Most Liked Content

It has come to the attention of the Governors of Hogwarts Online that personal bullying is occurring in high volume in the associated social venues of the site (i.e. the chatroom, facebook, and YIM). While HO's harassment policies are limited to actions that occur on the hswcw website and direct contact between two or more members, it is still essential that all members of the forum act in a respectable manner and remember the Golden Rule. For those who do not know the Golden Rule it is as follows:

Do unto others as you wish them to do unto you.

(Basically, don't treat other people like crap because karma will hit you in the big one.)

Now, I'm not making this announcement because of karma. I am making the announcement because every so often, as new waves of members become active and things on the site grow and change, it has become a pattern that OOC bullying occurs more frequently during these times. I would like to iterate that you are not required to like anyone on this forum. However, you are encouraged to give respect to all members of the forum, no matter who they may be and no matter where you encounter them. If you are having a personal issue with a member that cannot be solved in a civil manner, seek help of a Hogwarts Online administrator if this problem is interfering with your ability to either A)remain active on HO or B)complete a job on HO. We advise that you do not advertise your woes and personal problems in a public venue, for this will only generate additional controversies, complaints, misunderstandings, and quarrels.

OOC Bullying and harassment is taken seriously at Hogwarts Online as we have a zero tolerance policy and if you feel you are truly being bullied, please feel comfortable in contacting any of the Governors. If you feel it is a Governor that is bullying you, and you are worried your opinion or situation will not be heard, I would like to personally advise you to still seek the aid of a Governor. We work as a team and are looking out for the best interests of everyone.

Thank you and best regards,

The Governors of Hogwarts Online

Members of the Hogwarts Online Community,

I write to you for the final time as it is time to say goodbye. As a new calendar year begins, so too a new age on HO.

Since the founding of HO on July 26, 2005 I have had a strong group of supporters that have helped to make this community what it has been and what it is today. I am grateful for those many friendships I have cultivated throughout the years. HO gave me my start, HO gave me a place to be and has been part of my life for more than half of it. For quite sometime, I have been absent from HO and that has always bothered me. For a site and community to truly thrive, it must have a strong, benevolent owner that can provide support and direction. That support and direction has been missing on HO for a number of years, even though it has had many dedicated and competent governors.

While January 12, 2019 marks my final day of ownership for HO, today marks a new beginning for HO. After today, HO will be owned by Giselle D'Lisle. The writer behind Giselle has been a longtime member of HO and a dear friend of mine. He has been a member of HO since 2005. The writer behind Giselle will be the new individual to give HO that support and direction that it needs. He is perfectly suited for this role because not only can he lead HO in a new direction, he can do so knowing well the roots of where we came from!

My advice for both the new owner and the governors board is to always remember that first and foremost this is a community centered around a love of the Harry Potter series. Community, being the most important part of it. 

With that said, I truly wish this community all of the best!

Greetings & Salutations,

This year for our 15th Anniversary, Prof. Aqua Rye compiled what I think is one of the greatest testaments to the diversity and creativity of our community: The Hogwarts Online Cookbook.Over our long and storied history, we have kept vivid records, dedicated forums, and annually commemorated our founding, but I personally thing this cookbook is the first great "monument" to the way our site brings people together.

As such, I personally felt that a special recognition was warranted, for all those who made submissions, but particularly to the person we have to think for serving as the editor of the book: Aqua. However, because she has already been awarded the Special Services to the School, I had to get creative.

Thus, I am pleased to present to Aqua the first ever Founder's Award.

Since the founding of Hogwarts Online, our beloved site has touched the lives of countless members. Occasionally, those members return the favor by doing something extraordinary to commemorate the impact our community has had on them. The Founder's Award was created so that, from time to time, when a member exhibits a deep expression of love, pride, or gratitude for our community, their contributions can be recognized.

Anyone who joined in 2005 may recommend the sitting Owner grant this honor to a member. The Owner may also give this award at their discretion or on advice of the Governors.

From the bottom of my heart, thank you to all who helped make an extraordinary 15th Anniversary Celebration possible.

Love,

I am pleased to share with you all the results of February's selections for Featured of the Months!

Member of the Month: Prof. Jared Wayland

Character of the Month: Waverly Grey

Couple of the Month: Donovan Selwyn & Lorcan Delevingne

Role Play of the Month: Forest Party

Trystan Slughorn, Donovan Selwyn, Catie Nott, Ezra Hawthorne, Raquel Fudge, Fae Vanderbilt

Governor's Pick, Sunshiniest Member: Niko Kobayashi

The Governors chose to bestow this award on Niko for her perpetually positive

attitude and her willingness to help her fellow members, especially new members,

whenever she can.

Winners should feel free displaying the award in their signatures. Everyone, please join me in congratulating them all! 

Greetings,

As we ring in our 15th year at Hogwarts Online, it is time to announce the winners of the Governor Awards. These awards are given site-wide to individuals who the Governors collectively believe embody the characteristics defined by each and have been awarded for at least ten years at Hogwarts Online.

Please join me in congratulating this year's winners.

Description: This award goes to the member that has put forth studious effort in everything they do.

Recipient: Pippa Miller

Description: This award goes to the member who has consistently exhibited a positive attitude, enduring optimism and distinguishable kindness.

Recipient: Sherlock Thorns

Description: This award goes to the member who has devoted the most amount of time to improving the site for future and current members.

Recipients: Prof. Canry Hennings

Description: This award goes to the member who has shown the greatest initiative at problem solving.

Recipients:  Prof. Kenny Minho Jeong

Description: This award goes to the member who has exhibited the qualities of true leadership.

Recipient: Head Healer Jin Marrow

Hogwarts: Prof. Raquel Fudge

Hogwarts: Prof. Cleve Lawrence

and finally, occasionally the governors board comes together to recognize an individual who has given extraordinary service to the site and the community. The Order of Merlin to Hogwarts Online is a special distinction and this honor has only been bestowed a handful of times since then in the First, Second, and Third Degrees. Although it feels this recipient has been a member of the governor's board for much longer, Prof. Caleb Rothwell has contributed so much to the site in his time on our team. When the site was in dire need of help and leadership, Caleb was quick to accept that responsibility and reliable in his response to the various needs of our site as we fought to maintain stability in the change of site ownership and governor leadership. Since that day, Caleb has contributed to the site across multiple commissions, most recently of which was in the reformation and revitalization of our towns and public works.

The owner of the site, Giselle D'lisle, and I discussed this award in private and came to the conclusion that Prof. Caleb Rothwell has earned the honor of receiving The Order of Merlin, Third Class, for his dedication and leadership on Hogwarts Online.

Congratulations to everyone!

Yours,

Hello everyone!

First off, the Junior Wizengamot would like to thank everyone who participated in the Hogwarts Online Anniversary event. This year's event was a huge success. Anyone who might have taken a peek at the Culture Exchange topic within the event might recall a mention of a cookbook. Well, I'm now very happy to present you all with:

CLICK HERE TO ACCESS THE PDF

(the table of contents is clickable)

This project is a compilation of recipes submitted by our members from all over the world, as a means of celebrating the diversity of our writers. Feel free to download the PDF for personal keeping, and we hope you enjoy flipping through the recipes—and maybe even trying some out!

Greetings & Salutations,

As many of you likely know, a few years ago there was an incident on the site that involved the fabricated death of a member. This was a very unfortunate situation, but the Governors decided to take no disciplinary action against the person responsible. The other day this member decided to return and has offered her heartfelt apology to the Governors and the site.

We do not expect everyone to accept this apology, but the Governors have accepted it and have invited her to return to our community with no repercussions. We want to stress that bullying of any kind will not be tolerated toward this person. Part of being a community is understanding each others shortcomings and not holding grudges for past mistakes. We are all going to move past this together and our site will be stronger for it.

She has also asked us to share the following apology with the members.

Hi.

First off I’d like to say that I’m extremely sorry for all the stress and pain I’ve caused the community. I can’t understate just how guilty I feel, and have felt for so long. All I’ve been thinking is about how much I wish that I could turn back time and change everything, but obviously that’s not possible—so I’m just hoping that my words will show that, at the least, I haven’t taken any of this lightly either. 

I’m so sorry for the deception, in the creation of multiple fake people and especially in the faking of breast cancer and of death. I should never have used either of those issues as a tool to gain popularity or love of any kind and I feel sick to my stomach thinking about my actions. I’ve spent a long time trying to figure out why I did that, and I’m still not totally sure. The best explanation I can offer is that at that time, I was very young and very insecure—and very uneducated too (which doesn’t justify any of it; I would like to make explicit that this explanation is only that—not in any way an attempt to excuse my actions). Some of my insecurities were of the typical pre-teen/teen girl variety. Some were magnified because I’m an Indian immigrant in the United States and at that time, during very formative years, I felt intensely like I did not belong anywhere. I was neither Indian or American, which brought me to search for any kind of community that would accept me—and then to cling to that community and use it to get the affection and love and attention that I, at the time, believed I wasn’t getting elsewhere. 

It was extremely immature and manipulative of me, and I regret that so much. I used others’ pictures because I didn’t feel beautiful or worthy (and my lack of self esteem was propagated by the colorism in American society, which made it really hard for me, as a darker-skinned person, to believe that I was beautiful or worthy in any way). During that time, I extended the fantasy of roleplay as a way for me to invent a better version of myself—the version that I always secretly wished I could be.

I never intended for it all to spiral so much and there were many moments where I wanted to say the truth so badly. But I was too terrified—which is also why I ran away the moment that everything came to light. I regret my cowardice and my long silence. This is also why I returned to the site and created new characters secretly, as another cowardly attempt to enter the community again. I said very few things about my personal identity as a writer, but a lie by omission is still a lie and for that I’m really sorry. I realize that those actions only further deepen distrust of me, which I understand completely.

All of this still does not justify or excuse my actions in the slightest. I don’t expect forgiveness or understanding of any kind, and if the community determines that I should be banned I will fully respect that. In your place I would absolutely do the same. I want to say that I really did consider everyone in this community to be my friends (although I understand if you don’t feel that way yourself anymore) and I’m so so sorry about hurting all of you.

Thank you for allowing me to explain, and again, I’m really sorry that this apology comes so long overdue.

 

Thank you all for reading.

Giselle

Greetings & Salutations,

The Governors and I would like to send out this quick PSA about conflict resolution on HO. Part of our job as your administrators is to help maintain a peaceful and safe environment for all members to have fun and express themselves. This includes the crucial role of conflict resolution.

All of our Governors have some degree of training in conflict resolution and dispute mediation. I am a trained communication professional with years of experience in the field, three of us are teachers, and the rest of us have extensive experience in the business world. In short, we all have years of experience working with others and maintaining safe, healthy environments for our colleagues. We want to do the same for you!

Most of our members are perfectly capable at resolving small disputes between friends, but sometimes it is better so seek the help of a third party to prevent a situation from devolving into something more serious. It is important to know your limits and to know that it is okay to ask us for help!

Yours,

The Governors

Greetings!

As we ring in our 15th year at Hogwarts Online, it is important to give credit where credit is due. This summer we initiated the second annual Camp Avalon in place of our formerly traditional summer term spent at Hogwarts. While the class content has remained similar (more relaxed and elective courses than typical academic courses), so much else about the camp experience is new and a welcomed, refreshing addition to our site.

If you are new to Hogwarts Online, or were not present during the 2019 summer term, you may not know that we have former governors Prof. Annabelle Nylund and Official Liam Kartak to thank for the creation of Camp Avalon. These two brilliant writers envisioned a reform for the way summer term was held on our site. They spent months upon months planning, organizing, and creating this camp and it excites me to see that it has continued to be successful well into the second year.

I would like to formally apologize to both Annabelle and Liam because in the frenzy of all that is going on in our world right now, Guinevere and I struggled to reopen the camp efficiently in our allotted timeline. We initially searched the forum for the original Camp Avalon topics and subforums, but were unable to find them. As a result, new forums and topics were created to the best of our memory. In some cases, topics may have been recreated with a lack of credit given and for that, we are apologizing and fixing that mistake. We would like to make it clear to everyone that the development of Camp Avalon is due exclusively to Annabelle and Liam. Of course we also thank our camp counselors (professors) and cabin leaders (prefects/JW) for their contributions as well.

I was able to recover the original topics and subforums today through another thorough search, this time in our admin control panel archives, where I discovered the entire log of our archives had been disabled from viewing. Guinevere and I are working now to recover those topics and subforums, so you should soon be able to access all of the fabulous content that was available last summer! Camp images are also being repaired, so thank you for your patience there.

Thank you all for taking the time to enjoy Camp Avalon and if you have any praise and feedback to supply, make sure to give a nod of recognition to the creators, Prof. Annabelle Nylund and Official Liam Kartak.

Let's continue celebrating our 15th year and the rest of our summer term!

Thank you for carrying on the HO legacy that HO will always be HOme to those that need it!

Happy Anniversary!

The following are members of the Junior Wizengamot for the 2022 Fall Term

Head Student

Jasmine Weasley

Gryffindor Prefects

Sven Wormald

Blaire Everett

Charlotte Montclaire

Hufflepuff Prefects

Adabelle MacSween

Lilou Bailey

Rose Truley

Ravenclaw Prefects

Beau Kinsley

Audrey Callaghan

Niko Hiltunen

Slytherin Prefects

Dustin Graves

Aaira Joseph

Cece Keller

Head of the Junior Wizengamot
Professor Aqua Rye