As the dates for our site-shut down draw near, it seems that once again little start-up boards are cropping up out on the internet to try to "fill the gap". This seems to always occur when we announce a site-shut down, and I wanted to be perfectly clear about where PW, it's staff, and those who pay our bills stand on this.
PottersWorld is NOT a stand-alone board!
Some of you are probably aware of this; others may not be. PottersWorld is a spin-off board from HPFF (harrypotterfanfiction.com). We operate here on the Invision Power Board platform, a professional version of the Invisionfree boards. What does this mean? It means that PW costs money to operate. That's right... despite the fact that you registered and play here without paying a fee, this site costs money -- not an insignificant amount -- to run. That money is paid for by HPFF and Jay, the site owner of HPFF and PW.
What does this mean?
This means that on some things, PW must follow the rules set out by HPFF. Jay gives me a lot of freedom to do with this board what I may, but there are some things that go to his philosophy of how he wishes his sites run. That has to do with CONTENT. Jay and indeed, JK Rowling herself, do not wish sites associated with their names to fall below a certain "standard". This can include things like sexual content, profanity, sensitive topics/issues/themes.
Now.... the ONLY thing we can truly control is what goes on within our boards. We cannot control what happens on other boards, and nor would we wish to. We know there are other boards out there trying to lure our members away with promises of lax content rules, no oversight or moderation, and complete "freedom". Because we cannot control what goes on with those boards, we have a hard-fast rule here:
We CANNOT allow -- WITHIN THE CONFINES OF OUR BOARD -- advertising to take place promoting those other boards! Since we cannot control what goes on within those other boards, we can't guarantee their quality or content. This is a rule at HPFF as well as at PW, one that is set in stone.
The staff has recently become aware of at least one instance of someone using our PM system to send messages to people advertising their off-site board. This is FORBIDDEN, and will result in immediate suspension of accounts. At HPFF, it results in immediate banning, and I may have to take that step should this type of behavior continue.
So if you wish to spread the word to your friends of your offline boards, use your private email accounts, use your instant messaging systems --- but do NOT use our board's systems (the PM/Owl system) to spread your information. The consequences for this are severe.
If ANYONE has any questions about this, please PM one of the Governors.
P.S.
I just wanted to make sure everyone was clear -- we are NOT forbidding you from going off and having fun at other boards! Far from it -- I myself have a place or two I visit besides PottersWorld! You are quite free to go have fun at other boards as much as you desire and there will be no repercussions here.
You just can't use our PM message system or our email system to let others know of other boards, that's all.
