MuggleNet
Encyclopedia : M : MU : MUG : MuggleNet
MuggleNet is a Harry Potter fansite founded by Emerson Spartz, from LaPorte, Indiana /chicago illinois. The site's content is composed of news, editorials, synopses of the Harry Potter books and films, an encyclopedia of the books, a chat room, a discussion forum, and media such as screenshots, theatrical trailers and book covers. There is also a fan fiction page, a weekly caption contest, and other occasional contests and polls.
MuggleNet benefits from good relations with the writer of the Harry Potter books and the producers of the films. J. K. Rowling, the author of the books, has praised MuggleNet on her website by awarding it her "Fan Site Award" [link]. Mugglenet scored an exclusive interview with J.K. Rowling immediately following the release of her sixth novel, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.
Rowling recounts on her website that she occasionally visits the site and sometimes reads the comments left by visitors, while never commenting herself. Rowling also stated that she visited the site's chat room and was snubbed when she joined in a conversation about Harry Potter theories.
Warner Brothers, the producers of the Harry Potter movies, regularly sends MuggleNet pictures taken from the upcoming movies before they are released, as well as giving MuggleNet a special preview of the new designs of the Harry Potter official website.
MuggleNet produces a podcast entitled "MuggleCast." The first show was launched just before 1am British Summer Time on August 9, 2005. The show features discussions about the books and films and a voicemail section where listeners can send recorded questions to the panel. After two days online, MuggleCast became the number six most downloaded podcast on the United States iTunes list of most popular podcasts and downloads and, on August 14, it reached the number one position. Transcripts of the podcast are available on the MuggleNet website, usually released three or so days after the episode itself is released.
The site generates a six-figure income through advertisements every year [link], much of which goes into Spartz's pocket to finance his college education. This has resulted in some [controversy] among its visitors, as Spartz built his community entirely out of Rowling's work and ideas and yet is making a huge amount of money for himself. Spartz has admitted that he is "not quite the
Emerson Spartz
Emerson Spartz was born on February 17, 1987, and is the founder of MuggleNet. The site was created in 1999 when he was a homeschooled twelve-year-old with lots of time on his hands. Spartz is currently attending the University of Notre Dame as a business major.Widely known by Harry Potter fans in several parts of the world, when Spartz attended a PotterCast and MuggleCast (one of the special collaborations between the podcasts, a "Leaky Mug") Goblet of Fire movie podcast in New York City, the fans cheered and whooped when he walked into the area. Fans came from as far as Australia to get to see the cast live and obtain autographs. The event was also covered by the New York Post, but many people were severely misquoted.[link]
In July 2005, Rowling invited Spartz and Melissa Anelli of The Leaky Cauldron to Edinburgh, Scotland for an interview at her home on the release of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.[link] . J.K. Rowling denied permission to release the actual recording; however, Spartz has posted the transcript of the interview on the Mugglenet website: http://www.mugglenet.com/jkrinterview.shtml
Staff members
Due to privacy issues, the staff members are usually addressed by their first names only. Some staff members also may be going under an alias name as well, again, for personal matters. To learn more about the staff of MuggleNet, refer to the "About Us" section. [link]Mugglecast podcast
MuggleNet put up a web page explaining that their site was deleted by lawyers, but refreshing brought back the home page with a few tweaks. The Half Blood Prince countdown was replaced by a Pillar of Storgè countdown, with a badly edited banner with an arrow pointing to Ginny Weasley on the back cover of HBP saying "Storgè", and another arrow pointing to a poorly copied and pasted tower saying "pillar". The original idea for the joke came from the Chamber of Secrets Forums and its technical administrator TheWizard.
On April Fool's Day 2006, Harry Potter fansites Mugglenet and The Leaky Cauldron shut down their sites temporarily and redirected all visitors to a new website titled The Leaky Mug, a play on the combination of the two sites' names. The new site's first announcement was the marriage of Mugglenet's webmaster Emerson Spartz to Melissa Anelli, the webmaster of The Leaky Cauldron. The two were shipped by fans of their sites for months. They also announced that they were merging their sites as they had merged their lives. The new site looked similar to Mugglenet in the layout. Along with the story of the marriage ceremony, there was a promise of updating the site to include all the content from both sites. Some of the staff from the sites did a short, seven minute Podcast explaining the merge. Mugglenet's MuggleCast and Leaky's Pottercast had done joint shows before, also called The Leaky Mug.
The Leaky Mug featured a Wall of Shame similar to the original Wall of Shame on MuggleNet. The Leaky Mug's version had some of the funnier e-mails addressed to "Memerson" which concerned fans' outrage or happiness with the merge. The page was updated throughout the day.
In the late evening of April 1st, different staff members began to post, complaining about the new members that they now had to work with. Melissa offered an [[wikt:ultimatum|ultimatum]] to Emerson, allowing him his "wife" or his right-hand man, Andrew Sims, but not both. Emerson had to choose Andrew, and Melissa "filed" for divorce. Right at midnight, the two separate sites were brought back online. They still won't simply say straight forward that the whole idea was a prank. They say that they "forgot to do something" for April Fool's Day because of the hype over the marriage and divorce.
With both sites now running as normal there are no lasting effects of the prank, though the site is still [live]. If the merge had really not been a hoax, then the running of MuggleCast and PotterCast would be interupted, as well as polls, contests, and other functions that both sites had running. But now www.leakymug.com is a real website where the leaky cauldron and mugglenet have live podcasts. It features a cartoon of the staff members and a quote system where random quotes come out in speech bubbles of the staff members.
MuggleNet interactive
Note: Facts in this section are meant for the temporary forums and not the original.
[MuggleNet interactive] (known to many fans as MNI) is a forums website spin-off of MuggleNet (dot com). It is located in the "Fun" section of MuggleNet on the left toolbar. It was created for fans of the Harry Potter series as well as many fans of the website itself. Ever since its creation, it has served as a way to live (in a matter of speaking) in the wizarding world virtually through the internet. MuggleNet Interactive is known as a roleplaying community, where young or old Harry Potter fans imagine they are actually living in the wizarding world as "wizards" or "witches". There are many individual forums for such kinds of roleplaying, but it also has a great deal of social forums for fans to talk and discuss the Harry Potter books or anything else on their mind.
The site was shut down back in 2003 by its former webmaster and MuggleNet staff member, Jamie Frost. It is said Frost grew upset with some of the staff members for not allowing him to give away free galleons to students when he was taking a permanent leave from MuggleNet interactive, and in anger, hacked into the site to give all members headmaster/headmistress status. The site was soon taken offline.
While staff members were allowed back onto the site to make sure there were no problems, another hacker attacked. By hacking into the database the hacker was able to acquire any password to any user. He/she then posted these passwords in the staff forums and threatened to destroy the site unless the staff gave into their demands, which the staff outright refused. This caused the entire site to be shut down. Thus, the temporary forums of MuggleNet interactive where created in December 2004.
The site plays itself off of the Harry Potter books, offering Hogwarts classes such as Transfiguration and Defense Against The Dark Arts. Students of each class are awarded galleons from their professors for turning in homework, answering questions, completing quizzes and winning contests. The site also has common rooms for each house, and even a Great Hall for special events, just like in the books.
On April 11, 2005 the second temporary forums of MuggleNet interactive were created. The first temporary forums were taken offline due to the overload of memory on galleons, as well as the amount of students on the forums.
Facts
- The temporary forums are mastered by Headmistress Zardi, Viresse, Zoi (Head Girl), Kira (Head Professor), Taketothesky (Head Librarian), Kat Delacour (Head Programmer) and many others.
- To date, there are more then 42 active forums in MuggleNet interactive. [link]
- There are currently six different positions a person could hold in MNI: Graphic Artist, Groundskeeper, Librarian, Prefect, Professor, and Programmer. There is also the title of Head Staff member, which comprises of a member of almost every division of positions.
See also
External links
MuggleNet
- [MuggleNet]
- [MuggleNet Interactive]
- [MuggleCast]
- [Chamber of Secrets Forums]: The official forums of MuggleNet. CoS remains an autonomous site.
- [MuggleNet earns an audience with J.K. Rowling]
- [Rowling's perspective] of the MuggleNet/Leaky Cauldron Interview
- [Mugglenet Fan Site]
- [The Official Mugglecast Fansite].
- [New York Post Article on August 14, 2005 Goblet of Fire Premiere Podcast]
Emerson Spartz
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