About The Floo-Between Duel, Guidelines and FAQ Options

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We don't know how it happened. Honestly! But somehow a portal has opened between our network's server and the Floo-between!

What's the Floo-between? It's a sort of wizard version of the internet which they call the Floo Sharing Network. It connects users the Floo Network and allows them to share the contents of scrolls, book, paintings, photographs, etc. with other connected users.

Imagine our suprise to find that the Floo-between has a site similar to ours, where magical folk who have read the Harry Potter books are writing collaborative fan fiction! It's true! And - somehow - a gateway has opened between our beloved www.projectferret.org and the Floo-between's fsn.projectferret.wiz.

Suddenly we're finding that personalities from the Magical World are visiting our site and participating in our projects and chats!

The Challenge:

Registered members of Project Ferret will adopt characters from the Harry Potter books and write in a series of Harry Potter fan fiction challenges as their chosen characters would. They'll choose screen names and avatars for their characters (what would Professor Snape's screen name be, or Luna Lovegood's avatar?) and participate in chat with each other.

Members will rate each others performances and the top scoring participants will win prizes.

Here are the guidelines:

1. Eligibility:

Participants must register as members at Project Ferret and validate their e-mail addresses. (Member groups admitted: Future Ferret, Ferret Fan, Ferret Fuzz and Formidible Ferrets) At Project Ferret, new members are usually required to submit to a "Future Ferret" fiction challenge before they're permitted access to post in other projects around the site (to uphold a standard of writing quality in our collaborative work). For this duel, any and all registered members will be allowed to participate. Future Ferrets' access will still be restricted to the Floo-Between Duel forum and the So You Want To Be A Ferret forum until they are promoted to Ferret Fan status by an administrator.


2. Content and audience rating:

Participants must be familiar with Project Ferret's Site Guidelines and may only post material which is suitable for a general audience. Any inappropriate material (violence, sex, profane language etc..) will be deleted and the poster will be banned from the site.


3. Choose a character:

Participants may choose characters from list provided below for each round of the contest. You will preface each post by your characters using a form we've provided below in Guideline #8. A copy of the form's code will be provided with each round mission, as well. You may choose as many characters as you want (there will be more than one Snape, Harry, Ron.. etc…) and each character may write as many submissions as you want for any round.

When you choose a character, you must choose a screen name and provide an avatar for him/her. Every character you use in the duel must have a profile submitted in the Profiles topic, and every post by the character must be prefaced by the Character Form provided in every reply window in the Floo-Between Cross-over Forum. You may also submit/use a signature (also provided in the form), but it isn't mandatory. There will be a prize awarded to the favorite signature, so you may wish to.

A note about Avatars:

If you would like to use one of the avatars already available on Project Ferret for this duel, you can. Just click here and choose one.

If you want to use an original avatar, you'll have to find a place to host it. If you don't have your own web space, see this list of places that will host images for you:
Free Image Hosting

Although we'd love to see some more obscure characters participating, it would be very difficult to rate them on characterization accuracy. Characters whom we know to be dead (and not ghosts) or who are portraits may not participate (you may not choose James or Lily Potter, Sirius Black or his mother, etc…). Please choose from the following list:




4. Write in character:

Participants will write fiction and chat as their characters would. (For example, if Hermione Granger writes Harry Potter fan fiction, you can bet her grammar is impeccable and she never uses slang unless the dialogue requires it. She might even provide bibliographical information to support magi-scientific or historical facts.) In the Floo-Between, the interactions are as anonymous as they are on the Muggle Internet; remember that when your character interacts with another in The Floo-Between Chat topic. (No characters will bicker with each other overtly, though they might drop little jibs and jabs which are "technically" annonymous. For example, though Hermione will know who Harry and Ron are (as do we all) in spite of their screen names, she can't openly bother them about getting their homework done. She might make a pointed comment or two to "High Flyer" or "Dispizes Maroon" about how limited time is before Binn's parchment is due though.)

In summary; for Round One (Profile and Chat) your chosen Floo-Between user(s) will create a profile for themselves and chat with other visitors fom the Floo Between. The chat is informal and in character. If you've chosen Professor Snape as your Floo-Between user, you will post chatter as Snape, using his language and wit.

Rounds 2-4 are fan fiction writing challenges. Your chosen Floo-Between user(s) will write fan fiction about Potterverse characters as known from the books by JKR. If you've chosen Professor Snape as your Floo-Between user, you will write fan fiction as though Snape is writing fan fiction; as an outsider, not as the main character of his submissions. Snape, unable to really ignore his personal feelings for the actual person-Harry, would probably like to write about him as though he is a sneaky, arrogant twit.


5. Posting:

All posts in the duel forum are anonymous. By and large, unless you're good at divination, you won't know who is posting on behalf of which character.

• Don't forget to preface every post with the provided Character Form. (This includes posts in the Floo-Between Chat) All posts which aren't prefaced by the Character Form will be deleted by a moderator.
  
  
• Make sure you're posting in the correct topic
  
  
• Please, the fiction challenge topics are for In-Character submissions only; not comments or chatter. The mission for each topic will be in the first post of each topic. If you, the writer, have any questions about a mission, post them here by clicking "Ink a response" at the bottom of this page.
  
  
• The Floo-Between Chat topic is for characters only. Please do not make any out-of-character comments in that topic. (All posts in the topic which aren't prefaced by the Character Form will be deleted by a moderator.)
  
  
• This topic ("The Floo-Between Duel Guidelines") is for questions about the Duel. The "OOC Chat topic" is for general discussion by the writers, not HP Characters. These are the only topics in this forum in which you may post out-of-character. You won't need to use the Character Form in them, either.

6. Voting:

Round 1 (Characters and Chat):

Five Polls will appear in the Floo-Between Cross-over Forum on Wednesday November 24th. These polls will determine ferrets' favorite Character Screen Name, Character Avatar, Character Signature, Character Profile and Character Chat Performance.

Each poll will list the screen names of all participants in a category. You will only be able to choose one screen name as your favorite choice for each. The top three screen names will earn Ferret Points for their creators.

• The top placing choices in each poll will earn 10 Ferret Points
• The second placing choices in each poll will earn 8 Ferret Points
• The third placing choices in each poll will earn 6 Ferret Points

Rounds 2-4 (Fiction):

Voting booths for the fiction rounds (rounds 2-4) will be opened at separate times during the contest (see the schedule below for dates; all booths open at noon Central time). You will find them here. (A link will be provided in the mission post of each submission topic.) Once a booth opens, it will remain open until noon Central time, Sunday December 5th. All booths will close on that day and the winners will be announced.

Project Ferret members will rate all fiction submissions based on the score card provided below (a copy of this will be in the mission post of each fiction round as well). Copy and use this score card to help you decide what rating each submission deserves. Please give fair and honest ratings according to the fullfillment of the following elements:


Score Card

__ Ferret Points for following the mission
__ Ferret Points for technical (grammar, spelling are consistent with the author's character)
__ Ferret Points for overall creativity
__ Ferret Points for characterization
__ Ferret Points for adherence to canon
_________________
Total out of 10 maximum Ferret Points

0 = Poor, 1 = Okay/good, 2 = Great


The submission with the highest Ferret Point rating wins the round and a prize. Writers will accumulate the Ferret Points from their highest rated submission per round. (For example, if I write 3 submissions for round 2 and their final ratings are 7, 6 and 5, I will receive 7 Ferret Points for the round.) You don't need to win the round to earn your points. Even if your highest rated submission places lower than others, those points will be added to your total.

At the end of the contest, the three writers with the highest number of accumulated Ferret Points each win one of the Grand Prizes.


7. Duel Schedule:




8. CHARACTER FORM

When you post in the Floo-Between Cross-Over Forum, you'll see a button (up by the "code" and "list" buttons) that says "blank character form." If you press that button, the form will appear in your post. Just edit in your character's details and put the body of your text in the middle. The top part is mandatory for Floo-Between CHat and Fiction submissions, but the bottom part (the signature) is optional. If you've chosen not to use a signature for your character, delete that part of the form. Here's what it will look like:

CODE

<!--edit this part with your character's info-->
[IMG]http://www.houseofhagen.net/pfimages/divider.gif[/IMG]
[B]Screen Name[/B]
[IMG]http://www.yoursite.com/your-avatar-image.jpg[/IMG]
Rank (you can make this up)
Floo Ferret
[IMG]http://www.houseofhagen.net/pfimages/divider.gif[/IMG]

(There are a few lines of space here; this is where the body of your post goes.)

<!--edit this part with your character's signature-->
[IMG]http://www.houseofhagen.net/pfimages/divider.gif[/IMG]
Your signature (either text or images)
[IMG]http://www.houseofhagen.net/pfimages/divider.gif[/IMG]

Here's an example of what it looks like after posting:


Erin_Go_Bragh

Clever Leprechaun
Floo Ferret


***Here's the body of Erin_Go_Bragh's post.***


Kenmare for the Cup!


A tip about using the Character Form:

When you've chosen a character and filled out his/her profile, you may wish to save the form with your details somewhere. At the top of every page here at Project Ferret you'll see a link to My Controls. The main page of your controls has a personal notepad where you can store snippets of code or any other text you'd like to save and keep handy. Just paste your completed form(s) into that field and click 'Update'. Now, whenever your character posts, all you need to do is paste your completed form into the reply field and add the body of the post in the middle.