[Solved] The Daily Prophet IC-ness

Hello hello esteemed admin and plot committee,
Given that the Daily Prophet is in the hands of @Melissa Morgenstern , who we know OOC is a Death Eater, I have a couple questions about the articles this playtime I'd like to ask:

• How much of the paper is meant to be IC, as in, information our characters will know?
  
  ---- for explanation, I was told last playtime that Gaius Purcell's presence in Ireland was information that only Death Eaters would have heard about, but since it was presented in the Daily Prophet in article form, I know myself and many other drivers across the board reasoned that our characters could have read the rumor in the newspaper.
  
  ---- following that misunderstanding, what information from this playtime would each of our characters know? Would a Hogwarts student have heard about Durmstrang flooding? Would Beauxbatons students know the rumors that France was parleying with Sweden? et cetera
  
  
• How much of the paper is meant to be IC, as in, written in a newspaper captained by a (secret) Death Eater?
  
  ---- for instance, a reasonable and impartial reporter shouldn't report on Nils Nystrom's activities this playtime (the reindeer sanctuary, the young orphans building snow sculptures in his honor, et cetera) without a mention of his policies. It'd be entirely irresponsible to build a narrative around Nils Nystrom, who we know from the September MP to be endorsing extremely worrying policies against Muggleborn Swedes (ranging from mandating decreased wages to increased prison sentences for them), with zero mention of his prejudiced and discriminatory views. That it did do that is sort of fishy, and something that a few of my characters would notice and be disturbed by. This leads me to:
  
  
• If the paper is entirely IC, as in, written in a newspaper captained by a (secret) Death Eater, there a way to get mini-plot information in an unbiased format?

Thank you so much already for the clarifications regarding FPP bonuses and for the explanations of Daily Prophet sections but I was still a little lost on some aspects of it, and wanted to make sure I got clarification.

Hi Nan,

I am going to answer specifically, addressing all your points:

1(A) —

That was indeed a slip on our end as we wanted to encourage participation in all plots, however there is no controversy, for any reporter could’ve heard of @Gaius Purcell’s rumours in the darker corners of London/Britain and written an article. Your reasoning was correct and, consequently, there is no issue at hand. For further inquiries regarding Gaius however, I would always recommend contacting @Gavin, as he is the driver of the character and knows best ^^

1(B) —

The Mini Plots page is a section of The Daily Prophet which provides pieces of information we offer to drivers of events which occur throughout the specific playtime month to only a specific category of characters. Consequently, everything labelled as a “Mini Plot” is generally loosely considered OOC information as characters in the respective area would become aware of them IC throughout the entirety of the month.

To exemplify, the Klyk Vampira common room incident would occur at the beginning of the month, but Professor @Erik Fisker’s expedition would occur at a later point in time.

Another example; a Hogwarts student could become aware of what’s happening at Durmstrang during the month of November, should they correspond via owl with a Durmstrang student, or have other type of connections with Durmstrang (let’s say their parents know someone there etc).

It’s pretty flexible information, and all members have the liberty to use it as they wish.

Otherwise, only the Adults and Worldwide Mini Plots are different, for they would be available for the entirety of the wizarding population.

To summarise, it is IC information characters would not specifically find out on November first, but throughout the duration of the entire month. Generally, we have reviews of popular Mini Plots in other pages in the following month, which makes the information further available for all categories of characters; for example, we had reviews of the W9, Qudditch Gala, and most recently Oktoberfest.

2 —

Aside from the methodology mentioned for the Mini Plots, all of the Prophet is deemed as IC.

Unless it is stated specifically the article is written by Melissa, I wouldn’t say that the whole paper is 110% completely lacking of partiality; there is an inflammatory nature of some parts of it indeed, on page 6, but all of them are actually IC, events which occurred, and interviews which had taken place, a large majority submissions from other members regarding their own plots, etc. While Melissa would favour articles attacking the government (such as the W9 review), it would be to her advantage to always keep things levelled as to sell copies, for example publishing this month’s letter to the editor, written by @Nathalie Wilkins. Whatever sells, it’s printed.

— Regarding the Reindeer Festival, it is strictly information to use for this month’s MP. As stated previously [at 1(B)], the Plot Committee writes reviews of events during the following month, when individuals do get their share of judgement. As of now, the Reindeer Festival MP was presented objectively, and just added what events occurred in Sweden at the time of the opening. But for example if you want your character to criticise the speech, feel free to do so. There are zero limitations.

3 —

All Mini Plots information on page 1 is unbiased.

Again, they're just objective facts which reveal what occurs during the month. If there's reviews and criticism, they'll be published in the following playtime month, December 2002 in this case.

I hope this helps, but let me or any other member of PC know if there are any further questions!
Elena x

Thank you for explaining your process, but personally, given the tone it seems reasonable to be confused about whether the mini-plots are written from an IC point of view. (Aside from the “One of our very own naturalist enthusiasts will be attending the conference this year and reporting on X” section in the Adults plot, hahaha.)

Honestly it’s not so much of an issue with the school plots, but the description of Nils in the Worldwide section comes off as fawning in a way that I hadn’t commented on before because I’d brushed off as Melissa being evil. If the miniplot section is really meant to be the Plot Committee as people explaining the plots directly to ourselves as drivers, it makes me deeply uncomfortable to see someone who’s making discriminatory laws toward muggleborns called heartwarming and beloved as if it’s objective fact.

I guess as admins, you have the power to decide whether the population of Sweden thinks their Death Eater ally minister is wonderful, but the way that blurb was written makes it sound like his wonderfulness is non-debatable in a godmoddy kind of way. I’m glad you welcome chars to disagree, of course! But the tone makes it easy to assume it was written by someone with an IC political agenda, which goes a long way toward the confusion.

Maybe this would have been better suited as part of a review of the event in the December issue, telling us what happened? It seems more like that then just a statement of what the event is supposed to offer our characters.

As Elena has mentioned above:
Consequently, everything labeled as a “Mini Plot” is generally loosely considered OOC information as characters in the respective area would become aware of them IC throughout the entirety of the month.

Since @Emily mentioned the Adult plots specifically, which I wrote in conjunction with Elena and the PC, I felt compelled to address this directly:

This is first and foremost a newspaper that has been created through the hard work of those on the PC committee with the intention of offering something extra to encourage plot. No one is under any circumstances forced to follow the viewpoints of the articles written in the paper or agree with them. Since this month’s plot was with the idea that it was promoting an event that would happen later this month, it made more sense to write it in this format adding that tDP would later report on the happening. Obviously, the Daily Prophet is only published once a month so this gives characters an opportunity to mention that they went, heard about it in the papers, heard about it through a friend, the radio, a poster, the tDP, the options are endless. As some events will not happen until later this month at the discretion of the admin at that school, it may not be information that would necessarily be known right away nor would it make sense to write it in IC format.

As someone who reads the news often, it is ridiculous to assume that everyone has the same viewpoint on the same thing. Surely there is more than one newspaper in the world of magic and many may be biased or change their viewpoints according to the person in charge. You and all other members are always welcomed and encouraged to submit content to publish. There are currently three members on the PC team, considering how hard they work on the issue every month, I am sure that they would welcome some content. How your character finds out about information or what they chose to believe is highly dependent on you as there are many methods of disseminating information: radio, person to person, magazines, etc.

As mentioned in the bottom section of the Daily Prophet:

The Daily Prophet is run by the Plot Committee. The new layout has been inspired from members’ suggestions and, accordingly, it is considered to be a team effort of the entire community.

Please be reminded that just because an article does not align with you or your character’s personal beliefs does not mean that the admin in charge is forcing you to agree. These are suggestions and content that I believe the majority of the members have been enjoying, hence the increase in activity and the overwhelming mention of said ideas.


Thank you~ 

Hi @Emily,

Thank you for sharing your concern, however, the mentions in the article are impartial and let me further explain why exactly.

Firstly, Ministers for Magic would not be in such a high position of power without a vast majority of supporters. This is not “godmodey”, but merely how politics work.

Secondly, the notes have been added by the Plot Committee (who actually run TDP, and not the Admin Team, as it is stated also in the credits @Mel quoted) as to further allow everyone even more flexibility to thread the MP without actually attending it. Yes, anyone may mention the Festival and the magical reindeer, but now you have the possibility of criticising Nils’ acts and speech as well; they are not particularly unusual for an experienced and successful politician like a Minister for Magic. It’s just good politics for image building on his and his cabinet’s side. Plus, overall, on an administrative level, it is a further opportunity for everyone to thread the MP and have even more chances to gain the FPP bonus.

Furthermore, the information is delivered in an impartial way, for it does not openly praise, nor criticise the Minister in question. The article merely states how events occurred, and thus allow more freedom to members and everyone’s characters to further interpret the event. We are not in any way trying to impose a certain opinion on your characters, and so naturally we leave as many open ends as possible for your creativity to bloom and thus write your characters’ opinions based on unaltered pieces of information.

Impartiality implies that one would be neither criticised nor praised, but the overall presentation of events stated as facts; they were delivered in such a manner.

We would recommend not being impatient about the upcoming reviews, as playtime has just changed yesterday, however the Plot Committee highly appreciates your anticipation! (: We are truly touched by your dedication to our plots and overall work.

If you want to personally write a (subjective) review regarding the Swedish Minister for Magic’s acts on the day of the opening for our next issue, you are more than welcome to, for the Plot Committee always encourages, appreciates and publishes all members’ contributions.

As there are no other concerns that have not been addressed, I shall mark this as solved.

Should there be any further inquires, unrelated to the ones already addressed, please contact directly via PM a member of the Plot Committee.

Elena

If anyone has any further complaints about The Daily Prophet, mini plots, the site plots, the Plot Committee, or any of my staff, I urge you to contact me.