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.
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