OOC: Mod announcement regarding HP7

[kahnooloo.livejournal.com]

Hello, hello. We've been getting questions on how Hogwarts Hocus will handle the release of the seventh and final book in the Potter series. So, here's the scoop.

First off, there are to be no spoilers in the comm, pls. To this end, the comm has been switched from open membership to moderated membership for the present, until the spate of spoilerific trolls across LiveJournal communities has died down. We'll switch it back eventually, fear not. For one thing, it's just a pain to have to manually approve everyone joining. (That being said, once membership has been approved, members can post freely -- posts from members aren't going to be languishing in a moderation queue.)

Second, there are to be no spoilers in OOC chat in our IRC channel, pls. To this end, we've opened a second channel for our members to discuss the book and things related to it (e.g., spoiler leaks that people have seen on the interwebs). That channel is also on esper.net, and is called #jengahorcrux.

Finally, with reference to actual gameplay: It has always been HH policy that HP characters are to be canon-compliant through book 6 (Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince). This can't and won't change. After discussion and thought, the mod team has determined that Hogwarts Hocus must be AU after the point of book 6. There simply is no way to accommodate book 7 canon without forcing massive retcons throughout the game. It would be too disruptive.

Therefore, book 7 canon that takes place before the end of HBP in terms of HPverse chronology is fair game, but book 7 canon that takes place after the end of HBP is not. Examples of what we mean (totally fictional, btw -- no spoilers here, though oh how beautiful it would be if they were HP canon):

1) Marauders backstory that could be given in book 7: Fair game for HHverse inclusion. Marauders backstory is something that occurred within the HPverse before the end of HBP, even though the backstory wasn't revealed until book 7.
2) Book 7 for some reason reveals that Dumbledore was born in a log cabin in the Wild West and is the half-brother of Wyatt Earp: Fair game for HHverse inclusion. Dumbledore's birth occured within the HPverse before the end of HBP, even though the backstory wasn't revealed until book 7.
3) Voldemort is defeated by Sirius and Homsar joining together to start "The Jeffersons," whereupon one-third of Planet Earth is enveloped in marshmallowy Homsar exudate, like the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man in Ghostbusters only on a much bigger scale: Not fair game for HHverse inclusion. This did not happen by the end of HBP. Even if we OOCly know it to have happened, we can't retcon HH to make it have happened here.
4) Harry genderswitches to become the Girl Who Lived, starts a free-love commune with the Weasley twins, and gives birth to triplets: Not fair game for HHverse inclusion, as this did not happen by the end of HBP.


While someone with IC book 7 knowledge showing up and being like 'WTF!' would enforce the idea that this Hogwarts is in some sort of parallel, cracked-out, dead-people-grabbing pocket dimension, it'd create a lot of problems for existing characters. And while that might not be a problem with most other fandoms represented here, this is the setting universe and it could be problematic if it happened.

This is certainly subject to fine-tuning, and as always, HP character applications are subject to mod approval, so we'd be talking to anyone apping an HP character anyway. So pls not to get all excited trying to think of random scenarios in which the issue could become a problem just yet. We'll handle things as they come up, and we're flexible. Questions are welcome to the mods in e-mail or in the suggestion post, with the understanding that we're all probably hunkering down reading HP7 and aren't likely to get back to you before the end of the weekend, yo. For that reason, comments are disabled on this post. ;)