GETTING STARTED
G E T T I N G S T A R T E D
Here are some things you might want to do to get your new journal set up and ready to play!
1. Turn Off Customized Comment Pages. Since this is a journal-based game, anyone who wants to comment to your character will have to go into your character's personal journal to do so. Your layout is certainly very pretty, but they're not always the easiest to read! Especially when threads get long. To fix this, go to Customize Your Theme and scroll down. There will be an option that says "Disable customized comment pages for your journal ." Select "YES" in the dropdown box.
2. Mention Important Character Information in Your Profile. You don't have to do any fancy coding (unless you want to!), but it's really helpful to mention the basics about your character in your journal profile. House and year are the most important, as well as any prefect or quidditch positions. If you like, you can also add what classes and clubs they are in, and even information such as what type of wand they have, where they live when not at school, their blood status, or things like that.
3. Post an HMD. An HMD, or "How's My Driving?" page is a place for other players to direct comments or constructive criticism on your playing. We don't require personal HMDs, nor participation in the game-wide HMD, however, both are strongly encouraged. After all, no one is perfect! And sometimes it's nice to hear things you're doing right as well! An HMD can simply be a post in your character journal asking "How am I doing?"
3a. Anon Commenting, IP Logging, and Screening. Some people choose to allow anonymous comments to their HMDs, in case people are nervous about leaving criticism logged in. This is also optional, but if you are open to receiving anonymous comments, go to your account settings privacy tab. Find the dropdown menu beside Enable comments and choose "Allow comments from everybody." Most of the time, those with anonymous commenting turned on will also disable IP logging, to make sure comments are completely anonymous. On the same privacy tab, a few lines down, you will see IP address logging. Choose "Log IP addresses of nobody" from the drop down menu.
If you would like to have HMD comments screened (meaning no one can see the comments except you and the person who posted them), select that option in the post entry window, NOT in the account privacy page (doing it from that page will result in screening replies in all your entries!) When you go to post your entry, beneath the entry box there is an option for Comment Screening. You can choose "All Comments" or "Anonymous Only" from the drop down menu, depending on your preference.
4. Backdate OOC Posts. In setting up your journal, there are a few OOC posts we ask people to make, such as the permissions post and the optional HMD. Many people like to post their application or Character Relations charts as well. However! Again since this is a journal-based game, these posts will show up on your fellow players f-lists, which can be a little cluttered, especially if there are several OOC posts at once. On the Post an Entry page, there is a line that says Date:, followed by the date and a small link that says "Edit." Click the edit link, and then check the box that says "Date out of order." This will make it so these posts do not show up on other people's friends pages. (You can also set the date to sometime in the future, ensuring that these important posts will show up first when someone looks at your journal.)
5. Check Out the Journal Guide. The journal guide is a post detailing the mechanics behind the magical journals that your character will be using to communicate. It outlines what the journals can and cannot do, as well as how the journals look to the characters. If you have a question about the journal system that isn't answered on there, feel free to ask it!