Advice for New Starters

Let me start in offering you my warmest welcome if you're a newbie, and a good old-fashioned howdy if you're returning in new or old guises.

Ok, this is a general list of the most common mistakes made by new members here at Potter's World. It's best if you familiarise yourself with it now to save mix ups in the future. These are all really easy to avoid, thus keeping on the good side of our lovely Prefects!

Posts under 20 words
Aside from being bad practise, these are downright painful to respond to. If you're struggling with your word count, try thinking about your character's emotions, about the surroundings, give them something to do and something more to say. It's worthwhile scanning through the posts of others, see if inspiration hits.

OOC Comments
You have an inbox for a reason. If you have to rush off for a moment, think about shooting a PM to your fellow conversationalists rather than sticking a comment at the end of your last post. Any comments beyond "OOC: Going now" are considered very bad form and will see you getting a nasty PM from a Prefect or a Staff member.

Emoticons
During your posts with other characters, emoticons are NOT to be used. These are just annoying and will be removed sooner than you can say 'look at me with my emoticon'. It saves time and energy for all if you just keep them for PMs.

God-Modding
As tempting and easy as it is to make suggestions as to words or actions of the person you're RPing with, this should only ever be done with their express permission. Even if you're sure the other person wouldn't mind - ask first or - easier still - avoid doing anything that could be considered as GM'ing

Psychic Abilities
Unless your character has been told something, they don't know it. That's how simple it is. Even if it's there in the above post, unless it's been written to imply that it's obvious for all to see, it's not IC (in character) knowledge.

Closed Threads
This one works both ways. Firstly - if you see a closed thread (denoted by the description beneath the title) no matter how interesting the folk in it are; it's closed for a reason. Feel free to watch it all you like (although bear in mind - all knowledge you reap that way must remain OOC (out of character), see the above note.)
The reverse of this rule - if you want to RP with one or few specific people, then when making your thread, make sure to mark it in the Topic Description, either that it's closed, or that it's for a certain person or certain people only.

Making friends
Do this. And, alot. But, and this is a relatively big but, keep it realistic. You can pm another player OOC to request an RP (although they don't have to respond), but don't have your student owl a kid they've never met. Think about this vaguely realistically - the way you meet people at a new school is through encounters around the building and grounds. Get out there and play!!!

And a last piece of advice - realism.
Be true to your character, but remember - your character is an eleven year old. They will get a chance to grow and develop. In short - don't try to do everything in the first year.