Jules here, jumping in and adding her two Knuts.
OK guys, I was out of town all weekend and Monday making bad life choices so I have missed, apparently...quite a bit. I know Claire already made a lovely post, but I wanted to throw my two Knuts in, as well.
I'm not gonna spend hours traipsing back through the community to figure out what happened and who said what and what was said to whom about which whatever. So, keep in mind that I say all this with only the roughest mental sketch of the issue at hand.
I am part of this community because I love Harry Potter, and I love you all. We have a great fandom -arguably the BEST fandom - no matter how different our opinions might be.
Bottom line is this - odds are Galleons to gobstones that you're in this community because you love HP and you love having people to shoot the shit with about HP - and about other things, too. We all want this place to be awesome. Keep in mind that people in this fandom will always have strong opinions, since we're all VERY passionate about the amazing world and characters that Jo created.
For what it's worth, I think that we should all be free to express those opinions here, but I will add this: in the words of Evelyn Beatrice Hall - "I [may] disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." If you bring an opinion up, don't get upset if someone challenges it. (To would-be challengers - please try not to be a TOTAL Umbridge when you do disagree.) Personal attacks aren't very nice, we can all agree. If you're on the fence about a comment you want to post, take a leaf out of Hermione's book and try to keep it to terms one WOULD hear in civilized conversation.
I will now list three of my favorite things/things I love about this community, and (NICELY) one thing that I wish could be improved upon. If you guys feel like it, do the same in the comments. (I know I'm lame and this is SUPER LAME, but it's a thing I learned from my dad when I was a little girl - he would sit me down and make me do this if I was having a bad day -"What are three things you did really well today, sweetie? And what's one thing that you can maybe work on a bit?" I usually felt a lot better afterwards.) Here goes:
Things I love:
1) This community makes me feel like I'm not the only one who still hasn't gotten my 'YOU CAN NOW SIGN IN TO POTTERMORE OMG HURRAY!!!' email. It's nice to have people to commiserate with.
2) I honestly feel like there's a real sense of community here. People recognize each other, and we remember things and we care about the lives of people scattered around the globe - people we will (more than likely) never meet IRL, and never know IRL. I wouldn't recognize you guys passing me in the street, but in this community, you make me smile after a long day.
3) I love both the Intelligent Discourses we have (IF ANYONE REMEMBERS WHO I WAS TALKING TO WHEN I ANALYZED NEVILLE'S ABILITY IN THE SACK PLEASE LINK ME TO MY COMMENT, I WOULD LIKE TO FURTHER DEVELOP MY HYPOTHESIS) and the not-so-intelligent-but-still-fun-and-almost-always-hilarious-discourse. (Sparkle text, anyone?)
One thing I wish this community did better:
1) I wish we could figure out a way to get on top of the bloody queue. So many great posts, so little time.
IN CONCLUSION:
"...in the light of Voldemort's return, we are only as strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided. Lord Voldemort's gift for spreading discord and enmity is very great. We can fight it only by showing an equally strong bond of friendship and trust. Differences of habit and language are nothing at all if our aims are identical and our hearts are open."
-A.D.
I'm not gonna spend hours traipsing back through the community to figure out what happened and who said what and what was said to whom about which whatever. So, keep in mind that I say all this with only the roughest mental sketch of the issue at hand.
I am part of this community because I love Harry Potter, and I love you all. We have a great fandom -arguably the BEST fandom - no matter how different our opinions might be.
Bottom line is this - odds are Galleons to gobstones that you're in this community because you love HP and you love having people to shoot the shit with about HP - and about other things, too. We all want this place to be awesome. Keep in mind that people in this fandom will always have strong opinions, since we're all VERY passionate about the amazing world and characters that Jo created.
For what it's worth, I think that we should all be free to express those opinions here, but I will add this: in the words of Evelyn Beatrice Hall - "I [may] disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." If you bring an opinion up, don't get upset if someone challenges it. (To would-be challengers - please try not to be a TOTAL Umbridge when you do disagree.) Personal attacks aren't very nice, we can all agree. If you're on the fence about a comment you want to post, take a leaf out of Hermione's book and try to keep it to terms one WOULD hear in civilized conversation.
I will now list three of my favorite things/things I love about this community, and (NICELY) one thing that I wish could be improved upon. If you guys feel like it, do the same in the comments. (I know I'm lame and this is SUPER LAME, but it's a thing I learned from my dad when I was a little girl - he would sit me down and make me do this if I was having a bad day -"What are three things you did really well today, sweetie? And what's one thing that you can maybe work on a bit?" I usually felt a lot better afterwards.) Here goes:
Things I love:
1) This community makes me feel like I'm not the only one who still hasn't gotten my 'YOU CAN NOW SIGN IN TO POTTERMORE OMG HURRAY!!!' email. It's nice to have people to commiserate with.
2) I honestly feel like there's a real sense of community here. People recognize each other, and we remember things and we care about the lives of people scattered around the globe - people we will (more than likely) never meet IRL, and never know IRL. I wouldn't recognize you guys passing me in the street, but in this community, you make me smile after a long day.
3) I love both the Intelligent Discourses we have (IF ANYONE REMEMBERS WHO I WAS TALKING TO WHEN I ANALYZED NEVILLE'S ABILITY IN THE SACK PLEASE LINK ME TO MY COMMENT, I WOULD LIKE TO FURTHER DEVELOP MY HYPOTHESIS) and the not-so-intelligent-but-still-fun-and-almost-always-hilarious-discourse. (Sparkle text, anyone?)
One thing I wish this community did better:
1) I wish we could figure out a way to get on top of the bloody queue. So many great posts, so little time.
IN CONCLUSION:
"...in the light of Voldemort's return, we are only as strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided. Lord Voldemort's gift for spreading discord and enmity is very great. We can fight it only by showing an equally strong bond of friendship and trust. Differences of habit and language are nothing at all if our aims are identical and our hearts are open."
-A.D.