Hello my wonderfully loyal readers. I do apologize for neglecting you this past week, for I have been making the adjustment from school back to working full time in a facility where I do not have access to internet, personal e-mail, full twitter, or (*cries*) Pottermore itself. That being said, from hence forth weekdays from 7 am to 4 pm EST I am almost completely disconnected. I have limited Twitter communication in the sense that I set it up to text tweets to my work phone and allow me to text tweets FROM my phone. However it is unreliable and sometimes you might tweet me and I might not see it until much later when I get off of work. I will however respond when I get it.
That being said, if during those hours if you see Pottermore has added the new chapters of Chamber of Secrets and you are one of my twitter tweeps I need you to tweet me until I post that the new chapters are up. I need you guys to be my eyes and ears. On whatever day it opens I will be doing another live blog of my play through like I did for Chapters 1 – 4 on that day starting at 5pm EST (provided traffic cooperates). Now, on to…
This is the eleventh edition of Ask Elm and I am getting record volumes of questions. As a result I’m no longer really answering the questions in order necessarily and am trying to get repeatedly asked questions up first. I will endeavor to answer ALL questions that are submitted to me as quickly as is possible. If you have asked a question and never received a response there is ALWAYS the chance it got lost. I will not be upset or put out if you send the question in a second time. If I notice I have duplicates I will pick whichever one is worded better and run with it.
Sometime in 1998, not long after Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone was published in the United States, my mother brought home a copy of it in hardback (first edition, and yes I still have it). A friend of my mother’s at work had suggested it for my sister and I to read. I was 15 at the time, my sister was 12. I immediately rejected the notion of reading what I believed was a “kids’ book”, leaving my sister to read the book first. She has not, to this day, ever let me forget that she read it first, and that it was her captivation with it that lead to my finally reading it after her. (Thanks Sis, I owe you one!)
From that moment forward I was a self-sorted Slytherin. My sister was a self-sorted Gryffindor. I don’t know if this says something about us at that age, but now over a decade later we are still allied with the same houses we were then.
My mother bought us only ONE copy of Chamber of Secrets when it came out in 1999 and this time I let my sister have first crack at it because I was in the middle of reading something else. We wouldn’t learn until the third book which came out later the same year that we could no longer share one copy. Prisoner of Azkaban ignited a silent war between my sister and I. We were stealing and hiding the book back and forth for days until one night I nicked it from her room while she slept. That night I stayed up all night finishing it. To this day, Prisoner of Azkaban has remained my favorite of the series and I have fond memories of reading the last few chapters with sunlight creeping through my bedroom window at dawn.
The year 2000 was a big year for the fandom. Book sales were up tremendously and Goblet of Fire came out alongside cast announcements for the movies. There were no midnight release parties for the fourth book, at least not in my area. My sister and I were alone sitting outside of Walden Books at the local mall when it opened that morning to pick up our copies. That day we set out on a trip out of town and my sister and I read Goblet of Fire side by side on the road.
After the third book there was an unprecedented 3 year gap between books. The movies started to come out and J.K. Rowling gets married and has a baby. Meanwhile, fanfiction takes off within the fandom. I myself begin writing a series about an original character names Lauralie Black set in the Marauders’ time and based on the notion that Sirius Black’s sister, Lauralie, is the first in her family to ever be sorted into Slytherin instead of Gryffindor. Inventive but proven impossible in later books. (To see my long dormant FanFiction.net profile page with all my old FanFics CLICK HERE).
Hello, and welcome to Volume 10 of Ask Elm! I am getting such a high volume of questions that I simply cannot answer every question publicly. I am making an effort to answer every question via e-mail and featuring the most frequently asked questions here. If you have a question click here to ask it.
I am going to dedicate this entry to two of the hottest topics in the world of pottermore: whether ThornPatronus19 is cheating, and how are some people showing up in chapters past chapter 4 in Chamber of Secrets. These answers below the cut. Read more »
FINALLY! Sorry, I almost added the word finally to the title but then changed my mind.
For regulars on my blog, you all know from my previous entry Pottermore and Cheating that I am profoundly against cheating on Pottermore. In that entry I fingered SnitchSpirit168 as an ADMITTED cheater on Pottermore using a bot to duel for him. (See the article for details on this)
Yesterday, as many of you have noticed, Pottermore deducted points from the now infamous SnitchSpirit168. It was sort of a personal victory for myself and the others who have been rallying together to find, track, and turn in cheaters on Pottermore. Something we are continuing to do and now feel is more important than ever since Pottermore has shown they will actually take action against users cheating on site.
The point deduction could be seen clearly on HouseCup.Info and on the Great Hall boards on Pottermore SnitchSpirit was knocked down from number 1 Hufflepuff to number 6. Many people believed at first that he was gone entirely, but as you see below he is still there:
A lot of people have wondered why Pottermore chose to deduct only HALF the points earned, and I suppose this is because they couldn’t prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that ALL points earned were from using the computer program he designed to duel for him. Regardless the action is the first of it’s kind by Pottermore and should serve as a warning to you all who are using illicit practices on Pottermore to earn points.
Right now we are tracking a number of users who we suspect to be cheating. Among them are the top on the Ravenclaw board and another user who has been throwing out duels with higher than 145 potency (which is the REAL max of the Full Body Bind). If you at any point suspect that a user is cheating I advise you to report it (ALWAYS REPORT). If you are suspicious but simply don’t know if what you are seeing could be cheating feel free to drop me a line here on the blog, on twitter (@ElmBlade43), or in e-mail (elmblade43@gmail.com). Together we can ensure a friendly, fun, cheater free environment on Pottermore. It will just take time.
Those of you who have logged into Pottermore today might have noticed that something has changed. First off, when you first log in keep an eye out for a pop up in the bottom corner of your screen alerting you that you have been awarded BADGES. Then you might want to click on your house’s crest so that you can visit your own profile.
You will see that the profiles have been rearranged to make way for a new “badges” section. As far as I can tell there are only three badges available right now, but I believe this is in preparation for the next section of Chamber of Secrets which will award more badges!
Badges Available Now:
Scarlet Engine: For exploring up to chapter 6 in Philosopher’s Stone
Explorer: For exploring every moment in Philosopher’s Stone
Discoverer: For unlocking 5 pieces of exclusive J.K. Rowling content in Philosopher’s Stone
Also, while I have you here and paying attention, all of the following item location lists have been updated to include CoS (ch 1-4) items and links to where you can collect said item/info. I also made a combined list so you can see if you are missing anything.
As the Great Hall and Common Rooms have been stirred up by it in recent days, I don’t believe many of you are surprised to see that I am here to speak openly about cheating on Pottermore.
First, I want to make clear that whether or not cheating is going on is NOT IN DEBATE here. Cheating is happening.More than likely it is occuring in all houses, but some users are more blatant about it than others. The most blatant example sits atop the leader board as I draft this: SnitchSpirit168.
SS (as he will be referred to for the remainder of this post) has been utilizing a computer program (also known as a “Bot”) of his own design to duel for him. It runs 24 hours a day dueling while he goes about other tasks (such as sleeping). He is not shy about this, discussing it openly in the common room:
and also on his twitter account:
The twitter is a genuine account. When SS first found me on Twitter I demanded he verify his identity, and he did so by sending me a dueling request:
I provide these so that we can save all ourselves the “is SS cheating?” debate on here that I’ve seen everywhere else and go forward all knowing that SS is running a bot without any shadow of a doubt. Fair enough?
Now let me be clear: I do not believe he is the only cheater on Pottermore. Nor do I believe he is the only cheater running a Bot on Pottermore. However his is proven and open whereas others are suspect but not proven. Now that all of that is out of the way, let me proceed.
I have attempted to pen this many times in the past and succumbed to anger and had to desist. Finally I feel I must speak on it. As a voice in the Pottermore Community I have kept quiet about it here on the blog for too long.
I am against cheating on Pottermore in any and all forms.
That’s right folks, I am a Slytherin and I am against cheating for the earning of points. In fact, the majority of Slytherin agrees with me. I’m sure you have all had that bad egg in your Common Room suggesting someone make an account in another house to lose on purpose. As I’m sure the reaction in your common room is similar to in ours: multiple people reply saying we don’t need to or want to cheat, and encourage (rather forcefully) that the person desist with the idea and return to earning points the honest way.
Though I am sure a portion of those people go through with their illicit plans, it is not with the endorsement of the entire house. Just as I’m sure the accounts that are often found in Slytherin intentionally losing to other houses were not doing so with the endorsement of THEIR entire house.
There are cheaters in all houses but on the whole most users in all houses are not cheating.
I beg you all not to judge an entire house based on the few bad eggs, like SS, who are determined to find ways to cheat the system. Hufflepuff is being hurt more than helped by the actions of their leader board cheater. They don’t need house hate to be added to this. It does not help anyone and does not remedy the situation.
I am here to encourage you to make the right choice between cheating and not cheating. And to share with you how I handle things when I come across cheaters and trolls.
We all want our house to win the House Cup. I’m sure this urge to win was not dampened by the bonus they gave Slytherin after the last cup, but do remember that this is a game and that the more important goal for Pottermore is to create a fun environment for Potter fans to play and interact in.
Cheating, spying, and trolling only serves to ruin the fun for others, including those in your own house.
For those of you who have friended me on Pottermore you probably know that I love to duel. I duel for at least an hour a day, and some days more. In the run up to the cup it was much much more. Also, in the run up to the cup cheaters were attempting anything they could to put their house ahead of the others. Including making accounts in other houses to lose on purpose. Whenever I hit, in open duels, an account that was obviously doing so I refused to continue dueling that user. I can normally tell that person because they lose with a zero potency the first duel, and then immediately rematch me anyway. This rematch is normally ANOTHER zero potency spell at which point I start to hit decline if I see that user come up in my dueling queue. I know it can be tempting to carry on dueling someone who is quite obviously not trying, it is easy to see house points with little effort and want to succumb to the temptation. But I encourage you, if you know that a person is doing so to cease participation on your end. Then feel proud you had the self-control to do so.
Trolling and Spying are a whole different aspect of “cheating” that is difficult to deal with on Pottermore. We’ve all seen them in our Common Rooms and in the Great Hall. These users seem to get enjoyment out of annoying and pestering the people posting there. I have adopted a “don’t feed the trolls” mindset when it comes to these situations. In other words, I do not directly reply or respond to them. Instead I simply go down through their comments and hit report placing the reason of “trolling” or “spamming” in the reason box. Then I proceed to carry on normal conversation around the offensive posts. These people are looking for reactions to their outlandish statements, and by not giving them a reaction we take the enjoyment out of it for them. Instead of attempting to “shout them down” which will only lead to getting reported yourself, try to ignore them and report them instead. You would be surprised how fast a user posting inappropriate posts will end up banned or suspended.
The important thing to remember about trolls and spies posting in the Great Hall is that the house they are posting from is probably not their true house.
I want to emphasize that this is a community of millions of people, and that people are capable of creating accounts in other houses. It is easy if one wanted to smear the name of a house to create an account in that house and go trolling in the Great Hall. Chances are they are just trying to stir trouble. So do your best to not feed trolls.
Which brings us to the piece of this puzzle that has brought me to finally creating this lovely essay against cheating: BOTS!
I don’t think any of us would defend the actions of SS or any other user who has created a Bot program to duel for them. I know that nothing is more frustrating for me then when I look at my dueling results and realize that most of my responses are from a Bot. Starts to feel futile after a while, but please try not to let it ruin your experience. And again do not let it tarnish your opinion of the house from which the cheater hails. Hufflepuff is not full of cheaters just because SnitchSpirit is in their house. Just like Slytherin isn’t full of cheaters just because of the books stating we will use “any means to achieve our end”.
At the moment there is no true recourse for dealing with a Bot. You could switch which house you are dueling, if you are so inclined, but remember that there are probably Bots active in all houses and you might not even realize you are facing one. If you suspect that a user is a Bot pretty much the only thing you can do is report that user to Pottermore with the reasons you believe they are a Bot. Not all Bots are going to be as obvious as SS, as I doubt all programmers are capable of programming as successful of a program. The first thing to start looking at if you suspect a Bot is whether or not the user goes off line. There are some excellent duelers who can pull down thousands of points in a couple hours the honest way, and we wouldn’t want to start turning in honest users. Enlist help if you need it. You can even send me a message about it here on the blog, or on twitter ( @ElmBlade43) and I can check their online status at times you might not be available to.
If you have established a solid belief that a user is cheating using a Bot, the next step is to report them and to include in your message why you believe them to be cheating.
To send in a message to Pottermore follow the following steps:
Click on the “Other” heading to expand this section. You will have to scroll down to see the headings in this section.
Click on the “What’s Next?” heading to expand this section.
Click on the “Need more help?” with the downward pointing arrow. This will reveal an e-mail form to send a message to Pottermore.
After this, the actions of that cheater are beyond your control. We must leave it in the hands of Pottermore to make adjustments to security to prevent the Bots from continuing to operate on the Dueling platform. Right now a simple adjustment in how CAPTCHA works would probably hinder them to a certain point (if CAPTCHA could not be gotten around by logging off), but with things in their current programming state the Bots have nothing really stopping them from operating on site. I don’t expect this to remain this way for long, now that so many people have been reporting cheating to Pottermore.
The most important thing is to try to ignore them and have fun. Try to understand that people in the Great Hall might not know that SS and others are cheating, and try not to route your anger towards the wrong people. Remember that not everyone in one house is cheating and that no entire house deserves to be punished for the acts of a few.
We are in this together. We are family. We are Potterheads. And we can not, and should not, forget this even in the face of cheating and adversity. So please, stand with me. Stand up to cheating. Make it clear in your Common Rooms and in the Great Hall that you do not use or condone underhanded means on Pottermore. Encourage others to support each other and not hate each other. Post on your blogs. On your twitters. On your facebooks.
We are all in this together.
I can not tell you how many people I have met in all houses since I joined Pottermore that I consider to be good friends of mine. I have worked WITH members of all houses against cheating. I support all houses alike. Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, Gryffindor, and Slytherin.
And you can be a part of the team, or you can be the next SnitchSpirit. It is your choice. Stand together or let the site turn into Robots fighting Robots.
Imagine this with the words “♫♪ Everybody was ro-bot dueling”. Thought we’d end on a light note.
Hey guys! Those of you who read my Chamber of Secrets Spoilers live blog yesterday know that I myself had to do a bit of trouble shooting to get CoS to work correctly and allow me to explore. With the rest of the school getting in about an hour I thought that a trouble shooting entry was probably a good idea. For starters I will be posting things I’ve already been asked about and helped others with, and as I get more questions I will be adding to it.
If you are having difficulty and you do not see an answer here, please leave a comment or tweet me @ElmBlade43 and I will be glad to assist you in any way I can. Then I will post the found solution here for others to use.
I will also be posting help for each of the moments where you must complete something to move to the next moment. Don’t read below the spoiler tag if you don’t want to get spoilered. (IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR THE ITEM LIST CLICK HERE)
This list contains all 39 items to be collected/purchased as well as the locations of unlockable J.K. Rowling content and galleons. Chart hidden below the cut to avoid accidental spoilers.
HELLO! If you are here you undoubtedly know that this contains spoilers I think I made it clear in forcing you to type “spoilerme” into the password field that you understand that I am going to be posting details of the Chamber of Secrets chapters as I go through them before the other houses.
Spoilering will begin around 11:00 am EST today. So far the only spoiler I have for you is that ONLY THE FIRST FOUR CHAPTERS ARE SHOWING ONLINE. I will also be glad to answer any questions anyone has HERE not publicly I am trying to keep all spoilers away from those who do not want to accidentally see them.
HELLO! My journey is beginning now. I am about to hit the blue Explore Chapter button and I am a little nervous. Not sure how many of you are on here following along with me. Feel free to leave comments I am glad to chat about it here where only those who want to see can see. Read more »
Prize for Slytherin will be 24 hours early entry into Chamber of Secrets. They have not issued a date for when this is occuring, they did however state in the Pottermore Insider that only Slytherin accounts that existed in Slytherin at the time the cup was awarded will have access.
“As part of their reward for winning the Pottermore House Cup, Slytherin will be able to explore the new chapters of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, 24 hours ahead of the other houses.
Please be aware that only students who were in Slytherin when the inaugural Pottermore House Cup was awarded, will get early access.
For students who are not in Slytherin, don’t despair. The first chapters of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets will be available for everyone immediately after this 24-hour period.
From then on, all users will be able to explore the new chapters, discover new Moments and continue their journey on Pottermore.
It’s official, as of around 9:00 am BST Slytherin has been named the victors for the Pottermore House Cup.
I’m sure a lot of you have come by to see if I have posted what the secret bonus is, as I am a Slytherin. They haven’t told us yet! Rest assured once I know I shall return to this entry and tell you all.
I am so very happy! Thank you to everyone who’s ever dueled me! Thank you to Gryffindor for making it a spirited fight since opening! Thank you to Ravenclaw for always being there to duel us! Thank you for Hufflepuff for never giving up, and earning points all the way to the end!
Here’s what Pottermore Insider had to say about the cup:
“We are delighted to announce that you can visit the Great Hall to view the award ceremony for the inaugural Pottermore House Cup.
Thank you to all houses for making this such a spirited contest. We will be congratulating the winner in further detail, here on the Pottermore Insider tomorrow but in the meantime, good luck to all and enjoy the ceremony!”
