As of late, there has been a steady increase in negativity going around INH and the discord; a shift in language, a hardening of attitudes and an overall lack of good-faith effort being made, so please, hear us out.

What we do here is meant to be fun. We’re a community of people with a shared hobby and interest but we’re also a group of people with differing ideas and opinions and even skill levels. Some of us are striving for the best we can deliver, others are just kicking back and tossing out words for enjoyment, and some of us are wanting to improve to increase their enjoyment. And that is all dandy! There’s a place for every person and every style here! And what makes it great is that we all RESPECT each other.

We’re a community, and a community thrives on concessions and compromises and sometimes things have to change and evolve to meet the growing population – nothing can stay the same forever. People are going to come and people are going to go and there’s going to be periods of chaos and periods of calmness and sometimes people are going to come in a rush and make a mess of things. It’s our job to welcome everyone and roll with the punches and find a new groove among the foundation.

Everyone brings their own unique voice, their own diversity and vibrancy to the site and that’s worth celebrating. We’re all unique and we’re all special and we all deserve to be here.

While we all go through periods where we feel like “What is the point? No one will miss me if I go. They’ll move on.” It’s simply not true.

What is the point? - the point is to have fun whether it’s with a vast assortment of members on site, or a small handful of people – no one will force you to interact with every single person on site BUT it is expected that there is a level of respect that has to be shown to each individual because we are all humans with feelings and no one deserves to have their feelings squished, hurt or invalidated.

No one will miss me if I go? - Ha! I laugh at this thought – and I know we all have this thought – but it’s incredibly untrue. Those of us who have been here since the beginning still find ourselves suddenly thinking about lost members. Just the other day I was thinking about Erik – he was an original member of INH who left, returned and left again and he is missed. His characters are missed. There is ALWAYS going to be someone who sits down and says to the next person “I wonder what Bella is doing these days?” And then reminiscing happens.

They’ll move on. Yes. They will because that IS RP. Stories have to move on as characters come and go otherwise the writers end up stuck. If the character can’t move on then maybe it’s time to end their story-line and begin anew. None of this can be done without a lot of kindness, good-faith effort, honesty, understanding, and communication. We cannot be the growing and thriving presence that we are without these things, and that means we need to recognize some things while addressing others.

We need to remember that:

Not everyone is going to be the main character in every story no matter how much we might what that. Each of our characters have their own unique stories to tell and they are not always going to fit into the narrative of other people’s stories. This is okay. It’s like having that co-worker whom you get along with fine at work but your lives outside of work do not mesh. That doesn’t mean you stop being courteous and friendly and supportive of each other. Continuous and clear communication needs to occur during plotting, and emotions need to be left at the doorstep. We have to be able to recognize and accept that things change and you cannot control every single aspect of your RP life anymore than you can control every single aspect of your real life.

Everyone has an opinion about who would fit into what plots and whether it is romance, friendship or a specific claim on a registry list, just like everyone has their own opinion on what a canon will be like, this is normal. The important thing is to be clear, concise in what you are looking for and to be gracious of the opinions of others – they might not agree and that’s okay. Things might change and that is okay as well. Sometimes, things fall apart – in real life and in RP – we have to be able to accept the changes without the emotional turmoil because at the very end of the day – this is a hobby. This is for fun. If you are so emotionally invested that you can’t see the lines where RP ends and real emotions begin then it’s time to take a step back from RP and re-evaluate why you are doing this in the first place.

No one should feel like they have to keep a plot or a character going that they don’t have muse for or no longer enjoy writing because they are afraid of hurting the feelings of someone they are writing or shipping with. No one should feel hesitant to go to their RP partner and say “hey, this isn’t working for me anymore, is there something else we can do?”

It’s important to be honest with your RP partners, and with yourself. Can you handle more? Do you need to cut back? Do you enjoy that thread you are writing? Should you apply for that position? Are you really the right person for the role?

Honesty is so important because if you take on a role that is plot relevant/sought after/limited, like Prefects, Headmaster, Department Head, etc, people are going to look to you to fulfill that spot with activity otherwise it’s going to feel undeserving and people are going to begin to have feelings about that.

I won’t ever deny that we all have people we like playing with more than others – it’s just like work or school – we all have co-workers we prefer or classmates we would rather sit with but we have to recognize that certain language such as “Favourites” or “Cliques” or “New Members” creates an Us VS Them sort of mentality. And right now it feels like there is an Admins VS Older Members VS New Members mentality and in the past there has been an Admins VS Members mentality and that is not the vibe we want because we are all members. A lot of the time, what is perceived as a clique is simply the volume of certain people over others. Right now, there’s a group of members who are enthusiastic and loud and highly active so those members who are quieter and have busier lifestyles or are struggling with their muses are feeling a bit put out but there are always going to be highs and lows. There are no popular kids here. There are no losers or nerds or jocks. We’re all just people who love to write and want to write together.

Circling back to a previous point, it’s absurd to think you can and have to interact with every single person within this community. If you do, then you’ll end up like Lou with twenty-six characters and still unable to reach everyone while constantly having an overwhelming to do list of replies. Remember what you can handle and don’t get yourself or others down for not interacting with everyone – the important thing is that IF someone new approaches you – and I don’t mean new to the site, just new because you have not interacted yet – be welcoming and open to their ideas and give each other an equal chance at the experience because that person you have never interacted with before could become your new best friend.

Please be patient. Please be kind. Remember that this is a hobby where we write about fictional characters and the feelings our characters might have towards your characters are not a reflection of how we feel towards you. Real life is messy enough for everyone, we’ve all got stresses and burdens, and we all make mistakes. There’s no need to bring those stresses and burdens into our hobbies and make mountains out of molehills or perceive problems where there are no problems. And if there are issues, please try to work them our respectfully. If you need a mediator, don’t hesitate to ask.

Thank you for reading this. I hope it’s helpful. I hope that we can all smooth the feathers together and continue to be the great community we strive to be. If there is anything you wish to further discuss, please reach out to an admin, we’re here to help.

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Andrew Douglas Timmea Lacroix Deri Ellis Anashka Markovic Boyd Nightingale Beauregard Nott Daven Cursive Levi Hilfiger Dean Stewart Paris Aurinko Artemis H. Hwang Bellamy Saffron Sutton Bane Remington Grebe Rosie Huntington Elizabeth Kingston Sally Byrne Hina Avaiki Tae-il Chae  Annaliese Montego Arianna Stewart  Sebastian Balfour Stella Macaroy  Mercy Patil-Boot Ethan Prince Ainsley Hopkins Everly Prince Alyson Rychester Haydin Voeller Marcia Jaeger Leonard Chant Jacqueline Devlin Benjamin V. Castillo Sarah Hannah Brooks Dominique Weasley Cordelia Lupin Noah Beaton Maxwell McCree Park Soo-Kyung Youngbin Chae

Every Month, the admins will select a Character (one adult and one student) as well as a Duo of the month to highlight on the sidebar. However, we do encourage members to nominate someone if they feel that person is deserving.

Back in March of 2024, the admins agreed to start implementing an OTM award for students, adults, duos and threads in order to encourage members to remain active for a chance to win and be spotlighted on our sidebar.

General Criteria:
- No character can be spotlighted for consecutive months. This means if Sebastien and Remington are the Duo of the Month for March, they cannot win it again for April.
- Spotlights will focus on previous months, that means for the month of April, the spotlight will be Character of the Month from the month of March.
- Members are allowed to send in nominations for any of these spotlights but ultimately, the decision will be based on activity on site.
- You can nominate your own character (in fact, we encourage this as it helps us out!) if you believe you have made a lot of posts and deserves the spotlight but admins will be looking at activity.

Character of the Month Criteria:
- One adult and one student will be selected.
- The characters are selected based on a search over the Most Recent Posts going back 10 pages on the day of selection. The day of selection will be randomized throughout the month.
- The same character cannot win consecutive months in a row.

Duo of the Month Criteria:
- Does NOT have to be a romantic couple.
- Must have a thread made within the month to be considered.
- The thread MUST be actively posted in throughout the month.
- If you wish for your duo to be considered, you must submit their names and their active thread to one of the admins.
- The same duo cannot win consecutive months in a row.

Some changes have been made to this process as it was becoming increasingly difficult to admins to search and figure out the best candidate for these spotlights.

Previous Information can be see HERE

As of Oct 2024 the process was modified because it was becoming too time consuming and difficult on the admin team to be looking through an entire month worth of replies for roughly 300 accounts.

Thread of the Month was cancelled.

Characters of the Month selection was updated to number of posts made when viewing the Recently Updated Posts over 10 pages on a randomly selected day of the month. This significantly decreased the time it took for selecting members.

QUIDDITCH UPDATES!

Any unsportsmanlike behaviour in the chat or in DMs with the admins or other members (if brought to the admins attention) will result in a strike. Members who get 3 strikes will be banned from playing Quidditch. Quidditch is meant to be fun and the unsportsmanlike behaviour makes it unpleasant and adds stress to the moderators in an already stressful situation.

Discrepancies are going to happen. When they do, game play and game discussion will pause until the moderators can sort out the discrepancies. If they cannot be sorted in a timely manner, moderators can opt to settle it by turning loose all balls and resetting the game.

Beaters – if a bludger has not hit it’s mark (the timer is still running) it is considered inactive until the opposing beater saves it or the timer runs out. You cannot hit this bludger and game play will continue as if there is only 1 bludger.

Game Scoring is changing.

Quidditch Cup – only points earned during game play will count towards which team wins the house cup. This means goals scored and catching the snitch.

House Cup – the points you earn by posting (5 points per post) will go towards the House Cup.

We will be going back to review the previous two games and will be deducting points accordingly so we can go ahead with this new scoring practice.

Keepers – every third goal MUST go in to give each team ample change at scoring points. No one is perfect, after all. And it will be regardless of who scores. IE: Ravenclaw shoots = Gryffindor saves. Ravenclaw shoots = Gryffindor saves. Gryffindor shoots = Gryffindor scores. It will not matter what order the goals are being made.

Chasers – every third catch will be dropped. No one is perfect and this allows for the other team a chance to pick it up as well. If you caught it when the balls were released, shot, caught it again when the keeper released it back into play then you cannot catch it a third time after that.

Questions? Ask away in the discord because someone else might have the same question!

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Andrew Douglas Timmea Lacroix Deri Ellis Anashka Markovic Boyd Nightingale Beauregard Nott Daven Cursive Levi Hilfiger Dean Stewart Paris Aurinko Artemis H. Hwang Bellamy Saffron Sutton Bane Remington Grebe Rosie Huntington Elizabeth Kingston Sally Byrne Hina Avaiki Tae-il Chae  Annaliese Montego Arianna Stewart  Sebastian Balfour Stella Macaroy  Mercy Patil-Boot Ethan Prince Ainsley Hopkins Everly Prince Alyson Rychester Haydin Voeller Marcia Jaeger Leonard Chant Jacqueline Devlin Benjamin V. Castillo Sarah Hannah Brooks Dominique Weasley Cordelia Lupin Noah Beaton Maxwell McCree Park Soo-Kyung Youngbin Chae

Hello Everyone

Jeepers, creepers friends! We haven't had an announcement in ages!

This is just a small thing, I promise, even if the announcement is a bit longer.

We have noticed a lot of gaps in the jobs lists, especially within the Ministry, and so we want to encourage everyone that when making adult characters or when your student is graduating, to try and look at those areas that have gaps and could employees.

Also, I will be updating the app to include more detail on your character's job. Some people are just writing "shopkeeper" or "family business" and are not specific so we have no idea where to put you on the list or what to put in your title.

This update will be for original jobs - things that are not HP Canon because we need more information on these.

If you want to work in a shop or own a shop, please check out the Job List because there are a lot of canon shops without employees or owners and you could claim one of those instead of creating your own shop when there might already be a canon shop in existence.

Example: There is a canon tattoo shop in Knockturn Alley called Markus Scarrs Indelible Tattoos - I had Hawthorne take over that shop and rename it for his own business instead of creating a new shop.

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Andrew Douglas  Lee Soo-Hyun Timmea Lacroix Adrien McCree Deri Ellis Anashka Markovic Boyd Nightingale Beauregard Nott Daven Cursive Levi Hilfiger Dean Stewart Paris Aurinko Artemis H. Hwang Bellamy Saffron Sutton Bane Remington Grebe Rosie Huntington Elizabeth Kingston Sally Byrne Hina Avaiki Tae-il Chae Annaliese Montego Arianna Stewart Sebastian Balfour Stella Macaroy Mercy Patil-Boot Ethan Prince Ainsley Hopkins Everly Prince Alyson Rychester Haydin Voeller Marcia Jaeger Leonard Chant Jacqueline Devlin Benjamin V. Castillo Sarah Hannah Brooks Dominique Weasley Cordelia Lupin Noah Beaton

This is a reference for our site lore which includes both Canon Brooms already in existence in the Wizarding World, with the exception of the Hogwarts Legacy Brooms, as well as the OC Brooms created by our members.

We have taken into consideration realistic expectations and safety of riders and decided that NO broom will exceed 200 mph.

Coming soon will be a recommended broom speed chart.