1) Thread necromancy: if a thread is in fact older than dirt, is it appropriate to start a clone of the original thread? I mean, there are a few threads I just bothered to notice now and I wanted to comment on them. Problem is, almost all of them are over four months silent.

2) Character stagnation: if it feels as if you can no longer progress with a character, it is adviseable to kill them off, have them go on sabbatical, "go underground" with classes...? I know a similar topic is already on the forums somewhere, but I have had this issue with characters both here and on other roleplaying servers. I am trying not to have a whole army of characters running around, but some days it feels as if there is literally no reason for my singular character to be around.

3) Roleplay threads: how much of what occurs in the roleplay threads can be directly imported to the in-game, in-character interactions? I have had mixed responses about this previously, given the nature of some of the roleplay I have done for my character's history. A few of the "events" in my character's past (as well as his interactions with others) would have direct and indirect effects on some of his studies.

4) Care packages for new characters (whether the player is new or not). This one has also had some mixed commentary - both from players and from DMs. Now I have done a few of these, and within a day or two created a roleplay topic post (or two, or four depending on the characters involved) explaining what happened behind the scenes. As well, my character has in-game and in-character done rather large drops on new characters/students because "your House is lax in properly attending to your needs." (free free to invoke visions of Worf from "Star Trek: The Next Generation" or Darth Vader from "Star Wars: A New Hope" for the voiceover.) Is it that huge of an issue if there is some sort of character development (on the forums or in the game) involved?


That is all I can remember for my questions for now.

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One character thus far:
Ares Richard Keeferson, Hufflepuff Hardcase
Redefining "user-unfriendly" since 1976.

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(◕‿◕✿)

1. If you have something pertinent or interesting to add to an old thread, post it. I'd rather read something interesting than the snitty "thread necromancer!!!!OMG11!11!!!" comment that might follow.
2. If your character needs a time out, take one. He could just be studying. There are, according to one Qudditch scene somewhere between 800-1000 students at Hogwarts. Fade to black for a while and just be one of them.
3. If you have RP that is part and parcel of your character, write em up. Pass em on to the DMs to be approved and then ask them how you can/should proceed....IF they are major. If it is just old family strife that made your character who/what he/she is, then just RP it. Basically, it only needs to be approved if it makes your character "special."
4. Care packages are generally fine...so long as it is from one PC to another and minor. If your in game pal makes a new toon and you give em two rings, a sequencer cloak, 6th year robes, and 30 spell scrolls? Yeah. get ready to get your wand bent...in a bad way. Don't mule things from one character to another. Just keep it at small gifts that might help a bit. Generally, if you even have to ask yourself "should I do this?" the answer is likely "nope."

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You go your way
I'll go your way too

4. It might also be nice if you phrased it as something *other* than telling the new character (especially if it's a new player) that their House is being "lax" in not doing their homework for them....
That may create prejudice against their own house and there's already a lot of that in game. (Which I'm bad for with a couple of my characters.... but I have ic'ly proven reaon for those.)

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Bread crusts are directly responsible for all forms of evil. - Elan the bard

To Sagira:

In the situations where Keeferson has said that, he has been completely in-character in making such a statement, given the amount of assistance he received in his first year. However, it was mainly to characters played by previously experienced individuals from the server. Was there a bias involved? Of course there was: Keeferson's a bitter old man at the age of fifteen. (Yes, it does happen.) As for predujices against their own House, that I have not seen develop from any of Keeferson's statements - for better or for worse.


To Graymeiste:

The problem with my character development is that there's quite a lot that has to be ratified with the DMs. Am I faulting the DMs for this? No. There's just no automatic systems in place for the things I am working on. (Please, everyone, remember the DMs -are- human and -do- need time to work on things that are not game-related or specifically related to individual characters. I'm not flagging the DMs for that.)

As you've seen in-game and in-character, Keeferson's been working on a few "side projects" which all have to be seen through by the DMs. Inside of the module, all of these projects have now taken five years. It's one of the main reasons I just didn't bother to "power-level" him to Seventh Year. Sure, it's the easiest route and then I could just hunt down everything that's already in the module and be done with it. That wasn't what I wanted for my character. I wanted something different... and this is the price I've had to pay for it. Nobody's fault but my own, really.

The problem is now that a lot of the time I start wondering if it's even worth it. I have talked with various players and a few of the DMs, and they've reminded me of a few other aspects to the character that I don't normally consider. So it's mainly been a matter of "do I stay this course and will it actually take me somewhere" that's been bothering me.

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One character thus far:
Ares Richard Keeferson, Hufflepuff Hardcase
Redefining "user-unfriendly" since 1976.

Welcome to the eternal 7th year

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You go your way
I'll go your way too

1- I personally couldn't care less about thread necromancy -unless- the topic is so out of date that bringing it back up confuses people because of the old information no longer applies. Usually this isn't the case.

2- I am not much of a fan of tens of characters, but I usually am a strong supporter of at least one alt, maybe two. These second characters can give you a needed break from the first, much like the concept of "comic relief" within literature. It doesn't need to be comic, but the concept is the same. In addition, it allows one to RP something while the main character is in a rut for some reason or another. You do -not- need to RP they are away from the school, or even gone, just RP they are around somewhere in the background like Zane suggests. If they are needed for something specific you can even log them in for a bit then go back to your alt. Just a suggestion, I've found this works well for me.

3- Forums RP is just as valid as IG RP. The game is not the RP, the game is the "playing board" for the RP, it's the medium of communication. Using an alternate medium of communication is still valid, so long as it does not violate the rules of RP itself. For example, RPing on IM clients needs to be done cautiously, because it's OOC that no one else can possibly interact, and simply because of that, metagaming is extremely easy. Similarly, forums RP is nearly the same as RPing in shouts, where nothing can be done in "whisper mode" (unless it's PM's, which has the same drawbacks as IMs). It doesn't mean that it's invalid, it just requires caution because the rule set isn't in place automatically like it is IG.

4- I must admit I don't -completely- understand what you mean here, but I think I agree with what Sagira said. I would be very cautious planting things like "your house is lax" or "the professors don't care" or stuff like that into early stages of RP on a character, because while it's true, it's OOC. It's up to the players to RP that the profs are around more than we are physically able to do possessions. -If- I'm understanding that. Otherwise ignore me.

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-Calan

Liss Crest, Slytherin
Kalara Crest, Hufflepuff
Elizabeth Finley, The Moon

I see a lot of people have responded already. But I like the sound of my own voice.

1. I personally dislike Thread Necromancy -very- much. It's a strong pet peeve of mine. The rule of thumb (IMO): If you have something new to add, that is relevant and might interest someone, go ahead and cast Animate Dead. If not, let dead threads lie.



This is good advice.


2. I think the most important thing to state is this, so I'll say it first: This is a player's choice and prerogative. With that said, I think that too many characters may be a strain on both yourself and others. Juggling characters means you need to make priorities. We're a weave of personalities here, both OOC and IC. If you have a lot of characters, you'll have characters that don't get much play time. If other players rely on that character, they'll suffer a bit as a result. I'm not saying you're obligated; this is a voluntary thing, after all. But it's worth keeping in mind.

Also, I personally feel that making a new character that you're intent on playing for a while and "seriously" is probably more valid than creating a character (or five) that you play for laughs once and never touch again. Of course, with all that off my chest, I'm no saint. I have five characters in the vault. Two were played once (with little to no interaction) and promptly forgotten about. One I played mostly to get over a difficult period with Mary, and one I use for getting a break for that bubbly Ravenclaw.

Specific to your case, I see no problem with you making an alt. It could probably help you get some fresh impulses, and I recommend that. You're not even close to "army of characters" at all.


3. As far as I can see it; if it's something your character would know IG, it's perfectly valid to use on the server. It's happening in the world, after all, even if it's posted on the forums. Also, anything that would probably need GM permission, should probably be cleared with the team beforehand.


4. As long as the RP is solid around it, I don't see a big problem with helping out younger students. I'll willingly admit that Mary has seen more than her fair share of riding older students' coat tails. But I've never asked for OOC assistance, ever. However, if there's not a good IC reason for the assistance, it's plain muling, which I believe is strictly forbidden here, as well as on most RP servers. Not that I'm accusing you of that, I'm sure you've got solid RP to back it up.


*glances up at the post*

Geez. TL;DR much. Also:



So, if you die in the Forum, you die on the server?

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Mary Maywell, Ravenclaw, Resident Ray of Sunshine
Also, some other dudes I barely play.

Now I finally remember what my next question was...

How do I post a link to a specific post within a thread? As in, how would I get the listing for just that one post so that way if someone clicked on the link (within a post) it would go to that post first? I forgot how to get a link to just one post within a thread if it is "lost" somewhere in the middle.

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One character thus far:
Ares Richard Keeferson, Hufflepuff Hardcase
Redefining "user-unfriendly" since 1976.

Probably easiest just to use a quote? There probably -is- a way to do a link as well, but I think if you just used the quote button and copied the resulting code into your other thread, that might work.

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"They called me mad, and I called them mad, and damn them, they outvoted me" -Nathaniel Lee

Shifty are the eyes of the gambler...

The problem with that is trying to copy and paste the entire previous post. I would rather have a link to the entire post (as it is in reference to the whole encounter), rather than duplicate a 500+ work writeup about how a character looked up a few books and knocked off the caked on dust. There's got to be a way that I am just not recalling yet...

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One character thus far:
Ares Richard Keeferson, Hufflepuff Hardcase
Redefining "user-unfriendly" since 1976.

Testing.....lets see if this works. It -should- link to your previous post, Keef.

Keefies Post

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"They called me mad, and I called them mad, and damn them, they outvoted me" -Nathaniel Lee

Shifty are the eyes of the gambler...

Alright, I'll paste the code for what I did below and explain how to get it, since it seemed to work:

[url=http://forums.wohp.net/viewtopic.php?p=32923#p32923]Keefies Post[/url]

After "[url=" you need to paste your destination url. To get the one for the post you want, Keef, go to the post. Just above it, to the right, should be a tiny little yellow icon that looks like a page. Its just before the "Posted:" and the date and time. Click on that, then copy the url from your address bar. Thats the url for -that- post.

Paste that url after "[url=" in place of what I have in there. And write whatever you want the link to say in place of "Keefies Post." You should have it done then. Let me know if you need more help.

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"They called me mad, and I called them mad, and damn them, they outvoted me" -Nathaniel Lee

Shifty are the eyes of the gambler...

Actually, Feargus, I found what I was looking for. So to detail for others, I'll write it in here.

1) Find the post that you wanted to link to. It does not matter if it is yours or someone else's. Yes, this works even for DM posts as it is a generic process.

2) Open up a new window in your browser. If you are unable to, just remember the first few sentences of the post itself in terms of content.

3) Find the =name= of the original poster. (That should be easy enough, as the names are always on the side of the post itself. However, this method will not work if the poster is listed as "Guest" in gray.)

4) At this point, go back to the main index for that thread, and click the person's name. Normally you will see the following in bold text: "Board index » (Board Division) » (Thread Division)". In the left hand side, just underneath you will see the name of the thread you are in. This will also be in bold. (exampli gratias: Board index » Server » Roleplay :: OOC - Kudos)

5) Find the name of the forum poster you wanted to reference the post of, and press the button.

6) In that person's profile, click on "Search user’s posts." In that section, find the post you want to link to and click on it. Make sure you click on the link that follows "Post subject:" That will give you the actual post itself, rather than the entire thread. (Yes, I know this seems like an exhausting process, but it takes less time to do this than it does to write about it.)

7) At this point, you will now have the actual URL for the post you specifically wish to reference. Copy that link from your browser address bar. Paste that link into the post you wanted to create a reference to. From there, do exactly as Feargus in the above post in order to create the link.

Voilà! Your link to the specific post is now complete.

(It's mainly for those like myself who the easier stuff never seems to work for, for some really stupid reason. I'm going to try your method again though, to see if I can get it to work.)

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One character thus far:
Ares Richard Keeferson, Hufflepuff Hardcase
Redefining "user-unfriendly" since 1976.

>.> Feargus's method is easier... just sayin'. And I just noticed your last sentence... *coughs.* Sorry. If you need a little more explaining n what he was tryin' to tell you I can try...

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"The Hufflepuffs are the ones that wind up making all the small differences that keep the world running while the Ravenclaws are too busy thinking about it, the Slytherins are too busy rushing it and screwing it up, and the Gryffindors are off getting themselves killed." -SleepingSun7

"Friends don't let friends RP OOCly distracted."