Quote:
Originally Posted by
Celandine 
I know I could just ask you but I figured other people might be interested in the answer too. How do you decide/choose people to play the other character accounts? Like ghosts, house elves, Hogsmeade Shopkeepers, replacement professors, quidditch players and all that sort of thing?
As of right now, ghosts and shopkeepers are played by staff members.
House elves, on the other hand, were manned by students in secondary accounts. We're not really utilizing the house elves due to a lack of interest on the part of the students and a lack of activity on the part of the elves, but if there was an interest in the student body in bringing them back... I think we definitely would consider it
.
Replacement professors... that one is tricky because last term was the first time we tried it. In a perfect world, we never need to hire a sub at the last minute because our professors can fulfill their commitment through the term until they have to depart. Obviously, real life comes up and sometimes that isn't possible. In the past, we simply left that post empty... this past term we tried out subs. They were chosen from active RPers (students) who had particular skill in the subject area in question. Their accounts didn't have read access to any of the mod/staff forums and had limited editting function.
Prefects and Quidditch captains are nominated by the Head of House and House mod to the Headmaster, who will approve the nomination. We look at active RPers within a house who fall within the correct age range (rising fifth year or above), although I know that occasionally someone younger is selected. It is my goal not to do that unless we simply don't have anyone old enough to take the spot. Prefects are expected to show a lot of the same characteristics as staff (creativity, responsibility, maturity, teamwork, etc), and it helps if their character makes sense in the role too. For example, it doesn't really make sense to select a prefect IC who is struggling in their classes, doesn't attend, gets in trouble a lot, etc. So if YOU want to be prefect, I'm telling you that your character needs to want it too.
Quidditch captains should show those skills and make sense IC too, but they also require approval by the Flying Instructor. They have so much specialized knowledge about how the game is played and what is required that we definitely rely more on OOC stuff in this case than with any of the others.
Thanks for asking the first question, Tegz! I'm happy to answer ANY other questions that come along.