Forum Newsletter February-March 2009

Welcome everyone to the February-March 2009 new-style Hogwarts Experience newsletter!

Here you’ll find updates about the site goings-on, new features, member and other site news and more.

Welcome to All Our New Members!

A massive welcome to all the new members we’ve had over the last month and we hope that you’re enjoying yourself so far! If you haven’t done so already, remember to check out all the threads in the Entrance Hall to familiarise yourself with the site rules and FAQ.

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Site News

Hogwarts Experience Turns Three!
On the 21st February, HE turned three years old. Yep, that’s right, we’ve been going three years and counting! We celebrated the milestone with a special forum for birthday games, challenges and other fun activities.

Due to staff computer problems we’ve been unable to hold the traditional chat room party, but that’s up and coming this weekend. Check the portal for more information on where and when.

End of Term
The 21st February also saw the end of our sixth term and the start of our seventh. Ravenclaw celebrated a double win with both the house cup and Quidditch cup now taking pride of place in their trophy cabinet.

The top housepoint earners in each house were presented with a special award; well done to everyone that includes.

Term Six Events
The Big Event of term six was the HE Olympics, with tons of challenges, games and events. Well done to everyone who participated in this, particularly to Raistlin the Wizard, Rigby Dumbledore and Violetriddle who came first, second and third overall.

We had several smaller events going on during the term, including a birthday party forum for Elfie's Little Elf, Christmas challenges and games and of course HE’s anniversary events.

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Site Updates

The site has undergone several changes in the past couple of months.

Firstly the aesthetic changes: we’ve re-organised several of the forums and sub forums, simply to make the homepage look a little neater, as well as changing the forum skin.

The New and Improved Badge Burrow has been opened, and is more organised and easier to navigate.

We’ve joined the world of Twitter, so if you’re eager to know just what the site gets up to when no one’s looking, check our page here. Don’t forget we’re also on MySpace.

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Staff Updates

There have been a number of staff changes over the past couple of months.

RhiannonMei steps down from Second Head of Gryffindor, with running_swift taking her place.

Elana steps up for the Ravenclaw's Co-Joint Second Head.

Severus Snape steps down as Slytherin's Second Head and drkangelcat and SlytherinPride7 step up as Slytherin's Co-Joint Second Heads.

RhiannonMei steps down from being Charms Professor and Elana takes her place.

KatieBellaTrix steps down from being Muggle Studies Professor and running_swift takes her place.

SlytherinPride7 is now the Arithmancy Professor.

Thank you to all our staff, old and new!

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Member News

Our Head Girls for term seven are Jennifer Williams and Stephy, of Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw. Well done!

We also announced the Students of the Year for each house, so well done to:

Hppamela of Gryffindor
Pickles of Hufflepuff
Violetriddle of Slytherin
Stephy of Ravenclaw

Elana of Ravenclaw was presented with a Special Services award, for being only the second member to reach 100 award points and receive 1000 housepoints. Well done!

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Term Seven – Tournament Season!

Term seven brings the highest number of concurrent tournaments to date, there’s a massive fourteen tournaments to choose from! Whether you’re a graphic artist, a writer, a duellist or simply have a competitive edge, there’ll be something to participate in. And perhaps there are even a few souls brave enough to take on all fourteen!

Click the links below to be taken to the sign-up and information threads for each tournament.

MUSIC BOOTCAMP | HE QUIDDITCH WORLD CUP | DUELLING TOURNAMENT | DEBATE TOURNAMENT | GRAPHICS TOURNAMENT | PHOTOGRAPHY TOURNAMENT | ART TOURNAMENT | LAST ICON MAKER STANDING | DRABBLE TOURNAMENT | BOWLING TOURNAMENT | GAMES TOURNAMENT | HE DJ | HE MOVIE DIRECTOR | HE TV SHOW DIRECTOR | DAILY FUNTRIVIA

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In Other News…

Our belated Birthday Celebrations are coinciding with the return of Elfie’s Big Quiz.

The party and quiz will be taking place this coming weekend, in our java chat room. The chat room link can be found in the Floo Network, or check this thread for information on how to connect using an IRC program.



During the quiz Raistlin will be hosting our third birthday celebrations, with fun games and chat.

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All the Usual…

Alongside all the special events and tournaments taking place this term, we also have the regular day-to-day happenings of the site.

There are the usual classes and challenges, RPG threads and games, chat and quizzes, polls and much more.

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Recruitment

Etta and the HE Pensieve team are looking for writers! Check this thread in the notice board if you wish to be a part of the team.

We’re also looking for new professors for Ancient Runes and Transfiguration. If you think you’re up to the job, check the application threads in the Ministry of Magic forum.

As always, we’re happy to have members help out with various parts of the site. If there’s something you think you can do to help, or if you have any suggestions, check this thread.

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The Final Word…

With so many changes lately at HE it can be hard to keep up, so we hope that by the end of this newsletter you’ve got your head around the most important ones.

For the first time, this newsletter is also going to be posted in the Notice Board on the site, and it’d be great to have your feedback on it. Do you like the new style? Do you read the newsletters each time one lands in your inbox? What can we add or remove to them?

As always, the staff wish you the very best in the coming months and hope that you’ll keep visiting the site and participating like you have for the last three years. It’d be great to see some old faces amongst the new, even if it’s just for a short while to say hello.

Have a good month!

Raistlin the Wizard – Headmaster
Rigby Dumbledore – Deputy Head
Elfie Dumbledore – Retired Headmistress
Amy (formerly Duck the Duck) – Retired Deputy Head