Hello, VTM members!

The start of August signifies the start of the VTM House Cup! Please read through the information below so you will know what types of posts gain your house point and what types of posts lose them. As always, if you have a question, please PM me or any other staff member.

Best of luck to you and your house!

I've received a couple of submissions for avatar design for the House Cup for August. If you're still interested in submitting one, please send me your designs throughout the month. We will be holding this contest every month or so. You may submit multiple entries.

As you know, we strive to provide a safe and fun atmosphere for people who enjoy Harry Potter to hang out and get to know other fans. The staff often brainstorms ways to make your time here more enjoyable. We've come up with something new that we think you will all be excited about!

The VTM House Cup!

The staff of VTM are going to be patrolling the forums and awarding or deducting points from the four houses that you were either sorted into from the sorting quiz or the house that you claim.

Here's how it will work.

All you guys need to do is continue posting as normal, abiding by the rules. As the moderators and Head Aurors (and admins) go through our daily jobs, we'll keep an eye out for exceptional posts and rule-breaking. Following the rules could potentially earn your house points. Breaking rules might get points deducted.

Here are a few things that will get points awarded to your house: Great posts, fanfiction of the month feature, winning the fanfiction contest, certain Quidditch Pitch answers. . .pretty much anything!

Some things that might get points deducted: One-liners, netspeak, rude posting.

If you earn your house some points, you will see a staff member post in this thread telling everyone who won the points for which house and how many points are awarded. If you lose your house points, you will see a post that merely says the certain house has lost points. You won't be singled out. You may receive a PM telling you that you've lost your house some points, or you may see that information in the moderator edit in your post that has broken the rules. We will not single you out in this thread.

Mistakes happen, so please bear this in mind if your house loses some points. Do not search the forums to rant at the person who has lost points.

Awarding points is totally subjective. Not every post will earn or lose points even if some of you think the post should do one or the other. The points are at the sole discretion of the staff member who is awarding the points, so please do not start PMming staffers to tell them about a post you think deserves points.

At the end of the month, the house with the most points will win the VTM House Cup for that month! The House Cup will be an avatar you can display, provided you follow the avatar/signature rules, in your avatar or signature. You'll be awarded the Cup in this thread where you can copy the image to your computer and upload it to your choice of photo sharing sites to use on VTM.

Please do not post in this thread but do check here often to see how your house is faring.

If you have not been sorted into a house, consider taking the sorting quiz or at least claiming a house. If we do not see a specific house, we will contact you via PM to see if you have a house that you prefer.

We will update the totals periodically throughout the month.

passerby

____

House Points: August

GRYFFINDOR: 145

HUFFLEPUFF: 50

RAVENCLAW: 100

SLYTHERIN: 80

La MaitressedeMort has won Slytherin 20 points with her fiction The Years Of The Hourglass being chosen as VTM Featured Fanfiction for the month of August!

10 points to Gryffindor for DeSs's very thoughtful and well stated post in the HP Actor's thread in the Great Hall. Please see here if you'd like to read it! Well done!

10 points to Slytherin for ihnky's great post here, explaining some theories about time traveling, and taking into consideration other people's opinions and theories as well! Nice work!

10 points to Ravenclaw for Ginny.Weasley's wonderful new topic in the JGAFL forum, "Long Distance Friendships"! This topic has inspired some interesting insights and good discussion!

And five points to Ravenclaw for uzzzkata's excellent and thought-provoking post in the Long Distance Friendships thread!

I'm sorry to be the first one, but unfortunately 5 points will be deducted from Slytherin for a member posting in a thread that specifically said only Staff members were to post in.

Slytherin is still in the lead though!

10 points go to Gryffindor for Lily_Potter's fantastic coordination of Your Magical Wand quiz!

5 points will be deducted from Slytherin for disobeying a Moderator's post and adding in things that did not need to be said.

Five points to RAVENCLAW for Rachelle-is-a-Ravenclaw's awesome avatar! It really cracked me up! I don't know where you found it, but I'm awarding you points for it none-the-less! Thanks for the light hearted addition!

20 points to Gryffindor for PottyHead's acceptance into the Great Hall Duelling Club! Congratulations!

5 points to Slytherin House for vega, of the lyre's post in the Ginny Characterization thread here. This post is very tastefully made, acknowledges the previous posters (as a lot have been doing in that thread resulting in a good debate), and does a good job of clarity of thought without jumping down the throats of those who don't agree.

Thanks for your post!

5 points to Slytherin for AlannahG's opening post on how significant upbringing is for the future Death Eaters. The post is very insightful in that its author draws a parallel between wizarding and Muggle worlds, calling for a certainly degree of social and communal responsibility in the former one.

5 points to Ravenclaw for Rachelle-is-a-Ravenclaw's post about the different species of Merpeople worldwide here.

10 points to Slytherin for THIS wonderful assessment of Professor Snape, a cooperative effort between two members, ihkny and AlannahG. Great job!

Congratulations to Eisa for this well-answered post in the Ravenclaw house thread! She just earned five points for Ravenclaw!

For admittance to the Dueling Club, I would like to award:

ChikkyD - 20 points to RAVENCLAW!

ihkny - 20 points to SLYTHERIN

LeoTheLionness1986 - 20 points to HUFFLEPUFF (Congratulations, HUFFLEPUFF! Your on the board!)

and

BRoyals - 20 points to RAVENCLAW!

Congratulations, guys! Keep those Great Hall applications coming!

This one's a little overdue, I think, as it was announced on August 8th, but none-the-less, 20 points to GRYFFINDOR for nevillesgirl! She has been chosen as the new president of the S.O.S.S.! Congratulations!

(Though, I'm wondering if Slytherin should have squeaked some points out of that, too. )

Keep an eye on this post! I've got one area of the forums in mind, and I'm going to award points to the next person who posts a decent post in that forum! (Please don't go wild posting if you don't have anything to say. It has to be a real post that responds to others and focuses on the topic at hand.)

EDIT: 5 points to RAVENCLAW for padfootx3's post in the Lounge at the right time! Thanks for doing your part to keep conversation around the forums going!

lupin<3tonks has won Hufflepuff 10 points for their post here in the Ravenclaw Common Room thread. Congratulations!

20 points to Gryffindor to Lily_Potter for her winning submission to the House Cup Avatar contest! Her winning design will be featured as the House Cup for the month of August and unveiled on September 1st when we announce the winning House!

Thank you to all of you who entered this month! I will tell you that it was a close race! Please consider submitting another design for September! You may send your submissions at any time.

5 points will be awarded to GRYFFINDOR for HJP/HJG_TrueLove's excellent response to my question 'Why is it better to be a younger HP fan then an Older HP fan'. Congratulations!

20 points to GRYFFINDOR for SavingSirius being admitted to the Dueling Club!

20 points to GRYFFINDOR for amv_hearts_hp's admittance to the Dueling Club!

20 points to SLYTHERIN for AlannahG's admittance to the Dueling Club!

20 points to RAVENCLAW for harrypotterlover1024's admittance to the Dueling Club!

10 points will be awarded to Gryffindor for this well thought out post by ChannelingGinny in the Great Hall's thread "Parenting and Parenthood". Congratulations!

RANDOM POINTS AWARD!

I am awarding 5 points to HarryPotterIsLife for their post here. GRYFFINDOR!

Congratulations to Hermione17! She just earned 10 points for Hufflepuff because I like her response to my question!

I am awarding 5 points to each member who submitted entries for the August House Cup Avatar contest!

5 points to Ravencalw for Witherwings' submission!

10 points to Hufflepuff for Browneyedgirl's and NKIqbal's submissions!

5 points to Gryffindor for Lily_Potter's submission!

If you submitted something for August and your name is not listed, just send me a PM.

Thanks!

It is my great pleasure to announce that the very first House Cup belongs to GRYFFINDOR!

Congratulations, GRYFFINDOR! Your posts around the forums have been very much appreciated! Keep up the good work!

For all of you who belong to or claim GRYFFINDOR as your house, please feel free to use this wonderful image as your avatar or in your signature. Thanks, Lily_Potter for your entry!



I'll be putting up the House Cup thread for September tomorrow, so please remember to post well! We are watching and rewarding!