Sitewide Announcements and General Updates - Page 58 - Bulletin Board

13 Apr 2024, 15:54

Anonymity

A quick reminder regarding anonymity. Our homework assignments are anonymous. This means that you cannot give descriptive elements that would allow us to identify you. So no house, no special race, no name. This is best achieved by not using a name at all, simply saying "he, him, her, she, they" but some people struggle with this. Because of this you are welcome to make-up a name. It is not reasonable to expect us to know with the over 50k accounts made on site if the name you have chosen is your character name, some random element or even a nickname in cases where the name is weird enough to be certain that a parent would not name you this. For that reason we expect you to announce the moniker you have chosen on the top of your homework so that it is clear that it is not you. We would know if you are duping us and the assignment is graded, so no... claiming you are using a moniker that is your actual character name will simply result in us changing the grade.

This expectation is in our site rules and in our homework rules for each class when they have a roleplay portion. For additional clarity I have also added it to our Basic Site Rules.

Professors might give you additional leeway if they see you submitted a year 1 lesson 1 assignment for their class by sending it back or taking off a small amount of points for it, but some professors may (and they have every right to) not give you any points for the question and/or give you a T for the assignment. Please do not let your hard work be lost or not celebrated wholly and pay attention to this rule.

There is something about ambition, how it not only propels you but also defines you.

Fifth year, Duelling Co-Captain, Prefect of Slytherin

14 Apr 2024, 13:10

Caretaker Apps Have Been Closed

Thank you for all those who have applied for the role of caretaker. Apps are now closed. I will be submitting the apps to the Assistant Team shortly and they will review and vote on the candidates. We had an unexpectedly large number of interested applicants for this, usually it takes about a week to complete the vote however it may be faster or slower due to the number of interested applicants.

All ap0plicants should have gotten an owl in receipt of their application. If you have not gotten one, please reach out to myself or another HOH as we can verify that your app has been received.

There is something about ambition, how it not only propels you but also defines you.

Opeila Winters

6 415 883

14 Apr 2024, 15:53

Index Updates

You are now allowed two images in your trunk post instead of one. Whether this is a header and picture at the bottom, one for spells and potions or an animagus image is up to you.
Wand and Patronus are no longer mandatory information, so feel free to remove both from your ency.

Opeila | Theodore | Raffle
Head of Index | Prefect | Duelling Co-Captain
Sta-10 | Eva-11 | Str-4 | Wis-10 | Arc-9 | Acc-14

Méabh Regan

Professor of Potions, Hogwarts, I

271 115

16 Apr 2024, 19:07

POTIONS, POTIONS

Dear Potions enthusiasts (and less enthusiastic friends),

with the end of the school year fast approaching, here a quick PSA (the announcement is public, but the service is mostly to me and the Potions team):

As you might be aware, the number of potions you are allowed to brew is limited to 4 per year (more info on how, why, where can be found here). Last year's experience showed that most people realise this approximately two weeks before graduation, which means a huge influx of applications in the last few weeks of the school year, and a tiny bottleneck for our workload then.

Hence, here my appeal: Please don't wait until the last minute to get your potions applications in.

Do it now. The queue is empty. It'll keep your waiting time shorter and my nerves from fraying. Thank you

Second Year, Racing Co-Capt, Quidditch, Writer, Hufflepuff

19 Apr 2024, 03:01

Age of Consent

This is a general announcement over what we do and how we respond to 18+ behaviors with a minor. Recent events coupled with presumptions and deceptive information has resulted in unfortunate and untrue rumors and has left some users with questions.

Off site, we generally only moderate our discord. Meaning that site rating and site rules would be followed on our discord. Our staff actively moderate both discord and the site so most rules infractions will be eventually noticed, but there are cases where we do not see something, understand the context of what happened or our ability to see what happened is somehow obfuscated. The exception to moderating only our site and discord is staff leaks and inappropriate contact with minors. Minors in this community are considered to be those under the age of 18 regardless of the age of consent in your country, their alleged 'want' for the interaction, or if you feel that they are 'very mature'; minors are not considered to be able to give their consent and this is also in accordance with the Discord TOS: Community Standards. Even owls can be reported to the staff so if someone solicits inappropriate content from you as a minor (or not as a minor because it is not appropriate but there will be a difference in my personal rage) you can report it. The Hogwarts staff may (there is no promise of this) also review some fringe extreme cases which would get their own announcement and would represent extreme situations (ex. faking your age to entrap a non-minor in a relationship with a minor is an example), actual human harm (ex. encouraging/pushing someone to harm themself), or criminal activity (ex. selling kids RL drugs in their DMs).

Taken from here.

In short: We will ban adult (18+ users) that engage in explicit behavior with a minor (user under the age of 18).

Clarifications on what we mean by this.

1. We do not ban an adult because a minor entered their DMs and flirted. Being the recipient of a behavior does not make you a participant. The adult would have to actively engage. You will not be banned for jokes or saying swear words as an adult in DMs with a minor. It is not a matter of being approached, joking, or generally flirting like we allow on our server between users. Bannable situations involve someone with the maturity to know better engaging in explicit discussions or behaviors with someone not old enough to make the decision legally or have the social experience and maturity to potentially make the distinction.

2. We will not ban someone that has been engaging in explicit behaviors with a minor user if they were unaware of the user's actual age prior to the incident.

3. Minors and non-minors are in one another's DMs for legitimate reasons all the time - sports, thread planning, simple, non-sexual conversation as friends, gaming, etc. These are all fine, the issue is when you engage in behaviors or conversations that should involve an intimate partner or the shared production or consumption of media a minor should not be able to access.

4. If a minor is persistent in engaging in explicit content or engaging in explicit activities, as an adult you have options such as blocking, refusing to engage in DMs with the user, or a DNC.

Engaging in explicit activity as an adult with a minor because "the minor pressured you" is not an excuse.
Engaging in the behavior with a minor as an adult and then dropping them after does not undo the fact that you engaged in an activity with a minor that should not have happened. All that you have done is add the emotional trauma of dropping them on top of the exposure that should not have happened.
It is not the minor's fault that you engaged in explicit activities with them as an adult even if they asked. Again, you're the adult.

5. It does not matter if the minor was consenting to the explicit act, the engagement can be reciprocal and can still be inappropriate. There is an imbalance of power and maturity between a person of age and the underage, adults again have the responsibility here.

There could be legal ramifications depending on the region and local/national law. There are laws in most regions that protect adolescents from predators while under the age of consent. These laws can create challenging situations where both parties are consenting and only one year apart, to date we have not banned members engaged in this manner with such a close age range however it is a risk you are choosing to take if you are over 18 and engaging with someone under the age of 18. There is no Romeo and Juliet official consideration in this community.

To players not involved in these incidents: [READ] It is not your business to gossip about these sorts of scenarios. You definitely do not know what youre talking about, so stop. We will not be exposing the minor to the additional trauma of publicly displaying intimate moments to slake your curiosity or to prove the severity of a scenario. We will not name minor victims. If we can give the perpetrators the dignity of not plastering their name all over the site, we can do the same for their victims.

What is considered explicit (non-exhaustive list):

As an adult do not share NC17 (18 in the UK, R18 in Australia, some may refer to this still as X) content with a minor.
As an adult do not share your NC17 story or co-write one with a minor.
As an adult do not engage in NC17 talks with a minor. This would be things like your erection, saturation, masturbation, description of intimate areas, request for images or acts. If a minor initiates, this does not give you the green light to go-ahead, you are expected to walk away. If you cannot control yourself, remove yourself from the site or I will.
Do not solicit users for NC17 content.

What you can do to protect yourself:

If you are interested in engaging in flirty banter, before it grows intimate with a user verify their age as an adult or as a minor. If you truly care about someone, you would want to protect them. If you truly care about someone, you can wait.
If someone requests intimate discussions, acts, images, you have every right to say "no" no matter how nice, helpful or interesting they are. Participation in these intimate behaviors is a choice. If you are a minor, please say "no" because you can get them in a lot of trouble and there are facets to these sorts of relationships that can be harmful to you. If you are an adult interested in being intimate online with another adult, make a measured decision because online everything is recorded somewhere.
If someone persists in requesting intimacy after you have told them "no", you can block them, request a DNC, refuse to engage with them in private areas. Adults have been harassed by minors in the past and have had to take measures for their safety. Minors have also required protection from exploitation and if necessary/possible, we will contact the authorities.

There is something about ambition, how it not only propels you but also defines you.

Alyssea Brown

1 169 306

22 Apr 2024, 22:44

Broom Racing - Stage 3: Patches and Dates

The spring races are set to begin on May 6th, a little over 2 weeks from now. This is the best time to get homework done for any new spells and update trunks in time for the new season. Do not stress yourself out during the first round trying to update everything.

Patch information will be announced in the coming week, and definitely before the races begin. Best of luck, racers!

_{sta 6 | eva 7 | str 6}
ALYSSEA • #c38418
^{wis 8 | arc 6 | acc 8}

_{⠀⠀⠀alyssea brown}
⠀⠀⠀E N C Y C L O P E D I A
^{⠀⠀⠀daniel tienzo}

_{sta 8 | eva 8 | str 9}
DANIEL • #ae5519
^{wis 5 | arc 3 | acc 8}