Other Students

[Esme Lancaster]

Hey,
So I know the suggestion for a Hogwarts Scotland group was rejected - and this isn't what I'm about to ask for, however what I do think may be a good idea is simply an "Other Students" group, similar to how we have Other Employees. There wouldn't necessarily need to be a forum specifically, but with the emerging information regarding schools such as Ilvermorny, Castelobruxo, Uagaduo, Mahoutokuro and Koldovstoretz, it's allowing people to expand their foreign student age characters. I thought perhaps to both identify characters that fit into the category of foreign students and make it easier to search for them for plots, they might benefit from having their own group.

 

[Riley Sparkles]

Hi Jesse,

We've always acknowledged that there are other schools as we mentioned when we discussed why a Hogwarts Scotland group wouldn't be created and while it could be useful, there isn't a great deal of students or characters from other schools. We don’t really see the need to create another group that will be used infrequently, especially since there would be no difference between being in an 'other student' group and being a regular ‘member.’ The permissions would be exactly the same. Member tags can always be used to state what school the character goes to.

Thanks
~Donna

 

[Justin Cliffeton]

Hey Donna,

Jesse told me about this when he posted the suggestion & the first thing that I thought (remembering what you told me when I suggested a HS group) was that since there isn't a real need for Beauxbatons & Durmstrang groups anymore, we could always just combine them into this group.

 

[Wren Louise]

I completely appreciate why it's not an option that staff are interested in changing, but I would like to drop in my two cents.

Durmstrang and Beauxbatons are canon, of course, although there are one or two other foreign schools mentioned in J.K.Rowling's books. They're decent enough usergroups, but they only cover two very specific areas of education available.

I have a lot of home-schooled students, and most of them are in Members or Family, which means that I have a very large section of my 50-odd characters in pink or blue. I wouldn't mind a bit of diversity that doesn't require them to be put into a specific school like Beauxbatons. Other Student would do nicely, it covers a larger population of characters than Durmy or Beaux ever will.

Having said that, if such an option is not deemed viable, it's not the worst thing in the world, and I wouldn't sit in protest or anything. I'd just like to say that I support this idea, more specifically Zach's amendment to it.​

 

[Stefan Archer]

I can see the pros and cons being raised, but agree with Donna, for one, I don't think homeschooled students need their own colours/usergroup. And though other school groups being pushed by JKRowling and it makes sense that there would be more than 5 magical schools in the world, like Donna said it wouldn't change much about what those characters could do, so might be an altogether useless move. Though I can see how it might be quite a nice distinction for those within those school groups, and so that others more easily know that they are different.

The difference I think with Beauxbatons and Durmstrang is that those are book canon and we have specific areas for each of them, which is why I'd arguably say that's why we need a specific user group for the pair of them rather than have them be amalgamated into one larger user group.
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[Justin Cliffeton]

On the topic of Beauxbatons & Durmstrang having their own forums & so should have their own groups, do we really need those forums anymore? There's a lot of places on the board which get rarely used & since I can't see us having a TriWizard Tournament anytime soon, can't we just get rid of those forums and merge them into the country forums?

Honestly when you think about it like that, it makes a lot of sense to have an Other Students group - especially since we already have Other Employees, which literally does nothing except for changing group colour & also sits into the category of members or family members.

 

[Esme Lancaster]

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Member tags can always be used to state what school the character goes to.

<FONT font="sylfaen"> Member tags display on posts, not people's profile. When I want to plot with someone and I'm looking specifically for school age students and I'm told to look at their Account Tracker, it's a pain sorting through a sea of blue. It really is more just for variety and ease. I was wondering about groups like Members, Other Employees and Family - I don't know if there is much of a difference between them, if at all. Just because the permission for "Other Students" would be the same as a member doesn't necessarily mean it shouldn't be a group.

I don't think you can accurately state whether or there aren't enoug members who fit into that group without having one, either. There are plenty of groups that aren't as used, like house elves or ghosts. Other Students would easily trump either

I don't think homeschooled students need their own colours/usergroup

It's...not aimed at home schooled students.

I do think it'd be easier to collapse the current two schools into one. We only had those specific areas for the tournament which he staff don't want to revisit so it no longer has much of a point. I don't think the fact that they are "book canon" really helps. Salem was book canon and it doesn't have its own group. There's only so much information a writer can cram into their stories, post content shouldn't be disregarded.
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[Professor Cyndi Kingsley]

Spoiler

Please excuse any errors. I'm on my phone and haven't eaten breakfast yet. It's a wonder I managed this many words.

First, wow this has sparked some interesting discussion.

Again (I feel like we've discussed this before anyway. I could be wrong. See above note. ), groups are created primarily based on the permissions they would need - where does this group need access to? Is there a group that already covers that level of access? - and secondarily on their need- do a lot of characters fit into this category? Would there be confusion if they were in another group? Would this group make things easier for a lot of people? Hogwarts House elves for instance have access to school areas but no other area. There's a permissions need and need need for lack of a better phrase. We can't group them as students, professors, or staff, yet they don't need access to anywhere else so even though there aren't many who fit into that category, it's necessary. So, yes there are groups that only cover one or two or few people. And, there are some groups that have been made that lean more heavily on the need for permissions side and others that lean more on the need for need side, again excuse the lack of a better phrase.

When we're able, we try to avoid the practice of making a group that can already fit somewhere else permissions wise (though it has, admittedly, been done before by admin prior) and then hoping that a lot of people would use the group. It works the opposite way actually; We've turned down a healer group and a nurse group in the past for pretty much this very reason. I also think a bit of patience needs to be exercised here. I'm seeing a lot of talk about erasing groups and areas just to get what you want. Let's see if there's a more diplomatic option. We're always willing to reconsider things, but again, show us there is a need for us to reconsider. Perhaps starting a list somewhere where people can list their already made characters that attend 'other' schools that aren't Durmstrang or Beauxbatons? Who knows? Maybe that list is a better option than a new group? Or maybe it'll push admin to reconsider.

P.S. Also, all this talk of never seeing another Triwizard? That has more to do with site participation in site-wide plots than anything else. I'd love a reason to plan one and have always wanted a reason. Give me and the rest of the staff a reason by being active in site-wide plots and discussions for site-wide plots.

 

[Esme Lancaster]

Well when there's been comments about how the Durmstrang and Beauxbatons didn't have a lot of characters there and how it's only original purpose was for the tournament, it just made sense to suggest it be collapsed into one group. I wouldn't say "erasing it to get what we want". Makes it sound like we're demanding school children

I do like the idea of a list so I might set one up and see how much attention it gets.
Regarding the Tri-Wizard Tournament I was always told the last one wasn't that great and no one wanted to do it again.
I'm excited to think it's an option if everyone's participates more in site wide plots.