8:09 pm - Faye Fenikkusu
The Quibbler is looking for at least one full-time writer and up to three guest writers! If you are interested and have oodles of journalistic integrity, as all Quibbler writers do, check it out! Details are in the respective thread.
6:55 pm - Aurora Dior
The guidelines for requesting items for events on HEX have been updated and are now much clearer/cohesive. As always, all things pertaining to sitewide events can be found in the The Collaborative Event Calendar Forum, and should be accessible by every mod/forum mod/house staff/etc. member of HEX.
If this pertains to you in any way, please review the new post and be aware of them in the event you ever need to hold an event in which you need items.
9:09 pm - John
As Rima mentioned below, Hex has indeed moved up to the PG-13 rating from PG. This decision was made for many reasons, one of the main ones being that factually, 90% of active users are thirteen and older. Also, as many of you may remember, in 2010, we took a global, detailed poll asking everyone what they thought about switching to PG-13. Here are the results:
| Choice | % |
| I'm 13 years of age or older and I'm for the idea | 73.1% |
| I'm 13 years of age or older and against the idea | 18.2% |
| I'm under the age of 13 and wouldn't be allowed to use the site anymore | 2% |
| I'm under the age of 13 and would still be allowed to use the site | 6.5% |
With this change, the Terms have been completely revamped and updated. Some notable things about the new terms:
- Many new words are allowed that weren't before. Just because the words are allowed does not mean that one should start posting threads to say those words for the fun of it. That's considered spam.
- Words that are
never allowed are clearly defined. Now that they are so clearly defined, use of any of the disallowed words on Hex will result in an automatic Azkaban sentence. To see the list, please click the link located in rule number twelve on the Terms.
- A notable new rule that may be overlooked: If you use the [like] function in the forums, you must now include a minimum of one sentence as to why you liked the thread you are replying to.
- Our no tolerance policy for bullying is even more clearly defined now in rule number eight. Also, with all of the issues of bullying in the past year, we felt it appropriate to add a bullying policy page. This page can now be viewed by clicking the link titled, "Bullying" located at the bottom of every page.
With all of these changes, there is now a filter option located under Preferences in My Hex. Please turn this filter on if PG-13 material offends you. Parents will also have the option to leave this filter permanently on for their kids (simply contact us with the account name).
The staff and global moderators have spent months developing the new ways and system for PG-13 on Hex. The switch was by no means immediate. Everything was carefully thought out and planned. If you have any questions, feel free to contact an administrator, staff member, or global moderator.
Lastly with the switch to PG-13: The Hex staff may occasionally decide a page should not be viewable to those under the age of thirteen. If this occurs, then scripting will be used to prevent the user from viewing the particular page.
Note: If you are under the age of thirteen, you are
not being kicked off the site.
In addition to all of this, enrollment is now officially closed. The invitation system will now be the only way people may sign up for the website for the time being. Everyone is given
five invites to start. Please note that people you invite will be carefully tracked to ensure no multiple accounts are being created. If you want more invitations, ways are currently being developed for you to attain more, but in the short term, here is the break down:
- Referral Program: For every user you invite, if they join HEX and stay for 30 days (active), you get 2 invites at the end of that 30 days.
- Donations: $10 - 5 invites $20 - 10 invites $25 - 15 invites $50 - 30 invites $75 - 50 invites $100 - 75 invites
Enrollment will remain closed indefinitely. Please do not ask the staff when it will open again.
With all of this, as many of you know, this August will mark Hex's tenth anniversary. With that, the staff already has many things planned for Hex in the coming months. Along with celebrating the movie release in July, many new features are in the works, all leading up to the special day in August. It is an exciting year for the site, and we are excited for what is to come for the site as a whole.
As always, the Hex staff would like to thank everyone that participates on Hex, as all of you really are the ones that make it great. Thank you.
2:17 pm - anacrusis
Yes, it's true. HEX is going PG-13.
Many of you have noticed that the terms have been updated to fix inconsistencies, to make things clearer and there is now material that will be allowed that wasn't allowed before.
However, all the elements necessary for this change are not in place yet. There will be provisions and protections specially designed for users under the age of 13 such as a word filter that cannot be turned off until the user is 13, and even if you are over the age of 13 you will have the ability to turn on the filter to block out many of the newly allowed words.
Until these extra elements are in place the site staff do request that you show some restraint with these new rules. For example, do not post thread titles which include the newly allowed words until you see a new newspost outlining the more specific details of this move.
If the staff feel that material posted does not show the proper restraint then it will simply be edited.
Thank you for your patience during this change.
9:01 pm - MuggleBornMegan07
Sick of moping about the Great Hall, studying for OWLS and falling asleep every single History of Magic class? Fear no more, it looks like an escape's come to whisk you away... Actually, it's more like a tornado, literally whisking you away to a different land. Something weird's going on, and it looks like Dumbledore is to blame! Come join us in our Wizard of Oz themed adventure, because there really is no place like home.
10:44 pm - Faye Fenikkusu
This issue of the Quibbler, our New Year's Resolution was to look at the brighter side of life. And what could be brighter than PUPPIES AND KITTIES? We cover everything from the cuddly armpits of lorises to how to tell if your cat is a ninja. You'll be squeeing so much, you can barely laugh! (And you won't, because the Quibbler is srs bsns.) Read it HERE.
If you have any questions or concerns about the Quibbler or its content, please owl myself or one of the moderators in charge of publications: Theny, Tori Tendleswift, or Aiden Jakorr. Thanks and enjoy the issue! :)
11:14 pm - Aiden Jakorr
Congratulations Ravenclaw for winning the second round of HEX Debate! With a score of 51.25, they receive 10125 house points. Hufflepuff, with a score of 36.88, receives 6188 house points.
BE ON THE LOOK OUT FOR THE NEXT DEBATE- it will be happening in a few days!
9:32 pm - Xeneixian
Virtually every
single day, I get owls asking me when site-wide Quidditch will be back up and running, but up until now I've had to tell people that I wasn't sure, but that we were working on it. I'm pleased to say that I think we're finally getting there! About a year ago, developments for one new Quidditch system went into beta testing. Now we've got another that we'd like to try out.
If you are interested in helping us out, send an owl to Madame Hooch with the following information:
- Name:
- Availability in the next month:
- Role-play experience:
- Past experience with HEX Quidditch: (not required)
I should get back to you about how we will be testing the new system (and when) within the week. I will post in the thread in the Entrance Hall when the beta testers have been chosen.
Thanks, and good luck.
These are now closed! Thanks to everyone who applied. We'll let you know who the testers are in a few days.