Archive 2002

25 December, 2002

• The Chapter by Chapter pages for each of the books are being "upgraded" into Reader's Guides. The page for book one has been changed into the new format, although all the text and links aren't finished. Take a look and see how you like it. Eventually, there will be four main ways to use the Lexicon: the A to Z index, the Reader's Guide, the Site Search, and browsing using the menus. That should allow anyone to find what they want in a way that suits them.
• I am trying to find a way to contact Jenna who used to run the now-defunct Unofficial Harry Potter Fan Club website. If you can help me with this, please let me know.

• Since I last posted here, I have modified/edited/added to over one hundred of the five hundred pages of information of the Lexicon. Most of those changes have been minor: a new spell added to the Spell Encyclopedia, for example. Here's a few other of the updates and changes:
  • added to and fixed links on the Site Sources and Resources pages
  • added a page of Publishers in the Wizarding World
  • added new information to the Founders page which came from a post on the Harry Potter Lexicon Forum.
• I've been working a lot on the Master Indexes, too. These are a top priority right now.

• A new map has been added to the Atlas, contributed to the Lexicon by Hermione. It's a beautiful map of the chambers under Hogwarts where the Philosopher's Stone was hidden.  I have added links to it so you can click on various places and be taken to relevent places in the Lexicon, but as a result the page is approximately 170k. If you have comments on that, either good or bad, by all means send me an email and express your view. If it seems like most people would rather not deal with pages of that size, I'll turn it back into just a normal map.

• I have opened a forum for the Lexicon. You can sign on and make comments, discuss your theories about the books, make suggestions for improvement, and so on. I'm doing this on a trial basis to see if the folks who come to my site find it useful.

• I'm sure you already noticed the biggest change around here: the new main index page and front door. The design for these was inspired by the Daily Prophet design seen in the films as well as the lettering on blackboards in Hogwarts classrooms. The effect is supposed to suggest signboards of a style you might find on Diagon Alley. I have received plenty of email about the new design, most of it positive. I am now working on placing that motif throughout the site, but since I have to edit each page individually, and since there are about 500 pages, it will take a while for the design to work its way through.
• New essay: When Magic Meets Muggle Technology, by PrefectMarcus.
• Updates of note:
  • artwork of Professor Binns
  • quite a bit of added information to the Puzzles page

• Excellent new essay about Fawkes the Phoenix
• I have updated the page about the fifth book
• I am working on a new, complete index of the Harry Potter universe, with references linked to complete information within the pages of the Lexicon. It's called "The Harry Potter Universe A to Z." This is an ongoing project. I'm currently through N, although the links aren't all in place on every page. When this is finished, this index will provide the most complete Harry Potter encyclopedia in existence. If there are details that don't appear, please let me know and I'll add them.
• I have removed all counters and site statistic monitors from my home page to protect users from unwanted advertising and pop-up windows. Again, I apologize for the inconvenience.
• New maps of the Quidditch World Cup are posted in the Atlas of Quidditch

• IMPORTANT NOTICE - A visitor to the Lexicon emailed me about an annoying pop-up advertising window that appeared whenever he browsed to my site. I was very surprised, since I don't put any advertising at all on my site. I understand that it's necessary for sites to accept advertising, and I might have to go that route myself soon just to pay the bills, but I really hate some of the underhanded tactics companies use.

  Pop-up ad windows are bad enough, but this particular window doesn't even behave properly--it doesn't have the normal close button and won't respond to a right-click-close on the task bar button. The source of this ad is the website tracker on the bottom of the main page, so I didn't place the ad there. I had no idea it was happening at all. You might be surprised that I didn't know that this window was appearing, but I didn't. I use a wonderful piece of software called Internet Sweeper that keeps any of these extra windows from opening, so I never saw it. To add insult to injury, that ad generates no revenue for me, so while you all suffered, it didn't even help to run the Lexicon site. This is intolerable.

  The upside of all this is that 1) I have emailed a complaint to the company that gives me the tracker, but I don't expect that they'll do anything about it; and 2) I heartily suggest that everyone download and install a copy of Internet Sweeper, available at this website: http://www.bmesite.com/. This is a free program that has been highly recommended by, among others, ZDNet.

  If I can't get the company to remove the ad, I'll be removing that tracker from my site. That's too bad, since I do like seeing stats on usage, but it's not worth it if my users have to be hit with abominations like that pop-up. Stay tuned.

• New main timeline - same information, but formated WAY cooler.

• Where do I start? I counted and I've added or modified 97 pages since June 8, the last date I made an entry here. I can't begin to list everything, so I'll just mention some of the big changes:
  • a lot of new information has been added to the Quidditch section.
  • the Lexicon/Harry Potter FAQ has been updated--well, rewritten actually
  • a new atlas is in the works, the Atlas of the Wizarding World, beginning with the Gazetteer, which is being added to on a regular basis
  • probably the biggest addition is the new Main Index, which is currently under construction. You'll find examples of the new pages linked to the Main Index page.
  • and the most anticipated (but still incomplete) addition is the Marauder's Map, which currently only includes some basic information, not the detailed castle map that everyone has been emailing me about. Tha's still coming.

• More new material added:
  • the day-by-day calendar of Goblet of Fire is here, and it's, well, spectacular. This one was put together by AmyZ and she has done a wonderful job with it.
  • The mysterious and dangerous chambers where the Philosopher's Stone was hidden have their own page. I added a detailed timeline of the Stone and made other additions and corrections
  • additional magic items now include Quidditch balls, magic books, and a nice paragraph about the Vanishing Cabinet.
  • an essay detailing where Neville Longbottom almost certainly calls home on the Longbottom family page

• Several new sections have been added to the Lexicon. Probably the most exciting is The Definitive Directory of Magical Devices and Items. This new list pulls together several separate lists of magical items and artifacts in one encyclopedia. I've been adding as many new items as I can (look up "doors," for example, and you'll find the door of the high security vault in Gringotts along with the doors of Hogwarts which Flitwick taught to recognize a portrait of Sirius Black.)

• I've been working on adding more material to some of the existing pages. I've added a lot to the page for Peter Pettigrew, for example. I've also been gathering some new fan artwork to add here and there.
• The Quidditch pages are also under renovation. Once I started organizing the information from Quidditch Through the Ages, I realized that one little page wouldn't be enough, so I've been working on reorganizaing that section. One of the first things I did was break it all up into separate pages, such as this one about Quidditch at Hogwarts. There's a lot more to come.
• Quite a few people have written to ask if I would consider allowing translations of pages from the Lexicon. Up until now, I have said no, just because I wasn't sure how to go about doing that and protecting my copyrights. But that's changing. I now have an assistant editor, Benjamin, who has translated the main timeline into French. He is working on translating other pages as well. When a page becomes available in French, an icon of the French flag appears in the left margin, as you can see on the original English version of the main timeline page. Click on that icon and you are taken to the French version of the page. This is something of an experiment, so by all means email me if you have comments or suggestions.

• Plenty of updating, added tidbits of information, and so on. I can't list every change. My goal is to finish adding the last details from GF and then get started on Quidditch Through the Ages...
• Latest new pages:
  • merpeople
  • old magic
  • Chambers of the Philosopher's Stone
  • Titles, names, and honorifics (includes "warlock" and "mugwump")
• Updated pages:
  • chapter by chapter page for CS

• New pages: Chapter by Chapter, short synopses of each chapter in the books, contributed by William Silvester. I'm in the process of adding artwork and links to the four pages.
• New essay, from Leroyal Terrell Gould, III: The Unifying Theory.
• Many, many edits and additions here and there (check out the new artwork on the Dumbledore page, for example).
• Another new essay, this one from Carlos Velasco Medina, about banking in the Harry Potter universe.
• New timeline: detailed analysis of the events on the evening of June 6, 1994, which is the climactic scene in the Shrieking Shack toward the end of PA.

• I've added a Year Calendar to the Timelines section.

• It does seem like there aren't many updates lately, I know. In fact, there is a lot of work being done, but you might not notice it right away. I have recently discovered that a lot of material from the Lexicon has been stolen by a number of websites. I have found everything from my maps to entire pages copied into other people's sites. This is particularly frustrating to me, since I've put an enormous amount of work into the Lexicon and it really hurts to have someone just steal that away and post it as if it were their own work. As a result, instead of spending my time creating new pages, I've had to work on adding some rudimentary security to the pages I already have. I am not stupid, I know that anyone who really wants to steal my work will be able to get around anything I set up. But at least this might discourage some of those who either through ignorance or wishful thinking think that if they see it on the web, it must be free for them to use. So I'm sorry that I haven't been able to work on new essays or new maps. For now, I'm working on copying my material onto newly designed pages that discourage theft. Hopefully this necessary work will be done soon and I can get back to the things I enjoy more and that you all enjoy finding in the Lexicon.
• I took a little time out this afternoon from the boring work to create a page for Cho Chang. I wanted to spotlight the beautiful artwork of Lisa Rourke who has kindly given me permission to publish her work in the Lexicon. I used her portrait of Cho on the new page. I'll be adding more of her work as soon as possible.

• I spent time this weekend doing a lot of editing. You'll find new links, new artwork, and new information all over the Lexicon. For example, check out the Diggory family page or the meaning of the name 'Malecrit' in the list of Wizards.
• I also FINALLY got to work on the Weasley family page. I've now created separate pages for each member of the family. I've added some new artwork here and there as well. I didn't get the descriptions quite to the level of completeness that I would have liked, but it's past 1 am and I'm going to bed.
• As you might imagine, creating and maintaining the Lexicon is a huge job for one person. It takes a lot of time and also money. In order to help support the site, I've added a page of recommended reading. If you click on any of the items on that page and order them from Amazon.com directly from that link, a nice percentage of the sale comes back to me. If you use the Lexicon link as your way into Amazon.com and order something else, a smaller percentage of that sale will also come back to me. If you're interested in supporting the Lexicon, please consider making a purchase. Remember, if you order an item directly through a link to that item on my page, it helps the most.
• I also added a new essay which discusses Ginny Weasley and her various relationships with other characters in the books. JKR has promised that there will be more "boy-girl" stuff in the next book, so I figured it was time for the Lexicon to start talking about romances and things like that.

• I've added a new map to the Atlas: Ottery St. Catchpole and the surrounding area, showing the Burrow.

• essay: Familiarity, A Key to Understanding Spellwork
• I've added links to two nice online Harry Potter quizzes which were put together by Annie Dicks for her website. You'll find them on the Hogwarts Journal page.

• New pages over the Christmas holidays:
  • the four school houses
  • Moaning Myrtle
  • essay: Magical Ability and Magic Wands
  • essay: Textbooks at Hogwarts
• New artists whose work appears in the Lexicon:
  • Clio Chiang
  • Alice Wack