Applications: What the heck is up and how are they processed?

Introduction
Applications are a very important part of HNZ. They moderate who can say their character is/does what, and helps keep the board from becoming rampant with Mary Sue type characters which would surely annoy most people on HNZ. They have become ingrained in the culture of the site, I believe, and when they cannot be processed as quickly as I would like, or you would like, it becomes a frustrating matter.

Yes, me.
What's this? Processed as quickly as I would like? Yes, me. I like applications to move quickly as well. I don't like holding on to them for ages - they clutter things. Having them around for too long makes me go a little bit crazy.

So what's the hold up?
Right now, as many have noted, applications seem at a bit of a stand still. This is as frustrating to me as it is to you all, but likely even moreso to me. Why, you ask? Well, you're waiting on one or two applications. I see all twenty or so currently in queue. The hold up? As you should know, Livvy has been dealing with some large real-life problems and (as says what has effectively become the ancient statement of HNZ) 'Real life comes first'.

Real Life Comes First
I think it's humorous that when members are going away and leaving behind work for the Global Moderators or Administrators to catch up, for the sake of the site, we still say 'Real life comes first'. However, when it is an Admin who needs the time off, nobody seems to be able to have patience. At all. The song of 'real life comes first' fades away to a mob of angry villagers, pitchforks in hand, ready to go find the monster.

Trying to Catch Up
Nearly every application, however, does have a response from me. Some are even mid-discussion between Livvy and I. Unfortunately, it seems Livvy's life has taken her for another whirl and HNZ time has had to be cut. Livvy doesn't like to hold things up, but she loves administrating HNZ and definitely wants to be a part of the approval process. So, I trust she will catch up in a timely manner. If she knows she won't be able to catch back up in a timely manner, then she will ask me to process applications until she can catch back up. As much as 'real life comes first', there are still ways we can adhere to that without ensuring applications drown.

Mid-Discussion? Wait, so how do applications work - exactly?
I have a feeling, based on some of the results from the recent site poll that not everybody is aware of how applications are processed on HNZ. What we look at for them, and why it is that applications get denied - even when hard work has obviously been put in to them.

Every form that is sent in is given a topic in a hidden forum. There are plenty of these forums for every type of application, with approved and denied archives as well for future referencing. It's all very helpful, actually. When a new application comes in, Livvy and I read the topic then post our initial reactions. We discuss the application with each other if applicable, and either: Approve it, suggests tweaks to it and approve it when the tweaks are ironed out, or deny it.

So what is it, exactly, that we look for in applications? Here are some of the basic things:

1. Is it canon?
   If an application, in any way, breaks with our knowledge of the canon Harry Potter universe - it is denied.
2. Does it make sense?
   We look over applications to ensure that what they say makes sense. If a person applies to be a Death Eater, for instance, but comes from a loving household, doesn't believe in any sort of blood supremacy, and has no reason to be a Death Eater - then such applications are denied. It may be funny, but if something doesn't make sense then it could really screw other things up. Making sense is very crucial.
3. What would the repercussions of this be?
   For many applications, especially plot requests, things effect characters outside of the plot, too. Usually this is in minor ways, but sometimes it can be major. Take, for instance, a plot request where an unspeakable has found a cure for werewolves. It doesn't go against canon - nothing says there can't be a cure. It might make perfect sense, too. But the plot would effect everybody on the site and the future of the site as a whole. It would likely negatively influence many other character's developments as well. If that is the case, that the repercussions of a request would be largely negative and widespread - it is denied.
4. How common should it be?
   For special ability applications especially this is considered. We only truly meet one metamorphmagi in the Harry Potter novels, through all seven books. This indicates how truly rare the ability is. We receive plenty of requests for this gift, however. So we must consider how common it should be and, if enough have already been approved for the time being, no more are accepted (even if they're all pretty good) unless the application just blows our minds.
   
5. How many other special things does this roleplayer have?
   This is something that must be considered in conjunction with How common should it be?. We don't want two roleplayers having a character with every possible special ability and nobody else on the site being able to have anything. We want to spread the wealth a little, so this must be considered. Has the person had many applications recently? How many special things does this person already have? Could we approve this for somebody else who does not have as many special approvals?
6. Is this user in good standing?
   This is also something we must consider. Members who constantly break board rules, are rude to anybody and everybody, etc. shouldn't be given special allowances. It is a reward, almost, to have special plots approved, have characters with special abilities, etc. So why should a user who doesn't care about site rules be given plenty of extra awesome things while rule-abiding members might not? It's just one of the many prices of rule breaking.
7. Plenty More
   There are several more considerations that are given to applications in that time that Livvy and I review them. It's not just a quick read and a rash response, thought is given to applications, and the most appropriate response given - even if it's not something the applicant wants to hear.

Conclusion
In summary: Stop complaining. Don't be hypocritical. We take necessary time and thought for applications.

That is all.

~Nicolas

---

Join us for a Roleplay | Follow us on Twitter | Add to our Wiki | Contact Us

HNZ: My hopes, plans & ideas

So, normally I use HNZ to blog rant about whatever has been annoying me, on or off of the site. I've even considered writing a "how to blawg rant" sort of blog rant where I would analyze my own blog rantings to see what made them so humorous to some and offensive to others. This post, however, will be more blog and less rant. Surprising, I know.
So, without further ado, the blog itself:

Contrary to what it seems like, I do have a lot of ideas, hopes, and plans for HNZ. Some of them are a lot larger than others, and some of them are quite unrealistic, but nevertheless I have them and strive toward implementing them.

Some of the ideas you've already seen thrown in to action with little to no consultation with the site, some of the ideas I've heard as suggestions and am just waiting for the right form to execute them in, others are ongoing as I type and many, many, others are just little inklings of thought in the back of my mind.

So, where does Nick see HNZ going? What big plans and hopes do I have for the site? I'll share a few with you now. ^_^

Right, so first I'll start with some of my more minor ideas - easy to implement, but I mostly want feedback on or need the help of members to do.

• Twitter Profile Field
  The Twitter profile field was added to HNZ, but I've been thinking about updating its coding just a little such that if the user has inserted a link to their twitter account it becomes clickable. It's a small thing, and easy to do, but I'm not sure it's worth the extra three lines of code on the site.
• Constant Feedback (Through the proper channels)
  Recently the giant suggestions topic disappeared and in its place came the Suggestions & Feedback forum. This was in an effort to invite users to openly post their own suggestions or feedback about the site, then facilitate discussion on the topic instead of just having one response and things moving on. You'll notice, however, that the forum is no longer just 'Suggestions'. It is 'Feedback' as well. This means we want to hear what you think, not just grumblings over MSN and whatever spam topic is open. An excellent example of this is Interactive Lessons. Recently a discussion has been opened about them where users were invited to share their ideas and opinions. Now, interactive lessons began several months ago and I've heard grumblings about it on and off since then. What stopped those users from posting feedback, constructive criticism, and their own ideas? Nothing on my end, I should hope - but I don't know.
• A better understanding that Livvy & I work as a team
  This has become difficult as of late, because often it is only one of us that warns any given user, or one of us that replies stating an application has been denied. Often, when it is the same admin and the same user over time, the user develops animosity toward the one admin and favours the other, somehow thinking that our opinions differ, when this is very seldom true. Hopefully I've taken a step toward mending that, where one of us takes all the heat, in the most recent update to the applications system - but we'll have to wait to see.
• All (or most all) Applications on Webpages
  Right now we seem to be caught between two systems. The older, 'copy/paste this form to apply' system (still used for Hogwarts Staff, Professors, Shopkeepers, and Ministry Officials) and the newer webpage/mostly automated application system (as seen with Purebloods, Plot Requests, Special Abilities etc.).
  The trouble with updating is many-fold. First, making the webpages is time consuming. This is not a large concern of mine, but it is one to consider in conjunction with the others.
  Next, for Professors - applications are only open when we are specifically hiring for a post. Otherwise, the form is moot. How, then, are we to indicate when/if we're hiring - and would we have to update the form every time we need a new professor?
  The final trouble is the shopkeeper application. Shopkeepers can open their own shop (note: that is currently on hold) or fill a vacant shop. If they are trying to fill a vacant shop, the same trouble as professors pops up.

Of course, I also have some much larger plans than those - many of which are just pipe dreams, but thoughts I've had nonetheless.

• Member Run: Aurors & Death Eaters
  This is something I, personally, would like to see in the future some time. A few trusted members taking on Aurors and Death Eaters, keeping Admin in the loop, and ensuring things stay active and exciting. Livvy and I have tonnes on our plates, we're trying to organize and encourage DE/Auror activity while still monitoring it/tempering it so it doesn't get out of hand. In the past, Death Eaters have been self-run, and I think both groups could do so with OOC leaders from the member base. Maybe just not yet.
• Ministry of Magic: Election(s)?
  This is something that is likely happening, and soon. Possibly starting in Y10, if I can get some things together for it.
  Gellert Coote has been Minister for Magic for at least eight years. That's a fair length of office term, and it's time he retired. So who is next to lead the Magical Community of New Zealand and its Ministry in to the future? Well, I'd like that to be up to the residents of New Zealand themselves. I think it'd be a grand way for members to get involved in the site. Create characters to run in the campaign (or, better yet, use existing ones) have speeches, slogans, buttons and banners, make election promises nobody can keep, expose skeletons in each other's closets... and then... voting day! New Zealand elects its newest leader.
  Of course, some OOC strings would need to be attached too - as having such an important character for the whole site makes things a bit complicated. The roleplayer of that account would need to talk to Admin frequently and keep us in the loop on things - but I think that's something fun to look forward to that could add so juice to the Ministry-aspect of HNZ. ^_^
• A New Custom Theme?
  HNZ has been using the same amazing theme made by Athene Perthro for nearly two years now. It's excellent, I love it, it means "HNZ" to me - but sometimes change is nice. Something fresher and newer could likely entice visitors to join the board and I'm always one to see what new things might work.
  This is something I've pursued to some degree previously, but unfortunately it hasn't come through, so it's something I keep in my mind. If we were to have a new theme designed for HNZ - or even coded for it (though I could do that myself, really) - it would be a nice way to liven up some aspects of the board (though I always intend to keep Athene's skin in the theme chooser).
• Web Hosting for HNZ
  This is one of the larger dreams really that I have for the site. I say dream because of how unlikely it is to happen, but it could be quite awesome if it ever did.
  What would web hosting mean? Well, it would mean that we would be able to integrate some PHP to the forum and host many things ourselves - such as the galleons script which, currently, is being graciously provided and hosted by my friend Scott (Slayer766) on his web host. This would also mean that HNZ could be given a front page of sorts before accessing the forums, which would contain quick links, information, announcements, a login system of sorts etc. which could all be tied directly back to the board with ZetaBoard's upcoming API.
  Now, why is this unlikely to happen? The simple fact of web hosting costing money. The most basic plan with the company I buy HNZ's domain from is $72.24(CAD) for a year of hosting. I already pay ~$25(CAD) a year for the domain and my privacy protection on the domain - so that would be nearly $100 a year spent on the site. Not too terribly much, when given that it's a whole year - but it's a fair amount when I don't have a credit card to pay through (so I buy stupid prepaid ones) and my job isn't that great. Plus, I'm going in to University and will therefore be in debt the rest of my life, the way it's looking. I also never want to put up a paypal link asking members to donate to HNZ, nor do I want to start a project that costs money without personally having the means to back that project for an extended period of time. It would suck if I paid for a year, then couldn't pay for the next year and somehow no members came through with donations, and we lost whatever we'd become so used to/dependant on.

That's about all the plans/hopes/ideas/dreams I think I want to share right now.
I would like to comment that in the past week, maybe two weeks, I have thoroughly enjoyed the air about the community on HNZ. A lot of negativity and animosity seems to have been taken away somehow, and I'm very optimistic for the future. ^_^

Thank you all for making HNZ so awesome, and I welcome you to share any feedback on these hopes/plans/ideas of mine. ^_^

~Nick

---

Join us for a Roleplay | Follow us on Twitter | Add to our Wiki | Contact Us

Sending a PM: The importance of your title.

A minor annoyance of mine is this:
People who send me personal messages on the board but title them whatever they'd like, or like they'd title a roleplay - perhaps with nothing to do with the contents of the PM or with very little to do with it, at any rate.

Often, I'd even prefer no subject at all ( a simple   in the PM title field will make the title a single space ) to the subjects some people give me. When I sign on my PM inbox might look like this (as it did today, nearly):

Open Full Image in New Window
Only one of those message titles is even helpful to me. One or more of them makes me think the user is annoyed with me (which they were not) and the others... lolwut?

I do two things when I have PMs:

1. Try to reply in order of importance
2. Give consideration to the length of time a PM has gone without reply

I am perfectly able to do that second thing just by a glance - but the former? How am I to determine the importance of each PM with random titles? Or how am I to determine if I am in the right mood/mindset to read the PMs (I don't want to read a PM telling me off (like 'GRRRR' could have been, but wasn't) if I'm already upset)?

I think that PMs are quite different than topics on the board. PM titles should give a glimpse of what is inside of the PM before the user opens it.
That's my opinion, anyway.

What's yours?

~Nick

---

Join us for a Roleplay | Follow us on Twitter | Add to our Wiki | Contact Us

Warning: This is a Typical Abby Post

I don't mean to steal the thunder from Linda's very first blog post ever, (as an avid blogger who once wrote an article titled "To Those About to Blog, I Salute You" for a high school newspaper, I salute you Linda ;) ) but I figured it was about time for a post from me. I'd been pretty much AWOL around HNZ for a long while, something which still upsets me, and it was always for different reasons each time; and I apologize for never really posting an absence post, I mostly only tell the staff that I'll be missing for a while. The most recent reason was that it was now March and I still had no idea what I was going to do for school exactly. Those of you who know me well/personally, know that school is really important to me and I'm very bitter about the subject of college, or university, as they call it in other places. But for all I know, I'm just a "grass is greener on the other side" type of person who just longs to be in school, but once I actually attend, I'd hate it just as much as most of my friends do.

Anyway, I had an emotional breakdown after having a conversation with my younger sister about her future plans and saw that hers actually seemed to be in motion, or at least seemed like they were tangible. Now I love my sister to death, but school and rules and the like have never been her strong point, ever. And since she had a baby last year I expected her to be even further behind on getting her life together as I assume lots of teen moms are, (no offense to any out there! :x). So when afterward I sat there crying, asking myself what I was doing with myself and why I was letting myself waste time, this wasn't like me at all. If I wanted something I worked hard for it until I got it (such a Slytherin ;) ). I had applied to St. John's a while earlier, but because the acceptance process was so long, the deadline for Housing had past, and since I wasn't an admitted student yet, I wasn't allowed to pay any deposits, just in case I was rejected it wouldn't be money down the drain. Since I live in Texas, living on campus was the absolute most important thing to me, since even the cheapest apartment in New York is completely out of my family's price range; so since I had missed the deadline for Housing, I considered the option of St. John's gone, thus creating more hysteria about what I was to do.

After getting myself together, I started writing the essay for an application to another school, and before I knew it, I had submitted my application even though the deadline had long passed. I don't know why I still decided to submit my application even though the deadline had passed, but I just decided "Oh well, at least they'll have my application on file," and literally the next week I got a call from the school. That's never happened before, a school taking an interest in me personally! We talked on the phone about what else I needed to submit before being officially accepted and I asked about my priority, Housing, and said it was nowhere near close to deadline. This was music to my ears, I cried, out of joy this time, because I felt that I was finally making progress. The only downside was that it wasn't in New York, and it wasn't St. John's, my dream school. Oh well, I could live with that. At least it was anywhere but Texas! (And Ohio isn't that far from New York). I'd go there for one year and transfer to St. John's the next, this was just getting my foot in the door, I could live with that! I soon began getting really excited at the fact that I might be going to school again, and the thought of it being in a small town in Ohio (a place I've always wanted to visit for some reason) was making me giddy! I had convinced myself that this school was going to be awesome and St. John's could suck it for not taking an interest in me personally and thought "That's their loss!"

Then came the mass emails from St. John's. I had officially been accepted so now they were just going through their routine mass emails to newly accepted students - Come visit the campus! - -Don't forget to register at our website! - - Want to study abroad? You can with STJ! - the usual. This was my fourth time being accepted to St. John's so I knew the routine. I was going to delete the emails, I had too many of the same ones from previous times anyway; it felt like a bad break up where I was trying to get rid of old love letters or something. But even with old love letters, I can't help but open them and read them, which is always a bad idea because old feelings come flooding back and then the waterworks start, or at least that's the way it is with me. I learned though that the longer it had been between a break up, the less it hurt and the easier it got to throwing away the love letters (or deleting in this modern age). It wasn't like that with St. John's; I couldn't bring myself to delete the emails, and there I was, reading every single email and then going a step further with my pain by visiting their website and I couldn't take it. I reminded myself what I thought earlier "This is my FOURTH time being accepted to St. John's", was I really going to reject them for a fourth time?! Granted they weren't as invested into the relationship as I was, but really? Four times? That got me into thinking why I kept putting off St. John's and then it hit me. I had always refrained from admitting it but the reason I kept putting if off was because I was scared of the heartache. I was scared of getting so attached to St. John's the way I had that very first time I was supposed to go, 2 years ago, that I distanced myself and I called things off before they could, to save me the pain.

So St. John's was officially back in the running. Even though I had no idea if I could still live on campus or if it was too late for me to accept my place, enough was enough, no more putting it off and living in fear; no more wondering "What if?" I chose St. John's. Even though Ohio was the safest choice for me, it never stood a chance against my dream school. I paid all my deposits the very next morning even though the Housing deadline had passed, and this time things were different, I started getting new emails from them that I'd never read before. It was the new post-acceptance emails, and this time it felt real. The emails were more personal (still mass-sent emails) but more towards students who had made the commitment to St. John's rather than the old "You're accepted, now confirm you wanna come here!" emails.

Things changed from then on. I had chats with Admissions workers and called them frequently for information (who cares if I kept getting transferred to 5 different departments within 10 seconds each time!) And then came the chat with all the Deans. After that chat session with the Deans of St. John's, I can honestly (and very arrogantly) say I made quite an impression on them, I even got asked to please visit their office when I went to campus in the fall. :D And now the emails I get aren't the mass-sent emails but the personal one-on-one emails regarding my enrollment status directly. The chat sessions aren't private since students can just pop in whenever they want, so I know that these invitations and requests for my email address aren't normal, seeing as they didn't ask any other student who joined the chat. /boasting They not only helped me with the usual FAQ's incoming freshman have, but they helped me decide what I should study. Journalism was always going to be my major, but lately I had become interested in Politics, which they gushed was excellent to study alongside Journalism, so I wasn't sure whether to take that as well, or Business. In the end we decided on a double major in Journalism and Politics, with a minor in Business - and if that proves to be too much for me, then the Politics can just become a minor too. :) BEST OF ALL? They pretty much guaranteed I'd have a dorm since I'm a freshman! You have NO idea how ecstatic I was when I heard that!

So it's official, I'M GOING TO ST. JOHN'S!!! Registration for classes doesn't start until June, and they won't start sending out Housing notices until then either, so all I have left to do is wait. I got my financial aid and I still have to apply for a few loans and save up money to go, but I don't care, I'M GOING TO ST. JOHN'S! I can't believe it's actually happening. I said it before, and I'll say it again, this is my year, I can feel it! In a few months' time, I'll be living in the best place in the world, going to my dream school that is so utterly perfect for me. <3 And hopefully in a year's time I'll be getting ready to meet Pattycakes and Galinda for the first time too and we'll all go see Wicked. :D And what this means for HNZ? Well as I said, all there's left to do is wait until June, and now my sister's out of high school so expect me to be on more often, finally! :D

Finally, a happy update from me! :D

~Elphaba

---

Join us for a Roleplay | Follow us on Twitter | Add to our Wiki | Contact Us

Posi-Blawg: A little bit of a positive rant

I try to blog monthly now, though for a while I was attempting once a day (long, long ago), and I recently noticed that, by the time I'm ready to blog again - something has come up that really irks me, warrants a rant, and may come off negative-sounding. I tend to try to put a positive spin on things (like in the Cliques Blog, where I asserted that HNZ obviously has groups of close friends, but the site as a whole is one community). So, never having been one to always like to focus on the negative, I have taken it upon myself to rant, or at least list things off, about how awesome HNZ is, and perhaps even my life in general. ^_^

It is with this sentiment and explanation that I hereby begin... THE Posi-Blawg:

• People are appreciative & understanding:
  It kind of sucks how one person, or a few people, ruin so much greatness - but that's what the people on HNZ are: great. For as many people that really grind my gears there are ten who see my point of view and try to help me in whatever situation I'm in. Sometimes after blog rants (as it is often after people read them that they become most understanding and appreciative - just human nature, I suppose) I get messages from people stating how much they appreciate me, the work I do on HNZ, the staff, the site itself, etc. These messages often come from people who I never would have thought to care that much at all, and they tend to make me smile. Without those kinds of messages, I think I would have left HNZ a long time ago - so you all are truly that awesomely amazing. There are very few people I can honestly say I've met on HNZ and disliked, and those people are gone for the most part. (I suppose if you can't stand an admin, you don't tend to linger on the board long.)
  People are also always willing to help out. Sometimes it takes being approached, sure, but I think I'd rather be approached about helping than volunteer sometimes, too. It lets people know that you value their assistance and likely makes them feel special. Whenever help is truly needed around the board, however, I know I can always ask somebody and if they're able to, they will help - because they know if somebody wasn't necessary I wouldn't ask, and they care about HNZ that much. There are two pages of slaves to the Nicktator members who I figure would all be willing to help out with HNZ things if I asked them. I think that's amazing.
• Everybody on HNZ is there for the same sort of reasons
  We all like Harry Potter, and eventually we all become acquainted with/like roleplaying. There have been very few members who don't, and they don't last long. So how is this positive? Easy. There aren't huge feuds and wars and flaming and such. Things are, for the most part, pretty civil and enjoyable. I think being on a board where at least two common interests are shared between members aids in this process a lot.
• I'm always learning, improving, and there's always something to do.
  If nothing else, HNZ keeps me busy, and has caused me to learn about a lot of things that I could have otherwise cared less about. Through HNZ I have learned HTML, CSS, and some JavaScript/a lot of jQuery. It is through this knowledge that HNZ's InvisionFree skin was converted to a ZetaBoards theme, that many of HNZ's minor codes have appeared, and that the custom webpages (from webpages defining seasonal temperatures to ones for submitting applications) have all appeared. This knowledge has benefited me off of HNZ, too, and now I am much less of an interwebz n00b because of it.
  Aside from that there are all sorts of things which I regularly get ideas for on HNZ, most of which I forget, and so many ways I plan to/hope to improve the board. I think it's great that I get to experience putting little tweaks in to a board here and there, knowing members will take them/accept them as I fiddle with things (unfortunately, live testing has become a habit of mine), and give me feedback as I require it. This is especially true as I see so many boards where admin have good ideas and no chances to implement them as their board dies - or the board thrives, there is a lack of ideas, and then the board dies - or the worse of all possible situations, the ideas presented cause the board to wither away. In that regard, I'm eternally grateful for HNZ and its community.
• People are super-talented on HNZ
  I notice this more and more as time goes on, likely because people are just getting better and better, but whether it be graphics, writing, both, or something else entirely - HNZ has some awesomely talented people who, very thankfully, share their talents with us all and I've oft' smiled because of it. talented people.
• People are nice... and welcoming.
  It's quite amazing how nice, helpful, and welcoming HNZ is considering its size (and how cliquey some people like to pretend it is... sorry... I had to slip a negative comment in here somewhere. ;) Too much positivity is just uncharacteristic). I've visited at least one forum, roughly ten times the size of HNZ in members and over 10 times its size for activity - and I posted a welcome topic. That topic got a grand total of 0 replied until I complained about it being ignored in their feedback forum several days later. On HNZ, I've heard countless times from newer members that they felt overwhelmingly welcomed and knew we were willing to help them with anything. Normally new members get their first welcome to the board on the day they introduce themselves, and soon enough they'll have five or more 'welcomes' to add. We can always improve, of course, but I think we're doing great.

---

Advertisement

Visit HNZ's Fifth Birthday Portal Page in order to see current celebration topics, information about the birthday, and register your gift from HNZ!

---

As you can tell from the above, most of the reasons I can be positive, and most of the reasons HNZ is awesome, for me, are because of you guys. You're all overly amazing and awesome and st00f. Without you HNZ wouldn't be around, and I certainly wouldn't enjoy it at all without all of the above positive aspects of the board, and our community.

I know this blawg wasn't as amusing, perhaps, as others - but I think it was necessary.

So, thank you all, and see you on the board!

~Nick

---

Join us for a Roleplay | Follow us on Twitter | Add to our Wiki | Contact Us

Cliques, Clicks... Wait! Who started this?

Over the past several months I've heard too much about this topic, mostly people complaining to each other, some random discussions over IM, and a few PMs sent to me. It seems to me that there seems to be a deluded sense that HNZ is either "one big clique" or just divided in to a whole bunch of cliques, with no real community.

Define: Clique

• an exclusive circle of people with a common purpose
  wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn
• A clique (, in American English also ) is an exclusive group of people who share interests, views, purposes, patterns of behavior, or ethnicity. ...
  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clique

Those are the definitions I will work with for the sake of this blog rant, since I feel a well defined definition is better to work with than some vague one different people conjure up in their minds.

Is HNZ a clique?
No is the simple answer. We are a group of people who share interests (Harry Potter, Roleplaying), patterns of behaviour (signing on to the board), but we are not exclusive. Registration is open to everybody and we're quite welcoming to anybody who looks for help or introduces themselves (I, for instance, encourage new members to PM me and subscribe to the Welcome Forum so that I can say hello to everybody who takes the time to say hi to us). I know that plenty of people who have joined HNZ have felt overwhelmingly welcomed, and this helped dispel some of the overwhelmingness HNZ can hold for people knew to RPing.
So while the site as a whole has some characteristics of a 'clique', because it is not exclusive to only a set group of people, it is not one.

Are there cliques on HNZ?
This one is slightly more difficult to answer. I suppose to some it may appear that there are. There are certainly groups on the board who interact with each other more than others, who have developed a strong relationship off of the board as well and that's great! It's also human nature. Unfortunately, or perhaps even fortunately, we don't like everybody equally. We can't relate to every single person on this planet in the same way, and that's definitely a blessing. So the simple fact that I am close friends with person X, Y, and Z^ed doesn't mean I refuse to speak to, or help, anybody else - and I trust that is true of most people on HNZ.

HNZ's Community Signature - it certainly doesn't look full of cliques to me. Perhaps I should draw some lines on it to separate me from other people and give the complainers the satisfaction of knowing that they're right. Hmm. A thought to be considered?

I wish I could stop this blog post there, but I can't. I wish things were that simple, but they're not. Not only are some willing to go so far as to say their are cliques and exclusive groups on HNZ - but that unless you are in a certain clique, a certain 'in-crowd' you won't get anything on the board. Your applications will be denied, your characters will never be given major roles, you'll never be asked to help out, you'll be entirely ignored by others, etc.

When I first heard that... it hurt... a lot. I spend a decent amount of time on HNZ. I try pretty hard to interact with as many people as I can, get to know people, and with all that I obviously try to be as fair as possible with things like applications. I'm sure when people say things like that, they don't think of who might read them, and who it reflects upon or hurts directly, but I rather think they should start. I was in shock completely and wondered how many people thought that of me, of Livvy and I, and if I should even bother continuing to try with things on HNZ.

It's kind of ironic, too - because the people who I've seen say things like that are the same ones that rave about HNZ being their home, and how much they enjoy the site, and how they like everybody in it - but then they got a few applications denied and obviously it was because Livvy and myself don't like them (not because they didn't put much thought in to the application or its effects on other areas of the board). Or their character didn't become prefect/headboy/headgirl and it's obviously because the head-of-house/admin are just choosing their friends (it's quite clearly not even conceivable that things like that are largely in-character, where lesson attendance and character behaviour actually matters).

Livvy and I take great care to deal with applications on their own, but we don't just consider the application, we also consider:

• Past Requests
• Warning history of the user (if you've caused trouble on HNZ recently, it makes sense for you not to get superb privileges
• Quantity of requests coming in (if 50 pureblood requests come in one week, it's likely that most of them will be denied, even if they're all excellent).

We do not consider 'Hey, Livvy is my friend, I'll approve this plot!' or 'Oh, Julie is nothing but mean to me, I'll never accept this!' - because that's not what HNZ is. I know, for myself, I have accepted applications for people that I know hate me with all of their being, people who I've never gotten along with, people I don't even know, and yes - even my friends. In fact, when Livvy makes a request for a plot I treat it, or try to treat it, just like I would anybody else's request (the difference being that she can see my post, my exact response, and reply to it). I also know that were I to make any sort of request, Livvy would handle mine the same way.

It frustrates me to know end, knowing personally the efforts I go to in order to ensure I'm not seen as ignoring any one person or their 'group', I talk to as many people as possible, will just quote any random person's post in a 'spam' topic and work with it, try to be almost super-human in how I look at and handle applications - then I feel like people just look at it all and slap me in the face by saying that the site staff/admin are just as biased/clique-based as could be.

I'd like to give a concluding example of how wrong this assumption on the part of some users is. Six months ago, I barely talked to Kaitlyn. I mean, I talked to her in GD, I had already given her her nickname of Sir Kaitlyn, but I thought she rather disliked me/was pretty mean to me at times, and barely considered her to be a GM. Other members of the site staff who did know her vouched for her, and brought to light some excellent points (how well she knew the board rules, how often she reported topics, etc. All things which would be useful in a GM). So I trusted the opinions of the others and Kaitlyn was made a GM in January. Before her promotion many of her applications had been approved (though I was rather neutral on her as a person, again, thinking she didn't like me much) and after her promotion some of her applications have been amended/tweaked/denied - just like anybody else. Since her promotion I have gotten to know her quite well, and see her very differently then I did before - I'd even go so far as to say she and I are pretty good friends now. I think that's a fairly good example of how un-cliquey I myself am, and how un-cliquey I see most of HNZ to be.

As I admitted before, it is human nature to group off, find people you're close to, and talk to them the most - but to think that HNZ has an 'in-crowd' where if you're not a part of it you don't get anything from anybody is simply absurd, and, quite frankly, insulting.

I present to you, once more, our community signature:

No sign of cliques there for me. Just a bunch of people who are enjoying HNZ and how great it is, hoping that it will last out another five years. Am I missing something that you see there, somehow?

~Nick

P.S: Additional plug... HNZ's birthday is awesome and ongoing! Be sure to check it outtttt!

---

Join us for a Roleplay | Follow us on Twitter | Add to our Wiki | Contact Us

"Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!"

Disclaimer: This is Nick venting. If you have no interest in reading Nick venting or you get upset/take offence easily then I advise you stop reading at this point. If you enjoy sarcasm, humour, and Nick at his wit's end: read on, brave knight!

---

This is a three part blog rant. Each part will build off of the last mentioned part. We'll start off slow, with the obvious, then work our way up to my deepest frustration. Then I might cool things down a bit with a few funny remarks, positive comments, or hints about the direction which I hope to see HNZ heading near the end. But be warned: this road is rocky before it is smooth (narrow before wide, uphill before downhill, take your pick).

So, as promised, the most obvious point:

I post updates/information on HNZ for my own good health.
It's true and don't let anybody tell you it isn't! Myself and the rest of the site staff really don't want to keep members in the loop at all. In fact, we hate not having to answer a thousand redundant questions because people have read the Weekly Update and global announcements, or read tweets or clicked rule topics. It annoys us and shakes us to the very core of our being when our hard work is actually used. It's quite absurd, really. We simply post endless announcements (in the simplest and shortest terms possible) for our own health. It's to benefit us and solely us. So I encourage ignoring all updates made by myself or others because really - it's irrelevant to you and you should know that by now.
Note: The above was sarcasm.

Next up to bat:
The Halloween Feast
Part of this may be Déjà vu for many of you, especially if you read my first ever blog post on HNZ - but it continues to persist despite my begging, pleasing, and obvious hatred of this: Members are still using the actual image of something to be their character in costume.
Sure, they're witches and wizards and therefore some leeway is allowed with regard to how amazing their costumes should look. However, let's be reasonable.

Nicolas King as a Banana

That is not Nicolas King as a banana! It's a banana! Sheesh! >_<;

My next point of contention with the Halloween Feast is it has largely been left unroleplayed in.
There have been 30 some-odd entries to the costume contest - and at the time of my typing this, nowhere near to even 30 some-odd posts for roleplaying in the feast. That doesn't seem very right to you, does it? HNZ is still and RPG first and foremost, correct? I'm tempted to not consider any costume contest entrants that are not roleplayed in the feast. Something for me to consider, I suppose, as right now it's not really fair to those who are taking the time to have their characters be there.

Finally, the grandest rant of them all:
Site Wide Plots
Since the Dawn of HNZ (or very nearly thereabouts) people have requested, nay, demanded site wide plots. For what reasons, I am still unsure. They take a large amount of planning and dedication and often they do not allow for as great individual development of character as everybody doing, for the most part, their own thing and mid-sized plots involving handfuls of people popping up now and then.

So, Livvy and I and the site staff at the time (so not Kaitlyn), after New Years, made a resolution for HNZ: Larger plots. More focus on roleplays. More awesomeness.
Simple enough, right? Well, I thought so too.
The fact of the matter is, however, that it is now nearly the end of February and we've held up our end of the deal. Despite Livvy's absence, despite Abby's computer problems, despite all the usual busy-ness (and extra busy-ness) of the rest of our site staff... yes, despite all those things we have held up our end of the deal. We have provided, so far, the makings of an excellent TriWizard Tournament which every member of HNZ can take part in in some way, or some form. We have expanded Ministry/Auror and Death Eater plots. It's currently only one large one, with a few key players, but there are more in the works. Sure, you might not be the one pulling the strings of the plot (Members never are in site wide plots) but it's your job to play it up with your characters! Have them react to the plot! Have it effect their lives somehow! What has it done for the most part? Nothing. What have members of HNZ done with it, for the most part? Nothing.

Even regular things that effect only most of the site don't get the attention they should. Case and point? The Halloween Feast.
Why is this? Maybe people aren't reading announcements that are posted? Maybe people are lazy? Maybe people just don't want site-wide plots as much as they think they do? I don't know. Maybe you should tell me.

With all this extra effort on the part of myself and the site staff, I find it amazing that some members still have the absolute audacity to request/suggest "site wide plots". Applications for various things with the field(s) about site improvement often get a classic line about site wide plots. Alright. OK. We got it! We acted on it! We've started to implement it. Small things at first (though, by my calculations, the TriWizard Tournament is not small) and large things later. But what is to be our motivations for those larger things when these things that we have now are completely ignored and/or used very minimally? I don't see any reason to keep on trying with it. People that are still suggesting site wide plots need to open their eyes and try to take part in the ones that are sitting right in front of them. They only work if everybody is in them, and right now - everybody is not in them. Heck, it's the people who I very rarely hear wanting these types of plots taking the most part in them. Does that seem wrong to you?

---

Otherwise, I think HNZ is doing quite well. It's active almost all the time. (Yes, during the day it's slow because of school, but it's never really dead. It's not like many boards where a day goes by with only two posts or a week goes by with no member log ins.) It's exciting, and a lot is happening. I enjoy getting the positive feedback I receive, and I also enjoy taking constructive criticism, talking to people about it, and molding HNZ to become better as a result. I really do love HNZ and I think all you members are awesome. I think, however, that a lot of members do need to pay more attention to what does go on - and not complain unless they know what they're talking about. Ignorance is my chief grief with regards to the site right now.

I caught up on a lot of HNZ things today, and will have more to catch up on tomorrow. I think I'm doing fairly well as short handed as I am - but I'm quite anxious for Livvy's return and the site staff being in full force once more (once Abby gets her internet back up and if/when Linda's busy-ness decreases). I thank every member who has offered to help me over the past several weeks, and especially those who have. I also thank all of you who have listened to me vent and just dealt with it (I know I can be super annoying sometimes ).

~Nick
P.S: I hope you find the title to this blog post as poetic as I think it is, given all I've mentioned.


------------------------
Join us for a Roleplay | Follow us on Twitter | Add to our Wiki | Contact Us

The Problem of Change

Change in life is inevitable. This is true of any life form, as adaption/reactions to environment are one of the key factors in determining if something is living, or not. How can an organism react or adapt to a stagnant environment? It cannot. It is obvious, therefore, that environments and circumstances change and that living things must change with them.

This is true, also, in the life of a forum and a forum community. Change on a forum, and in a community, is not possible to avoid. In fact, avoiding change often will become the death of a forum and its community. As circumstances change on the board and for the people who make up the site - HNZ must change as well.

Now for the most part change has been, and will always be, extremely welcomed on HNZ. On InvisionFree we changed from the InvisionFree default theme to a theme custom designed by Athene. This, a major change, was accepted for the most part quite easily. (There are always those who complain, but they were fairly quiet in their protest) Next, we had a series of new forums open (Character Development, Plotline Development, Guide to roleplaying). These too, for the most part, were welcomed with enthusiasm and are now an integral part of the forum today. Soon enough a domain was purchased for HNZ by Athene and after much frustration with trying to set it up, the domain simply forwarded and masked to HNZ. While this instance of change was not a complete success, the point of my mentioning it is that the members were entirely supportive and patient while things were fiddled about to get everything operational.

In fall of 2008 HNZ converted to ZetaBoards, with the support of most of the community. Then followed easily six months of transition in to the brand new forum software - trying out the codes that would best suit the board, removing them, about as much as you can imagine. Still, members were patient and supportive. Also in fall of 2008, HNZ was set up to its present domain of http://hogwartsnewzealand.com . This, too, took some time to set up properly but guess what? The site was still supportive and patient - this time it paid off and the board is still using its custom domain name.

The list goes on and on. Of large changes which were worked in to the board and generally accepted with ease. New lessons policies. New forums. Seasons being corrected to match those of New Zealand. Board codes being added. Different styles of updates, competitions, and events being tried over time. Still the board allowed it all.

There have been times when change was considered, opened to site vote, and then shot down. One instance of this that comes to mind, for instance, is the possible use of the ZetaBoards AIO (All in One) code which could have been the money system on the forum, because of its incompatibility with Internet Explorer. That had been my uneasiness with the code at the time, so I understood and respected the site's decision. (Note, too, that that code has since been made Internet Explorer compatible but has not been re-propositioned to HNZ because I do respect the first decision made by the board and there are still other negatives to trying to install it.)

With all this in mind, at how exceedingly open the community of HNZ has always been to change, even if that change didn't work out as well as we'd hoped, one might imagine that changing smaller things on the board would be welcomed evenly more openly/widely, or even just not noticed/commented on at all. Unfortunately, this is not the case.

As some of you have read in my blog "That Which We Call a Rose", the recent change in name from "General Discussions" back to "Spam" in our random chatter-type topics was met with not insignificant opposition. I fear that opposition to such seemingly insignificant change has come up once more.

This evening a goal I have had for several months came in to effect: HNZ is now using only one set of emoticons. For quite a while, HNZ had been using three sets. I managed to reduce this to two. Then, Tony (out of the awesomeness of his heart) made a custom set for HNZ. This were all added to the board, but some of the other sets remained behind. We had three sets again. So, slowly but surely, I phased out emoticons of the other sets. Asking Tony to create replacements for the emotion being represented each time to ensure that nobody would be unable to express a meaning in their post with the selection of emoticons. This afternoon the final two emoticons were replaced: Console and Frantics.

The new emoticons for console () and frantics () are extremely awesome and (dare I say it? yes.) cute, I think. However, they are:

1. No longer animated
and
2. No longer the exact same yellow emoticons

So this is obviously cause for uproar. My opinion is that the site looks more cohesive and professional on one set of emoticons - and these emoticons are special, made by Tony, and therefore unique to HNZ - unlike the generic IPB emoticons found on most forums based off of that system. I knew the change would be noticed, and disapproved of by many. But I also felt the change needed to happen, and that it would be small enough that people would just get over it - no matter how attached they may have been to the old emoticons. I loved the purple glomp. I also loved a few of the Yahoo! emoticons - but they're all gone now, right? It's not like I'm just doing whatever I like - I'm doing what I think best for the site, and when it comes to such small changes as this, I should hope that can be understood.

Here's to hoping people understand and we're able to enjoy Tony's awesome creations together,

~Nick
(Also: Tony gave us an extra emote this time! )
------------------------
Join us for a Roleplay | Follow us on Twitter | Add to our Wiki | Contact Us

Admin..ing Solo

So, as most of you should know, Livvy (Cecily Zdablooptybloop) has been absent since about the 20^th of January. That means that I have been administrating HNZ on my own for over two weeks at this point, and Livvy intends to be gone likely until things resettle for her at the end of February or beginning of March.

I knew, when she told me how long she'd likely be gone, that this would be tough and her being away would be uber suckage - but I don't think I truly realized how different things would be. I knew, for instance, that I would have to process all sales receipts on my own, and fill in for everything else Livvy does on HNZ so frequently. Those things in themselves make it quite difficult for me to play both our roles on HNZ - but I hadn't realized (although I did within the first week of her absence) just how much I relied on Livvy for things other than handling her sections of the site. For instance, I loved running ideas by her, discussing things I had just thought up and would likely mull over on my own for another month before putting them in to action (yes, that's something we do fairly often), or bouncing random ideas off her, commenting on certain member's behaviour and discussing how best to deal with certain situations. She was also normally the one to keep me up to date on what was happening in character on the board (as, generally, I'm so involved with running the actual board, and the technical side of things, that I am quite clueless). We really do have quite the partner dynamic to running the board and that simply disappeared as soon as she left.

All of a sudden not only were all the routine tasks on my shoulders, but all the special plans we had for the coming months fell solely on me as well, and I was suddenly no longer able to bounce ideas off of somebody constantly. It was likely this last bit that has been the toughest for me. I can do sales receipts, I can even figure out how we would deal with most applications on my own - but I can't bounce ideas off of myself. I can't get Livvy's perspective on things just from my own mind (of course, she and I agree ninety nine and a quarter percent of the time (yes, a fraction with a percent. Love me, math people. ;) ) ) and I certainly hate implementing things that I'm not sure she'll support upon her return.

Assuming I ignore the relationship in running the board that I cannot have when Livvy is gone, the tasks themselves simply pile up and make it impossible for me to do very much of what I'd like to do on HNZ. There are the normal tasks that have always and will always exist:

• Member group changes (Normally split between us)
• Applications for everything (about ten a week) Discussed by both of us
• Warnings/Member Disputes (Discussed between us and sometimes Global Moderators - member is contacted by either Livvy or myself, we split this)
• Answering FAQs(Normally split between us)
• Posting announcements (Normally split between us)
• Sales Receipts (Normally Livvy)
• Updating Site Documentation as things change (Normally me, sometimes pawned off on Livvy)
• Replying to suggestions. (Normally me, sometimes pawned off on Livvy)

That's just the tip of the iceberg, what I can think of right now, with regard to standard site operation.

Then, there's the awesome timing of Livvy's hiatus (through no fault of her own, obviously). She left and sorting was still happening. No big deal, I normally handle most of sorting. I took it on myself to even deal with every transfer application on my own to not pester her as she prepared to leave - despite that being something we traditionally do together. The real kicker is that this is to be a TriWizard Tournament year on HNZ. A lot of the planning was still only rough outlines, no formal posts had been written yet, and it had been Livvy and my intentions to run it together. That, obviously, has not panned out. I have been running it largely on my own and I hope it should go well.

---

Advertisement
TriWizard Tournament?!

Yes! The TriWizard Tournament is ongoing and chances are you aren't doing your part! *sad face* Check it out and post here!
Advertisement

---

The TriWizard tournament is a substantial amount of extra work: from planning, to posting, to organizing, to prodding champions to get off their bum-bums to telling the SUPER HELPFUL ( ^_^ ) volunteers how they're supposed to do what they need to do. =D

I also believe HNZ's TWT is cursed. The last time we did this Alicia had to leave and we sort of strategically killed the plot line at task two. Now this time, Livvy has had to leave us for a month and we have no intention of it dying... unless the champions don't start posting (Can you tell I'm bitter about TWT activity? No? Not obvious yet? Hmmm. I'll work on that.)

Needless to say, I have been getting tonnes of help and support from our awesome Global Moderators. They're all super busy right now, too, but they've stepped it up quite a bit for me, and for Livvy. We're working on keeping things as active as we can and up to date as we can. I think, without the global moderating team, I would have collapsed by now. I wub dem guys. ^_^ (They're even letting me bounce ideas off them once in a while! They're not as good as Livvy ... (no offence, guys) but still - it's nice enough =D )

With Livvy gone, though, I have noticed some other things about the site:

• Some members are mean no matter what. Ignore them. Don't let them get to you. If you do, you'll hate HNZ and not want to do anything at all.
  I was very close to just going on my own break at one point because of member comments and gossip in the past week
• No matter how much you do, people don't have to thank you for it if they don't want to.
  True story.
• No matter how fast you work, people want you to work faster.
  Also a true story. I've been clearing out applications about once a week. It's the most I can do, seeings how I'm running most aspects of the site for now. However this is still not quick enough for some members. I still get PMs 'reminding' me to process things that I know about, and I still get very frustrated by that. ;)
• Nice people should be glomped. All. The. Time. If you don't, they'll forget you wubbles them. They forget soo0o0o quickly. =(
  Unfortunately, I have learned this in the past week. I fear I have hurt somebody's feelings, not by my words (though they passed it off as by my words, I think... my words were simply the unrefined truth about something on the site), but by my lack of words. Words which I had assumed to be understood.

I am, obviously, quite anxious for Livvy's return and have quite a bit of February left to go before that will be a reality.
Any support from the members of HNZ in this time would be greatly appreciated. I've kept it up for over two weeks now, and I'm wearing down a bit. I can keep it up, but I need to know that

1. The site is behind me
and
2. The site is patient with me
and
3. I'm not going to hear mean things about me through the grape vine when everything I'm doing on HNZ is for the members. I get very little out of being an admin, and I think it's the site that truly profits. I guess that's just one man's opinion, though.

Thanks for reading this, guys, and be sure to keep Livvy in your thoughts/prayers over the coming weeks - she needs it. As much as it sucks that she's gone, her absence is necessary for her and the easier this time is, the quicker she comes back. ^_^ So ya - keep her in your thoughts. =)

~Nick

------------------------
Join us for a Roleplay | Follow us on Twitter | Add to our Wiki | Contact Us

That which we call a rose...

General Discussions VIII was closed today and a new topic was opened: Spam Again... Again!" This change, even in topic title style, has sparked considerable discussion and I feel I should share my entire thoughts on the topic. Give the history of the topic we're using, my reasoning behind the change, and my own thoughts on all the feedback I'm getting so it's all out there once and for all.

General Discussions has, for the past eleven months, been Hogwarts New Zealand's general/random chatter topic. Where members can go to get to know each other, talk about anything and everything, and just truly enjoy each other's company. Now, prior to March of 2009 HNZ still had topics that were, in fact, exactly the same as "General Discussions". These topics, however, had been called "Spam". This "Spam" topic had first been started by Bellatrix Green with a first post that included "Pee in to the wind!" It was, truly, a topic to do pretty much anything and everything. This topic was started in 2007, my first year on HNZ, and was the first topic in the board to reach 50 pages. It was then deleted and Spam 2 began. This, too, reached a certain number of pages before being deleted. This pattern continued up to Spam 7, with Spam 6 being revived and a Spam 6 part 2 having been begun at one point.

Then the titles for these topics started to get even more creative, with such titles as "§pam for the Ages", "Spam, Egg, Bacon and SPAM", and even things as random as "Exploding Penguin". It simply became a fun tradition on HNZ. Starting 'spam' topics once they reached a set number of pages, making a fun name for it, and having the same awesome chats with the same (and new) awesome people. The memories were, and are, all priceless and they really do deserve the mention they receive from members who were around for such events.

However, during Spam Light, I started to notice a trend of true spam; that is to say, a trend of pointless and annoying posts about nothing. Breaking board rules was becoming the normal. I recall going away for a time, coming back, and finding the topic a mess. So, after dealing with said mess I was tired of 'spam' (in the true sense) and thusly was tired of general chat topics which opened the doors to 'spam'. I discussed this with Livvy, who felt similarly, and Spam Light was closed until we decided what to do next.

We decided that the best course of action, however poorly received was to open a topic with a new name, but the same meaning at heart. We felt that "spam", as a title, was confusing newer members - telling them that it was okay to literally spam the topic named spam. So we opened General Discussions. This topic had firmly laid out rules, and a very obvious threat attached to it: if spam appeared, the topic would be gone for good. We still wanted the atmosphere and the heart of the original 'spams', but didn't want to run the risk of confusing new members. This seemed, to us, a logical alternative.

Immediately the community reacted. Admin were the bad guys who wanted to destroy HNZ and its OOC Community. Of course we did not, but that was how we were received. Members, generally, didn't see the point of the name change and disapproved of it. They felt that the new topic format had to be entirely formal and serious, and that we had taken away a part of what the experience of HNZ was to them. Others simply viewed this "General Discussions" idea as "Spam with a fancy name" and so General Discussions, the first, by its end, had turned out just as poorly as Spam Light. It was closed for a time, and General Discussions II was opened with even more defined guidelines, a netiquette guide to accompany it, and the hopes of things turning out differently.

They did, very fortunately. There were the odd members who tried to spam the topic, but they were dealt on an individual basis and the topics continued. GD III, GD IV, GD V, GD VI, GD VII and GD VIII - which brought us in to 2010. 2010. The new year. A new decade (some think) and new years always mean new, fresh, starts. New chances. New goals. New everything. So, today, on February the sixth of that new year, and almost a whole year since the original falling out in Spam Light, I decided it was time to give GD VIII its rest and open a new topic. That new topic, I felt, could be brought back to its 'Spam' origins, if not just for the nostalgia of old members but also for the enjoyment of new members and maybe even a little bit as an experiment on my end of things, to see if continuing "General Discussions" for eight instalments was wise or necessary. (In addition to this reformatting of the topic title, I also recovered many older Spam/GD topics to be viewed by members of HNZ at their leisure here)

As I stated above, this was met with mixed reviews. Older members seemed to appreciate the change back, the fond memories of their earlier days on the site, the ability to access some of those long lost topics, and hope for newer members of the board to have similar experiences as they did in the series of general chat topics to come. Newer members, however, have seemed to disapprove of the topic title change immensely. Stating they "Miss General Discussions" and other such statements. Of course, both the topic and the people are still precisely the same - but the title has changed and therefore nothing is the same any longer.

In this situation, it is clearly impossible to please both parties - and both options have a positive and a negative. I feel that opening up the older topics for viewing, and giving members another shot at the fun times of being able to start their own general chat topic as one dies, choose their own title, and give the first post of the new (soon to be eight hundred page) topic their own spice, is worth the possible trouble of a few members trying to legitimately spam. Of course, that is the sad truth: with this change of style back, members will be more likely to attempt to spam. With three global moderators (who are all amazing), I felt like that was a manageable consequence/risk, but it definitely is a downside to the change.

I can understand new member's and their comfort being in "General Discussions" and not anything "Spam" related, however does it make that much of a difference? Need I fight another war and taking all the beatings people wish to give me through their words over a name change once more? Does the name change the type of topic it is? The type of conversations it holds, or the type of people who are in it? I would argue not. The only thing this name change does is offer sentimental value to older users, and allow for more opportunities and involvement of members in the creation of future random chatter-type topics. I didn't expect this kind of adverse reaction when I created the new topic. Not at all.

So does it change that much? The name? I don't think so. It changes a bit - but the essence of the topic itself is still the same, is it not?

What's in a name? That which we call a rose / By any other name would smell as sweet.
Romeo and Juliet (II, ii, 1-2)

Shakespeare got it right, there, I think. But it seems HNZ disagrees.


~Nick
------------------------
Join us for a Roleplay | Follow us on Twitter | Add to our Wiki | Contact Us

Merry Christmas! :)

So first of all, Merry Christmas everyone!!! :D I hope you all have a wonderful holiday break and enjoy them!

If I thought my November was busy, that was hardly anything compared to my December! I have been working like CRAZY! I have never wanted to quit my job so badly than the past few days haha. I literally worked an entire week straight (and it would've continued all the way up to Christmas day if I hadn't told them to reschedule me to at leave give me one day off for Christmas shopping!) but the season is finally over and I can now go back to having regular 12 hour work schedules and thus, I can FINALLY truly return to HNZ!

I sincerely apologize for everyone I've left hanging in the past few months!!! And I'm sorry for that really but I was soooo busy even on my days off and when I'd get home from work I was too exhausted to RP and stuff. :/

But starting tomorrow (the day after Christmas really) I will get back on HNZ regularly, and instead of trying to reply to suuuuuuuper old RPs, I will start fresh and new with everyone (and every character) that way the timelines not all messed up and stuff. :/ There are few exceptions I am willing to make so just PM me if you REALLY want me to continue an old thread and see if you're that exception I'm talking about. :)

So thanks to everyone for their patience and understanding with me so far! And I will definitely pick up the pace & my slack around HNZ once more and be as active as I used to be! Once again have a wonderful holiday!!! :)

-Abby
------------------------
Join us for a Roleplay | Follow us on Twitter | Add to our Wiki | Contact Us

Brace Yourselves!

Hey guys, it's Abby, I know I haven't been around on HNZ much lately so I'm sorry for that, but I had to focus on a few other things (aka real life) for a while before I felt ready to get back on HNZ. Since November I've been rather busy! I visited New York for the second time in my life (and definitely not the last) and it was just amazing as always. I didn't see Leighton Meester again (she was performing at Times Square on the day I was leaving! :( ) and my grandma was a complete pain in the ass to travel with! She's a terrible conversationalist, I couldn't get a word in, and when I'm watching the news I like to have discussions about what's on and everything she said was just complete ignorance and she was sooo close-minded! (She definitely made me appreciate my mom more, something I thought would never happen). It was horrible, and she could not stop complaining about everything, and when I'm at my favorite place in the world, I don't want to hear none of that crap! haha, but it doesn't matter because after a while I tuned her out and just enjoyed the trip. :) I got to visit the school I've been dyyyyying to go to for the past two years, St. John's University, and WOW, it is amazing! Actually seeing the campus and what it has to offer pretty much just confirmed the fact that it is absolutely, in-every-way PERFECT for me, no joke. I can't wait to go!

I had been accepted to the school for the upcoming Spring semester (which starts on Jan. 22) with a $10,000 scholarship, so I thought, 'Great, I'm good to go!' Well, after looking through things again, I realized that the scholarship money was for the entire year whereas I'd only be attending for a semester first, meaning that I wasn't getting $10,000 but only $5,000. That, combined with my extremely unsatisfactory financial aid still left me with a little over $5,000 I still needed to pay. I tried convincing my mom for us to take out loans, but she was only in town for a week so she was too busy partying and then recovering from hangovers the next day to really pay attention and would just say no. :/

So, in conclusion, I have to put off going for yet another year. This time I'm not as bitter or upset or sad by it because I didn't spend hundreds of dollars on non-refundable enrollment & housing fees and it didn't just happen a few days before I was supposed to leave either and most importantly, I made the decision myself, instead of letting the situation leave me with no other option. And truthfully, deep down in my heart, I didn't want to leave just yet because of my niece. My niece just turned 4 months today! :) I take care of her almost all the time, but I really don't mind it at all, I adore her and cannot stand to be away from her for so long. I hate when my sister takes her to her bf's house and they spend the night there! lol So, I was really sad that I was going to be leaving her so soon, but now that I won't be leaving until August, I know that I'll at least have witnessed her first year (her birthday is August 12) and not missed her first word, crawl, steps, etc. :) I want to cherish the first year I have with her before I leave to New York permanently and she grows up in the blink of an eye! Because I know that now that I have visited the campus, I am more determined than ever to go to school this coming August and I swear this better be the last time you all hear about me putting off school!

So after I came back from New York, my sleeping schedule was finally back on track, I actually slept at night and woke up mornings instead of the opposite! When I came back home I had to deal with my dad who just lost his mom, and my terror brothers off for Thanksgiving break among other things. My mom visited us for a week before she left to Iraq for an indefinite amount of time, all we know is that she'll still be there during the summer. While she was here we had two Thanksgiving dinners because of her late arrival, I actually got to keep my sleeping pattern normal because she would take my brothers to school instead of me and when she actually paid her kids any attention instead of going out partying, she went crazy buying us anything we wanted and taking us out to eat places. My undeserving brother got a freaking Wii! Grr! Now you'd think that with her huge advancement check and the way she was spending her money like it grew on trees, she paid all the bills? Wrong. Literally the day after she left, we had three utility companies come to our house each day asking for payments! It was so annoying because we couldn't even contact her to tell her off! (Something that I am extremely good at).

In addition to all that, I've been working like CRAZY, which is cool because I'm getting decent checks again, but it just makes me hate Christmas season lol, and I'm not getting lunch hours when I should be, and when I come home I'm soo exhausted I just fall asleep where ever I happen to be at without even getting into my pajamas, etc. I normally wouldn't care that I fell asleep, but the whole reason I stayed up until 8 am in the first place was because I had to get my brother ready for school and take him, and when I fall asleep, I knock out and don't wake up until after 7 am, and then he ends up late; that's why it was better for me to just stay up until then. I keep trying and pushing myself to stay up so late after I come home from work, but my body can't take it and I just crash. :/Thus, another reason why I haven't been on HNZ lately.

Oh and today my dad finally told me he has a girlfriend. I should be happy for him, because out of both my parents, my dad definitely deserves to be the happier one, he deserves to have someone to love, he deserves to be better off than my mom, who said she was better off without my dad (which she is soooo not!) But even though I know my dad deserves to be happy by finding someone else, when he told me he wanted me to meet her eventually, all I could think was 'No!' It's not like I want him back with my mom, nooo way, she doesn't deserve him!, but I just don't want to see him with someone else or something, idk, whatever. I used to think my parents divorce was the best thing to ever happen to my dad (he began taking English lessons, he got meggga fit, and began going to church, etc.), but now he's stopped going to church and he parties just as much as my mom does. I think that's why I don't like this girl of his. :/ Ah well.

Oh! Also, it actually snowed TWICE in my city!! And the snow actually stuck for a like a day!!! It was so amazing! Of course the whole time I just kept thinking "Wow, I wonder what New York must look like!" Haha! I know, I seriously have an obsession problem but I just can't help it, I'm in love with the place!

So that is definitely more than enough from me, I promise I'll try never to update this long ever again, I just wanted to sorta explain my absence on HNZ.

Love you all! ♥
------------------------
Join us for a Roleplay | Follow us on Twitter | Add to our Wiki | Contact Us

My Life Today (with a side of HNZ)

So after missing two days of school, and being off of school for five days - I think it's safe to say that I was out of practise in various subjects and very ill prepared for the day that awaited me today.
I knew I'd missed two tests last week, and was prepared to write them today. Biology went by quickly (we never do much there) and soon enough I was on my way to literature - when I learned that I had another test! I was entirely unaware of a third test for the day. Fortunately my teacher was kind enough and allowed me the period to study before I came back to class and wrote the test, which was fill-in-the-blank on the most minute details of Heart of Darkness. Any questions I didn't know the answer to I simply put the stupidest answer I could think of for (that's always the best way to go - humour).
Then I had law, where we learned (via a group's presentation) about Socrates and the Socratic method. In a few days I'll have to present on Saint Thomas Aquinas.
Then Chemistry came, where I was supposed to have my first test - and the teacher was away, so it looks like that test will be pushed back to tomorrow.
At lunch I had to sign up for grad photos (this year is going by so0o0o0o quickly =( ) then after lunch I had a math test - which was death. Given the last week for me, I was more than ill-prepared for that test and I simply hope I passed it. That would be nice. At this point my goal for math is to get the credit, then be done with the whole damned thing. >_<;
Following math comes English, where we watched some Hamlet, and Business Leadership where I didn't do much.

---

Now for where HNZ comes in to the picture.
All of our site staff have been quite busy over the past week or two, we've been keeping things running on HNZ but the nice little things we try to do (like the weekly updates, for instance) haven't been working out so well, and so easily.
The weekly update is actually quite time consuming. First we must compile a list of updates, changes, upcoming events. Next we try to write a paragraph (or thereabouts) for each topic and finally we need to code the whole thing to not just be a giant block of text. The most time consuming part of the coding always turns out to be the highlighted roleplays, which very few people like to contribute to, anyway. (By the way -> Shoot Livvy a PM to have your plot highlighted!)
With all that, doing it once a week has become near impossible, it seems. Even a bi-weekly update seems more amiable (with perhaps special updates in between) then the regular once a week. It's less pressure on site staff, and gives us more time between updates.
Now, that's just my thoughts, and I haven't even discussed them with Livvy, or Linda, or Abby - because I'm not even sure we'll all stay this busy forever. If doing it once a week is possible again in the near future I don't want to change the system too many times, but at this point the future looks bleak for "Weekly" updates, I fear.

Aside from that Livvy and I have been inundated with applications for tonnes of things, so please bear with us. With my ever-more busy schedule and Livvy's present sickness we're sorting things as best we can. We try to reply to all applications within a week, if not much much sooner.

Anyhow, I think that another "Weekly Update" will be posted today, and that may well be where this blog is first linked to. Exciting? A little bit. =) So I better go work on that.

'Til next blawg,

~Nick

P.S: What are your thoughts on the weekly updates? Comment on the blog post and share your input! ^_^
------------------------
Join us for a Roleplay | Follow us on Twitter | Add to our Wiki | Contact Us

My turn I suppose...

Pharyngitis. To most it'd be a sentence of staying home from school, missing work, being miserably sick. But not for me. Bahahaha! I got to spend over 3 hours at the hospital with a male nurse who looked just like L.L. Cool J. Then after they stuck cotton swabs down my throat and irrigated my ear where my sinuses leaked, they had me wait with all of these awesome soldiers who wouldn't give up their seats at the pharmacy for me or my cranky 4 year old autistic child (who had just come home from school). Class acts, those guys.

But the fun part came when I got home! After wheezing my way up the stairs, head pounding, nose running, throat feeling like somebody had stuffed a barb wired pineapple down it, I got to chill out on my couch. And get up to get juice, then dinner, then a favorite crayon that fell behind the couch, then change DVDs, then get yelled at for not having a ready supply of suckers.

Finally I got the night to myself to Skype with some crazy broads and RP in a medicated stupor. Amazingly the RPs went well. Ha! Then came the morning after where my little guy jumped on the bus and I snuggled on my couch to watch X-Files, season 1. I'd forgotten how pretty David Duchovny (my adolescent love) was. *sigh* *cough*

Anyways, been hella sick, found out Rich won't be home until January instead of before Christmas and that my kid is apparently one of the class bullies. Bummed about Rich...strangely proud of Logan for sticking up for himself. Show those kids who's boss son.

HNZ wise, been very impressed with the changes and ideas happening lately. If you haven't hugged your Nicktator lately, go do it. Now. I'll just be sitting here, reading this newspaper. *sniff* Huh, Headmistress is a harlot apparently. Interesting. Oh, you're still here? Why are you watching me? Go RP already! And submit some links to my PM box while you're at it.

Cheers!
~Liv (Cecily Zhefarovich)


------------------------
Join us for a Roleplay | Follow us on Twitter | Add to our Wiki | Contact Us

A Return to Blogging

I've decided to try blogging again, once in a while, but now on HNZ's blog with the rest of HNZ's site staff helping out, posting their own little blog entries, and hopefully having a very awesome area for members to check in on the site, and its staff, in one place. Individual blogs on ZetaBoards are great, but sometimes it's hard to notice new posts and things - with this it will be possible to subscribe to the blog, follow it, and get relevant updates as need be. Which is pretty nifty, I think.

So life over the past week has been insane for me. The week started off well enough, I suppose, but then Tuesday evening, when I got home from school, my mom's cat (Hobo) wasn't doing so well. I was concerned about him, but had to go to work. So I set him down on my mom's bed (he couldn't walk for some reason) and left for my job. I called home to check up on him several times throughout the night, and when I got home and checked on him myself he was on my mom's bed, dead. He was 18, and I'd known him my entire life. My mom's had him longer than she's had me. It's tough thinking that he's not around the house any more and we all miss him immensely.
I had a test on Wednesday, and one on Thursday, but with Hobo's death I was certain that if I wrote them I'd fail. So I didn't go to school Wednesday or Thursday, I spent time with my mom instead - which was alright, I suppose.
Thursday night I had a session meeting at my church, the first one since I became an elder, and that went alright. I came home and my mom told me about some family drama (which I don't feel comfortable sharing at the moment) that I now also have to deal with.
Then Friday came. Friday was a P.D day (no school! Thank God!) but I had to go to school anyway to work on filming a Literature project with my group. That, too, went alright but it took a fair deal of time and I'm sure I could have spent my day some better way.
Today I'm trying to rest, relax, get some sleep maybe. I'm also planning on seeing The Blind Side with my family and a friend this evening, which I hope to be enjoyable.

Tomorrow I might be going to see 2012 with my church youth group, and I have to study for all the tests I've missed.

So now for the portion of my blog where I discuss HNZ.
I feel a bit bad for Summer Break being cut a day or two short, but it'll be closing Monday, most likely, as that is when Semester two begins.
Along with Semester 2 comes Apparition lessons for sixth years, and lots of other exciting things (I hope).
I've been tyring to revamp the Ministry a bit, as it has been inactive, mainly by bringing more Aurors in to the picture. Death Eaters on HNZ have always been strong - so now making it easier to become an auror should help balance things a bit.

Other than that, planning for Y9's Tri-Wizard tournament is underway and a few more surprises are hidden about.
As far as the OOC Community goes, I'm hoping to get voting prepared for the OOC Superlatives and then wait most anxiously for the results. xD

~Nick

------------------------
Join us for a Roleplay | Follow us on Twitter | Add to our Wiki | Contact Us