- General
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Ideas
World of Potter Australia (WoP AU)
Hello hello!
Prepare for this to be lengthy, I've fostered passionate opinions about it for a while, hehe. So, I believe it may have been mentioned in the past, but I am here writing this because I have an avid belief in the possibility for a World of Potter site to take off in Australia. How does World of Potter AU sound? xD
Yes, it would be another English site, to add to those that are pre-existing. However, the Harry Potter Australian fanbase is huge and extensive, something I can easily vouch for, and seeing advertisements for WoP even all the way down in the bottom of Australia is what brought me to these sites almost a year ago now. Australia might seem small and very far away from Europe, but there is almost 25 million people – more than some of the WoP sites that already exist!
Many Australians I know, including ones I met in real life, have started accounts on various World of Potter sites only to be deterred by the fact that they are built for other countries, not “for them”, with drastically different timezones. While many users sleep, we are awake and active; when we sleep, the sites all hit their peaks. I am an incredibly active user on various sites that operate with EU timezones and I adore the communities there, but it took a lot of time and effort for me to become an integral part of them. There have been sleepless nights on my part, in which I have stayed up until five in the morning, or woken up at three in the morning and gone to work afterwards, in order to play the games of Quidditch that are at terribly late hours. Not to mention that it can be very difficult for me when I don’t encounter my friends from the site for days on end due to the time differences which have them working while I sleep, and going to bed when my alarm goes off in the morning. We also have a very different currency which undeniably has an effect upon the purchasing of VIP.
The WoP community definitely has room to grow in Australia and reach and attract a much wider range of fans who can finally be part of a site which caters to them. I am committed to finding people to back this (starting a poll if necessary), assisting with funding, and being part of this site’s growth and development. There are actually several people who I have discussed this with in the past, for months now, who have already told me that they would be happy to be part of the site’s staff, regardless of where they’re from.
Some key benefits of World of Potter AU include:
A more comfortable, “homely” environment for Australians to connect to people who share their country, states, cities and even understand their general culture, which can be much more different than people realise;
Fewer language barriers, and greater ease of communication;
Pricing for VIP converted to Australian dollars, representing an accurate cost while simultaneously increasing the likelihood that Australians will buy from a currency that they know and trust;
Attracting many more Australians who have previously been deterred by sites which are specifically for Europeans, Americans or the British, but don’t include them;
Games of Quidditch at reasonable hours that we can participate in and attend, without having to sacrifice any reasonable sleeping schedule;
A community of likeminded RPers, and the possibility for a tight-knit WoP presence ‘down under’;
Peak time of the sites, and therefore more user activity, occurring at a sensible hour rather than very late into the night; and
The existence of a domain such as www.worldofpotter.au, making it far easier for users from Australia to find the website and join (fun fact: when I first searched World of Potter, I actually spent over half an hour searching for an AU domain before I eventually joined EU!).
Hopefully it’s something you at least give some consideration to. Thank you for your time!
Love,
Saffie
Customer support service by UserEcho
We need this!
I would happily help you with the site!
Even though I am not Australian, then I think it is a wonderful idea. We have three English speaking sites (where two of them are in the almost same timezone), so I think it would be amazing for the people, who are from the eastern parts of the world. That way they can be able to play Quidditch at a time, which isn't when they are at work or when they are supposed to sleep.
I hope this becomes a reality for all the Australian people, who are wanting a nice community, which is in a timezone that allows them to be wonderful.
There is already multiple English speaking WoP sites one is EU.
The point isn't just for another English site, but for one in this timezone. Australia's timezone is quite off from both the American times and the European ones. They don't have a site that really fits their timezone.
Just to add to this, in the wake of the amazing plots which have been happening across sites, and the amazing GMed plot on EU recently: It really is a shame as well to not be able to participate due to timezone issues, especially with how amazing the calibre of the plots are. Events will usually start at about 3am my time, and by the time I wake up, there are usually far over 100 posts. If I do either read through or simply join, everyone else will be asleep, so the plot doesn't continue until later - when I'm no longer awake - and so many new posts will arrive again then. There's almost no opportunity to actually join properly, at least without sacrificing sleep or an actual immersion in the topic/s. The cycle repeats itself xD
As plot leader on a WoX site myself, I definitely long to participate fully and time is a legitimate concern of mine. I know for a fact there'll be hours of sleep I sacrifice to get plots running in future for the rest of the site, and other times where I'll have to call in the help of other members of staff just to get starters posted when it's impossible for me to be there. Sadly I do have a life of my own so can't always pull all-nighters xD
It would be incredible to be able to have plots run at a realistic and manageable time for me and so many others who can't join and love the work the amazing plot team does! I've had discussions with people before who share the same issues as me, and hopefully a WoP AU could change that. <3
this is an amazing idea!!
I realise that it is already under review, but I would also like to ‘bump up’ this suggestion. It really is quite unfortunate for some users when they wish to do more for/with the site but cannot because of differences in timezone, which they have no control over at any time without making significant sacrifices from their real lives. We can already see users who feel they have ‘missed too much’ to belatedly/realistically join a plot that has been active during their sleep and dead when they are awake, and we can also see users leaving the quidditch team because they realistically cannot make rehearsal/game times. A site in the right time zone will encourage users who are outside of the EU and US to be more active, and thus serve as a decent market.
I agree. Feels like theres sme
*bumps*
This is a wonderful idea! Although I don't live in Australia, my grandparents do.
When I first heard a World of Potter AU site was going to be made, I was thrilled but later realized that it was scam. :(
But fortunately, this idea is Under Review, which is definitely a good sign! :D
Yes please, but not just for Australians, New Zealanders and other Pacific nations too!! I have friends from the Cook Islands and Samoa who'd love to be a part of such a site. Timezones are definitely something that isn't taken into account on the EU, UK and US platforms. Being in GMT +12 personally can be a bit problematic when I want to take part in things. Also, I would be happy to help fund the site. I'd love to chat to fellow Kiwis, Aussies and Islanders. We share similar cultures, have a shared history and we experience the world differently to Americans/Canadians/Europeans/the British. I've been a staff member on Hexrpg for years [I think I'm coming up five years as staff, 10 years as a member] but since taking the plunge into WoP I've actually handed in my resignation which will come into effect in the next two months]. I prefer WoP and I'd love to really invest in it as a site member/staff member/investor/whatever.
Just a note, I think if you wanted to include pricing for VIP on the site, AU and NZ prices at the very least should be both displayed. Only displaying in Australian Dollars might lead to some nasty surprises for some. Also, when you take into account the population of Australia, New Zealand, and the Islands, you're looking at well over 30million people - bigger than some of the populations of some countries existing sites.
I'm not even Australian but I think this is a good idea! I understand living in diffrent time zone's can be realy hard and I hope this Idea will work.
Giving this one a pokeee ♡
Also, to add on some above points – a WoP server within the general AU/NZ timezone would also serve wonders for users in many Asian countries who still wish to write in an English server. So many timezones overlap or, at the very least, are far closer to one another than we all are to the rest of EU and the US. It would definitely change so much for so many people to be included within a site timezone which is way more applicable to them – not just within Australia, but far beyond, too ♡
Also about to bump this up––time zones are a bigger issue than most people realise. A site that is active in the "right" timezone encourages user activity because users will feel more relevant (as opposed to feeling like everything happens when they're not there), more activity will generate more dedication as well as more revenue. Relevant regions in Oceania and Asia together have a much larger population than the entirety of EU combined multiple times, and plenty do speak English. With the right marketing, WoP AU/NZ can really work.
Yes, yes, yes!! I cannot agree with this more (as in yeah, we need this to happen xD). I'm on WoP UK (despite being Australian) as well as an American an European WoX and the timezones just mess me up! I've never been able to play Quidditch/Capture the Flag because it's at literally 2:00AM which is very annoying. Not to mention, that's also when the most active times are, so when I'm online there is often only half the amount of users there are at prime time. Not to mention, I run a team (grapes) and I often have to wait a while to respond/for their responses as they are in different timezones to me.
Realizes I've just repeated everything else everyone has ever said but I so want this to happen!
Yasssssss!!!!!!!!! :D :D :D
This would be amazing :o :D
giving this a bump <3
I totally agree! I don't live in Australia, but I have ancestry from there! I also travel there to visit my aunt and uncles. So it would be a great site to see! I would love to help out!
Bumping up again.
As someone who is not Australian but wildly obsessed with it and has ambitions of moving/studying there at some point, I would love to see this happen <3
Especially since, on a note of the timezone thing, I'm usually busy during the day, when EU (the site I'm mainly on) is active. At night (8/9pm) when I'm available, it's 2/3am site time and most are asleep. Where with an Australian site, my 8/9pm would be the site's 10/11am and I would have more of an opportunity to interact with people.
bumping this again, especially seeing as it's been long over a year since a WoP AU was seemingly confirmed and advertised for applications on the NB (without any update)?
Yesss, this is a wonderful idea T^T we need this! This thing has been Under Review for 2 years now and still no update xD
Bump! This would be wonderful :3
We have decided not to go through with this, as we already have 3 different english sites.
Hello,
I just wanted to have my two cents, after going through the feedback and spotting this recent decline. Respectfully, while this would indeed be another English-speaking server, it would counteract the millions of users who are stranded outside of European and American domains, excluded from timezones and currencies, wishing for an opportunity to truly join the community of a site themselves. While this does have “AU” in the proposed domain, Australia also shares close timezones with New Zealand and many Asian countries, which – as we know – have billions of citizens and many thousands of avid HP fans. Like people in European countries, an enormous amount of these Asian citizens share English as a common second language, binding them together and granting the ability for them to speak and write in a language which currently transcends national boundaries. The creation of an English-speaking site with a centre closer to the Asian and Oceanian timezones provides a common ground for the many people who still feel on the “outside” of the current WoP and WoX structure, linking them all with a common language and community. It is for this reason that most servers in modern games are split into American, European and Asian: the timezones are easily divided and a community is able to be established which truly shares a time and a heart.
We – as Asian and Oceanian people – are not part of the US, the UK, or EU. So where does that place us? Where should we go to feel like we have a home, too?
It is difficult to explain quite how difficult it is to be on the “outside” of the WoP and WoX community to those who have always been within it. But the feeling of never fully being inside the community never fully goes away. We are forced to miss all major events unless we wish to lose sleep: awards, Quidditch, the things which truly foster community and build memories. We miss site peak times and we miss the opportunities to make new friends and speak to old ones, unless we wish to talk to them one-sidedly once they’re already asleep. Our topic times slow. Our conversations and our understandings differ. Our mentions of our own customs, currencies, cultures, time, weather and more are treated with confusion and sometimes genuine disdain instead of the innate understanding which often comes from a shared European environment. At the end of the day, we feel ostracised. It is not a mark of the WoP and WoX communities themselves, which are wonderful – but it is something which could be countered through an Asian and/or Oceanian English-speaking server.
The final remark, outside of sentimentality, is commercial viability: Asia has the largest population on Earth, and an incredibly high amount of HP fans. While Australia and NZ are not nearly as large as a country like, say, China, they do have very high ratios of HP fans. These people are willing to spend money to be part of a community which feels like their own. At the moment, these countries are something of an untapped minefield for WoP and WoX. But they could certainly be profitable for a system which has already established itself in other places of the world.
To tell the truth, an AU site was first proposed in early 2019 and its excited would-be users were waiting since then ... only to hear nothing. People even sent applications which were promised to receive responses. And we can’t pretend that it doesn’t hurt to hear this now, after such prolonged silence. We only hope you will reconsider and expand the cultural boundaries of WoP to those who are so willing to join it in full.
In any case, thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
WoP’s Asians and Oceanians
They tried to create it and even let people apply as MoM and HM, but I am guessing there wasn't anyone good enough or able to do it. They have tried 3 times.
I never heard the slightest thing about this - so either it was only on one site or it wasn't that serious an attempt at all. If I'd have known they were letting people apply for jobs, I'd have for sure gone for it, but I just literally never got told by anyone xD
Most WoP sites gets asked for on EU as that is the original international WoP site. As I said, it has been done 3 times in the span of 2 years.
ooof i know there was one opening which was public on eu (applications were opened on the notice board in something like march 2019? or may??), but otherwise never heard of it either! (beyond the feedback that isss)
could have been wrong about the amount, went by memory, but could have been the Norwegian that had been there 3 times.
Yeah, went back to look, it was Norway that was done three times and AU was only once.
(quietly adding that i applied (+ ik some friends of mine did tooo) the one time i know of that it was openly advertised on eu, and was told i'd hear back more than once but sadly that never came :x was a bit disheartened hahah!)