Name Rules

A characters name can say a lot about you. If you wish to be a member of the HPU forum, there are a few rules and guidelines you must follow. Failure to abide by the rules will result in your application being rejected.

GOOD EXAMPLE: Jane Doe
BAD EXAMPLES: JaneDoe, jane doe, jane_doe, Jane_Doe, JaNe DoE, janedoe3458

• Full Harry Potter names are not to be used. They are copyrighted to J.K Rowling and therefore banned from this site. You can use their first or last name, but you may not claim any familial relation to any character from the book. We would strongly advise being different and original when choosing a name for your HPU character.
• Names that are copyrighted to (or otherwise owned by) any other authors, screenwriters, production companies, musicians, artists, etc. are prohibited.
• Effective September 9, 2004, the HPU Administration will no longer allow House names to be used in user names (i.e. Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin). Not only is it annoying, it looks stupid if you don't get into the house of your namesake.
• You are not allowed to use the names of famous people. So I do not want to see a "Daniel Radcliffe" or "Emma Watson" signing up. Even if you claim to be them, real life names are prohibited.
• You must have a proper first and last name (separated by a space).
• For security and privacy issues, please do not use your real life name.
• Only use letters and spaces, as shown in the good example. No dashes, numbers or symbols allowed.
• Do not use violent, sexual or generally rude names
• Do not use titles such as 'Professor' or 'Lord' when you sign up. These are assigned by the Admin.

Posting Rules

In order to ensure the site runs smoothly and everybody can post in a happy environment, the following rules have been put together. All members, regardless of position, must follow these. Failure to do so will result in a warning from your Student Advisor, depending on the severity of what you’ve done.

• When posting make sure you contribute more than one line to the thread. Things like "Yes I agree" or "Why?" are not acceptable. It’s a waste of space and if you can’t thing of anything longer than that, don’t say anything at all. An acceptable post would have a minimum of 100 words.
• Make sure you post in the correct area. You are not to make a thread in the Forbidden Forest, which describes you eating lunch in the Great Hall.
• Please be sure that when posting, you are contributing to the thread and helping the story along. Don’t go into a thread about music and start talking about the time your dog attempted to bite off your toe.
• Do not post multiple times. If you want to add something and you were the LAST person to post, simply hit the "Edit" button in the top right corner of your post and add what you want. Do not make a new post.
• Grammar, Punctuation, and Proper Capitalization/Spacing is going to be looked at MUCH more closely. Please make a concerted effort to make your posts clean and readable. I know not all of you are native English speakers, so ask for help if you are having issues with the English language. Otherwise, expect some serious scrutiny of your posts.
• No posting of sexually explicit (or illicit) content

Spam is one thing that will not be tolerated by the HPU Admin and its moderators. All points above (aside from the second) are considered to be spam. Do not continually post just to up your count. If you are found to be doing this, your post count will be returned to zero.

If you wish to say something Out of Character within a roleplaying thread you can do it two different ways:

(OOC: Text Here)
[OOC] Text Here [/OOC]

Signatures

You cannot have an image exceeding 400x100 (width and height respectively). If you have an image larger than this, the HPU Admin will remove it. You have a character limit of 750 for your signatures. Please do not use any swear words in your signatures. If you are found to have something inappropriate in your signature, it will be removed and a warning will be issued.

Roleplaying

• Do not roleplay another character from the Harry Potter Universe forum. Quite simply you need to allow characters to make their own decisions. You cannot make them for it.
• You are not allowed to roleplay the actions, thoughts or words of a Harry Potter Character.
• Not every character in the Harry Potter Universe can do anything and everything. Power tripping is NOT allowed here, and anyone caught doing so will be one step closer to getting himself or herself expelled from this site.
• Be very careful when choosing a blood type for your character. Certain blood types/lineages are not allowed, or even possible for that matter. If you're thinking of making your character a vampire or half-werewolf, think again. Outside of Werewolf, Elven, and Veelan lineages, there's very little we allow, and even those have to be requested!
• No exlusive threads. When you start a thread, you do so with the understanding that anyone and everyone may join in at any given time. The only exception is when a thread is started by a member of the Admin for a very specific purpose (such as Quidditch).
• Please see this thread and this thread for more details on good roleplaying.

Legal Stuff
Due to legal requirements the following guidelines have been put in place:

• People under 13 may not join HPU. This is not only our rule, it is also against the Invisionfree terms of service. We are not responsible for any misrepresentations of age, and will immediately terminate any account belonging to any person(s) who are not of the legal age limit.
• People under 16 may not post or link any photos on this site without prior parental permission.
• Links to sites with content over that of a PG13 rating must contain a warning to younger members. HPU is not responsible for the content of other sites. If you click a link that takes you away from HPU, you do so at your own risk.
• Posting your phone number, real life address, or any other personal information is not allowed due to privacy and security issues.

General Rules

• Duplicate Accounts. Do not have one. Several people have been discovered to have duplicate accounts in the past. They will be instantly deleted. It will not be tolerated
• If you need a name change or anything requiring Admin approval, please contact Prof. Breena Brightheart, or Prof. Feronia Ardantane.
• Please respect those who hold a higher power to you. When warned, do not retaliate and make the situation worse for yourself.
• When editing a post, all moderators are required to "stamp" it with their name and reason as to why it’s being edited.
• And the most important rule...HAVE FUN!!! If you're not having fun, then there's either an issue that needs addressing, or you might not be cut out for the Harry Potter Universe. Make sure that you are keeping things in perspective...Real Life comes first!!!

Now you may continue to the HPU Application Form, which can be found here.