I can't help it, i'm getting antsy for something new on Pottermore already. I've gone through all the chapters, collected everything, bought almost everything in Diagon Alley, and melted enough cauldrons for a lifetime! I am SO anxious for the second book to come out! I know i'm being extremely impatient because Pottermore isn't even fully open yet, but I'm just that way! I think my feelings are coming from ruining too many potions. I'm getting a but fed up with it, so i'm going to stop for a while.
To take my mind off it, i've been ordering a lot of books. I always thought of myself as a big reader, but then I realized that reading every book in The Clique series does not count as being a reader. There are SO MANY books I haven't even heard of and can't imagine reading right now! I feel awful. How could I have missed out all these years? As you may or may not know, I ordered three of John Green's books and pre-ordered his new one. Well, they came today and I'm SO excited! They are Looking for Alaska, An Abundance of Katherines, and Paper Towns. I started reading Looking for Alaska and couldn't put it down! Until I realized I should probably finish my book for school first. So sadly, I put it down.
I also just pre-ordered Moureen Johnson's new book "The Name of the Star" today. I read the preview she tweeted and was instantly hooked! Along with that, I plan on purchasing the Hunger Games series before I leave for college, because I've heard nothing but great things about it, and I want to read it before the movie comes out. The official trailer was just released! It doesn't really give away anything about the movie though. Anyways, all of this book talk and reading lately has really gotten me interested in writing and becoming an author. I am signed up for NaNoWriMo and I'm so excited! If you don't know what that is, it's National Novel Writing Month. It's held every year in November and you're supposed to write a novel of 50,000 words within the month. I can't wait!
Well, sorry if I bored you with my book talk. There wasn't much Pottermore talk today... oh well.
-Danielle
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
House Points on Pottermore
Since I've spent almost the entire day on Pottermore trying to earn house points, that's what today's blog post is going to be about! I've had an interesting experience today, and I want to talk about it! I want to cover a few things: how to earn them, how to lose them, and how to cheat the system and earn house points quick!
Let's start with how to earn them. When you initially first start playing the game, before you get to the potions and duelling, you can earn house points by collecting things. As you go through the chapters, there are things hidden on the pages such as chocolate frog cards, miscellaneous items, books, and potions ingredients. If you find everything, this gets you to around 20 points (which isn't much considering the top point total right now is over 6,400!). Once you finish going through the chapters, you can start to brew potions and play wizard duelling. However, wizard duelling is still down at the moment, so unfortunately you cannot earn house points this way.
The other and probably most popular way to earn house points right now is brewing potions. It's easy enough, and gives you 5 points per successful potion (at least from all the potions I've brewed). The two major downsides to potions is that it takes an extremely long amount of time to brew a single potion for only 5 measly house points, and if you do one step wrong, you have to start completely over, even after waiting 80 minutes! Potions forces you to careful and patient and take your time. It is very tedious work, as I expect it would be in real life.
This leads me to my next topic: cheating the system to get points. I must admit, I feel kind of guilty for figuring this out and using it for a while, but let me tell you, it's not worth it, and it's not as bad as you might think! Let me tell you how I came across it. One time when I was brewing a potion, I put all the ingredients in, waved my wand, and let it brew. Then there is the second page of instructions you have to do to complete the potion. During these steps, I ran out of time, so it told me I failed but awarded me one house point for trying. This gave me an idea: what if I purposefully fail a bunch of potions and get a bunch of house points in a row! I thought it was genius!
So I did that for a while. I kept starting a potion and just leaving it to let the time run out. I did that for about 10 points, and then when I tried to do it again, I saw I couldn't keep brewing because I was out of ingredients! This confused me, because wasn't using any ingredients. But I had none left. So apparently, it take potions ingredients away no matter if you actually use them or not?! Well, I guess so, and that's why I strongly suggest NOT to do what I have been doing, because it's just not worth it. You'll waste all your money buying potions ingredients! If you're going to spend it, why not actually brew the potions and have them appear on your "brewed potions" page so you actually have something to show for it!
Well, that's my two cents on getting house points. I know it's tedious, but it's worth it to brew potions correctly! Tell me if i'm not the only one who tried that, or are there any other ways people are cheating? Let me know in the comments below! :)
-Danielle
This leads me to my next topic: cheating the system to get points. I must admit, I feel kind of guilty for figuring this out and using it for a while, but let me tell you, it's not worth it, and it's not as bad as you might think! Let me tell you how I came across it. One time when I was brewing a potion, I put all the ingredients in, waved my wand, and let it brew. Then there is the second page of instructions you have to do to complete the potion. During these steps, I ran out of time, so it told me I failed but awarded me one house point for trying. This gave me an idea: what if I purposefully fail a bunch of potions and get a bunch of house points in a row! I thought it was genius!
So I did that for a while. I kept starting a potion and just leaving it to let the time run out. I did that for about 10 points, and then when I tried to do it again, I saw I couldn't keep brewing because I was out of ingredients! This confused me, because wasn't using any ingredients. But I had none left. So apparently, it take potions ingredients away no matter if you actually use them or not?! Well, I guess so, and that's why I strongly suggest NOT to do what I have been doing, because it's just not worth it. You'll waste all your money buying potions ingredients! If you're going to spend it, why not actually brew the potions and have them appear on your "brewed potions" page so you actually have something to show for it!
Well, that's my two cents on getting house points. I know it's tedious, but it's worth it to brew potions correctly! Tell me if i'm not the only one who tried that, or are there any other ways people are cheating? Let me know in the comments below! :)
-Danielle
Monday, August 29, 2011
I'm a Good Finder!
Today on Pottermore I spent most of my time going back through all the chapters to find stuff. I had only found 6 of the 11 chocolate frog cards on my first time through the chapters, and I wanted to collect them all. So I started going backwards through the chapters to look for them. After going back to about chapter 8 or 7 I stopped, because the chocolate frog cards only started at chapter 6 I believe. At the end of my search, I had found 3 more chocolate frog cards, bringing my total to 9 out of 11 cards! Along with those cards, I found four more galleons, two books, and a few potions ingredients! Although I did not find ALL of the chocolate frog cards, I still say this was successful, and I am very pleased with myself.
[UPDATE: 5:09PM: I just found the last 2 chocolate frog cards I was missing! I now have ALL 11 cards!!! :D]
This is what brings me to the title of this blog post. I'm a good finder!!! I am a total Hufflepuff! I am still completely baffled as to how I got Slytherin. I'm a bit over it now, but i'm reminded of it every time I log onto Pottermore and see the green everywhere. I am so excited and can't wait until my second account opens! I have secured one that was registered on day 7, so I might have to wait a while for that one, or my sister might have one that was registered on day 1 and it already activated. I really hope she contacts me back soon to let me know if it's open or not! :) I feel like i'm waiting for Pottermore all over again. I mean, technically I am, but at least this time I can log on and do stuff while I wait! Haha.
I'm really nervous because I don't want to mess up sorting again! I just don't want Slytherin! I would actually be completely happy with ANY other house than Slytherin! Ok, enough of that. I need to stop ranting! Sorry! :) In other news, I just ordered 3 of John Green's books and pre-ordered his newest one! I've been a fan of the Vlog Brothers for a while now, but I never read any of John's books, so I figured now was as good a time as any! :) I'm so excited! I just got a confirmation email that they've shipped so they should be here soon! :) Well, that's all for today.
-Danielle
[UPDATE: 5:09PM: I just found the last 2 chocolate frog cards I was missing! I now have ALL 11 cards!!! :D]
This is what brings me to the title of this blog post. I'm a good finder!!! I am a total Hufflepuff! I am still completely baffled as to how I got Slytherin. I'm a bit over it now, but i'm reminded of it every time I log onto Pottermore and see the green everywhere. I am so excited and can't wait until my second account opens! I have secured one that was registered on day 7, so I might have to wait a while for that one, or my sister might have one that was registered on day 1 and it already activated. I really hope she contacts me back soon to let me know if it's open or not! :) I feel like i'm waiting for Pottermore all over again. I mean, technically I am, but at least this time I can log on and do stuff while I wait! Haha.
I'm really nervous because I don't want to mess up sorting again! I just don't want Slytherin! I would actually be completely happy with ANY other house than Slytherin! Ok, enough of that. I need to stop ranting! Sorry! :) In other news, I just ordered 3 of John Green's books and pre-ordered his newest one! I've been a fan of the Vlog Brothers for a while now, but I never read any of John's books, so I figured now was as good a time as any! :) I'm so excited! I just got a confirmation email that they've shipped so they should be here soon! :) Well, that's all for today.
-Danielle
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Potions on Pottermore
My time today on Pottermore consisted solely on trying to master potions. I tried once this morning, but I got caught up doing stuff to get ready for college (I leave in two weeks) so I am only now getting a change to go back on and try again. I am writing this while waiting for a cure for boils potion to brew. I have successfully completed the first page on instructions, and now I must wait 80 minutes for it to brew. I am now sort of liking the difficulty of potions for two reasons. Number one, I imagine potions in real life is extremely difficult! And number two, I am a competitive person, so every time I fail it leaves me wanting to come back and try until I get it right!
On my first attempt, I set the heat too high and melted my cauldron. I was docked 5 house points and had to buy a new cauldron :'( The second time I completed the first steps, but when I clicked on the "come back later" link I could never get back to my potion. I asked on twitter, and people said it was a glitch. So now on my third try, I am leaving the page up and watching it closely. Just from the time I started writing to this point it has gone up to 8% complete. In order to attempt to quicken the pace, I purchased a copper cauldron, the most expensive one, from Diagon Alley. In potions where you get to select a cauldron, it says "fast" under it. This pleased me greatly. Much to my dismay, it still said 80 minutes, no difference from my pewter cauldron.
Now for some student numbers and points updates. There are currently 99,451 students on Pottermore in total. This will easily be over 100,000 by the next hour or so, at the rate it is going! 24,652 of them are Gryffindor, 25,589 of them are Ravencalw, 24,745 of them are Hufflepuff, and 24,516 are Slytherin. Numbers are still pretty much the same. As for house points, Ravenclaw is still in the lead with 10,649 points, followed by Slytherin with 10,328 points, Gryffindor 9,997 with points, and Hufflepuff in last with 9,367 points. Needless to say, these standings haven't changed either.
I must say, that even after a day, things are looking up for me on Pottermore! :) I am slowly beginning to enjoy potions, and I have secured a second account registered on day 7 that I will be able to use to re-sort. Since my Pottermore twitter and blog is revolved around my current account (GoldNight154) I will be keeping it for social interaction between Pottermore users that I know on twitter. Message or @reply me your username and I will gladly add you! :) Please don't post negative comments on my decision. I'm sure a lot of others would do the same thing. I also realize that it is in a sense "sacrilegious" because J.K. Rowling's word is supposed to be law, but I honestly believe a mistake was made. Well, that's about it! Let me know how YOU'RE doing on Pottermore if you're on, and what you're most looking forward to if you're still waiting! :)
-Danielle
On my first attempt, I set the heat too high and melted my cauldron. I was docked 5 house points and had to buy a new cauldron :'( The second time I completed the first steps, but when I clicked on the "come back later" link I could never get back to my potion. I asked on twitter, and people said it was a glitch. So now on my third try, I am leaving the page up and watching it closely. Just from the time I started writing to this point it has gone up to 8% complete. In order to attempt to quicken the pace, I purchased a copper cauldron, the most expensive one, from Diagon Alley. In potions where you get to select a cauldron, it says "fast" under it. This pleased me greatly. Much to my dismay, it still said 80 minutes, no difference from my pewter cauldron.
Now for some student numbers and points updates. There are currently 99,451 students on Pottermore in total. This will easily be over 100,000 by the next hour or so, at the rate it is going! 24,652 of them are Gryffindor, 25,589 of them are Ravencalw, 24,745 of them are Hufflepuff, and 24,516 are Slytherin. Numbers are still pretty much the same. As for house points, Ravenclaw is still in the lead with 10,649 points, followed by Slytherin with 10,328 points, Gryffindor 9,997 with points, and Hufflepuff in last with 9,367 points. Needless to say, these standings haven't changed either.
I must say, that even after a day, things are looking up for me on Pottermore! :) I am slowly beginning to enjoy potions, and I have secured a second account registered on day 7 that I will be able to use to re-sort. Since my Pottermore twitter and blog is revolved around my current account (GoldNight154) I will be keeping it for social interaction between Pottermore users that I know on twitter. Message or @reply me your username and I will gladly add you! :) Please don't post negative comments on my decision. I'm sure a lot of others would do the same thing. I also realize that it is in a sense "sacrilegious" because J.K. Rowling's word is supposed to be law, but I honestly believe a mistake was made. Well, that's about it! Let me know how YOU'RE doing on Pottermore if you're on, and what you're most looking forward to if you're still waiting! :)
-Danielle
Another Day on Pottermore
After a full day on Pottermore, I can honestly say that it's kind of a let-down. Don't get me wrong - Pottermore is AMAZING! I don't want to discourage people that still have not received their emails, because it is SO worth it!!! But once you finish going through the first book, there isn't much else to do. I mean, you can brew potions and wizard duel to earn house points, but I always ruin my potions and burn my cauldrons, and duelling is still down! You don't get any more money until you start the next book, so once you spend it all, you can't get anymore, and there are only a few places throughout the chapters where some coins are hidden, but it's not much! And there's only so much you can find and read throughout the chapters, so even if you go back through them, you'll finish everything and get bored of it eventually.
I don't mean to sound harsh or ungrateful, but that is just how I feel. I barely logged on at all today, because firstly I didn't have time, but secondly, I got discouraged when I lost 5 house points for failing a potion, and turned it off! I'm a sore loser! ;) I just hope that the second book comes soon! I know it won't be till a while after October, but I heard a rumor that J.K. Rowling has already finished it, and it is coming out in January. Either way, I am excited!!! I love that they are releasing each one at different times, because it not only gives us more to look forward to, but it also makes it that much better when we finally get it! It also prevents people (like me) from rushing through all 7 books in one day! If all of them were available, I would be finished by now! Haha. :)
Now for some Pottermore stats and info for those of you still waiting! :) There are currently 95,132 students in total on Pottermore. 23,600 of them are Gryffindor, 24,573 are Ravenclaw, 23,645 are Hufflepuff, and 23,314 are Slytherin. As you can see, Ravenclaw is still the biggest house with a little over 1,00 more than all the other houses, and Slytherin is still the smallest house. As for house points, Ravenclaw is in the lead with 9,809 points, followed by Slytherin in second place with 9,506 points, then Gryffindor with 9,180 points, and Hufflepuff in last (as always) with 8,473 points. This does not surprise me, because it is basically what the standings have been like since Pottermore opened.
On another note, my Dear Mr. Potter book came yesterday, and it's absolutely amazing! Every letter is so well written and touching! And I absolutely LOVE that they got famous fandom people like Melissa Anelli, John Green, and Evanna Lynch to send in their stories! Well, that's basically it for tonight. PLEASE don't take what I said wrong, because I still LOVE Pottermore and it is still AMAZING! It just has some lulls once you finish everything. I'm sure it will be MUCH better when it opens to the public, because wizard duelling will be fixed, and maybe potions will be easier too! Goodnight! :)
-Danielle
I don't mean to sound harsh or ungrateful, but that is just how I feel. I barely logged on at all today, because firstly I didn't have time, but secondly, I got discouraged when I lost 5 house points for failing a potion, and turned it off! I'm a sore loser! ;) I just hope that the second book comes soon! I know it won't be till a while after October, but I heard a rumor that J.K. Rowling has already finished it, and it is coming out in January. Either way, I am excited!!! I love that they are releasing each one at different times, because it not only gives us more to look forward to, but it also makes it that much better when we finally get it! It also prevents people (like me) from rushing through all 7 books in one day! If all of them were available, I would be finished by now! Haha. :)
Now for some Pottermore stats and info for those of you still waiting! :) There are currently 95,132 students in total on Pottermore. 23,600 of them are Gryffindor, 24,573 are Ravenclaw, 23,645 are Hufflepuff, and 23,314 are Slytherin. As you can see, Ravenclaw is still the biggest house with a little over 1,00 more than all the other houses, and Slytherin is still the smallest house. As for house points, Ravenclaw is in the lead with 9,809 points, followed by Slytherin in second place with 9,506 points, then Gryffindor with 9,180 points, and Hufflepuff in last (as always) with 8,473 points. This does not surprise me, because it is basically what the standings have been like since Pottermore opened.
On another note, my Dear Mr. Potter book came yesterday, and it's absolutely amazing! Every letter is so well written and touching! And I absolutely LOVE that they got famous fandom people like Melissa Anelli, John Green, and Evanna Lynch to send in their stories! Well, that's basically it for tonight. PLEASE don't take what I said wrong, because I still LOVE Pottermore and it is still AMAZING! It just has some lulls once you finish everything. I'm sure it will be MUCH better when it opens to the public, because wizard duelling will be fixed, and maybe potions will be easier too! Goodnight! :)
-Danielle
Friday, August 26, 2011
My Email Arrives! :D
The day is finally here! I'M ON POTTERMORE!!!!!!! It's actually a very funny story. So I was gone basically all day and didn't have a way to check my email. I got the Pottermore tweets on my phone though, so I knew what was happening. A few hours after the wave of emails came out, I had a chance to check my email. I did not have a Pottermore welcome email, but I DID have a Pottermore friend request email!!! I was so confused but excited, because that MUST mean that I am in the site! So sure enough, when I log onto Pottermore, I AM IN!!! I was SO happy and excited! But I couldn't start right then. I had to wait until I got home.
When I got home, I checked my email, and there was my Pottermore welcome email! It was just delayed a few hours! Haha! I was happy though, because I wanted a legit welcome email for my records! :) So, I went on, started exploring and playing, and was having a blast! After getting to Diagon Alley, I bought all my school supplies and purchased a barn owl as a pet! :) I really wanted a snowy owl, but they didn't have one :( At the end of Diagon Alley, I got to take the wand quiz to get my wand. I was SO excited and nervous. However, much to my surprise and happiness, I got an AMAZING wand! It is cedar wood, phoenix feather core, twelve and three quarter inches, slightly springy! I absolutely LOVE it! And it sounds like a Gryffindor wand, right?! Well, at least that's what I thought and was hoping for!
Unfortunately, much to my dismay, that was not the case. As I arrived at the sorting ceremony in chapter 7, I was excited but confident in the quiz. The questions were interesting, but slightly vague. At first I thought it was kind of cool, because it was harder to cheat than I expected, but now I completely regret it. As you might know from twitter, I was sorted into Slytherin. My first reaction was: SLYTHERIN! Slytherin?!?!?! ME?!?! Are you kidding me?! You CAN'T be serious!!!!!! I was so appalled and upset. Not only because Slytherin is my least favorite house, but also because I won't be able to change it for a while because this is my only account that's active!
I am also heartbroken because I wanted my Pottermore sorting to be real, legitimate, and final. I wanted to accept and love and welcome my house. I would have even LOVED to have Hufflepuff which is the house I have always associated with! And of course, Gryffindor and Ravenclaw are my favorite, so I would have loved either of those as well. But alas, Pottermore decided to stab a knife through my heart and put me in Slytherin. The illusion for me is now shattered, because I wholeheartedly believe that the sorting hat was completely wrong! And not just because I hate Slytherin. It's because I honestly and truly believe that I am NOT a Slytherin. I believe I am a combination of Hufflepuff and Gryffindor. I am loyal, a good finder, a true friend, somewhat brave, adventurous, and outgoing. I am NOT ambitious, sly, cunning, etc, or anything else Slytherins embody. However, I am able to accept that the sorting hat made a mistake, because it has been said that Gryffindor and Slytherin have very similar qualities. I like to think that I would have been a hatstall, and that the sorting hat just chose wrong.
LOL. Enough of my rant. I don't really feel up to posting house standings or details of my opinions on every part of Pottermore tonight, so you can expect that tomorrow. Let me know in the comments what you think about the houses, sorting on Pottermore, and what house YOU want to be in, are in, or wanted to be in! Goodnight! :)
-Danielle
When I got home, I checked my email, and there was my Pottermore welcome email! It was just delayed a few hours! Haha! I was happy though, because I wanted a legit welcome email for my records! :) So, I went on, started exploring and playing, and was having a blast! After getting to Diagon Alley, I bought all my school supplies and purchased a barn owl as a pet! :) I really wanted a snowy owl, but they didn't have one :( At the end of Diagon Alley, I got to take the wand quiz to get my wand. I was SO excited and nervous. However, much to my surprise and happiness, I got an AMAZING wand! It is cedar wood, phoenix feather core, twelve and three quarter inches, slightly springy! I absolutely LOVE it! And it sounds like a Gryffindor wand, right?! Well, at least that's what I thought and was hoping for!
Unfortunately, much to my dismay, that was not the case. As I arrived at the sorting ceremony in chapter 7, I was excited but confident in the quiz. The questions were interesting, but slightly vague. At first I thought it was kind of cool, because it was harder to cheat than I expected, but now I completely regret it. As you might know from twitter, I was sorted into Slytherin. My first reaction was: SLYTHERIN! Slytherin?!?!?! ME?!?! Are you kidding me?! You CAN'T be serious!!!!!! I was so appalled and upset. Not only because Slytherin is my least favorite house, but also because I won't be able to change it for a while because this is my only account that's active!
I am also heartbroken because I wanted my Pottermore sorting to be real, legitimate, and final. I wanted to accept and love and welcome my house. I would have even LOVED to have Hufflepuff which is the house I have always associated with! And of course, Gryffindor and Ravenclaw are my favorite, so I would have loved either of those as well. But alas, Pottermore decided to stab a knife through my heart and put me in Slytherin. The illusion for me is now shattered, because I wholeheartedly believe that the sorting hat was completely wrong! And not just because I hate Slytherin. It's because I honestly and truly believe that I am NOT a Slytherin. I believe I am a combination of Hufflepuff and Gryffindor. I am loyal, a good finder, a true friend, somewhat brave, adventurous, and outgoing. I am NOT ambitious, sly, cunning, etc, or anything else Slytherins embody. However, I am able to accept that the sorting hat made a mistake, because it has been said that Gryffindor and Slytherin have very similar qualities. I like to think that I would have been a hatstall, and that the sorting hat just chose wrong.
LOL. Enough of my rant. I don't really feel up to posting house standings or details of my opinions on every part of Pottermore tonight, so you can expect that tomorrow. Let me know in the comments what you think about the houses, sorting on Pottermore, and what house YOU want to be in, are in, or wanted to be in! Goodnight! :)
-Danielle
Thursday, August 25, 2011
A Swarm of Owls!
This morning, a huge swarm of Pottermore owls left to deliver welcome emails to thousands of eagerly awaiting beta testers. Once again, I was not one of the lucky recipients. However, three people I know in real life were! This is very exciting, because it shows that they are starting to send out more and more at a time! A few hours later, another Pottermore Insider blog post revealed that that was indeed true! It stated that they have been studying the activity of Pottermore, and have decided to let more in at a time. Unfortunately, that comes at a cost, which is that they will soon be taking a very long break from sending emails.
This is very nerve-wracking and frightening. Everyone that has yet to receive their email is freaking out, i'm sure, like I am. They didn't even give an exact date. They simply said "over the next week or so." So what does that exactly mean?! It could mean only until the weekend, the entire next week, or a week and a half after that! Who knows?! Well, I am keeping hopeful, because most everyone I know in person that is on Pottermore got on Day 1, and so did I. So I am hoping and praying that they at least let everyone in who got in Day 1. If they don't, I will be extremely shocked, and very hurt (if I am one of the ones left out).
Although I thought that questions were very humorous, I was very pleased and happy that they took the time to answer some questions and write such a lengthy blog post. It made me feel a lot better (besides the large pause part) and I'm sure it made others feel better too! Let's just pray that for the entire "week or so" before the big pause, they don't skip any days of sending out emails! If they do, I fear that all Day 1 people might not get in by the big pause.
Now for the current stats and standings. Since this morning, numbers have skyrocketed, which proves the sheer size of this morning's email wave. There are currently 48,361 students on Pottermore in total. Starting in the lead, we have Ravencalw with 13,933 members, Hufflepuff with 11,550 members, Slytherin with 11,472 members, and Gryffindor rounding out the end with 11,406. As for house points, Ravenclaw is currently in the lead with 5,432 points, followed by Slytherin with 5,307 points, Gryffindor with 5,235 points, and Hufflepuff in last with 4,681 points. This is extremely surprising because just yesterday those standings were completely different! I am happy though, because I WANT Pottermore to fluctuate a lot and be realistic! :D
I am STILL waiting patiently for my email. After almost an entire month of waiting, it will be SO bittersweet and weird to get my email, but I still cannot wait!!! It's been extremely hard watching all my real life friends brag about being on! I feel like by the time I get on, it won't be cool or important anymore. I feel like no one is worried about sorting anymore because they're already done with that! :'( It's still hard to see people talk about it online, but much easier than hearing it from people in person or over text or Facebook. Well, that's it for now! See you tomorrow! :)
-Danielle
This is very nerve-wracking and frightening. Everyone that has yet to receive their email is freaking out, i'm sure, like I am. They didn't even give an exact date. They simply said "over the next week or so." So what does that exactly mean?! It could mean only until the weekend, the entire next week, or a week and a half after that! Who knows?! Well, I am keeping hopeful, because most everyone I know in person that is on Pottermore got on Day 1, and so did I. So I am hoping and praying that they at least let everyone in who got in Day 1. If they don't, I will be extremely shocked, and very hurt (if I am one of the ones left out).
Although I thought that questions were very humorous, I was very pleased and happy that they took the time to answer some questions and write such a lengthy blog post. It made me feel a lot better (besides the large pause part) and I'm sure it made others feel better too! Let's just pray that for the entire "week or so" before the big pause, they don't skip any days of sending out emails! If they do, I fear that all Day 1 people might not get in by the big pause.
Now for the current stats and standings. Since this morning, numbers have skyrocketed, which proves the sheer size of this morning's email wave. There are currently 48,361 students on Pottermore in total. Starting in the lead, we have Ravencalw with 13,933 members, Hufflepuff with 11,550 members, Slytherin with 11,472 members, and Gryffindor rounding out the end with 11,406. As for house points, Ravenclaw is currently in the lead with 5,432 points, followed by Slytherin with 5,307 points, Gryffindor with 5,235 points, and Hufflepuff in last with 4,681 points. This is extremely surprising because just yesterday those standings were completely different! I am happy though, because I WANT Pottermore to fluctuate a lot and be realistic! :D
I am STILL waiting patiently for my email. After almost an entire month of waiting, it will be SO bittersweet and weird to get my email, but I still cannot wait!!! It's been extremely hard watching all my real life friends brag about being on! I feel like by the time I get on, it won't be cool or important anymore. I feel like no one is worried about sorting anymore because they're already done with that! :'( It's still hard to see people talk about it online, but much easier than hearing it from people in person or over text or Facebook. Well, that's it for now! See you tomorrow! :)
-Danielle
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
The Emails Continue!
Much to my surprise and happiness, another batch of Pottermore welcome emails was sent out this morning! As I stated in my last blog (which I apologize for writing this morning), I feared that they would continue with their 2-day skipping pattern. However, they did not, so many lucky people (including my extreme Potterhead friend who is the biggest fan I know EVER) got their emails today! I unfortunately, did not. I don't know what I did wrong, but I must have done something for this to happen. I really needed it today too, because today was a really hard and sad day for me. Anyway, back to happiness!
Since I still can log onto my friend's account, let me fill you in on some Pottermore stats! :) There are currently 33,114 students on Pottermore. 7,578 are in Gryffindor, 10,282 are in Ravenclaw, 7,635 are in Hufflepuff, and 7,619 are in Slytherin. As you can see, Ravenclaw is still soaring ahead of the other houses in members, but the others have changed a bit! Hufflepuff now has the second-highest number of members, followed by Slytherin and then Gryffindor with the least. This is surprising and sad because Gryffindor is one of my favorite houses! I basically love all of them! Except I don't really like Slytherin... sorry! ;)
Ok now for house points. Slytherin is still in the lead with 4,377 points, followed by Gryffindor with 4,372 points, Ravenclaw with 4,070, and Hufflepuff still in last with 3,938. Hopefully with their increased numbers, Hufflepuff with gain more points soon! Go Badgers! :) So as you can see, students and points are rising quickly on Pottermore, and my instincts tell me that they will be coming even faster and sooner! With this encouraging news, I shall leave you for tonight! See you all tomorrow! :)
-Danielle
Since I still can log onto my friend's account, let me fill you in on some Pottermore stats! :) There are currently 33,114 students on Pottermore. 7,578 are in Gryffindor, 10,282 are in Ravenclaw, 7,635 are in Hufflepuff, and 7,619 are in Slytherin. As you can see, Ravenclaw is still soaring ahead of the other houses in members, but the others have changed a bit! Hufflepuff now has the second-highest number of members, followed by Slytherin and then Gryffindor with the least. This is surprising and sad because Gryffindor is one of my favorite houses! I basically love all of them! Except I don't really like Slytherin... sorry! ;)
Ok now for house points. Slytherin is still in the lead with 4,377 points, followed by Gryffindor with 4,372 points, Ravenclaw with 4,070, and Hufflepuff still in last with 3,938. Hopefully with their increased numbers, Hufflepuff with gain more points soon! Go Badgers! :) So as you can see, students and points are rising quickly on Pottermore, and my instincts tell me that they will be coming even faster and sooner! With this encouraging news, I shall leave you for tonight! See you all tomorrow! :)
-Danielle
Still Waiting
So, I fell asleep really early last night, so I didn't get a chance to write a blog post yesterday. So this is it. Just excuse the date! Well, yesterday there were no new emails sent out. I was sad, because not only did I not get one, I figured they would be following their pattern of skipping two days in a row. So, even though I know the answer because it's the next day already, I'm saving that for today's blog. So you'll just have to wait and find out! (well, honestly it's not like you guys don't already know!)
I was pretty busy all day, so I barely even had a chance to go on Twitter or check Pottermore stats. Basically, everything is still the same, and steadily increasing at the same rate, together. It's kind of annoying because I wanted it to be more realistic. For one, I don't even know all the ways you can earn house points, so it's hard to understand why Hufflepuff is so behind. And secondly, there is no way to lose points, so there's basically no way to catch up! In a way it's cool, but in another, it negatively impacts everyone on Pottermore because the first few thousands have basically decided the standings.
Well, that's it. Very short , but it's something! See you later today for today's actual blog post! :)
-Danielle
I was pretty busy all day, so I barely even had a chance to go on Twitter or check Pottermore stats. Basically, everything is still the same, and steadily increasing at the same rate, together. It's kind of annoying because I wanted it to be more realistic. For one, I don't even know all the ways you can earn house points, so it's hard to understand why Hufflepuff is so behind. And secondly, there is no way to lose points, so there's basically no way to catch up! In a way it's cool, but in another, it negatively impacts everyone on Pottermore because the first few thousands have basically decided the standings.
Well, that's it. Very short , but it's something! See you later today for today's actual blog post! :)
-Danielle
Monday, August 22, 2011
Another Batch of Emails Goes Out!
This morning, at around 9:30AM Pacific time, another batch of Pottermore welcome emails was sent out. Unfortunately, I was again not one of the lucky ones with an email waiting in my inbox. Only one of my friends (the one whose account I've been on) out of about ten of us, has gotten on. This both comforts me and scares me. It comforts me because I know I am not alone, and that at least one of us has gotten in. However, it scares me a bit as well because I fear that we might never get out emails! Although that is highly unlikely because we all received the congratulations confirmation email.
Here's a quick update on people inside Pottermore: As of 4:00PM Pacific time, there are 25,832 students on Pottermore. The number of members in each house are still the same ratio, with Ravenclaw having the most, followed by Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin with the least. The same goes for house points. Slytherin is still in the lead, followed by Ravencalw, Gryffindor, and Hufflepuff. I don't really feel like getting exact numbers, but I will tell you that there are just over 6,000 members in each house besides Ravenclaw which has over 7,500. As for house points, each house has a little over 3,500 points besides Hufflepuff which has just over 3,200 points. As you can see, nothing has really changed much, besides the numbers all going up steadily at about the same pace. I will say though that Gryffindor is only 2 points below Slytherin, so something exciting is finally happening! I was worried that the points were going to stay steady all the time!
I still have about three weeks left before I leave for school, so I am hoping to get my email before I leave so I can get it out of my system before I start classes! I want to be able to take my time and go slow so I don't miss anything. After all, once you finish all 17 chapters in book 1, you have to wait until who knows how long for book 2! There is no official release date yet, seeing as Pottermore isn't even open to the public yet! However, once you do finish all the chapters in book 1, you can still buy things in Diagon Alley, play Wizard Duelling, brew potions, and go back and look through the chapters of book 1! So there's still lots to do, but there just won't be any new content!
I find it kind of funny that we are going to have six more releases to look forward to! Just yet another thing for Harry Potter fans to band together and obsess over! Haha! I love it! I bet other people are groaning at the thought though! They thought Harry Potter was over with the last film! As if! It will never die! :) Well, I think that's all for today. If anything else happens or I think of anything else, I will edit this post and tweet to let you know about the addition! See you! :)
-Danielle
Here's a quick update on people inside Pottermore: As of 4:00PM Pacific time, there are 25,832 students on Pottermore. The number of members in each house are still the same ratio, with Ravenclaw having the most, followed by Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin with the least. The same goes for house points. Slytherin is still in the lead, followed by Ravencalw, Gryffindor, and Hufflepuff. I don't really feel like getting exact numbers, but I will tell you that there are just over 6,000 members in each house besides Ravenclaw which has over 7,500. As for house points, each house has a little over 3,500 points besides Hufflepuff which has just over 3,200 points. As you can see, nothing has really changed much, besides the numbers all going up steadily at about the same pace. I will say though that Gryffindor is only 2 points below Slytherin, so something exciting is finally happening! I was worried that the points were going to stay steady all the time!
I still have about three weeks left before I leave for school, so I am hoping to get my email before I leave so I can get it out of my system before I start classes! I want to be able to take my time and go slow so I don't miss anything. After all, once you finish all 17 chapters in book 1, you have to wait until who knows how long for book 2! There is no official release date yet, seeing as Pottermore isn't even open to the public yet! However, once you do finish all the chapters in book 1, you can still buy things in Diagon Alley, play Wizard Duelling, brew potions, and go back and look through the chapters of book 1! So there's still lots to do, but there just won't be any new content!
I find it kind of funny that we are going to have six more releases to look forward to! Just yet another thing for Harry Potter fans to band together and obsess over! Haha! I love it! I bet other people are groaning at the thought though! They thought Harry Potter was over with the last film! As if! It will never die! :) Well, I think that's all for today. If anything else happens or I think of anything else, I will edit this post and tweet to let you know about the addition! See you! :)
-Danielle
Sunday, August 21, 2011
A Weekend Without Owls
As Sunday draws to a close, we come to the sad conclusion that Pottermore emails will be MIA for the entire weekend. I for one am half and half between completely shocked and understanding. I am shocked because I did not expect them to skip two whole days in a row. At this rate, unless they send out enormously HUGE batches like 10,000 a day or more, they will definitely not get through everyone in time. On the other hand, I can somewhat understand, because when they didn't come yesterday, I had a small inkling that they wouldn't come today either. Why would they randomly skip Saturday an then all of a sudden send some out on Sunday, when there is, after all, no post on Sundays! I figured that if they skipped Saturday, they were skipping the whole weekend, which they did. This does have high prospects however, because it most certainly means that they will be sending more out tomorrow (Monday). Although I cannot confirm this, I have pretty good hopes that it is true. I mean, why on earth would they skip three days?! Especially right after tweeting that they would be sending more!
My theory is that they should be sending more emails faster, because they should be fixing problems that beta testers are finding with the site. However, nothing has changed since I have been on my friend's account. Also, the "beta feedback" feature on Pottermore is simply one survey ranking the page, and you can do that for every page. That is the only way to give feedback, yet there are no places to type anything in. This seems very illogical and counterproductive. I don't understand, because it is essentially just asking you to rate the pages, so the only logical thing they could do with that is change or delete pages that get the least votes. However, they wouldn't know what to change because we can't tell them! This seems like a pretty big flaw, because I thought that was the point of the beta testers. Well, there's nothing we can really do about it. I'm sure no one minds anyway, because most people probably just wanted to get on early to simply be on early.
Well, that's all for today. There really isn't much to talk about at all. Let's all hope tomorrow is a better day!
-Danielle
My theory is that they should be sending more emails faster, because they should be fixing problems that beta testers are finding with the site. However, nothing has changed since I have been on my friend's account. Also, the "beta feedback" feature on Pottermore is simply one survey ranking the page, and you can do that for every page. That is the only way to give feedback, yet there are no places to type anything in. This seems very illogical and counterproductive. I don't understand, because it is essentially just asking you to rate the pages, so the only logical thing they could do with that is change or delete pages that get the least votes. However, they wouldn't know what to change because we can't tell them! This seems like a pretty big flaw, because I thought that was the point of the beta testers. Well, there's nothing we can really do about it. I'm sure no one minds anyway, because most people probably just wanted to get on early to simply be on early.
Well, that's all for today. There really isn't much to talk about at all. Let's all hope tomorrow is a better day!
-Danielle
Saturday, August 20, 2011
No Owls Today
As we awaited anxiously for another batch of welcome emails to arrive today, they unfortunately never came. Althouh there is still time in the day (it's only 7:00PM where I live) I seriously doubt any will be sent out today. I am to the point where I'm not really upset anymore, because I've been waking up for almost a month with the desperate hope that my welcome email will be in my inbox, but the day has still not come. It's become the norm for me to wake up, rub my eyes, and check my empty (besides a few twitter notifications) inbox.
So another day goes by without emails, yet the number of students on Pottermore continues to rise. Slowly but surely, everyday there are more and more students. Even on a day like today when the official Pottermore twitter tweets nothing and the Pottemore Insider Blog has not been updated, the numbers keep going up. Now, my first and pretty much only explanation for this is that people are simply just checking their emails at random and seeing that they have gotten their welcome email, or they were not able to open it when they first got it. This is the only logical explanation, because Pottermore itself stated that it would announce every time they sent out more emails. It irks be a bit though to think that some emails could be sitting in emails unopened, while so many of us are sitting here waiting.
However, like I said, it has not been affecting me that much lately. This is partly because I have already been on and seen Pottermore first hand, so the only real thing I have to look forward to is getting my wand, getting sorted, and going through chapters 8-17 which I have not seen yet. So let's all hope that they send a HUGE batch tomorrow, because at this point they've only sent out about 2% of the one million welcome emails. Until next time.
-Danielle
So another day goes by without emails, yet the number of students on Pottermore continues to rise. Slowly but surely, everyday there are more and more students. Even on a day like today when the official Pottermore twitter tweets nothing and the Pottemore Insider Blog has not been updated, the numbers keep going up. Now, my first and pretty much only explanation for this is that people are simply just checking their emails at random and seeing that they have gotten their welcome email, or they were not able to open it when they first got it. This is the only logical explanation, because Pottermore itself stated that it would announce every time they sent out more emails. It irks be a bit though to think that some emails could be sitting in emails unopened, while so many of us are sitting here waiting.
However, like I said, it has not been affecting me that much lately. This is partly because I have already been on and seen Pottermore first hand, so the only real thing I have to look forward to is getting my wand, getting sorted, and going through chapters 8-17 which I have not seen yet. So let's all hope that they send a HUGE batch tomorrow, because at this point they've only sent out about 2% of the one million welcome emails. Until next time.
-Danielle
Friday, August 19, 2011
A Normal Day
Today was pretty great. It was also a big step for me, because I barely thought about Harry Potter, and I only went on my friend's Pottermore once! Can you believe it?! I can't! Haha! Well, I slept in and then checked twitter and caught up with that. Then I went to my friend's house and we hung out for a while. She's a Harry Potter fan (but not nearly as big as me. She's didn't even register for Pottermore!) so I showed her Pottermore for a bit. Then we went out to lunch and came back to my house. We didn't get to do much before her mom came to pick her up. So now i'm about to go help my sister cook dinner, but I wanted to get this blog post up before I forgot!
There isn't much Harry Potter or Pottermore related to talk about today, which is a shock! Well first off, I keep getting the Pottermore Support Message every time I go to the site (the purple screen of death) but then after one or two countdowns the page loads. It's strange, because usually when I see the message, the whole site is down for a while. Also, the wizard duelling feature is still down. It's been down for at least four days now! I sure hope it's back up before I get my own account! I'm really looking forward to that!
Now for some current statistics and house standings on Pottermore. The current total number of students is: 21,758 with 5,113 in Gryffindor, 6,426 in Ravenclaw, 5,129 in Hufflepuff, and 5,090 in Slytherin. Slytherin, although having the least members, is in the lead for the House Cup with 2,853 points, followed by Ravenclaw with 2,723 points, Gryffindor with 2,694 points, and Hufflepuff rounding out the end with 3,519 points. I'm proud of Gryffindor for not being too far behind Ravenclaw! I hope one of them overtakes Slytherin soon! (sorry Slytherins!) As for Hufflepuff, I am sad that they are in last place, because I currently classify myself as a Hufflepuff (until the Pottermore Sorting Hat says otherwise, or confirms it!). They need to step up to the plate!
Well, that's pretty much it for tonight. There isn't much else to talk about until I get on my own account. Once I do, I will detail each chapter as I go through it, with my explanation, thoughts, likes, and dislikes. My first official Pottermore post will also detail the pet I buy at Diagon Alley, the wand that chooses me at Ollivander's, and which house I get sorted into! I will also screen cap the questions that it asks for both wand choosing and sorting so I can relay them to you guys as well! I will not post the pictures however, because I am afraid of copyright. So stay tuned for all of that! See you next time!
-Danielle
There isn't much Harry Potter or Pottermore related to talk about today, which is a shock! Well first off, I keep getting the Pottermore Support Message every time I go to the site (the purple screen of death) but then after one or two countdowns the page loads. It's strange, because usually when I see the message, the whole site is down for a while. Also, the wizard duelling feature is still down. It's been down for at least four days now! I sure hope it's back up before I get my own account! I'm really looking forward to that!
Now for some current statistics and house standings on Pottermore. The current total number of students is: 21,758 with 5,113 in Gryffindor, 6,426 in Ravenclaw, 5,129 in Hufflepuff, and 5,090 in Slytherin. Slytherin, although having the least members, is in the lead for the House Cup with 2,853 points, followed by Ravenclaw with 2,723 points, Gryffindor with 2,694 points, and Hufflepuff rounding out the end with 3,519 points. I'm proud of Gryffindor for not being too far behind Ravenclaw! I hope one of them overtakes Slytherin soon! (sorry Slytherins!) As for Hufflepuff, I am sad that they are in last place, because I currently classify myself as a Hufflepuff (until the Pottermore Sorting Hat says otherwise, or confirms it!). They need to step up to the plate!
Well, that's pretty much it for tonight. There isn't much else to talk about until I get on my own account. Once I do, I will detail each chapter as I go through it, with my explanation, thoughts, likes, and dislikes. My first official Pottermore post will also detail the pet I buy at Diagon Alley, the wand that chooses me at Ollivander's, and which house I get sorted into! I will also screen cap the questions that it asks for both wand choosing and sorting so I can relay them to you guys as well! I will not post the pictures however, because I am afraid of copyright. So stay tuned for all of that! See you next time!
-Danielle
Thursday, August 18, 2011
I'M ON POTTERMORE?! Sort of!
You heard me right, I'm on Pottermore!!! But why sort of, you ask? Well, let me explain. This morning one of my friends got their welcome email. They know I am ridiculously excited about Pottermore, so she came over to my house and showed me! Then she even logged on to her account on my computer so I could play around and check it out!!! I was so excited and happy! So, today's blog post will be about my first thoughts on Pottermore. However, they will be a bit different seeing as it's not my account and I haven't gone through everything personally. Let me explain:
When my friend came over, she was already on Chapter 7, which is when you get to Hogwarts and get sorted. She was sorted into Gryffindor. So this means that I won't be able to tell you about the sorting questions, the wand questions, or anything like that. However, you can go back to past chapters on Pottermore, so I was able go back and look through them. I didn't really do much though, because she had already unlocked and collected everything. It was still fun though, and I have loads to talk about! As of right now, there are a total of 17,608 students: 3,991 in Gryffindor, 5,037 in Ravenclaw, 4,020 in Hufflepuff, and 4,020 in Slytherin. Slytherin is in the lead for house points, followed by Ravenclaw, Gryffindor, and then Hufflepuff. Going along with the numbers of students, my friend that let me on her account has a theory that the sorting is random because the numbers are so close and even. You DO have to answer questions to get sorted, but that doesn't necessarily mean that the website actually uses the information! What do you think?! I'm not sure yet. I want to wait until I get sorted myself, to see if I am sorted into what I think I am, whether it's what I wanted or not.
First off, my first impressions are that it is very impressive, but it still needs a lot of works. Here are some things I like about it so far: One of my favorite aspects so far is the exclusive content that J.K Rowling wrote! Throughout the chapters, you collect and unlock new information about characters, places, and items. It really makes you feel like you are a part of Harry's world. It's also a lot more interactive with other members then I thought it would be. You can post comments on nearly every page, whether it's your house's common room, the Great Hall, or an information page. Also, you can add people as friends, and track their progress. I can tell a lot of detail was put into making this website as realistic and magical as possible. If I were a little kid, I would be blown away! Another one of the absolute best features is that you can go back to any part of any chapter at any time! There are also multiple ways to do so! At the bottom of the screen, there is sort of a menu that tells you what chapter you are on. If you click on it, it will take you directly there. There are also two arrows on either side, where you can quickly go forwards or backwards between slides and chapters. The second way to go to a chapter is on your profile page. At the top of the page (but below the very top navigation bar) there is a line of dots going across. Each dot is a chapter, and you can click on one if you have completed that chapter. The third way is from the homepage. Again, there are dots, but instead of being in a straight line they are swirling around the page. You can click on a dot to go to a chapter. Both your profile and homepage also have dots and spaces for all 7 books, but you can only click on the ones for book 1 right now. Each of the books will be released separately.
Now let me express some of my complaints, suggestions, and things I didn't really like: My biggest complaint so far is that there is no sound. It just makes the whole experience a bit strange, because you expect there to be sound effects and music when you click on certain things. I hope they add this later. Another issue that a lot of people seem to be having trouble with is commenting, both in chatrooms and on pages. First of all, the comments are screened/monitored, so it takes forever for your comment to be posted. So essentially, you can't really live chats with people. I have also heard of some problems with having to edit comments before they are even allowed to be posted, such as deleting certain words. This is hopefully a simple glitch that will be fixed soon. As for the commenting, I don't plan on getting too excited, because it has to stay safe for younger audiences, so the comments will always be monitored and take a while to appear. The last two things that I wasn't that pleased with (although I haven't exactly tried them myself) were the potion brewing and wand dueling games. I have heard that these have had the most problems, and always glitch, freeze, or closes. I have not tried these yet, seeing as I don't have my own account and didn't think I should do that on my friend's account, but almost everyone I know that's on, has complained about them. Also, I heard that they are really difficult. This may be due to the fact that there are glitches, but some people are saying that they just can't figure certain parts out.
Other than those main things above, I am absolutely in love with Pottermore! I was worried that it was going to be more game-like, and you wouldn't be able to pause or save. It's completely the opposite though! Like I explained earlier, you can go back to any part at any time! It also automatically saves your progress, so every time you log in, you are just where you left off! Also, once you unlock Diagon Alley and Gringotts, they appear in the navigation bar at the top, and you can visit them whenever you like, from any chapter! I'm super excited for the store to open in October as well, because it's going to be great and full of exclusive stuff that has never been available before! Well, that is my first look/experience with Pottermore! Stay tuned for my actual and legitimate first experience, when I start from the beginning, pick my pet, get my wand, and officially get sorted!!! Until next time! :)
-Danielle
When my friend came over, she was already on Chapter 7, which is when you get to Hogwarts and get sorted. She was sorted into Gryffindor. So this means that I won't be able to tell you about the sorting questions, the wand questions, or anything like that. However, you can go back to past chapters on Pottermore, so I was able go back and look through them. I didn't really do much though, because she had already unlocked and collected everything. It was still fun though, and I have loads to talk about! As of right now, there are a total of 17,608 students: 3,991 in Gryffindor, 5,037 in Ravenclaw, 4,020 in Hufflepuff, and 4,020 in Slytherin. Slytherin is in the lead for house points, followed by Ravenclaw, Gryffindor, and then Hufflepuff. Going along with the numbers of students, my friend that let me on her account has a theory that the sorting is random because the numbers are so close and even. You DO have to answer questions to get sorted, but that doesn't necessarily mean that the website actually uses the information! What do you think?! I'm not sure yet. I want to wait until I get sorted myself, to see if I am sorted into what I think I am, whether it's what I wanted or not.
First off, my first impressions are that it is very impressive, but it still needs a lot of works. Here are some things I like about it so far: One of my favorite aspects so far is the exclusive content that J.K Rowling wrote! Throughout the chapters, you collect and unlock new information about characters, places, and items. It really makes you feel like you are a part of Harry's world. It's also a lot more interactive with other members then I thought it would be. You can post comments on nearly every page, whether it's your house's common room, the Great Hall, or an information page. Also, you can add people as friends, and track their progress. I can tell a lot of detail was put into making this website as realistic and magical as possible. If I were a little kid, I would be blown away! Another one of the absolute best features is that you can go back to any part of any chapter at any time! There are also multiple ways to do so! At the bottom of the screen, there is sort of a menu that tells you what chapter you are on. If you click on it, it will take you directly there. There are also two arrows on either side, where you can quickly go forwards or backwards between slides and chapters. The second way to go to a chapter is on your profile page. At the top of the page (but below the very top navigation bar) there is a line of dots going across. Each dot is a chapter, and you can click on one if you have completed that chapter. The third way is from the homepage. Again, there are dots, but instead of being in a straight line they are swirling around the page. You can click on a dot to go to a chapter. Both your profile and homepage also have dots and spaces for all 7 books, but you can only click on the ones for book 1 right now. Each of the books will be released separately.
Now let me express some of my complaints, suggestions, and things I didn't really like: My biggest complaint so far is that there is no sound. It just makes the whole experience a bit strange, because you expect there to be sound effects and music when you click on certain things. I hope they add this later. Another issue that a lot of people seem to be having trouble with is commenting, both in chatrooms and on pages. First of all, the comments are screened/monitored, so it takes forever for your comment to be posted. So essentially, you can't really live chats with people. I have also heard of some problems with having to edit comments before they are even allowed to be posted, such as deleting certain words. This is hopefully a simple glitch that will be fixed soon. As for the commenting, I don't plan on getting too excited, because it has to stay safe for younger audiences, so the comments will always be monitored and take a while to appear. The last two things that I wasn't that pleased with (although I haven't exactly tried them myself) were the potion brewing and wand dueling games. I have heard that these have had the most problems, and always glitch, freeze, or closes. I have not tried these yet, seeing as I don't have my own account and didn't think I should do that on my friend's account, but almost everyone I know that's on, has complained about them. Also, I heard that they are really difficult. This may be due to the fact that there are glitches, but some people are saying that they just can't figure certain parts out.
Other than those main things above, I am absolutely in love with Pottermore! I was worried that it was going to be more game-like, and you wouldn't be able to pause or save. It's completely the opposite though! Like I explained earlier, you can go back to any part at any time! It also automatically saves your progress, so every time you log in, you are just where you left off! Also, once you unlock Diagon Alley and Gringotts, they appear in the navigation bar at the top, and you can visit them whenever you like, from any chapter! I'm super excited for the store to open in October as well, because it's going to be great and full of exclusive stuff that has never been available before! Well, that is my first look/experience with Pottermore! Stay tuned for my actual and legitimate first experience, when I start from the beginning, pick my pet, get my wand, and officially get sorted!!! Until next time! :)
-Danielle
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Another Day Without Pottermore
Now it's to the point where this is my daily routine: I wake up in the morning, check my email, cry a little when it's not there, go about my day, come home, check my email again, cry some more because it's still not there, angrily blog about it, stalk twitter for hours, go to sleep. Then I wake up and the cycle repeats. It's awful and I want it to stop. I first want to talk about how angry I am that people have the nerve to complain about glitches on Pottermore, when first of all, they are FREAKING LUCKY to be some of the first on already, and second, THAT'S THE POINT OF A BETA TESTER! You FIND problems and TELL the Pottermore staff about them! DUHHH! I honestly think some idiots thought that getting an early access spot simply meant just getting on early! I mean, do they know what the word BETA means?!?! Sorry, I'm not trying to be rude, but I have to unleash my anger somewhere!!! Also, I'm sure a lot of you agree with me ;)
Another thing that's annoying me is the molasses-slow rate that Pottermore is sending out emails. Barely 5,000 a day, and I heard a lot of people talking on Twitter today saying that they skipped today completely!!! I mean, what is that about?!?! Are they trying to make us all wait until September 30th?! And what's up with that anyway? I mean, if registration opens for all in October, why on earth would they still be letting beta testers in on September 30th? That gives them absolutely NO time to listen to the beta's feedback and fix glitches. Although, they will have information from people that got on earlier (such as this week). So in a way, I don't even understand why they're letting in as many as they say they are going to. At the rate they're going, most of the beta user's feedback will be useless! Unless of course, "October" means mid-October or later, as in not October 1st... either way, I just don't get it!
On a lighter note, I want to talk about some of the spoilers and information about Pottermore I have looked at on the internet thus far. I won't post pictures or links or give away details, but I want to talk about some general stuff. So from what I've heard and seen, essentially what happens when you first start Pottermore, is that you start at the Dursleys and learn about their history, then go to Diagon Alley and get your supplies, pet, and wand, then go to King's Cross Station. I heard that all of these stops are sort of like mini quest where you have to find hidden objects to continue Then finally you get to Hogwarts and get sorted (which is probably the thing a lot of people are looking most forward to). At Hogwarts you play games like potion brewing and wand dueling (which is also where/how you earn house points). These are the two things that I heard are having glitches. I also heard that the site randomly crashes sometimes. However, I am not worried about this, because I just want to get on. Period. And chances are, something like that is easily fixed, and fast.
So those were my "spoilers" if you will. Now let me talk about the houses, house points, and how many. People have been tweeting and/or posting screen shots of the stats of Pottermore. This includes how many students are in each house, how many points each house has, and which one is in the lead. The last time I checked, someone had tweeted that there were 14,154 students total, 3,363 in Gryffindor, 3,323 in Hufflepuff, 4,162 in Ravenclaw, and 3,306 in Slytherin. Also, Slytherin is currently in the lead for house points, although I didn't see any exact numbers of points for each house. I'm a bit mad about this because I personally hate Slytherin, AND they have the least number of members, so I can't possibly see HOW they are winning!!! Of course, this is not perfectly legitimate information, and it changes very often as people play, but it's a rough estimate for the third day.
No matter what I see or hear, I still remain excited and gleeful about Pottermore. I am having some interesting/difficult times in my personal life at the moment, so Pottermore is giving me something to look forward to, and it is somewhat of a strength that keeps me going. I just pray that it comes soon, because I am soon leaving for school, and will have absolutely NO time to goof off on the internet :'( Well, I think that covers my rant for the day! Talk to you tomorrow, when I HOPEFULLY have something HAPPY to blog about!!! ;)
-Danielle
Another thing that's annoying me is the molasses-slow rate that Pottermore is sending out emails. Barely 5,000 a day, and I heard a lot of people talking on Twitter today saying that they skipped today completely!!! I mean, what is that about?!?! Are they trying to make us all wait until September 30th?! And what's up with that anyway? I mean, if registration opens for all in October, why on earth would they still be letting beta testers in on September 30th? That gives them absolutely NO time to listen to the beta's feedback and fix glitches. Although, they will have information from people that got on earlier (such as this week). So in a way, I don't even understand why they're letting in as many as they say they are going to. At the rate they're going, most of the beta user's feedback will be useless! Unless of course, "October" means mid-October or later, as in not October 1st... either way, I just don't get it!
On a lighter note, I want to talk about some of the spoilers and information about Pottermore I have looked at on the internet thus far. I won't post pictures or links or give away details, but I want to talk about some general stuff. So from what I've heard and seen, essentially what happens when you first start Pottermore, is that you start at the Dursleys and learn about their history, then go to Diagon Alley and get your supplies, pet, and wand, then go to King's Cross Station. I heard that all of these stops are sort of like mini quest where you have to find hidden objects to continue Then finally you get to Hogwarts and get sorted (which is probably the thing a lot of people are looking most forward to). At Hogwarts you play games like potion brewing and wand dueling (which is also where/how you earn house points). These are the two things that I heard are having glitches. I also heard that the site randomly crashes sometimes. However, I am not worried about this, because I just want to get on. Period. And chances are, something like that is easily fixed, and fast.
So those were my "spoilers" if you will. Now let me talk about the houses, house points, and how many. People have been tweeting and/or posting screen shots of the stats of Pottermore. This includes how many students are in each house, how many points each house has, and which one is in the lead. The last time I checked, someone had tweeted that there were 14,154 students total, 3,363 in Gryffindor, 3,323 in Hufflepuff, 4,162 in Ravenclaw, and 3,306 in Slytherin. Also, Slytherin is currently in the lead for house points, although I didn't see any exact numbers of points for each house. I'm a bit mad about this because I personally hate Slytherin, AND they have the least number of members, so I can't possibly see HOW they are winning!!! Of course, this is not perfectly legitimate information, and it changes very often as people play, but it's a rough estimate for the third day.
No matter what I see or hear, I still remain excited and gleeful about Pottermore. I am having some interesting/difficult times in my personal life at the moment, so Pottermore is giving me something to look forward to, and it is somewhat of a strength that keeps me going. I just pray that it comes soon, because I am soon leaving for school, and will have absolutely NO time to goof off on the internet :'( Well, I think that covers my rant for the day! Talk to you tomorrow, when I HOPEFULLY have something HAPPY to blog about!!! ;)
-Danielle
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Still No Pottermore
Alas, another day goes by, and it looks as though I'll have to wait a little longer until I am granted access to Pottermore. On the outside, i'm fine and functioning normally, but on the inside, I am beyond upset and ridiculously confused as to HOW and WHY they are sending out the emails in the order that they are!!! I usually don't mind waiting, but when it gets this ridiculous and unfair, I get angry.
At least today I was distracted by my friends. I went out to lunch with a few of them, and then my Potterhead friend and I went to see Deathly Hallows Part 2 in iMax! It was a fourth time for me, and a fifth time for her! It still never gets old! I will especially never tire of Snape's memories! <3 My absolute favorite part of my favorite book and movie!!! It's either between that, or the forest scene when Harry finds the resurrection stone in the golden snitch. The two are very close.
So I just got home, and it's already getting late. I'm kind of glad the day is done, but then again, I have to get up extremely early tomorrow, and i'll be gone practically all day! Gahh! If I miss my Pottermore email!!! I am torn between hoping it doesn't come until i'm free and ready to devote my time to it, or hoping it comes as soon as possible, even if I'm busy and have to wait. I mean, if I get my email, it will still be there when I get home tomorrow. It's not like it's going to disappear or time out or anything! So I guess I just hope it comes, and that will give me the energy to get through the day, because I know I will be waiting to come home and go on Pottermore! That's the way i'm going to look at it from now own.
I hope i'm not jinxing anything by writing these blogs. I mean, people that have been freaking out about it on Twitter have gotten their emails, so this shouldn't matter, right?! LOL. See, i'm going crazy now! I can't stand it! I've also heard very mixed reviews about Pottermore, but mostly good. I am still ridiculously excited no matter what, and will love every minute of it!!! Well, I guess that's all for today! Let's hope that my next blog post will be about my first time on Pottermore!!! :D
-Danielle
At least today I was distracted by my friends. I went out to lunch with a few of them, and then my Potterhead friend and I went to see Deathly Hallows Part 2 in iMax! It was a fourth time for me, and a fifth time for her! It still never gets old! I will especially never tire of Snape's memories! <3 My absolute favorite part of my favorite book and movie!!! It's either between that, or the forest scene when Harry finds the resurrection stone in the golden snitch. The two are very close.
So I just got home, and it's already getting late. I'm kind of glad the day is done, but then again, I have to get up extremely early tomorrow, and i'll be gone practically all day! Gahh! If I miss my Pottermore email!!! I am torn between hoping it doesn't come until i'm free and ready to devote my time to it, or hoping it comes as soon as possible, even if I'm busy and have to wait. I mean, if I get my email, it will still be there when I get home tomorrow. It's not like it's going to disappear or time out or anything! So I guess I just hope it comes, and that will give me the energy to get through the day, because I know I will be waiting to come home and go on Pottermore! That's the way i'm going to look at it from now own.
I hope i'm not jinxing anything by writing these blogs. I mean, people that have been freaking out about it on Twitter have gotten their emails, so this shouldn't matter, right?! LOL. See, i'm going crazy now! I can't stand it! I've also heard very mixed reviews about Pottermore, but mostly good. I am still ridiculously excited no matter what, and will love every minute of it!!! Well, I guess that's all for today! Let's hope that my next blog post will be about my first time on Pottermore!!! :D
-Danielle
Monday, August 15, 2011
My Party & Pottermore is Here!
Finallly! The day has arrived! Just like I said it would, this morning, at around 9:00AM my time, Twitter exploded. The sign-in button was back on Pottermore, and people were getting their emails!!! I quickly checked my email, and I couldn't breath with excitement. To my dismay, I had no Pottermore welcome email. I was not discouraged, because I was certain that I would get it soon, sometime later that day. So I closed my laptop and began to prepare for my Harry Potter party. I was so excited that it came on the day of my party, just as I had expected it to!
One of my good friends, and fellow Harry Potter enthusiast, came over early to help me make butterbeer and pumpkin pasties. I had already made some chocolate pretzel wands last night, and other snack foods like chips, popcorn, and soda finished off the mix. Later on, my Mom brought pizzas for us, which was very nice of her! The party was pretty fun. We only got through two and a half movies. This was for a few reasons. First, no one showed up for a while, so we didn't start the movies until at least 12:00. Second, my sister and her friends came, but they just sat in the other room playing Sims 3 the whole time. So there were only a few of us in my living room actually watching the movie. The third, and probably biggest reason, was that we were all freaking out about Pottermore, and checking our emails and looking at screen shots that were leaked.
I admit, I cracked and I looked at some photos. I also read Petunia and Vernin's entire back story and the descriptions of the Ravenclaw, Slytherin, and Hufflepuff houses! (for some reason the site I read it from didn't have Gryffindor). I feel very guilty, and I won't even know if they were real until I'm on Pottermore, but I just couldn't help myself! It was the only thing I could do to keep myself sane and feel like I was part of it. I am pretty furious because I registered for Pottermore on Day 1 within the first half hour, and I still don't have my email!!! I am blown away by the fact that they didn't do it in order of registration day.
I also spent most of the day reading people's tweets about possible reasons why they didn't send the emails out in order. I heard that people from day 3 and 4 were getting emails! I couldn't believe it, and I still can't! However, I am trying to stay positive, because this is supposed to be a fun, enriching experience. I don't want to ruin it with petty jealousy. I feel so immature! I'm going to college in less than a month, and I'm getting worked up over a silly website! To make a long story short, my party was basically a dud, and two friends and I ended up going to the Theater to see The Help (the second time for me). I just got back from it. It's a great movie, and I love Emma Stone!
Well, that pretty much sums up my day! I am now writing this in bed, ready to go to sleep, praying that my Pottermore email will be waiting for me in the morning! I just know it should come tomorrow, because it should have come today! If I don't get it tomorrow, I don't know what I will do! I guess I'll find out! Goodnight!
-Danielle
One of my good friends, and fellow Harry Potter enthusiast, came over early to help me make butterbeer and pumpkin pasties. I had already made some chocolate pretzel wands last night, and other snack foods like chips, popcorn, and soda finished off the mix. Later on, my Mom brought pizzas for us, which was very nice of her! The party was pretty fun. We only got through two and a half movies. This was for a few reasons. First, no one showed up for a while, so we didn't start the movies until at least 12:00. Second, my sister and her friends came, but they just sat in the other room playing Sims 3 the whole time. So there were only a few of us in my living room actually watching the movie. The third, and probably biggest reason, was that we were all freaking out about Pottermore, and checking our emails and looking at screen shots that were leaked.
I admit, I cracked and I looked at some photos. I also read Petunia and Vernin's entire back story and the descriptions of the Ravenclaw, Slytherin, and Hufflepuff houses! (for some reason the site I read it from didn't have Gryffindor). I feel very guilty, and I won't even know if they were real until I'm on Pottermore, but I just couldn't help myself! It was the only thing I could do to keep myself sane and feel like I was part of it. I am pretty furious because I registered for Pottermore on Day 1 within the first half hour, and I still don't have my email!!! I am blown away by the fact that they didn't do it in order of registration day.
I also spent most of the day reading people's tweets about possible reasons why they didn't send the emails out in order. I heard that people from day 3 and 4 were getting emails! I couldn't believe it, and I still can't! However, I am trying to stay positive, because this is supposed to be a fun, enriching experience. I don't want to ruin it with petty jealousy. I feel so immature! I'm going to college in less than a month, and I'm getting worked up over a silly website! To make a long story short, my party was basically a dud, and two friends and I ended up going to the Theater to see The Help (the second time for me). I just got back from it. It's a great movie, and I love Emma Stone!
Well, that pretty much sums up my day! I am now writing this in bed, ready to go to sleep, praying that my Pottermore email will be waiting for me in the morning! I just know it should come tomorrow, because it should have come today! If I don't get it tomorrow, I don't know what I will do! I guess I'll find out! Goodnight!
-Danielle
Sunday, August 14, 2011
Pottermore Questionnaire
Yesterday I was reading Kristina Horner's (a pretty well known youtuber and wizard rocker) blog, and at the end of the blog she answered a Pottermore questionnaire. As soon as I finished reading it I knew I had to do my own and answer the questions! So that's what today's blog post will be. Enjoy! :)
-Danielle
-Danielle
- What's your Pottermore username? GoldNight154
- What House do you think it sounds like? Gryffindor, because of the Gold part. Also, sneaking out at night seems to be a thing that Gryffindors like to do, so that just adds to it! The numbers are also really cool, and I think it adds a nice ring to the name!
- What House do you want to be in? Gryffindor! Ever since the first book, Gryffindor has always been my favorite house, and not just because the main characters of Harry Potter are in it. I absolutely LOVE the house colors, what it stands for, and the qualities that members possess. Gryffindor also has a pretty awesome founder, Godric Gryffindor!!!
- Does your username relate to you at all? Not exactly, besides the fact that I like the color gold! Also, I want to be in Gryffindor house and the gold makes it seem like Gryffindor because gold is one of the house colors. I feel that I embody the qualities and characteristics of a Gryffindor. I am brave and loyal, and always try to do what’s right and stand up for people. Unfortunately, almost every time I take a sorting quiz, I end up in Hufflepuff, so I have been identifying with that house since day 1. However, I am looking forward to being truly sorted on Pottermore to see where I truly belong!!!
- What kind of wand would you wish to get? I definitely want and always pictured myself with a holly wand, but I’m not exactly sure what core I would get. Probably with either phoenix feather or unicorn hair. I’m really not too worried about what type of wand I get on Pottermore though, because as we all know, the wand chooses the wizard!
- Are you pure, half-blooded or Muggle born? I have always felt that I would be a half-blood. My mom being a witch from a family of wizards, and my dad being a wizard from a muggle family.
- Which day did you get into Pottermore? I got in on Day 1 of course! How could I wait?!
- What shape is your Patronus? It would be a bunny rabbit!
- What does your boggart look like? It would be a giant bug, spider, cockroach, or anything else disgusting like that.
- Would you rather be an Animagus or a Matamorphmagus? Animagus all the way! The extra study and work is SO worth it to become one!!!
- If you were an Animagus, what animal would you be? I would definitely be a cat. I love cats so much, and I am actually quite like a cat. I like to be lazy sometimes, and I am very independent. I don’t like to be told what to do ;)
Saturday, August 13, 2011
Waiting for Pottermore
Hello and welcome to the first of (hopefully) many posts about the upcoming Pottermore website and Harry Potter in general. First off, i'll let you know how you can find me on the internet! My username on Pottermore is GoldNight154 and I created a special Twitter account for it as well which is @GoldNight154. If you have any suggestions for blog posts, feel free to @reply me on Twitter or email me at GoldNight154@gmail.com
To beging my journey into blogging, I want to talk about the newest Harry Potter craze, and that is Pottermore. Now, until Pottermore actually opens to the lucky early access Beta users, we can only speculate about what it will actually be like, how we will get to interact with other users, and most importantly, WHEN we will get in!!! I'm pretty darn sure that's the the main thing on any Potterhead's mind lately! It sure is on mine all the time! On that note, I recently came accross a great blog post from @ElmBlade43 on Twitter about possible days that they will start sending out welcome emails. They listed possible reasons for August 14th-17th and pretty much all of them had at least one convincing fact that would lead you to believe that it's the right day. Alas, we will not truly know until we A) see the sign-in button reappear on Pottermore.com, or B) get the email ourselves! I myself check my email, Twitter, Pottermore.com, and the Pottermore Insider Blog multiple times a day! Nothing ever happens though. However, seeing as I got in on Day 1, I hope to get my email soon! You can read the original blog post here: http://elmgoestohogwarts.wordpress.com/2011/08/13/owl-watch-2011/
As you probably know by now, successful early access Beta registrants were sent a Congratulations email a few days ago, confirming that they would be gaining early access to Pottermore. While I was happy to receive mine and excited to get an official Pottermore email, it did not give ANY new information. I believe it was sent merely as an attempt to calm us down and get us to stop bugging them! However, it was confirmation nonetheless, and probably worsened the anxiety and excited that Potter fans had!
My personal theory on when the first set of welcome emails will be sent is Monday, August 15th. The first reason is because it is the exact middle of the month, and the congratulations email stated that the welcome emails will start to arrive "mid-August." The second reason is because it is the beginning of the week, and I feel like J.K. Rowling wouldn't send out emails randomly in the middle of the week. The third (and most silly) reason is because I am hosting a Harry Potter/Pottermore Extravaganza party that day, and it would make my LIFE if I got my Pottermore welcome email the day of my party! I know it's stupid, and has no logic, but it's one of my reasons! :D
So until that fateful day, we sit at our computers, tweeting and blogging away, waiting for Pottermore. Tell me in the comments when you think Pottermore will open! When did you register for Pottermore? Let me know what you think of my first post, and have a great day!
-Danielle
As you probably know by now, successful early access Beta registrants were sent a Congratulations email a few days ago, confirming that they would be gaining early access to Pottermore. While I was happy to receive mine and excited to get an official Pottermore email, it did not give ANY new information. I believe it was sent merely as an attempt to calm us down and get us to stop bugging them! However, it was confirmation nonetheless, and probably worsened the anxiety and excited that Potter fans had!
My personal theory on when the first set of welcome emails will be sent is Monday, August 15th. The first reason is because it is the exact middle of the month, and the congratulations email stated that the welcome emails will start to arrive "mid-August." The second reason is because it is the beginning of the week, and I feel like J.K. Rowling wouldn't send out emails randomly in the middle of the week. The third (and most silly) reason is because I am hosting a Harry Potter/Pottermore Extravaganza party that day, and it would make my LIFE if I got my Pottermore welcome email the day of my party! I know it's stupid, and has no logic, but it's one of my reasons! :D
So until that fateful day, we sit at our computers, tweeting and blogging away, waiting for Pottermore. Tell me in the comments when you think Pottermore will open! When did you register for Pottermore? Let me know what you think of my first post, and have a great day!
-Danielle
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