My First Year Experience on HOL
Adaleine Shuster
June 2019
On November 26, 2018, I joined this lovely site called HOL. I was sorted into Hufflepuff, so I went ahead and signed up for the Hufflepuff forum. Upon joining HOL I had met two people, Annabeth Fox and Brooke Fallhunter (Well, I had known Brooke in RL and we had joined together). It was their first day too and it was through Annabeth that I found out about the Gryffindor Paw Print. She said that she had been talking with Sky Alton and Prof. Zenix James. I was super excited about the idea of writing for a house newspaper! I reached out to several HOLers who put me onto Hufflepuff's Heads of House. It was through them that I found out that Hufflepuff does indeed have its own paper, the Wizarding Times, which was last published in the last year.
I joined around the time that Secret Elf Gift Exchange begun. I didn’t want to post, so I sent Vanessa Tilley a message and entered. Sky Alton was my secret elf and she gave me a customized Hogwarts timetable from my first term at HOL, 500 beans, and some book recommendations! Thank you again, Sky!
I started to spend a lot of time in the Sett, though not posting. I had skimmed through HOL Quidditch and saw the lesson about mIRC and needing a PC. It did say that there were other ways, but she didn’t know what they were. I made a post in the Hufflepuff Quidditch forum of the Sett, called “Can I bot with no PC?” I got a few responses from Molly Grabau and Prof. Tarma Amelia Black. They told me about an app that Molly used. They didn’t say which app, so I downloaded a bunch of IRC and mIRC apps on my phone. I could not find a way to get on channels through them though. Tarma introduced me to Will Lestrange, a Slytherin Prefect who knows a lot about IRC, in hopes that he would be able to show me how to get on IRC without a computer. Will explained that the HOL webpage has a way to access IRC without a computer: if I were to look for the small word "Chatrooms" at the bottom of the page and select it, I would be at a new page called "Chatrooms." Once I was there, I would see a large green button that said "Start" and choosing that would take me to the main HOL chatroom! I had not been in #hol up to this point, so this is really what taught me what it was and how to get on.
I’ve made a bunch of friends in #hol and am happy that I now know about it! I botted a ton and Tarma helped me. She taught me how the bot worked, team room botted with me, and coached me. I eventually made the Hufflepuff Quidditch team (yay!). I earned two quills my first term on HOL (Care of Magical Creatures and HOL 101 – I finished HOL 101 in four hours!). I have not gotten any quills for second term yet, though I do believe that I will. I am currently helping Tarma out with Mandala Magic in the Sett, the first activity that I have helped with. I’m excited to see what the future holds!
On November 26, 2018, I joined this lovely site called HOL. I was sorted into Hufflepuff, so I went ahead and signed up for the Hufflepuff forum. Upon joining HOL I had met two people, Annabeth Fox and Brooke Fallhunter (Well, I had known Brooke in RL and we had joined together). It was their first day too and it was through Annabeth that I found out about the Gryffindor Paw Print. She said that she had been talking with Sky Alton and Prof. Zenix James. I was super excited about the idea of writing for a house newspaper! I reached out to several HOLers who put me onto Hufflepuff's Heads of House. It was through them that I found out that Hufflepuff does indeed have its own paper, the Wizarding Times, which was last published in the last year.
I joined around the time that Secret Elf Gift Exchange begun. I didn’t want to post, so I sent Vanessa Tilley a message and entered. Sky Alton was my secret elf and she gave me a customized Hogwarts timetable from my first term at HOL, 500 beans, and some book recommendations! Thank you again, Sky!
I started to spend a lot of time in the Sett, though not posting. I had skimmed through HOL Quidditch and saw the lesson about mIRC and needing a PC. It did say that there were other ways, but she didn’t know what they were. I made a post in the Hufflepuff Quidditch forum of the Sett, called “Can I bot with no PC?” I got a few responses from Molly Grabau and Prof. Tarma Amelia Black. They told me about an app that Molly used. They didn’t say which app, so I downloaded a bunch of IRC and mIRC apps on my phone. I could not find a way to get on channels through them though. Tarma introduced me to Will Lestrange, a Slytherin Prefect who knows a lot about IRC, in hopes that he would be able to show me how to get on IRC without a computer. Will explained that the HOL webpage has a way to access IRC without a computer: if I were to look for the small word "Chatrooms" at the bottom of the page and select it, I would be at a new page called "Chatrooms." Once I was there, I would see a large green button that said "Start" and choosing that would take me to the main HOL chatroom! I had not been in #hol up to this point, so this is really what taught me what it was and how to get on.
I’ve made a bunch of friends in #hol and am happy that I now know about it! I botted a ton and Tarma helped me. She taught me how the bot worked, team room botted with me, and coached me. I eventually made the Hufflepuff Quidditch team (yay!). I earned two quills my first term on HOL (Care of Magical Creatures and HOL 101 – I finished HOL 101 in four hours!). I have not gotten any quills for second term yet, though I do believe that I will. I am currently helping Tarma out with Mandala Magic in the Sett, the first activity that I have helped with. I’m excited to see what the future holds!