The Lexicon

Editors

We want YOU as a Lexicon editor!

 Do you know your Harry Potter canon?

  • Do you nail online quizzes that try to trick people who only remember the films?
  • Do you get excited about all the lovely, intricate details of the world J.K. Rowling created?
  • Do you know who REALLY went into the Forest with Harry and Hermione in the first book?
  • Can you explain without looking not only what a Horcrux is, but tell how many there were, tell who destroyed each one, and how they did it?
  • Do you know who Peeves, Professor Binns, and Teddy Lupin are, even though they never appeared on screen?
  • Can you come up with references to birthday parties from the books, and maybe even guess the correct book and chapter?

You’re Lexicon editor material.

The Harry Potter Lexicon was created in 1999. It’s been the world’s best reference to Rowling’s created universe for fifteen years, but it needs a refresh.

The site is made up of hundreds of individual pages, like a huge collections of text files, with hyperlinks connecting everything. That’s great, except that when something changes or needs to be added, it has to be manually connected to everything else. New details need to be edited or changed on multiple pages. Nowadays, there are much better ways to do that.

We’re in the process of rebooting the Lexicon as a wonderful fan-focused research and reference site with tools to support fans as they write, draw, sew, compose, and create.

That means that we need to transfer all that information, all the essays, all the timeline details, and so on, from the old pages to the new content management system. At the same time, we need to add connections that weren’t even possible 15 years ago, the kind of connections that will make the Lexicon something really special for fans.

Sounds exciting! I’d love to share my canon expertise with fandom. What will I be expected to do?

Editors are working through the various sections of the exisiting Lexicon and creating entries in the new Lexicon with all the information, plus adding to those entries anything that might be missing. Then editors make connections using their skill and knowledge of canon so that each entry connects to as many related entries as possible.

You will be assigned tasks to work on: editing potion entries, for example, or adding information on magical devices. You’ll use the old Lexicon as your source but use your own expertise as well. You can work at your own pace and you’ll have plenty of support.

I’m in. What do I do?

Email me at [email protected]. I’ll send you all the information you need to get started.

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