the "Groups" link under the Interact section of your sidebar navigation menu. From there, you should see a button or link that says Create A Group. This will take you to a forum. All you have to do is read the instructions about Group Signups/Registration and follow the instructions given. Once you've posted your request for a group, an admin of our forum will review your group application and either approve or deny your group.
When a group has been approved, it will be created for you and you will be made leader of said group. A forum will be created for your group and only members of YOUR group will be able to access that forum. More information about groups will be able to be found in the Official Guide to Groups at a later date.
PRIVATE AREAS
Private areas are areas of the forum that members can post in but those posts can only be seen by the member who posted it and specific staff members. Areas that are private include but are not limited to Classrooms where assignments are posted, The Sorting Hat, Library Submission Area, etc. Classrooms where assignments are posted have professors assigned to them. Only professors and their TA(s) plus the student are able to see an individual's post. Professors and TA(s) can see all posts while students can only see sticky & locked posts in that area along with their own individual threads.
That being said, all private forums work the same way. Only a staff member that is assigned to the particular private forum can view all posts within a private forum.
HOUSE CUP
Throughout the school year, students and house members of each house will be earning House Points for various things. You can earn house points from doing your homework, winning/participating in contests, being on a winning house team, etc.
Every day the house point totals are updated multiple times. To see where your house stands in the race for the House Cup, simply click on the My Home page on your navigation bars. At the top, it will display the house point totals.
At the end of the school year, the day after finals are due, the House Cup will be awarded to the house that has the most House Points. At that time, awards will also be given to recognize the past school year's students and staff that been selected for specific accomplishments.
STORE & MERCH
At somepoint, After August 1, 2015, a store/shop will be available for members. In this store, our members will be able to purchase things such as House Changes, Changes in Blood-Type, Username Changes, T-Shirts, Cups, and Other Merchandise. These upgrades/items will cost real money, not forum currency. If you are reading this before August 1st, 2105, the store is not yet set up. Until August 1st, you will be able to change your display name as much as you want, after that date, you will no longer be able to change it unless you purchase a change.
All payments made for items in our store will be made through pay pal. Additionally, all payments received will first go to site maintence, such as domain upkeep, ad free, and url redirect for proboards, all things that cost money. Secondly, some of that money will be given back to the community in cash prizes for winning contests, if said money exists after site upkeep.
We also will have a donations area for users who wish to donate money, but do not have a need or want for any of our upgrades or merchandise in the store. All sales and donations are final, and we will not be providing refunds unless you provide a valid reason for requesting the refund. All refunds should be emailed to sales@hphogwarts.com.
PROMOTION
As a member or guest of this forum, you are able to advertise your website, blog, or forum in our advertising area. To access this area, simply click on the "Advertise" link of the footer (if you are a guest) and/or the "Advertise" link in the sidebar navigation (if you are a member). From there, you can create a thread advertising your website/forum/blog. Please keep in mind that all advertisements must follow the ProBoards TOS or we will remove them.
We also allow affiliates with our members. If any memebr wishes to affiliate with us, they should follow the instructions in the Forum Rules section of this guide. Until we receive affiliate requests, an affiliation page will not be made. Affiliations are for members of our forum only. Guests are not permitted to be added as affiliates, but can still advertise on our forum.