Yeah, I know this is not the right place for questions...

[zentraedi-shep.livejournal.com]

...but then again I wonder what this community is for...?!? There must be more to the main community than just "Yay! Squee!!! New info on GoF or HBP..."

Or am I mistaken? Isn't anything related to the community and its sub-communities also related to HP?

Oh, btw, this is for all of you and not just the moderators...

~ Walter//Hufflepuff ~

EDIT:

Thank you all for your approaches and for all the information. And though I slightly think, that some of you missed my point, I surely got your's. From now on, I'll simply play by the rules and keep my mouth shut, and if something bothers me, I'm gonna first bother ask esso, who can then tell or (just in case) ask herself...

Thanks again for support and knowlegde...

~ Walter//Hufflepuff ~

P.S.: This edit is meant as written, honestly...

:)

Comments

[loved-gamgee.livejournal.com]

i agree. shouldn't this be like a real common room in one of the houses? a bit of mischief and homework and just all around fun?

[shakiracrazy.livejournal.com]

I think of it like Hogwarts itself. There are clubs, a Quidditch team, good-spirited rivalry between houses, etc.

It's a place where we can meet others who share similar intrests and make friends :)

[stagequeen84.livejournal.com]

here here I am all for that! I think as long as it is appropriate (not offensive or an issue better discussed in private) it should be allowed.

Example, if someone asks a question we are told we should have emailed it, but if one person has a question, any teacher will tell you a handfull of others are wondering that too.

I hope that is ok to say.

[flimsy.livejournal.com]

It's clearly stated in the FAQ (http://www.livejournal.com/community/hogwartsishome/43727.html#cutid1) that such things should be directed to either Bunny or me.

This is the second time you have broken this rule. Please note that another offense will lead to a deduction of House points.

[zentraedi-shep.livejournal.com]

What you two want in this community seems to me as some kind of old style Roman dictatorship!!! (sorry for any kind of insult) You want questions emailed to you and then give either answers in private or never ever answer again... (e.g. I applied for the position of leader in the Wizard Games club over ONE week ago without getting even the slightest answer on how the process is running...) Some questions, as stagequeen84 stated above can be cleared if shared an don't really need your attention at all... And to keep a community (i.e. a group of people working together to achieve a common goal) dramafree, as you yourself mention your intentions below, you don't need to SCREEN everything...
Let us ALL work together... If the house communities are the four common rooms, then HiH could be understood as the great hall... I've never read anywhere that you're not allowed to talk or ask questions in the great hall...

Just my 2 c.

[flimsy.livejournal.com]

See, and this is what we are desperately trying to avoid: drama. Through having people email their questions to us, we are only trying to keep the peace in this community.

This is not the Great Hall. This is the HiH main community. Here, rules apply that are thought-out and that serve a certain purpose.

Quote from the FAQ:
General questions, suggestions, and complaints should not be posted, but directed to a moderator. If we see this again in the future, points will be deducted, no questions asked.

I would like to ask not to cause any more drama by posting these questions to the main community. By joining this community you have agreed to follow the rules; if you are unable or unwilling to do so, I'm afraid you have no place here. I would, however, appreciate it if you simply followed the rules from now, like everybody else does.

[zentraedi-shep.livejournal.com]

I never intended to start drama, but (as written below) you could simply have asked for my mailad and explain everything to me, instead of slapping into my face...

My question still is, WHAT ARE WE ALLOWED TO POST HERE?
I personally think this doesn't get clear in the FAQ...

(frozen)

[flimsy.livejournal.com]

I believe the FAQ is very clear about this:

8. What can I post, and what can't I post?

First of all, anything that isn't Harry Potter related shouldn't be posted. Period. Unless it's in your common rooms and some sort of common thread can be found. Like a Gryffindor posting the most adorable picture of a lion cub. Or finding a new "Badger! Badger!" cartoon and posting about it in Hufflepuff. Etc.

The only communty that allows off-topic posts (but not wildly off topic -- kept to the theme of getting to know your fellow housemates) is Hogsmeade.

Promos of any kind in posts or comments/request posts, angry posts, off topic posts, or posts that cause flaming will not be tolerated under any circumstances.

Graphics/icons should be kept to hogwartsicons! Save quizzes/memes for Hogsmeade weekends.

It's become quite a trend to post a complaint on why the people that are being sorted into your house shouldn't be there. We've read the arguments before, do not rehash them! If someone is voted into your house, there must be something about them to make so many of us vote that way. Simple as that.

General questions, suggestions, and complaints should not be posted, but directed to a moderator. If we see this again in the future, points will be deducted, no questions asked.

(frozen)

[tangerinesidhe.livejournal.com]

It's not just the two of them. All of the officials (Mod, co-mod, auror/mayor, deputy mayor, 2 quidditch coaches, voting manager, debate leader, 4 prefects, 4 co-prefects, 2 clubs mods, and probably forgetting someone) all have input into the way that things run around here. We all discuss and contribute input to the issues of this community.

People apply for positions here all the time and sometimes have to wait for a while to find out what is going on. A week is really not all that long, though it may feel that way. There is a lot going on in this community and the many sub-communities (not to mention our *real* lives) and sometimes things have to be prioritized. If it's that upsetting to you, then you should have contacted the clubs mods instead of breaking it out as some sort of ammunition now.

There are a lot of people here all trying the best they can and giving over huge amounts of their time to try and run a community that functions well and is fun for the members. And, personally, I think we're doing a very good job. I get wonderful feedback from my house and the amount of enthusiasm I've seen in Hogsmeade and the clubs community leads me to believe that most people agree.

I'm sorry that you think things are so awful here.

(frozen)

[zentraedi-shep.livejournal.com]

RAEL life of course comes first, but since this is such a large community with so many mods (in the widest possible meaning of the word), sending a mail like "We got your app, wait for further notice..." shouldn't be a problem, should it?

(frozen)

[awesomeness.livejournal.com]

but if it went through, and you didn't get a rejection back, they should have gotten it. so just chill and wait for them to get back to ya

and remember....patience is a virtue

[possibilities.livejournal.com]

I too would like this community to be able to have questions, as not everything is answered or answered clearly in the fact. I think that discussion on the rules and operating of the community would be beneficial. However, I don't think that the community maintainers are interested in those things, as posts and comments revolving around that seem to "disappear" off the community. I believe they want this community to be only for official things relating to HiH communities, not unofficial discussion of HiH stuff. (Non-HiH specific stuff being alright too, I think.) I don't like it and I especially don't like how requests for clarification and discussion "disappear".

But! It's not my community, so my say doesn't really matter.

- Becker, Slytherin.

[flimsy.livejournal.com]

People have the possibility to contact us (Bunny and me) via email in case they have a suggestion to make.

If it is a suggestion that we consider worth discussing we will make an entry about first in the Officials' community and then here, where all students can add ideas.

This is to avoid entries that might cause drama, as it has already happened before.


We are very interested in what the members of this community have to say and in what they think, we would really like to hear more suggestions and ideas, we ask, however, to email them to us to, as already said, avoid drama.

We are only trying to keep this place enjoyable and drama-free, our goal surely is not to suppress the members' opinions and ideas. :)

[unwoundfantasy.livejournal.com]

Actually, the only things that are deleted are posts and/or comments that are blatantly against the rules. Other things may be screened, but not deleted. We take the input of our members' very seriously.

(frozen)

[tangerinesidhe.livejournal.com]

The reason is that posts like this and a lot of the other suggestion posts tend to cause too much drama. Look at the response to this post, it's turning into OMG tehofficials are SOUNFAIR!!111oneone.

When people post suggestions here, they often are good ideas, or at least good sounding ideas. Everyone jumps on the bandwagon in support. However, because a lot of people don't understand or know what is going on behind the scenes they don't realize the potential problems with the suggestions. For example: the clubs community. We had to discuss this for a while to weigh the pros and cons of such a community, the impact that it would have to HiH, etc. Being a good idea alone wasn't enough--we had to make sure that it was practical and executable. However, had we decided that it wouldn't work for whatever reason, now that it was proposed in community instead of through an email to Bunny or Nika (as per the rules) then it would just lead to more drama. Everyone would whine about it not happening without understanding the reasoning behind the choice.

The rules have been established to curb problems. Many of them are the result of past experiences with situations that became problematic. Just because the entire backstory hasn't been posted here doesn't mean that there isn't one. If you really *have* to know why something is the way it is, then you should ask one of the mods to clarify for you *through email*. Or, ask your prefect, I know that I would be more than willing to clarify any questions or confusion for my housemates, as I'm sure the other prefects are as well.

--Destiny//Gryffindor Prefect

(frozen)

[zentraedi-shep.livejournal.com]

Then again, reasons CAN be explained... And instead of threatening people with point reduction (in order to piss off housemates against someone) a simple question for the mailadress would be enough to make everyone happy... But why bother, if you can delete everything and keep the silence by your will...

What you mods and prefects don't seem to understand, is that letting some simple things to the "simple" folks, like for example the how and why on size-reduction of tags, is also keeping the masses quiet and reduces one's work...
THIS is what I wanted to say...

Oh, and my mailad is skreet[at]gmx[dot]de...

(frozen)

[tangerinesidhe.livejournal.com]

Well, I just sent off a reply to your question re: sig tags via email.

Howeverm it was pretty clearly explained in this entry (http://www.livejournal.com/community/hogwartsishome/68097.html)

(frozen)

[zentraedi-shep.livejournal.com]

I didn't need an explanation on the tags (thanks though), it was just an example for the simple things mentioned above (like: Where do I get a tag? Where do I get pictures for my icons? Can someone make me an icon? etc.)

(frozen)

[shakiracrazy.livejournal.com]

Each house elects their own prefect and possibly co-prefect. These people who elect are your representatives at the officials community, and you need to trust them to give the officials feedback from their house. You cannot take it upon yourself to grab a megaphone to give yourself a voice. You have one. Talk to your prefect or email a mod. Is it really that hard?

Bunny and Nika work harder than you can imagine, as do the rest of the officials. We can't give special attention to your every whim, it takes time and discussion. Point reductions are there so people do not break the rules, and breaking the rules makes it harder on all of the officials, mainly the mods.

Also, there was a "how and why" with the sig tags. Why: People have dial-up, it's out of simple consideration. How: change the file to a .gif file or reduce the size. There are always reasons, officials are not here to simply boss you around.

~Rachel
Gryffindor co-prefect

(frozen)

[zentraedi-shep.livejournal.com]

Yeah, thanks, I got it...

(frozen)

[medens-lupus.livejournal.com]

In regards to the question regharding clubs, it's now stated on the main page of the clubs community that no new applications are being accepted to start clubs. You can apply to all the currently running clubs you like, but we've stopped accepting applications to start them. I assume when we're accepting applications to start clubs again,t here will be an official post made.

Jay, Clubs Mod

(frozen)

[flimsy.livejournal.com]

We (the Officials, that is) discussed your case and came to the conclusion to deduct 10 points for starting a drama. We hope you understand our decision.

[moonchild337.livejournal.com]

hah, whatever happened to questioning everything. WHATEVER HAPPENED TO STICKING IT TO THE MAN?!

[hxcpunkchick.livejournal.com]

Haha...I just got a great image of Jack Black in School of Rock.

[moonchild337.livejournal.com]

=)