Hello, and welcome Blog of a Pottermore Beta. Since last summer I have been acting as a Beta tester on J.K. Rowling’s new website: Pottermore.
For tutorials, item lists, and other help look in the top menu for Pottermore Help. To find me on other sites, including on Pottermore, check out the Follow Me section in the right bar.
-Elm
Welcome to the eighth edition of Ask Elm. To ask a question: CLICK HERE.
Answers to questions below the cut… Read more
Yesterday, the internet was a buzz with two different Potter related news items. The first being a statement Reuters statement that read as follows:
Bloomsbury, the publisher of the “Harry Potter” series by author JK Rowling, also said it was counting on a new Rowling three-book box set tied into the Potter series, and a non-fiction account of spies in World War II to support sales in the coming year.
I didn’t report this yesterday, as my suspicion was that it would simple be a re-publishing of three already existing books made me wait for further information. As it turned out I was correct, as today Bloomsbury confirmed that the box set in question will contain hardback editions of Quidditch Through The Ages, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, and The Tales of Beedle the Bard.
They have dubbed this the Hogwarts Library Box Set, and it will be the first time the three books will be boxed together. Also, it is the first time that Quidditch and Beasts will be available in hardback in the U.K. They were published in a two book hardback box set in the U.S. but never in the U.K.
This news probably disappointed most fans who when they initially saw the snippet about a “new 3-book box set tied into the Potter series” allowed their imaginations to run wild.
In addition to this news, we also received disappointment in the form of a statement by J.K. Rowling herself on the status of the ever anticipated Potter Encyclopedia. Read more
Hello my loyal readers, you might have noticed some subtle changes taking place here on Blog of a Pottermore Beta in the past couple days. The most important being the fact that I have now purchased a domain name. No longer am I bound to the wordpress address to which I have been since the blog’s creation last year. Instead home is now:
Fortunately, WordPress did all the leg work for me here. Mapping all the previous entries and bringing them to the new URL scheme. Fortunately, it will forward from the old addresses to the new. So if you have linked back to one of my entries or the blog itself, the link will still lead where it did a couple days ago thanks to link forwarding.
Also, you will notice some changes in advertising here on the blog. I have signed up for and activated WordAds. This will allow me to collect a portion of the revenues from advertisements on my blog. So some of you who were not seeing ads before, will be seeing them now. (I apologize for those of you who absolutely are bugged by this, but remember that I am a volunteer and that I have to pay for improvements some how if I want to make the improvements.)
This is part of a much larger plan. I hope these revenues will pay for the domain name I just purchased, and in future fund the moving of the entire blog to an independent host. Should I move the blog to an independent server it will greatly open up the opportunities for expansion. I would be able to add a forum that would allow you all to log in and interact with eachother. It would expand memory allowing me to post more graphics and start using video. The possibilities are endless if I can get the blog to the point that it supports itself financially.
That being said, you can expect the same great content from me that you have been seeing. Pottermore 101 is almost done and should go live in the next couple of days.
Please feel free to leave your feelings on the new domain and advertising in comments, and thanks again for being amazing and loyal readers. You guys make doing this worthwhile and fun!
I knew it was coming, but I must saying logging in to see that my overall hit count had reached over 100,000 was quite an exciting moment. I can’t thank you all enough for reading and sharing the things that I have posted here over the past eleven months.
Thought you guys might enjoy seeing a few statistics:
Some thoughts on a few of these figures. Read more
This morning, Pottermore quietly went down and came back up with some changes. The biggest of these being that they added five more bits of unlockable “New from J.K. Rowling” information to the first book. More subtle was the return of friend locations on the Pottermore Gateway and the reversal of the tab order on the Common Room and Great Hall comment boards. I am particularly glad for the latter, as it had slowly became tiresome having to click on “Comments” EVERY time I refreshed in the Common Room.
Pottermore gave a vague statement on Twitter about the update, and did not bother to post anything on the Insider, instead the link in the tweet simply takes you to the Pottermore home page.
You can now visit the library on Pottermore and read excerpts from selected books bit.ly/L5kOet
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Pottermore (@pottermore) May 16, 2012The first question that leapt to my mind was “Which library?” The answer as it turned out was all three. New clickable books can be found in all three moments in the first book that took place in the library. Below you will find a table describing each books location and links to the library it is in.
It actually took me a while to find all five. I don’t even want to admit to you how long I spent scanning shelves in the Harry Becomes an Outcast moment. Finally I relented and asked in the common room about the last missing book. (Thanks Midnight Nettle!)
Locations below the cut… Read more
Welcome to the sixth edition of Ask Elm. I’m getting lots of questions now! To ask a question: CLICK HERE.
Answers to questions below the cut… Read more
Hello, and welcome to the long overdue Dueling 101! This is my guide to the dueling on Pottermore.
You will learn:
All this and more below the cut… Read more
Welcome to the fifth edition of Ask Elm. I’m getting lots of questions now! To ask a question: CLICK HERE. Hope you guys are ready, this is a LONG one. And I STILL have questions in queue. I am also responding as quickly as I can to the questions via e-mail, so you don’t necessarily have to wait until the next Ask Elm publishes to get an answer.
Answers to questions below the cut… Read more
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Ask Elm (Vol 7)
Welcome to the seventh edition of Ask Elm. To ask a question: CLICK HERE.
Answers to questions below the cut… Read more »