#3 — November 17th

Our Mission
With Charming having grown so large, it was about time that we get up a mission statement. Now our purpose will be universally understood throughout all of our members as well as our guests and hopefully some policies and discussions will be made more clear. The mission statement has been posted and added to our newbie guide, and can be viewed here.

Daily Prophet and IC Consequences
The purpose of the Daily Prophet is to encourage IC development and give other characters the ability to associate with each other who normally wouldn't, as well as give the opportunity to create plot spinoffs, fresh ideas and to help get muse juice flowing. It is not supposed to make anyone feel ostracized, picked on or otherwise ruin anyone's plots - it is to keep our historical setting as accurate as possible. As stated in Our Mission, we prioritize the balance between realism and fantasy and put a large emphasize on IC consequences in order to keep this balance and remain true to Charming's creative purpose.

If you would like to use a plot that is more acceptable in modern day, it may be best advised to play it out with another medium. Charming was created to be highly devoted to the Victorian Era. It's what has made us unique and successful. Allowing more modernly centered plots to take place without any IC consequences would disrupt the world that has been so painstakingly established and would undermine the purpose of Charming itself.

That being said, there were ways in that time period to circumvent the rules of society. The rules were broken in secret and kept quiet. If you do have a plot that could be considered against the Victorian norm, please consider the setting. It is suggested that you have your character deal with it in true Victorian style - privately and carefully. If you would like some ideas on how to Victorianize your current plots, you can send a PM to me, Lola, and would be very happy to assist you in brainstorming ideas.

In regards to the Daily Prophet's power, a balance needs to be struck. With that, I want to establish some new rules regarding what can and can't be published.

a). Threads that take place in public places will usually be witnessed by at least one person and therefore, by default, could be gossiped about. Public places include: outside, bathrooms during populated times such as mornings, afternoons and early evenings, common rooms with the exclusion of the middle of the night, corridors no matter the time of day, streets no matter the time of day, shops during business hours, the library while it is open as well as anywhere else that another person might have the ability to overhear, see or otherwise be freely present. Privately marked threads are not safe from being in the Daily Prophet.

b). Certain plotlines rely on secrecy. Threads that you do not want the entirely populace of Hogsmeade to know about should have the very first post in the thread marked with something like this:

"Please do not use this in the Daily Prophet for the sake of plot purposes. This thread happens in private because _____ and he/she will not have been seen, overheard or otherwise noticed because they have taken the proper precautions by doing _____."

c.) Threads that are marked but are in a public place with blatant disregard to our setting (such as open public displays of affection or taboo behaviors where they could be witnessed by anyone) will require an intervention from the staff as it is considered rule breaking. Thread participants are subject to having your disclaimer in your thread ignored, but will first be given a warning from the staff. The member will then have the opportunity to adjust their thread/plot in order to better follow the rules. If the offer is declined, IC consequences will be instilled.

Again, this is not to pick on anyone or ruin any of your plots, it is to protect the setting of Charming; "allowing more modernly centered plots to take place without any IC consequences would disrupt the world that has been so painstakingly established and would undermine the purpose of Charming itself."

Our rules and the Daily Prophet guidelines have been updated to reflect these new policies and are effective immediately.

If you have any questions or need any clarification, you can PM me and/or post as a reply to this newsletter and I will do my best to respond as quickly as possible.