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]

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.

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

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!

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!

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!

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!

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?

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!

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 ...

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!!

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

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!

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?

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.

I.N.V.A.I.D., you can count me in, too!

My name is Ben, but in VTM I'm known as Zophael. I'm 28, a husband and a proud father of two man-cubs (5 and 3). I live in Monterey, CA where I teach the Arabic language to members of the US Armed Forces. I am not from the Middle East; I learned Arabic right here in the USA.

I haven't been here in VTM long... just a couple of weeks (but long enough to get a naughty note for my signature being too long... Sorry Michelle!! ). I only got my first copies of books 1-6 on my birthday this year, and once I read them I had to know more. I typed "Harry Potter info" into Google and VTM was #2. I don't even remember what #1 was.

All I can say is that this site is well organized and so informative that it's hard to believe there are any out there that are ranked above us in Google. I support INVAID and FAWKES all the way and will do whatever I can to get Veritaserum the recognition it deserves.

Until next time.

Zophael

Time for me to jump on the bandwagon! Like the username says, I'm Allie, and I'm eighteen years old and living in the U.S. I'm starting my freshman year at college about a month from now, and I'm spending the last few weeks of summer split between work, travel, and obsessing about school.

Onto the more important part of my personal history: I first ran across VTM in a sort of odd way. My sister and I had started visiting HP fan sites searching for the Book 5 cover back in 2003, and around about April 2004 we got some monster virus that wiped out the entire computer. We decided to stop going to the sites we'd been going to regularly (which consisted of MuggleNet, MuggleNet, and MuggleNet) for a few months because we didn't know where the virus had come from, and followed one of the links to VTM. (Turns out the virus didn't come from MuggleNet after all, but that's beside the point because once we found this place, we stayed. )

Our first contribution to VTM was in the old Dollar Words section which is no longer linked to the main site. We're the "Allie and Kristy" who submitted "R.J. Lupin" (no idea where "Margaux and Lupe" came from). I spent most of my first few months here posting in the main site theories section as "Anthony Goldstein," and I basically ignored the forums because I thought that anything that required an email address for registration would inevitably lead to a lot of spam. I finally joined in September 2004 because my Mark Evans theory (which I continuously submitted, even though JKR had already said he wouldn't amount to anything) kept getting rejected from the main site, and that theory became my first post. I'm a long-time supporter of VTM, and hopefully INVAID will be able to generate more great members and opportunities for the site.

ROFLMAO! Wow, Allie! That's a brilliant first post! Did they make you a mod right away? I would have! Inspired!

Anyway, it's good to see the following INVAID has after the noble efforts made by Sam, Razz and Co to get the vote count up! Kudo's guys!

When do we start planning and scheming? I'm getting all excited, but in all honesty, I've been racking my brains for some time now, and no form of INVAID inspiration has struck... The question seems to be how to advertise - without really advertising, because the people we want to get here will most probably be highly irritated by flashing nonsense - sigh... This is a toughy.

Well, I have a couple suggestions, if anyone's interested!

Suggestion #1: Ohnotheydidnt
I am ashamed to admit that I'm a member of the LiveJournal community ohnotheydidnt, which is one of the rudest, trashiest, and sleaziest LJ communities around that updates about 60 times daily with the latest celebrity gossip. I happened upon this community a couple months back when they posted some personal pictures of some of the HP actors, which, while I would never post any of them on VTM, are, admittedly, still interesting to look at. But anyway, my point: they post really anything and everything related to anything celebrity-wise, so after I posted the Evanna Lynch interview video on Veritaserum, I submitted it to ONTD and they posted it! Usually things are only at the top of ONTD for 20-30 minutes, but none of the mods approved any more posts for another 4 or 5 hours, so that post was seen by thousands of members (they community has something like 36,000). Within those 4-5 hours, more than 4,000 brand new visitors were directed to Veritaserum!

Of course, by the end of the day, it was 30 posts down and that was only a temporary boost, but that's still 4,000 new people exposed to Veritaserum. I linked to VTM 4 times in my post and not to any other sites...for the news post, the video, the screenshots, and then the "source" line Even though that doesn't seem like it'd make much of a permanent impact, it has the ability to over time if, whenever any big Potter news like that breaks, I or other VTMers post it on ONTD and/or similar communities on LJ and other sites like it. For exampe, ONTD always posts stuff about Jake Gyllenhaal, and most of the time, they source IHeartJake.com, which is apparently the biggest Jake Gyllenhaal site. I was not even particularly interested in him before joining ONTD, but I ended up renting 4 of his movies after reading 4 million posts about him on ONTD and now I go to that site all the time. Lame, I know, but I'm now a fan...how on earth did that happen?? Just constant exposure, I guess. Weird! But yeah, although that one Evanna/VTM post is not going to do much, if any of you all have LJs, I strongly suggest joining ONTD and submitting posts linking to VTM whenever any big Potter news surfaces. Nothing like the SyFy Awards or the OOTP preview clip summary -- they aren't really interested in those sorts of things -- but bigger things, like the Evanna interview, or the first pictures from the OOTP movie whenever they're released, new footage from the movies, the book 7 title or release date, or particularly exciting interviews. I would just post them all on ONTD, but the mods might catch on that I'm just promoting my own site through it, so it'd be quite a bit better if there were lots of us posting links to VTM in HP-related stories as often as is reasonable.

I'm sorry, I really should be able to condense my thoughts better than this. As they say on ONTD, "tl;dr" (too long; didn't read)...wow, I am on that community way too often. But anyway, it's not just ONTD, even though they're great for hit-boosting. There are TONS of other huge celeb communities/groups on a variety of social networking sites that y'all could occasionally pimp VTM on.

Suggestion #2: Facebook
My second idea is similar, but somewhat different. Facebook is the most popular social networking site that's just for high school & college students, and while I know that many of you are out of college, there are also quite a few of us who are still in that part of our lives. My suggestion here is for one of you who's registered on Facebook (I know Jordan is, but beyond that, I don't know who has it) to start a Veritaserum group which all of the VTMers who have Facebooks can join. They've just recently started "global groups," so it doesn't matter that we're all at different schools; we can still be in the same group. Again, I would start this one, too, but that would look tacky. A senior staffer on a certain other site recently started a fan group for the site's podcast, and that just looks really lame. Sorry to use a four-letter word, but it does. And if there are VTMers on the forums who are in high school or college but don't have a Facebook, get one so that you can join the group! The group shouldn't be exclusive to VTM forum members, but VTM readers as a whole, so that even non-forums members can join. The higher the group member count, the better! The other site's podcast fan group already has 160 members...I'm sure we can beat that!

...to recap:
Suggestion #1: make posts on LJ/similar site communities linking to VTM when there is relatively big HP news.
Suggestion #2: make a Facebook group about VTM.

What do you all think?

Hmmm... Matthew, something tells me you're a Slytherin at heart. Cunning little ways of infiltrating other sites that definitely have our demogratic. Very clever

I have no idea how either of those work though - LJ and Facebook, so I guess I have some surfing and experimenting to do.

Both of your ideas are exactly the sort of thing we need. Subtle infiltration.

I'm working on something for the fanfic area of the forums because apparently word gets around outside of the forums when there's a good fanfic in the writing, and months ago (before I took a break and lost a fair few of my regular readers) I received over 7000 hits in my fic thread in one week between chapter posts. All by word of mouth - or in this case - text. I had PM's that were from people who had signed on just to let me know they'd heard of my fic and were really enjoying reading it. So I'm thinking of ways we can pimp out good work to get outsiders clicking to read. I suppose we start with areas where people are already devouring HP writings. Anyone got any ideas on how to achieve this?

It might be a good idea to temporarily split into sub groups who volunteer to work on one type of project at a time, then when the ball is rolling, we can get involved in one of the other on-going projects, or begin another one.

I would like to be a part of INVAID!

I am 12 years old, and I live in the US. I am usually called by Ginerva, although it's really Ginevra, but I would like to be called Elizabeth.

I like Veritaserum becuase it is so much better moerated than other sights. Also, it is easier to me to navigate, becuase of the big 'icons' on the far left.

I am most definitely joining INVAID!!!
I would love nothing more than to get VTM the attention it really deserves.

Well, for those who don't know me, I'll keep this brief. I'm Aubrey, but most people call me Droob or Droobles anyway. I'll respond to any of them though. I got into Harry Potter after the third movie was released. I know---It's sad that I didn't get involved earlier, but I turned out for the better. I stumbled across Veritaserum looking for stuff on OotP I think. Course back then it had very limited stuff. Perhaps it was GoF I was looking for...some that know me may know I have a bad memory. Ah, just call me Neville... Anyhoo, I fell in love with this site after reading some awesome theories and I joined in December of 2005. And now I'm addicted! Yay!

Anyway, about INVAID, I do agree that we should stay away from the INYOURFACE approach. We might not get the attention we would want. Course, I know we're trying to get a higher ranking on Google, but is that merely to attract more readers and HP lovers or to attract certain authors? wink*nudge*wink Not that there is a lot of time to be recognized like that, but boy that would be awesome. I'm rambling again...
I think VTM is really set apart from the other sites. We have good conversations and people who are here to enjoy the company and thoughts of the other readers. We may not always agree, but we love fandom enough to keep it under control. This is also the most organized site I have ever been to when it comes to HP, and the parchment and fading pages just give it that extra special touch. We have awesome people here, and I can't say I'd rather be at another site.

Well, that was incredibly cheesy, wasn't it?

I like the Facebook idea Matthew.

Okay, I take it that most of you adults aren't familair with Facebook - unless you have children in high school and/or college. Below is a little introduction to Facebook to get to know the concept a bit better.

'Facebook is a social directory that enables people to share information. Launched in February 2004, Facebook helps people better understand their world by giving them access to the information that is most relevant to them.

Facebook's website has grown to over 8 million people and, according to comScore, ranks as the seventh-most trafficked site in the United States. People with a valid email address from a supported college, high school or company can register for Facebook and create a profile to share information, photos, and interests with their friends.' Taken from Facebook.com's About pages.

Recently Facebook has updated their system so that now companies can become a part. Adults are now welcome to have an account. Unlike MySpace - which believe it or not, was put under federal review and bought by a branch of the government - Facebook is more secure and filters it's members soley if they have a valid school or work email address.

If you cannot gain access once you filled out and completed the registration form, it's most likely because your work or school isn't yet supported by FB. However, that's always reversible because you can add your company or school via the FB feedback email. I've done it myself a while back because my school was not yet supported - it took less than a week to have it up in the directory.

If you are younger than the selected age, which is 15 (born in 1990) - what you must do is put your name in as if you were 15. It's perfectly legal because I don't mess with illiegal buisness - it'll just get you an account and possibly save you from creating one later on. I won't explain too much in depth, how FB controls work because it's pretty self-explanitory once you're there.

If anyone here has a Facebook account and wants to possibly gather up for INVAID just search for my name and I should appear on the first or second page. Those who know my email, also know my last name so it shouldn't be tough to find me. Matthew?

Alright, enough about that. I think that the ONTD idea is also good Matt, however the thing which stirkes me is that you seem to have been lucky that time around. The mods over there left up your comment/post for 4-5 hours when it generally only stays up for 20-30 minutes. Let's do it anyways; 4,000 member for 4 hours isn't all that bad!

I'm loving the idea Razz, your writings should be known globaly, you should already know that by now. A brilliant idea to fold and place in the hat eh?

Aubrey, I agree too. A more subtle approach would be much better for VTM in this situation. Perhaps we could find some other boards with a bunch of mature dicussion going on - get into the groove of things and ultimately nudge VTM into the discussion. I know a lot of the InvisionFree boards have minimal rules (no advertising isn't among them). If we can incorperate VTM in there, that would be a way to gain a little fraction of the members. Not promote in a blatant way though.

Matt, it's your call, but couldn't we affiliate ourselves a bit more with other sites? Not TSTSNBN of course but perhaps other lesser known or recent fan sites/forums. Take Dissendium.com for example. I've lurked there maybe once or twice in my life, but I can tell you that the site is growing low and uninteresting. A lot of the members are leaving becuase it's not to their liking anymore. If we can promote VTM on there, then maybe we'll attract a whole lot of members. - Maybe not affiliate directly, but they have Advert forums (you catch my drift?) That must be the most un-subtle way to attract.

Yello! Count me in!

Well my name (surprising as it may be) is Nick. I joined VTM a year and a bit ago, and have been posting ever since...I am a member of almost every fansite on the web But there is none, not one , that i like more than here! I guess it's the friendly, welcoming nature of the people and the board skin....

For INVAID, i put my very small and ill fitting brainstorming cap on and came up with the following idea:

1#.) There's a thing called Google PageRank. I'm guessing most people know what it is. It ranking a website on a scale of 0-10 on how many other websites or forums..etc, link to it. You can check a websites ranking here. Currently VTM is at 6 in Google PageRank, this is the same as Mugglenet and TLC. However if we all make a combined and large effort we may be able to force that up to 7. Although that dosn't seem like much, it'll do alot more than clicking on Google every day, as Page Rank is how google decides how important a website is. At 7 VTM will be more important to google than Mugglenet and the rest...Here's some more info. Now the way to do this is like this: If you have a Myspace, live journal, bebo, Actual Website, forum...etc. Anything that is accesible via the web, then put alink to VTM. Either a text link or a button link...If we all collaborate this could really help VTM!


Wow, i'm pretty pleased with that! My tiny cap came up with a good idea!

Nick

It's great to see the membership grow. Thanks to everyone who has posted their support so far. I'm especially pleased that Matthew has decided to pitch in here (in no way trivializing all the other invaiders, of course! ). I have updated the list as soon as I have seen each person's first post in here, and will continue to do so. If you support the cause but have not yet posted in here, please do so--this is the only tool I am using to determine if you want to be included or not as I don't find the idea of trawling the site looking for people with INVAID in their signatures particularly stimulating.

I'm also pleased to see the ideas have already begun to flow on new ways to bring people to VTM. I, like razz, am quite illiterate when it comes to things like live journals and facebook and am still completely clueless about MySpace (though an INVAID MySpace campaign does have kind of a catchy ring to it--not sure what it would entail though), so we can see how beneficial it can be if everyone contributes ideas to help further the cause.

Here's a quick summary of the ideas so far:

1. Submitting major news bits on VTM to Live Journals (being sure to link to VTM)
2. Creating a VTM FaceBook group (the more members of the group the better)
3. Drawing attention to our Fan Fictions
4. Trying to pirate members of sinking fan sites
5. Creating as many links to VTM as possible

For the first idea, it doesn't take more than one or two people to be sure to submit to a Live Journal, I'm thinking, as long as you can do it whenever a major news event has been posted on VTM. However, it might be good if there were actually a variety of people that submitted so that others can see that it's more than just one person visiting the site. If anyone knows of other live journals that fit the demographic, let us know.

The VTM facebook seems like a good idea. When I started doing my grad work I was invited to participate in FaceBook, but when I began to sign up it started asking what sort of people I was interested in, and since I'm really only interested in my wife I was kind of turned off by it. I'll join up though if we want to get a VTM group going. Again, I know nothing about FaceBook, so I don't know what you do with such a group, but we'd have to make sure we do whatever it is your supposed to do with such a group so that we can attract people to the group. Jordan, you seem to be the most informed about this sort of thing, so let us know if you get something like that going.

That's a great idea about the fan fics, razz. I think one thing we might be able to do is have authors search out other fan fic forums and re-post their fan fics there with a link to the original posting here at VTM that says something like Originally posted in the World Famous Fan Fiction Forums of Veritaserum.com. That way we might be able to gain even more notoriety for our fan fics (we really do have some talented people here!). I would recommend that an author only select one of their better works to post elsewhere so that people start frequenting VTM to find more and more of the fics here.

Pirating members might be a way to go (maybe I should try to think of a good way to put that a little more euphemistically). Good idea, Jordan. Again, I don't really explore other sites too often, since all I need is right here. If people want to post sites that seem to be on their way out, we might be able to come up with good methods of attracting them. One way might be to have members begin to join discussions and such, and if there's an interesting bit of news to discuss, link to the news on VTM within the forum of the other site and then talk about it--you wouldn't even need to mention VTM at first, just link to the site so that people have to read the article on VTM to know what you're talking about in your post.

Creating links to VTM is a good idea. Google looks at links based in part by the rank of the site that's doing the linking so tons of poorly placed links won't do as much as one well-placed link, but everything helps. The more traffic created by a link the better, for VTM in general and for the Google operation.

Great ideas! Keep them coming!

I haven't wanted to create the GO PEEVES and FAWKES threads just yet, so as not to diminish the enrollment into INVAID. I have felt each step needs to be very deliberate so that we don't lose people in the shuffle. I will start such threads in the next few days. In the mean time, it wouldn't hurt for those of you haven't done so already to put an INVAID link in your signatures, and if you already have an INVAID link, make sure it's now pointing to this thread.

You're right, that was a particularly lucky post, but it doesn't have to be at the top for people to see it. Most people read the top 20-30 posts whenever they check ONTD, so as long as it's within those, it'd be a big help.


That's a great idea, Nick. We've been at 6 for almost a year now, as have the other sites...so it seems like it'll be pretty hard to move up to 7, but if we get enough people involved and posting links, it's possible!


You can put your relationship status as "Married" and skip over the "interested in" parts if you want.

You're always one step ahead Albus....

But as the Tesco advert goes, (i dunno whether you get it in the US) Every little helps! Even myspaces, livejournals and invisionfree!

I can't think of an acronymn yet though....

EDIT: Just seen that like a billion people are on this thread, and have also just seen Matthews post...It'll be hard work, but worth it!

Hi Im Albus Dumbledore, you can call me what you would like except "dead" hahaha

But I found VTm on July 3rd of this year where before that i would merely read ohter posts on a variety of websites because i never felt it necessary to join a site. This being my first site that I have actually played an active role in posting things I feel quite a loyalty to it... I tend to be a very loyal person after a very short time. I love this site and would like to help it move up to the rank it deserves.


im in

Welcome Albus Dumbledore. Hope your hyped to INVAID!

Alright everyone. This is going to be a short and to the point post because I have to get giong in a few minutes. I've created a group on Facebook called "Veritaserum INVAID". It's a private group as of now which means that no one is able to view it without me inviting them.

If any of you have Facebook, please post it here and I'll search for you and invite you. If you're not comfortable posting your Facebook on the threads then PM or email me with the information. Right now the group is relatively small; one member, so we have to work that and get it up and rolling.

If Facebook is too condensed and private (meaning if it creates a wall blocking most of our activities) then MySpace might be a suitable means of attraction. I've created a myspace for VTM - however it's currently private because I'm not sure if that's what we want to do. Whoever has a MySpace, search Veritaserum Google. I tried to make the layout as much like VTM is now - the parchment is a down and everything - but there are limited controls layout-wise over there so I couldn't have it run exactly how VTM's CSS runs.

I used the first post in this thread as the overview blog post there, because I think it's the most informative about our actions as a community. I sourced it [originally posted by Albus-wan of the Veritaserum Forums] Hence the link to VTM...

Is that ok Sam?

Let's get it started then!

Sam, if you're still unsure of how to work the host or what to put and what not to put, just give Matthew or I a shout - looks like you have it down though.

I'm on MySpace but I can't find it. Perhaps I'm not searching correctly.....though I've done everything I can think of. If I give you my Display name can you invite me? It's Triad....lame I know. But it makes me recognisable.

I'm not too sure about the Facebook though. Jordan told me about it a bit back but I dunno. I'll look into it more, but if there is one of each I'll just stick to the MySpace one.

On a side note, I'm glad to see how many people are interested in this! Makes me proud to be part of such a well loved site!

I'm still trying to figure out exactly what the FaceBook group is supposed to do. We want to create a group with a large membership, but aside from allowing VTM visitors who do not participate in the forums participate in a VTM blog, I'm afraid my thick skull isn't allowing me to comprehend this one. What's the major difference between the facebook group and this forum?

Also, while I know that it's possible that someone who has been paying close attention could discover quite a bit more information about me than I feel comfortable with, I still try to avoid making it easy for people to get that information, and it seems as though facebook would give people access to one of my email addresses that gives away quite a bit. What information do people have access to via facebook?

Anyways, yeah, feel free to use whatever you want that I've posted here in order to promote the group. I do think, however, that it might be more beneficial to link back to the main VTM page rather than the forums so that we have one more link to the main page, and the front page gets more traffic.

And Triad, MySpace is still a mystery to me.

Can i just mention that very few people this side of the Atlantic (Britain) know what a facebook is or have a myspace. I think perhaps we should set up a VTM Bebo, for Britain, as i know there are tons of Harry Potter fans on Bebo. By the way, Bebo is the British equivilant of Myspace or whatever.....

Just a thought...

Nick

I understand MySpace perfectly......just trying to figure out how to search for things is tricky....not too good with that. But it's all good, I'll figure it out eventually...or it'll get figured out for me, either way is good!

I'm on Bebo!!! Haven't checked it in months but I'm on there.....probably not the same one as many others since I'm Australian not British......but it should be the same right? No idea about these things. I'm also in Hi5.....but that could just be an Aussie thing.

I want to know the same thing as Albus - what's the difference? Can't everything be posted here the same as on a different site? I mean, I know blogging is easier then posting something up and having numerous comments after it......ok, I understand why a different site is better.....blogging and such......

Ooh! I would be all for a bebo thing! Even though I'm an american, I have bebo (but none of my friends do, I usually just do it to look at new bands). I added that i loved Veritaserum, and created a link, but I would love to create a group!

I can't go on Facebook and MySpace, I'm quite afraid of my security. But I think that Bebo is very safe and I gladly use it all the time.

Ok thats basically it!

-Lucky

Okay, I'm already late out of my mind, so forgive me if this one's just past a one liner. Don't you guys think that it would be best to have a group on every site host we can? MySpace, Hi5, MyCrib, Bebo, LiveJournal, Facebook, BlosSpot, SkyBlog, etc... ?

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction Sam, I'll have to redirect the link. BTW, Facebook doesn't collect anything except your name and school/work email. They don't give to third parties and I think it's much safer that Myspace because only valid students are allowed on - whereas, Myspace allows ANYONE. You could be a criminal and still have an account on MySpace. (Not to degrade anyone's views on it...)



I added you Tahra.

My question is, do people who have accounts on FaceBook have access to information like my email address? I know they have access to my school, but can they see my email?

Good job on linking to VTM from your bebo account, lucky ducky. To anyone else who has such an account--the links will help, so go ahead and link up!

Also, does anyone have any other ideas on how we can use the fan fics to draw people to the site?

Last thing--if you're reading this and you have not posted in this thread but you would like to support giving VTM a boost, please post in the thread so that I can add you to the member list.

Okay i made VTM a Bebo...if anyone wants to have the password i'll send it too you....

VTM Bebo

The Username is Veritaserum-Fansite, and i'll send you the password. All people with Bebo, please become friends!

Nick

Ok, I searched for that on Bebo, but it's not coming up! Did you make your bebo public? because only public ones cvan be searched. just wondering.

-Lucky

ps. PM me the password if you can!

I can't find it either searching on my Bebo, but i did put it to public. Anyhow i've sent you the password so you can see if there is anything which i did wrong. I'll have a look to see if it is public, then i'll see as to what i should do about listing it...

Till then,
Nick

Oh, I just thought of another idea...

Suggestion #3: Wikipedia
There are a ton of Harry Potter-related pages on Wikipedia, many of which Veritaserum could be linked on without being remotely invasive. For example, Veritaserum isn't linked in the "External Links" sections of Wikipedia's Harry Potter Movie 5 and Harry Potter Book 7 pages. What's weird is that at one point a few weeks back, there were links to Veritaserum's movie 5 and book 7 sections on those two pages, but they've now been removed...but it'd definitely be good to have links there, if anyone's up for adding them (and then watching to make sure that they stay there and that no one takes them off...don't really know why anyone did that).

Those are just two of many HP related pages on Wikipedia that we could potentially have a link on, which would be good for Google PageRank and for bringing in new visitors.

I'll do the Wiki links, Matt. I've been updating our VTM wiki page since May, so I'll keep track of them. I was speaking with Darren about this a month back, but it just dawned upon me to post it here. If you look up MuggleNet or HPANA on Wikipedia, then you'll notice how long their pages are compared to ours. I updated info about our ranking system, our staff, our webmaster's profile, among other things - but it's not that big.

My idea which is branching from Matt's is that we update Veritaserum's Wiki index with as many things as possible (keeping in mind that we don't sound uptight). Any thoughts?

Thank you for creating the Bebo Nick.

Edit: Here's the message I got when I tried to add our links.





Edit Again: I added it. MN, HPFZ and HPLexicon are all up. Screw it.

Your allowed to add it Jordan, just if it's seen as self promoting material or random advertising linking, then it may be susseptable to delete and your IP adress blocked from making new posts....

That's all....

Nick

wow, this seem like a legit little promo club! I think I'll give it a shot, i've got some new promotion tactics i've been DYING to use for Epitaph, now I got a way to try them out!

-- Thomas

Okay the VTM Bebo now has two members! Pretty good going as i made it only an hour or so ago! Anyhow if you have a bebo and want to sign up then please add VTM by applying to the email: hiltonanything@hotmail.co.uk

Thanks alot, and we are really make a difference, every last one of us!

Nick

My attempts, thus far, to INVAID have been extremely untechnical. Let's face it, I'm about as untechnical as you can get (ask Jordan). . .so I've been doing a lot of word-of-mouth advertising! (Got a few people to check it out so far) (Can't get near the numbers, I know. . .but every little bit helps, right?) Also, I'm thinking of getting a magnetized bumper sticker for my car (which already has an HP liscense plate) that simply says veritaserum.com. I'v got the materials to do that, I think, somewhere around here.

I have a myspace, but no clue what to do with it. . . I'll go add a VTM link there, though. Never know.

You have an HP number plate???

I've been thinking of an acronym for my PageRank idea, and this is the best i could come up with:

M.A.R.V.O.L.O~ Meeting About Raising Veritaserum by Organising Linking Operations

Tah Dah!

It was the best i could think of, but it's still not very good...alas i shall never be as good at these things as some people, but i tried my best!

Nick

Well, I feel like I've come to the party late now, but oh well, we'll just call it fashionably late and move on. Anyway, I want in. I've been trying to come in here through Google as often as I could (though I wasn't sure what good it was doing). Uh... a bit about me...

My name is Ben (or BJ), but you can call me traz. I'm 24, and first started reading Harry Potter around the time the first movie was released. I wanted to read the book before I saw the movie, so I figured I'd better get busy. And from the moment I started the first book, I was immediately drawn in and fell in love with it.

I joined Veritaserum in the month before HBP came out. I had never really spent much time with any online HP community, but as that summer wore on and the release came nearer and nearer, I was desperate for some real Harry Potter conversation with other people who loved it as much as I did to discuss my theories with. From there, it's a natural (and correct) assumption to assume that I quickly found my way onto Mugglenet, but when I eventually stumbled upon VTM, it didn't take long for me to realize that this was the place to be. Apart from a great look and feel, I could see just from looking through the forums that most people actually read and responded to what other people wrote in threads, and I just couldn't wait to start putting in my two cents as well, so I joined right away. I love it here, and I love the idea of trying to share such a great alternative with other HP fans.

As for the actual current discussions... I have myspace, but that's about it. I've heard everyone talking about Facebook and all that, but I still don't know much about it.

EDIT: I searched, but I coudln't find Veritaserum on myspace either... Any idea what I'm doing wrong? I tried several different ways, but came up with nothing... I'll try again later...

I have a MySpace, but I didn't search it because I really don't think I'd have any more luck than anyone else. I suppose I'll just wait for Jordan's instruction on how to do that. It was Jordan right? I just read all these posts and I already forgot...

Anyway, I'm all for this VTM stuff! I might have to go add a link to my MySpace somehow...probably right under where I blab about Harry Potter. Anyhoo, glad to see we've got lots of interested INVAIDers!

Gah! Alright it seems that none of you seem to find it. I suppose we'll have to do it the conventional way. Everyone with a MySpace post it here (you display name will do). I already have Helen's MySpace and she's able to view it fine. I'll have to manually invite each of you until I can manage to make the profile public and open. If anyone wants to help me out in the creation of the MySpace; raise your hand. One or two people will suffice, I just want to get it up and running. If you'd be willing, post here and I'll give access. Yeah it was me Aubrey.

Oh on the Facebook end of the spectrum - it's real lonely in there, so I suggest we give it a couple of days. If nothing heats up - then maybe we abandon ship for that idea. Let's not resort only to the suggestions we already have, guys! We can't take our thinking caps off just yet!

How about art promotions? Adding and submitting fanart from VTM to other sites? Theories? FanFiction? What if we were to add stories from VTM onto FF hosts (FanFictionAlley for example) and give a link back to VTM. That'll probably only give us a few to click...

I'm out of steam for the moment, but I'll come back tomorrow and tell you what else I may have in my head.

Thanks Nick, I don't think anyone commented on it, I like MARVOLO. But what would that be for? We already have FAWKES and GOPEEVES for the GooglePageRank and lest we forget the parent of them both - INVAID.

Hey INVAIDers. Just wanted to give you a heads-up that last time I checked Google we were #15 which is 2 higher than when I checked on Sunday. Is that old news? I hope not... I have been away for a couple days so I wouldn't be surprised. Anyway...

Jordan, your idea about posting fanfics in other sites and adding VTM links is genius. I'm gonna go to FanFictionAlley and post one of mine and link it back here. My fanfic has nothing to do with HP but it won't hurt and it'll give me some practice at doing this kind of stuff... usually I'm about as computer savvy as passerby claims to be but I really want to help out INVAID, FAWKES, GO PEEVES, and even MARVOLO (you go, Nick!). Look, guys... I'm in the Army, okay? I live in a world of acronyms! Keep 'em comin'!

Peace in the Middle East!

Zophael