Hello, VTM members!

The House Cup for September went to Gryffindor! If you're a member of that house, please feel free to add this image as your avatar or as a part of your signature (please continue to follow the rules):


Welcome to the House Cup thread for October! 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!

Please send me any submissions for the design for the October House Cup avatar! This is another good way to gain your house points as both submissions and the winner receives points! Please make sure you put include an indication of the month, year and house as well as including VTM House Cup. I know it's a lot to fit in, so be creative!

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 works!

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! At times we also award random points for things that amuse us!

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. Though most of the staff members have been sorted and also have a house, we promise you that we award points without any bias towards a particular house. Half the time, we don't even know what house a person belongs to until we PM them to ask.

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. It makes it a little easier on us if you have your house listed somewhere, whether it's in your signature or in your profile.

We will update the totals periodically throughout the month.

passerby

____

House Points: October

GRYFFINDOR: 65

HUFFLEPUFF: 70
RAVENCLAW: 70

SLYTHERIN: 140

10 points to Gryffindor, due to the excellent and insightful posts of Whisperwood!

Also, I wish to award 20 points to Slytherin House, due to the wonderful efforts of xdarkserpentx. The video she made for D.O.D.D.D. and posted to YouTube has been viewed nearly 800 times, and advertises Veritaserum as well. The link to this awesome vid is in my signature. Thanks Jaclyn!

Congratulations to ihkny for correctly answering this week's Golden Snitch puzzle. She has earned SLYTHERIN 15 points!

Congratulations to ihkny for correctly answering this week's Golden Snitch puzzle. She has earned SLYTHERIN 10 points!

10 points to Gryffindor for rachel_1989's post in The Life and Lies of Albus Dumbledore thread! Very insightful! Thanks for posting!

I'd like to award 10 points to Ravenclaw for Alastorlet_and_Proud!'s post in the Severely Obsessed Snape Society thread HERE. It is a very interesting and thoughtful look at Snape's life had his childhood been a bit different.... Congratulations!

20 points to SLYTHERIN for EliasOsiris' fanfiction being featured as one of VTM's Top Fics of October! Congratulations!

10 points will be awarded to uzekamanzi because of this post in the Bonnie Wright/Ginny Waesley General Discussion Thread! The consideration of other people's opinions and well thought arguments are always something we value!

We're only waiting to know which House uzekamanzi would like the points awarded to! Congratulations!

EDIT: The points go to Slytherin! Congratulations again!

A total of 30 points is going to Slytherin for ihkny's submission in the Random Points thread. 20 points are for winning, and 10 points are for being the only person to submit a comic strip!

Check out the thread if you'd like to earn your house some points!

Congratulations, ihkny, for winning yet another Golden Snitch puzzle. You've won SLYTHERIN 15 points!

Congratulations, zwillo, for winning this week's Golden Snitch puzzle. You've won GRYFFINDOR 10 points!

I would like to award Hufflepuff 30 points for their idea to hold an Inter-House Halloween Party. Congrats!

Congratulations to those of you who submitted limericks in the random house points thread! The winners are as follows:

5 points and 3rd place go to: zwillo and GRYFFINDOR!

10 points and 2nd place go to: BRoyals and RAVENCLAW!

20 points and 1st place go to: Snapefan21 for SLYTHERIN!

Congratulations, guys!

EDIT:

I also would like to award points to those of you who submitted avatars for the contest! Thanks for your submissions! (I did not give points for each submission, though some members did submit more than one. I might give points for each submission next month.)

10 points go to:

RAVENCLAW!

GRYFFINDOR!

HUFFLEPUFF!

RAVENCLAW!

HUFFLEPUFF!

RAVENCLAW!

I'll announce the winner of the avatar design on Nov. 1st!

20 points go to GRYFFINDOR for hot-for-harry's acceptance into the Great Hall! Congratulations!

I'll announce the winner and the avatar tomorrow as we start a new round of House Points!

Keep posting, you never know when we'll award points!

Uzzkata's winning avatar design earned RAVENCLAW another 20 points for October!

Also, congratulations to Padfoot, Prongs and Moony, who won HUFFLEPUFF 20 points for winning the fanfiction contest!


The House Cup Winner for the Month of October is

SLYTHERIN!

Congratulations, guys!

The staff at VTM really appreciate the excellent posts and participation that all houses have shown, and a special thank you to Slytherin who proved yourselves cunning and sly this month!

Feel free to download the following image to your computer and upload it into a photo account of your own. Use it as an avatar or put it in your signature.