What is the point of this character you ask?

Why, hello all! While I really, really did not want to start a rant about this...I feel that a small, miniscule rant is about due. Seeing as I am up at 4:30 in the morning typing this because I woke up to go to the restroom, starting thinking about the classes here at good 'ol Hogwarts, and now I cannot go back to sleep. Some call may call me obsessed...myself, I like to say dedicated.

Upon receiving the permission to be a substitute professor, I sent each and every current professor a private message to let them know that I was available to take their classes if they were too busy to do it themselves. After doing so, I waited....and waited, but no replies. Well, obviously everyone must have a good hand on their own class. Perfect! I should get a good round of posting in with my student characters in their classes! Hm...well....why then do I have two characters stuck in classes with absolutely no professor to interact with? We want Hogwarts to be more active, and while others may think classes have no big part in it, I guess I must disagree.

Potions: Professor posts 04 November, no further replies, despite there being several students in the class. I would say three weeks would be enough time to wait before making a follow-up post.

Charms Class: Being taught by, dear Lord, a substitute professor. Started Sep 26th, was rolling along fairly well, class still hasn't ended almost 2 months later.

DADA: Class was started Oct 8. Numerous replies. Numerous students addressing the professor. No professor....for over a month.

Transfiguration: Last post Sep 17. That was when I joined, and I was told by the professor that I wouldn't have long to wait for the next class because I hadn't joined in time to take part in class #1. Nov 12: Second class finally posted. Ah, guess I didn't have too long to wait. Only 2 months. That class as well has had no further interaction from the teacher, though I'm not too worried yet. He hasn't quite hit 10 days yet.

COMC: Lesson begins Sep 26. Absolutely no further replies from the professor after initial post.

I'm sorry to be a little miffed, but the entire reason I created a teacher to be a sub was to cover classes if the professors were unable to. Being a professor, if I am thinking correctly, is one of those challenging jobs here on PA. I would think that to be able to hold a challenging job post, you would have a need to be a little more active than one post a month. Not trying to piss in anyone's cheerios, but we were discussing not too long ago what we could do to get Hogwarts more active. Perhaps firing some staff and hiring on some new blood would be the answer. Not just for classes, but for lurking in threads where students are being naughty. I, for one, would have absolutely no problem butting into a closed thread if the students are doing something against the rules in broad daylight.

Anyways, I believe I have made my point, and I'll end my ranting here. Just a little put out that a helping hand gets offered, and instead of taking advantage, the professors decide to just create a class real quick then wash their hands of it, leaving students with no teacher. Don't make me apply to have my own class, people! I will do it!

Wow....that sounds really rude after I read it once I'm awake a bit. Insomnia can be a tricky thing, folks.

I just want to clarify that I'm not at all angry or wanting to point fingers. My main point was supposed to be that if someone gets too busy to be a professor, perhaps the torch should be passed along or arrangements made.

Example why I believe this: When I first signed up here on my Saoirse account, I was looking only to take part in the classes, and perhaps some shenanigans with other students if I managed to make friends. I've always been more of a shy roleplayer. If Jack hadn't taken me under her wing and made me feel welcome, I wouldn't have lasted very long. *bows to Jack* When browsing through other applications, I see it a lot where new members put the purpose of their character down as 'just wanting to attend classes, and live an alternate life at Hogwarts.' Had I not found the courage to branch out and try one-on-one roleplays, I probably wouldn't be here now because the class threads are just so slow.

Anyways, just wanted to clear up that I was not trying to be rude and angry. A wise man once said, "sadly, accidental rudeness occurs alarmingly often." and so I say now.

Well the teachers guide says a class a month... so I missed a month xD My mistake. I honestly did not see your PM by the way. Rest assured I will try to do a better job from now on, and inform you if I'm too busy.

I think you're underestimating how hard it is to play a professor character and I think you're overestimating how much time some of us have to spend on this site.

Try going back and reading again the posts replying to the Care of Magical Creatures Class, for example. You'll see that most of them boil down to "Sally Smith turned up to Class". I actually also just went and looked at the Wolfsbane lesson and that's what your reply to that class is like as well. I don't really think you can have a shot at the people playing professors if your character is barely interacting with anyone in the classes. It's not like that particular thread doesn't have lots of opportunity for it.

The classes on PA are not there to teach anyone anything. They're just another RP thread and it is really hard work running them when:
(a) one person (aka, the professor) is expected to do all the progression of the thread. Believe it or not, you guys can move the class threads forward just as easily as the professors can.
(b) Nobody brings their personality to class. Nobody brings their plots to class. The reason people like Keith and Franki are a pleasure to RP with is because they bring what they've been doing in other threads to the classroom threads.
(c) Class threads are literally there for your character to interact with other characters that they probably wouldn't otherwise. Characters from other houses or other years. If your character is not interacting, if they just turn up to class and get out their books without speaking to anyone, if you only write an entry post and then never do anything else, there's no point in being there anyway. I do not know how to get it through anyone's skull that I would rather your character not turn up at all than read a series of posts describing everyone's entry to the classroom (or in my case, paddock) and then nothing in reply to my second post I have literally asked people not to do it, and of course they always do.

As to getting students in trouble, there's a certain amount of discretion we have to use. Right now, we have more people making students and that's a good thing. But one of the things that encouraged it is probably how many interesting student threads we have. So if the students are getting up to trouble, it's maybe not the greatest idea to just jump into their thread without at least PMing someone. Most of the students in PA who break rules don't do it just for thrills, they do it as part of character development. Take Alice Longbottom, for example, she's just embarked on a series of those kind of threads, and it's clear from the way she writes in those threads that it has something to do with long term character development.

Yeah actually it is Liesl, glad you noticed I did want to make it obvious that I'm not writing silly things just for the sake of it. I do have a general plan of what I want my character to go through and I think that's important. Unless you're one of those people who like to be very spontaneous. But I like planning it ahead.

As for classes, if I may give a few suggestions. These are only examples I have seen on other sites and they worked pretty well:

- Putting students in pairs. So first you wait for all the students to show up to class (or at least most of them hopefully) and you write on the board pairs for the day. This can either stay same throughout the year or change every class. And the whole point is writing down specific names. Ex: Alicia, 3rd year Gryffindor & Scott 4th year Ravenclaw. I just made up these names but you see the point. So these students have to sit next to each other and do the classroom assignment together. If you know some background with these students, you can have a lot of fun with this. Pairing up students who are crushing on each other, who are great enemies... you name it. Also, this would mean that all points won/lost affect both students in the pair and their houses. So cooperation is needed. This brings the students a chance to roleplay with someone who they never met before for example.

-Another things is homework/project. Again, this can be assigned to pairs or larger groups of students. I've seen some sites also have their students present their homework/project/lecture or whatever in front of the class. This way, this specific group of students has to work together both in class and out of class. And it's not just the professor leading the class and everyone else sleeping in their desks.

Hope these suggestions help Because let's face it, classes (both in rp and in real life) are almost always boring an uneventful. At least mine are. So this is a way to make it interesting for the students and a bit easier for the professor.

To my dear Des - I'm sorry, I have failed as Milo, and I'm aware of it. I won't even deny it. I think once he did two classes at once, all of my inspiration as a teacher left.

It is frustrating. I feel like the Charms Class One went remarkably well (I was both participating as a student and teacher there) and I think it was because people were just moving forward. I don't care if the thread makes sense, the tasks are completed. That's why I made Milo to be more interested in the goings on of the students than the class.

Liesl - Franki's interesting?! Huzzah!

Those "blah blah" walked into class responses are really tough to respond too. And I often tell my class in my second class what to do and then add a note that they are free to do it and show it to the professor without requiring a response. What frustrates me is when I post "Please feel free to godmode showing your progress to the professor as I do not have the time to respond to each one of you" and then I have three people say "Now what professor" in their response, even though it is in my previous post.

And I agree with C, entirely.

Alice - I attempted pairing people up, well putting them into groups. The problem is that not everyone shows up. And then people flounder and I get ten PMs from people saying "My partner never showed, what do I do?!" even though they can easily pair up with someone else WITHOUT my permission. Waiting for everyone to show up takes a very long time, and then most people do not respond once the groups are made. And I did pair people up based on the interaction I, as a RPer, wanted to see. I.E. characters I shipped, characters who hated each other, long lost siblings, etc.

I have also done homework, and I always try to give some options, an essay and then a funnier, more embarrassing assignment. (One option was to write the name of the person your character crushed on, so each character had to hand in their crush's name to their professor. Only about three people did that though.)

I think professors and students alike are to blame for the failing nature of classes.

I am sorry, guys. I've learned my lesson about making a post at 4:30 in the morning. I have this sleeping disorder, where I cannot sleep if I get something into my head. Usually if I do something about what is floating around in my head, it helps and I can get back to sleep. Jack has received many a pm because of this little problem before actually, lol.

After re-reading the initial post, I kind of realized how accusatory it sounded, and felt really bad. So....I tried to fix it by making a follow-up post to explain that it wasn't supposed to sound accusatory. Perhaps I would have been better off just deleting it, but I was worried that some people may have already read it.

It's reasons like these that I am usually so hesitant to voice my opinion in forums. I'm just kind of socially awkward, and don't know how to express myself correctly. I have a single track mind, and try to tackle a problem one way at a time. I suppose the biggest thing I saw, from my perspective, was a lack of input by the teachers. Let me attempt to phrase this correctly:

I understand a teacher not being able to post if the students are not really interacting with the teachers, but I guess in my mind it requires a bigger effort on the teacher's side of things to try and get that interaction. When I see a class thread where the teacher just comes in, introduces what the next class is going to be, then never posts again....well, as your normal everyday student my mind instantly screams "It's all the teacher's fault!!"

I suppose I would expect something along the lines of after having several students come into the class, to make a follow-up post for those who are roleplaying as students. My student, Saoirse, is one of those who shows up to class and awaits further instruction. Once that instruction is given, she begins to take part in the lesson. Jack, I thought you did a wonderful job with Milo. That was supposed to be more directed at the teacher who is supposed to be handling the class. He got himself a substitute, which is fine. I thought that class went very well, but then it just kind of died out. I suppose I feel it is up to the one who is the teacher of the class to either arrange for another sub, or to post the class him/herself.

I also thought Jamie did a real good job in her latest DADA thread. She waited for a few people to file in, then posted the instructions for the students. Playing as a student, I had Saoirse go through the motions, then when she finished she told the professor basically "okay, I'm finished." I know that Jamie has been busy with studying, but I guess I thought that in that circumstance, she'd find someone to finish the class. That way there wouldn't be several students awaiting a response from her.

I don't know. Maybe my standards are too high. I get very much into my character when I post, and depending on who I am logged in as, sometimes even my OOC posts sound a lot like the character I am posting as. You can see that above as Mathias. There is a reason for that, but I don't want to get too detailed into my personal details. It's like running into a brick wall, and when I see something that I view as being flawed, I want to fix it. At times it can be a wonderful thing because I never sit down and just let things happen for themselves, but at other times it can be a bother because I get overly frustrated and end up treading on toes that shouldn't be trodden on.

Anyways, again, the post was not supposed to point fingers or sound accusatory like it did. I do not feel that anyone should be apologizing. It's just my way of trying to get into action and get things moving. Apparently my motivational speeches have the opposite effect of their desired result, lol.

Well, perhaps we can turn this thread towards a more positive light. Maybe we can hash out ideas on how to get things more active? Maybe share ideas for how to get the students more involved, so that the professor doesn't feel so pressured to keep it active?

@Liesl - Yeah, I've been realizing for awhile now that Saoirse is not a very good character to have. When I first created her, I was of the mind that she was going to be a student and all I was going to use her for was to attend classes. I have a vivid imagination, and always wished so bad that I could attend Hogwarts, so roleplaying is the only way I could do that.

I made Saoirse's character so shy, that about all she can do is show up to class and wait for somebody to interact with her. Again, she is the character I based most off myself, and the goal with her was merely to attend class, so I could pretend that I was learning at Hogwarts. Had I surfed around a bit more before actually creating her, I probably would have realized that she was not the way to go, but that is my mistake. I've actually been putting a lot of thought into sending her into the Graveyard, just because she is so hard to roleplay with, and I always stick pretty religiously to the personality I have dreamed up for my characters.

Now, I have attempted to kind of do a fresh start with Marguerite. She's nowhere near shy, and is probably the type of character I should have started out with. I have some plans for her to try and stir things up a bit, so you shouldn't see any Saoirse-type posts from her.

There's nothing wrong with expressing yourself. Trust me, you can look back through some of my posts on Selwyn and see exactly what I was like when I first joined.

I think maybe the problem is that there are some sites out there which focus only on Hogwarts. I can name at least five of them off the top of my head. Those sorts of sites usually have a really strict school code, because most of the characters are students and it helps keep the site feeling more canonical.

Whereas PA is not only less focused on Hogwarts, it's also not very canon at all. For example, there aren't many places where I'd be able to have a family of clones, lots of places disallow vampires from doing magic, and I don't think anywhere else would let a poltergeist "possess" a human remains (or whatever Vito is supposed to do)

ANYHOW THE POINT IS that it's important not to forget that this is a game. I can understand wanting this to be as realistic as possible, but this is not that type of site. So when it frustrates you that things are unrealistic, you have to just think "okay, this isn't really Hogwarts, it's just a game" and that means everyone here - even the people who play the professors - want to have fun.

I play a professor! I want to RP with people in my classes! It's nigh on impossible to do when everyone's character suddenly turns into "classroom version" of themselves. But I do not want to RP being a teacher. I've studied teaching and I assure you it would be very dull.

Don't at all feel bad about raising the issue, as a member you have every right to express yourself, and if there is a problem in the site that's not being addressed, a little hostility in the tone (even if it isn't a simple issue, as is the case) wont get you kicked from the site.

Really, I'm finding myself agreeing with what's being said around here, and have nothing much more to add, other than that we are working on a very Hogwarts specific plot right now, which we'll try and use to really bring some characters out of their shells in Hogwarts - it's quite a priority for me.

Just for a few notes though, Kingsley, a month is a long time, once a month relies on the fact that most classes wont take a full month, but wont be over in a day, and thus there may be a bit of a wait (two weeks or so) but nothing terrible. Add a month to that and you've got a really long time, so forgetting one class is a big deal, especially because it is one of those high responsibility jobs. However, given the demoralising effect classes have (I myself gave the job up of late, simply because I found it really disappointing as a teacher to get a handful of "I turned up" posts then two people who tried to progress the thread) I'm not mad or anything like that. It's really quite wearing, being a staff member, is my point.

An idea, for pairs, is to give them a day or two to pair themselves, that way the active players wont be partnered with someone who buggers off after the first post.

Also, I'm going to really focus on this idea of having an RP help section, because I think it's imperative that we start to move more and more away from the closed off and subdued RPing we have now, in classes, hogwarts, and in general.

So yeah, hold out for the plot, I'll do an activity check, and hopefully that gets us somewhere.