Opinion Time! (Harry Potter)

[fleckphantasma]

Hello friends!

It's been a long time since I've been on the forums because life took off in a lot of different directions. But lately I've had the desire to get back into the writing game, and start up a new forum that I hope might be an attractive place for people looking for a new (or another) home. I know smaller communities are preferred for a lot of people who are currently looking, and while there are some beautiful sites that are established, they aren't quite my personal cup of tea.

So here is my question...for those who fall into the Harry Potter category, which of the following would be of more interest to you?

1) Next Generation Harry Potter, with plenty of additional spots for you to create your own character as the child of a canon character without the pressure of having to take on a "BIG" canon like James, Sirius etc.

2) Next Generation Harry Potter that is entirely made up of original spots and has no direct links back to Harry or his children.

3) An entirely different magical school, in a different location, new layout for the school, but with the same basic principals as the Harry Potter world in terms of spells, creatures etc.

I consider myself to be an advanced writer who is capable of writing considerable posts, but I'd likely have a mid-sized word count so that it doesn't come to feel like a chore or an obligation to be involved. I have past experience as an administrator, though I will likely need to reacquaint myself with the coding and manner in which Proboards is run because it has been a number of years now. 

Your thoughts and input are incredibly helpful! Thank you!

[HoudiniDerek]

One of the things I liked about the GOBLET OF FIRE was the introduction to other schools. I'm not a fan of Harry Potter at all, but I think a school that has a background, but not so much canon, would be better. I think a focus on the third option would be best.

[wildmaven]

Nov 6, 2021 11:14:51 GMT -8 HoudiniDerek said:

One of the things I liked about the GOBLET OF FIRE was the introduction to other schools. I'm not a fan of Harry Potter at all, but I think a school that has a background, but not so much canon, would be better. I think a focus on the third option would be best.

That's a good point! Trying to stick to canon in Hogwarts can be frustrating. 

For example, a reduction of admissions to magical schools worldwide, due to the fear of retaliation over Valdemort's death, has caused the schools to consolidate the students and teachers into one school. There will be the conflict over "cultures" as well as teachers and students having to find new footing in all new social hierarchies. Could be loads of fun.  

[:~:Sarapha:~:]

From my own (years and years and years and years) of experience, all three have pros and cons that would affect things heavily. The #1 bit of advice that I give is that you always have a long term plan in place. As years go on, people will come and go, so you need to know what to do with Canons and their stories. It's not likely that new people will want to take up a story different than Canon if someone else has already filled in the gaps, so you'll need a plan for that in case of deletion.

#1 --- this one is always the popular choice, which is good and bad. Good, because members go in knowing what to expect and it's a familiar comfort. Bad, because it's very hard to stand out and bring in enough of a draw. Most plotlines have been used to death with these types of forums, so finding a unique plot is always a hardship. Make the plotline too different from the novels path, and you'll end up in Cursed Child territory,and trust me, you don't want that. Make it too similar and you're the same as 600 other HP forums.

#2 --- these are the second most popular, but come with a heavy drawback on familiar faces being omitted. You will still have many people fight tooth and nail to make characters descending from known Canons, and it often becomes exhausting. The story is often a lot harder to navigate, too. If you're going next gen, that's around 30 years or so after the events of the novel, leaving most Canons still living and a big need to explain why they arent existing and why they don't have descendants. One way Ive seen this be circumvented is to have the time frame of the site be an insane amount of time in the future. No way for those Canons to exist, and any descendants would basically be so many generations removed that it's no longer a significance to really anyone but the person making the character. The main drawback to forums like that is that you have a whole world that's however many years in the future and you'll need to fill in the blanks.

#3 --- this one does seem like the easiest solution to the "not tied to Canon" issue, but with the maaaaajor drawback of needing to establish basically a whole new universe from the foundation. People do tend to flock to these sites, especially if it's a continuation of a known Harry Potter school like Beauxbatons, Ilvermorny, Durmstrang, Castlebruxo, etc. The biggest downside is establishing these locations in a way that will be easy to digest for new members, while not being basically watered down Hogwarts. You also don't want to get too heavy handed with the informative guides, because the more pre-registration things people have to read, the more likely they will not read them and cause issues later, or that they simply will nope out and seek another forum.

[harryk]

I'd go for option 3, if only to avoid possible breach of copyright. Also Hogwarts has very limited characters and locations and has been done to death.

Mix in a few ideas from Pratchett's Unseen University or maybe Tom Holt's H.W. Wells offices from the Portable Door series. Then you've got much more scope for expansion.

Good luck.

[:~:Sarapha:~:]

Nov 8, 2021 4:32:28 GMT -8 harryk said:

I'd go for option 3, if only to avoid possible breach of copyright. Also Hogwarts has very limited characters and locations and has been done to death.

Mix in a few ideas from Pratchett's Unseen University or maybe Tom Holt's H.W. Wells offices from the Portable Door series. Then you've got much more scope for expansion.

Good luck.

Unless there's a monetary gain for the administrator of the forum, copyright issues won't arise. These typically happen if someone is charging members or otherwise selling something with the claim that the goods or services are their own. #3 actually might have that implication, even without monetary gain, if everything about the site is claiming to not be Harry Potter related, but also including things from the Harry Potter universe like spells and creatures, as depicted in the description.