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[Albus-wan]

I think it's time to make this thing official. By opening this thread, a movement which was heretofore a grassroots uprising among VTM membership interested in helping as many other people as possible to discover what we have long known (i.e. that Veritaserum is the best HP fansite on the internet) will become a formal and official organization consisting of all those who believe that VTM deserves mountains of praise and respect from the HP universe and it hasn't received all that it's due just yet.

What this thread is:
First of all, this thread is the means by which you can join the Institute for Nabbing Veritaserum the Attention It Deserves (I.N.V.A.I.D.). To join all you need to do is post in this thread. If you like you may post a brief introduction along with a short entry explaining what you think sets VTM apart from other sites (an introduction is by no means necessary, especially if you feel you've posted introductions too many times already ).

Also, this thread is a think tank. Currently, we have just one real operation under the umbrella of INVAID, which is that of raising VTM's rank on the Google search page; however, we hope that INVAID will be able to spearhead a variety of future campaigns to help others discover the virtues of VTM. This thread can be used for people to suggest and discuss the feasibility of future operations.

What this thread is not:

While we do hope people will support our efforts to bring fame and glory to VTM, we do not want to depart from the values and ethics that have always been supported by VTM. This means that we do not want, as Louise puts it, to be "in your face" with any of the tactics we use. Membership in INVAID is not a license to shout down or in any denegrate those who have not yet become believers in VTM. VTM, and especially the forums, is a place for those HP fans looking for a classy site with thoughtful, courteous, and intelligent discussion. It would defeat the purpose if members of INVAID did not demonstrate the type of class expected of the VTM membership.

Not all of the details have been worked out as far as FAWKES and GO PEEVES are concerned. I am loath to begin too many new threads in this wonderful new forum without the consent of a Wizengamot Elder, as I would hate to depart drastically from their vision of what the forums are all about. Until we begin a thread for a new project such as FAWKES and GO PEEVES, this thread may be used to discuss the details of such projects; however, once a project thread has been begun, please try to limit discussions about the strategies and successes of those projects to the project thread. Since this thread will contain the INVAID membership list, I don't want members to get lost. Simplicity is a key to our success.

Now that that's out of the way...

Let me introduce myself. I'm Albus-wan. People call me Albus-wan or Albus, and some have started just using my real name. I live in North Carolina and am a doctoral student comajoring in Bioinformatics and Statistics hoping to use my education to help design pharmaceuticals using genetics to increase drug efficacy and reduce adverse side effects. I have a lovely wife and a toddler-aged boy, and one on the way. My family is my life.

I guess I've made VTM my hobby. VTM has become my HP site of choice for a variety of reasons. It has a pleasing layout--not too busy, but plenty creative. More than the layout, though, the site rules and moderation have created an appealing atmosphere where new members feel welcome and discussions are intelligent and well-thought. Because people are encouraged to stay on topic, it's easy to navigate through the topics and participate in the discussions because you always know what's being discussed by reading the title. Rules against netspeak and one-liners help take some of the juvenile edge off discussion about "children books" (in quotes because they have obviously reached an audience that goes far beyond the child/adolescent market). This allows child-like enthusiasm to benefit from more mature insight and vice versa. I truly believe this is a gem of a site and know that if more people were aware of the site they would love it as I do.

With that said, we welcome all who would like to participate. Welcome aboard!

INVAID member list (in alphabetical order):

1. ~Weasly's wizard wheezes~
2. #tigerlily#
3. Albus Dumbledore
4. Albus-wan
5. Allie
6. Amyrat151
7. beyond_the_veil
8. big_al
9. Bumblebee
10. Caoo
11. Capricorn
12. ChoChangizHot
13. claireelizabeth
14. corijp
15. CrazyNutt-Nutt actually my name
16. Death Eater By Nature
17. Drinotonks
18. Dumbledoreisalive
19. El cheeser puff
20. Esrb99
21. etphonehome
22. felix_felicis_444
23. firecrab
24. Ginevra
25. Golden Phoenix
26. HaRRYPoTTeR FReaK
27. Herm-own-ninny809
28. Hermione_Resilda
29. hogwarts
30. hov32
31. hp6
32. HPFan792
33. jacelyn
34. james pickles
35. Jordan
36. just_like_hermione
37. Just the Droobles
38. kool kat
39. Krieltje
40. laudine
41. lilyluvr
42. Liz Sharpe
43. Long Live the Weasel King!
44. LouRan20
45. lozza-cm
46. lucky ducky
47. Magic Khrixx
48. Mastervidit
49. Matthew
50. matty-g_101
51. merlin23
52. MIKOH
53. Mistress Of Magic
54. MistressofShadows
55. Moon(I luv you Luna)
56. my_erised
57. NickHilton
58. NyMpHaDoRa
59. Oliver=love
60. padfoot17
61. passerby
62. PhoenixTears
63. pinkbubblegum
64. quidditch rocks
65. razzberry2
66. rjtwerp
67. Rohit
68. ronozzy_82
69. SlitherensLocket28
70. smurfishpotterluver
71. Solo
72. Spencer Potter
73. the_animagus
74. traz-ak
75. the_prophet
76. The Silver Unspeakable
77. TriadOfDarkness
78. twiggysun
79. Velvet
80. VoldemortIsGod
81. Ygraine
82. Zophael
83. zyra123

[Last Memberlist Update: December 21, 2006]

This post has been edited by Jordan: Dec 21 2006, 09:40 PM

[Hermione_Resilda]

You know I'm all for it! Great job on starting, Sam. Let's see..about myself..
You can just call me by my name, Resilda, if you want, or Hermione. I'm almost 14 years old, live in Missouri, and I'm gonna start high school in August, if that's interesting, heh.
And well, I'm basically a huge HP fan (aren't we all?), and love discussing anythig concerning the series.

What I love about VTM was just said in the post above me. From the fading movement of going from page to page, to the sunset. The fact that the staff go so far to do something for the fans, keeping it a family site, with actual rules that make sense.
Loads of info on here as well, from the birthdays of the cast, to icons. I did love HP before coming to the site, but VTM really catched me up on a lot of theories, and made me more avid in discussing.
So, yeah, my reasons for a great site.

[lucky ducky]

Yay! We finally have I thread! I'm hoping we get the attention we deserve!

So, about me...
I'm 11, almost (i guess) 12, and I'm going into 7th grade next year. I live in the suburbs of Washington, DC. I actually found out about VTM last year when I did a google search.I thought that the news was acurate, I loved reading on the theories, and also liked the cartoons. I just recently started in the forums, and so far I think we have the best forums around. It's like one big family (I basically know half of the people on here) I sincerely think we need the attention we deserve!

-Lucky

[Capricorn]

Count me in! Oh yeah, I'm verrry tired of all those other HP sites at the moment, which aren't a patch on our beloved Veritaserum!

Ok, about Vtm and me... Erm, this is my cyberhome. I've met the coolest people here, and had the most wonderful discussions, chats and debates with Vtm'ers and it's for the simple reason that the people who hang out here have class. The Internet's huge, and finding people who've got something to say is difficult, but Vtm has the ability to attract them for some reason (some say it's the rules ), and I've been having a ball since I got here.

I think the one thing that sets Vtm apart is the quality of our discussions. Yeah yeah, it's been said over and over, but until the right person (won't name names ) realises that, it can be said a few times more. I constantly marvel at the stuff that come out here, about HP and about other real life issues. I could probably carry on for ever, so I won't. I'll stop. *fighting the urge to continue ode* NOW.

Right, anyway, I'm all for nabbin' Veritaserum the respect and recognition it deserves, so I'm proud to be part of this noble effort!

Quickedit>>Wow, that was fast Sam!

[Jordan]

Wonderful post Sam Albus-wan. Glad you took the time to make this thread; we need more people like you around here.

I want to first start off by saying (regarding Project FAWKES) that if you haven't already PLEASE read Darren's post here. It tells us the background information on how exactly Google works with PageRank etc... With that said, I guess I'll introduce myself.

To all who don't know me, my name is Jordan - both in real life and on the forums. I've been around since September 2005 and used to always lurk in the fanfiction end of the site during my newbie era. I never once dared to post on the main forums (out the FF area) - don't ask why. I finally got to stepping my foot through and taking a peek back in November; and it was a heck of a new world for me.

I work with the general layout and formatting of the forums as well as the main site. I'm currently ageless so don't ask how old I am. (If you really want to know, it's in my profile). VTM has always been my favorite place to be during my work breaks and just in most free-time. I'm always around here and if not then I'm probably on vacation - but even then I bring the necessary internet accesories.

I've been a fan of the Harry Potter series for as long as I can remember, which is a long time. I find the books very well written and they have matured a great deal over the years. Notice how the Sorcerer's/Philosophers Stone was meant and classified as solely a 'Children Book Epic'. As most have pointed out, it's grown quite a bit over the series.

I'm a fan of the movies as well and I like the way that the movies are directed, with the exception of The Prisoner of Azkaban - you can find my rant about it somewhere around here. I think that the cast is well prepared and they each have their unique acting skills, which gives much more of a dynamic to the movie.

I think that this project group (INVAID) and the specific issue(s) we're tackling (FAWKES) are two incredible tasks we as a community have taken up. I've seen alot of signatures around which promote the project and I think that's just how excellent and supportive we are of Veritaserum.

Now that the ball is rolling, let's get this show on the road!

[passerby]

Yay!! I shiny new INVAID thread! Shiny! I'm in!

I may or may not have written introduction elsewhere. . .perhaps there's one in the Great Hall? I think I must have put one there. Small bit about me. My real name is Janet. I'm 29 (that's almost age-less, right Jordan?). I'm married with two toddler aged children. I talk a lot and seem to have an opinion about everything. (Feel free to tell me to "shut-up" in your head, because I probably won't listen if you say it out loud. )

I cam accross VTM around January of 2005. I mainly hung out in the main-site theories offering my two cents worth of opinions in the comments there. I meandered around for a bit in the forums as a guest and finally joined in May. I really enjoy the intimate feel of these forums! You know people are out there and you know that they're reading and responding to your ideas! I had been on a few other HP sites, and quite frankly, they were difficult to navigate and didn't offer the friendly feel of VTM. This site is awesome in it's up-to-the-minute HP related news and it's way of making you feel valued and at home.

I think that we can certainly all pull together in an organized way (thanks, Albus!) to definately INVAID from other people, be it through FAWKES/GOPEEVES, or any other brilliant scheme!

Happy Day!

[Triad]

I'm all for pumping up Veritaserum! So I'm in for sure!

About me hey......Well I'm Tahra, known as Triad on here. I've been around since the dawn of time. I've been a Mod since....well, forever. I live in Australia so half the time I'm on at night to be able to talk to my fellow members. Which is ok I guess. I love to make people laugh so I daresay some of my posts in here will contain some form of amusing spiel. I can be serious to though. Especially when it comes to certain other sites taking all the glory when Veritaserum is so much better then them!

Why am I here I hear you ask. Well for two reasons. One I love Harry Potter and Two I love this site. It's brilliant. I've watched it evolve. I've seen many members come and go and I absolutely love having in depth conversations with people who know their stuff! Ok so that's like three reasons. The Mods are brilliant, the Admins rock and the members are fascinating. Who wouldn't want to be on here? In my world there are two types of people. VTMers and those who have yet to discover Veritaserum. So we need to show them the way.....make them whole. Let them in on our little secret. So yeah.....count me in!

[james pickles]

Oh that's good, we finally have a thread, I will put a link in my signature.

About me: My name is James, I am 14 years of age, I live in England. I stumbled upon Veritaserum when I was on MuggleNet and I clicked on links and the website was there, I thought that seems to be a good site and I started coming more and more regularly and here I am. I like Veritaserum is because it isn't old...If you look at the Leaky Cauldron and MuggleNet, the website is always the same, things are always changing for the best here. I like Veritaserum because it has a lot to offer, the forums, the chat, all the theories, fan fiction, everything. It is all fun. It very welcoming for newbies. We all love Veritaserum and we want to get more people to know about it. I love most of the people here already, I have only ever felt squared up and disliked by a few. So yeah, I'd like to be apart of I.N.V.A.I.D

PS. Why don't we have signatures in this thread?

[Krieltje]

Count me in!

I'll also post a short introduction about me. On the forums I'm known as Krieltje, but also with my first name: Marieke. If you see me around, call me whatever you like, I always respond. Il live in Europe, the Netherlands to be precisely. To support our first big project I'm active to get VTM higher at the Dutch google search engine, though I also click while I'm on the English google.

Like everyone else, I love Harry Potter. When the sixth book came out I wanted to share my ideas and theories about what was going to happen next, and went on a search for a place where I could so. After some time I came around VTM, and I was a total addict after a week. The members were great, I had a wonderful warm welcome from one of the Mods and the whole place fellt like home. I think it's already obvious why I want to join INVAID, VTM deserves all the attention it can get. In my opinion it's the best HP site around the web and we should share this little piece of paradise with as many other HP lovers as possible!

[Bumblebee]

Wow, it's time to I.N.V.A.I.D.!

I think it's high time the poor people who get directed to spam-infested sites find their way to VTM when they want a good discussion. I found it almost impossible to have a good discussion on Mgglnt and information is so hopelessly embedded in fluff that you don't want to go there.

I don't remember how I found VTM, but from the moment I found it, in the summer of 2005, I liked it. I lurked for a few months and then I became a member -- Alba Bumblebee, at your service. (If you want to know more about me, just look at the profile and my posts.)

I love the look and feel of VTM. When I came on board, the Muddy Footprints were still operational in their quirky messy maraudering way, and even their occasionally putting my screen in TILT mode was in character. The parchment, the layout, the logo -- let the truth be told! -- I loved it from the start. The Forums are well organised and offer a plethora of interesting discussions. The atmosphere is friendly and open, the people I met here are wonderful and it seems to me that here we can all share our love for the world and the characters that JKR created as safely, freely, directly and honestly as is possible in an open forum, and better than in other places. VTM is like a wonderful common room that I can go to and meet friends.

There must be a lot of people out there who'd love to join us if they only knew about us! Now if you'll excuse me, I have to see if I can come up with a few brilliant ideas on how to get them to find us ...

[zyra123]

At this rate we're doing, we'll be in several pages before long!

Excellent first post, Albus!

Anywho, let me introduce myself, I suppose (I'm bad at it so you need to excuse me). You can call me Zyra and I'm from Malaysia. I've been here ever since I started reading Harry Potter which is not that long ago compared to most of you here. It was after I came back from watching PoA. When I first started to go to HP's site, it was MN, VTM and another one from my country. I left MN cause it's too crowded there and I felt like an outsider almost of all of the time (and worse when I read their editorials, I don't get what they were on about most of the times! I keep thinking, are we talking about the same book here??). The other one I left because they were talking about the Olympics (it was in 2004) more than HP! I mean, c'mon... what's the point of building a HP site?! I fit right in, in here and everyone are so friendly. People refer to one another by name and quoting other people. There's actually a real discussion going around! I have never left since.

When I came across a magazine on HP's fansite, they didn't listed VTM as one of the popular one. My intention to buy it in the first place just 'poofed' into thin air. To me, obviously that magazine haven't been to enough fansites...

I think VTM is the best two years ago, and my opinion are still the same now. VTM is the best and it should indeed receive more attention it deserves!!! Go INVAID, Go VTM!!

[beyond_the_veil]

Count me in.

Well here's a brief description of me. I'm Fiona, i'm 14 and i live in the brilliant village of Ballater in Sunny Scotland! I've only been here 4 or 5 months but it seems like i've been here for ages. I think i found the site through google but i can't remember. I was impressed by the quality of the site, so i decided to join the forums and have been having a great time ever since. The mods really welcomed me and i've talked to some great people through the site.

VTM deserves more recognition for the great site it is!

Go I.N.V.A.I.D

[Matthew]

Well, I'd like to join INVAID! Let's see...

My name is Matthew, I'm 16, I live in Wichita, Kansas, and I started Veritaserum in July 2003 and am absolutely thrilled it has such a devoted following now! I first read the Harry Potter books in 1999 back when I didn't have 5-6 hours of homework every night and spent all of my spare time reading. I read the first 3 books as well as about 50 others the first semester of third grade, so I wasn't really obsessed with them at the time, but I was still at the bookstore on July 8, 2000 to get the fourth book. (By the way, was it just me, or did any of you think you'd picked up the wrong book when you started GOF for the first time? The other three all started at the Dursleys, and the first chapter of GOF had nothing to do with Harry...I thought they'd made a mistake at the bookstore! )

I loved the first two movies when they were released, even though in retrospect, it's clear they weren't masterpieces, and my interest in the series reached the obsession level with the release of Order of the Phoenix in June 2003 -- right before I started Veritaserum.

This is the most important and potentially most effective campaign on Veritaserum over the past 3 years, in my opinion. Already, 22% of our daily traffic comes from Google (mainly from searches for things like "Harry Potter pictures," "Harry Potter videos," and "Harry Potter movie 5," all of which VTM is ranked #1 on) -- if we could boost our ranking on more frequently searched queries such as "Harry Potter," "Harry Potter 7," "Harry Potter Book 7," etc., the percentage of our traffic from Google could increase by a huge amount, which would cause the site to grow much more effectively than anything else I can think of.

I'm afraid I've babbled on a bit too long, but kudos to all INVAIDers! We can do it!

[Jordan]

Well, I'll be damned. Welcome to your own site Matt! - If that makes any sense. I'm not going to make any descisions around here yet because it's really Sam who's the main bloke as of now. But I'll give my two penneth worth in about everytime I can.

First off, I think that it's a brilliant idea that we already have so many members and this thread is only a day old. We have 13 members so far in 5 hours of thread life. You have to be amazed with that. This may just be the biggest beginning of a thread in Vtm history if we keep it up and stable.

SPIMF has a more than 90 members and if we reach that total and even surpass it, INVAID will do the trick for FAWKES. I thought over what you said two nights ago Matthew. You're right, if INVAID grows to 100 members and we each only click once a day - that's 100 clicks!

Can you tell us what the click record so far is?

Sam, Matt, Razz - what's our first plan of action for this beautiful glistening thread?

[etphonehome]

I'd like to join!

Let's see I first came across VTM when I was searching for some info on OotP. Luckily VTM wasn't to many pages down in the rankings otherwise I may not have bothered. Anyhow since I did find it and let's face it, VTM is the easiest site to navigate, I have been hooked. There more info on here than you could possibly read and forums are a great way of exploring the HP world from others points of view. Other site just don't compare.

Good luck with this thread, VTM realy does deserve the recognition.