Tracker Tools: A Member's Guide
We've got a few *new* tools working behind the scenes to help you keep track of your scenes, your storylines, and where everything sits in-character. Here's what they do and how to use them.
Setting Up a Scene
Every time you start a new thread in an in-play forum, you'll see a Tracker Options section above the usual Thread Options:
My Scenes
Find it in the top nav: My Scenes, right next to your Alerts.
This is your personal dashboard. Every scene you're currently part of, pulled from the info you set up above, grouped by character and sorted by what needs your attention.
Plot Tracker
Find it under Quick Links → Roleplay Tools → Plot Tracker.
This is where our official ongoing storylines live. Each plot gets its own page with a description and every thread that's part of it, laid out in the order it happened in-character.
Tagging your thread to a plot: right in that same Tracker Options section when you start a new thread (or from Edit Info afterward), you'll see a Plot dropdown. Pick the plot your scene belongs to and it'll show up on that plot's page.
One thing to know: if you're not staff, your plot assignment goes into a quick review queue first rather than showing up immediately. To keep things orderly, staff has to approve these requests.
Plot Calendar
Find it under Quick Links → Roleplay Tools → IC Calendar.
A month-by-month calendar of everything happening in-character: scenes, active plots, character birthdays, and any Hogwarts-world notes staff have added (Hogsmeade weekends, holidays, that sort of thing).
Any day with a colored border has something going on. Just click the date to see the details below the calendar. Since our story doesn't run on a normal single timeline (some of you are writing in September, some in May, all at once!), there's a jump-to dropdown at the top so you can hop straight to whatever month/year you need instead of clicking through one month at a time.
FAQ
Why can't I reopen a scene once it's closed?
If the thread's still sitting in an active forum, you can reopen it no problem. But once a thread's been moved into an archive forum, it's considered finished for good and reopening isn't possible at that point. If you think something got archived too early, just flag it to staff. You're able to continue using Edit Info even if it's archived.
I picked a plot for my thread but it's not showing up on the plot's page. What happened?
If you're not staff, plot assignments go into a quick approval queue first rather than appearing right away. It's not stuck or broken, just waiting on staff to take a look first.
What's the actual difference between OPEN and TAG?
OPEN means there's no set posting order, so anyone on the site can add themselves to the tagged characters in the scene and can jump in whenever they want. TAG means there IS a set order, and it's specifically your turn right now.
Do I have to fill in the scene description?
Nope, totally optional. It just makes your scene easier to recognize at a glance in My Scenes and Plot Tracker, so it's a nice-to-have, not a requirement.
My character's birthday isn't showing up on the Plot Calendar.
Double check the birthday field on your character's profile is filled in and readable as an actual date. They will only show on the calendar if the date is put in the format Day Month Year (ex: 17 April 1904).
The calendar opened to a random month I'm not even writing in. Is that a bug?
Nope, that's expected! Since everyone's writing in different months at once, there's no single "current" month for the calendar to default to. Use the jump-to dropdown at the top to go straight to whatever month/year you actually need.
Can I still edit a scene's info after I've already posted in the thread?
Yes. The Edit Info button on the thread works anytime, not just when you're first creating it.
That's the whole toolkit! If anything looks off or you're not sure what a badge means, just let me know!
We've got a few *new* tools working behind the scenes to help you keep track of your scenes, your storylines, and where everything sits in-character. Here's what they do and how to use them.
Setting Up a Scene
Every time you start a new thread in an in-play forum, you'll see a Tracker Options section above the usual Thread Options:
- Other Characters: search and add whoever else is in the scene, in the order you want them to post. This is what powers turn-tracking later on.
- Open Scene?: check this if there's no set posting order and anyone can jump in whenever. Leave it unchecked for a normal back-and-forth order.
- Date: the in-character date the scene takes place. Time is an optional field that will help keep things in order if you have multiple threads on the same IC day.
- Location: where the scene is happening.
- Scene description: a short one-liner about what the scene's about (140 characters or so). Totally optional, but it's what shows up in My Scenes and Plot Tracker listings, so it's a nice way to give people a sense of what's going on at a glance.
My Scenes
Find it in the top nav: My Scenes, right next to your Alerts.
This is your personal dashboard. Every scene you're currently part of, pulled from the info you set up above, grouped by character and sorted by what needs your attention.
- Active: everything currently ongoing
- Completed: scenes that have wrapped up (click a character's name to expand and see them)
- All Scenes: both, together
- OPEN: no set posting order. Anyone can jump in whenever.
- TAG: it's specifically your turn to post.
Plot Tracker
Find it under Quick Links → Roleplay Tools → Plot Tracker.
This is where our official ongoing storylines live. Each plot gets its own page with a description and every thread that's part of it, laid out in the order it happened in-character.
Tagging your thread to a plot: right in that same Tracker Options section when you start a new thread (or from Edit Info afterward), you'll see a Plot dropdown. Pick the plot your scene belongs to and it'll show up on that plot's page.
One thing to know: if you're not staff, your plot assignment goes into a quick review queue first rather than showing up immediately. To keep things orderly, staff has to approve these requests.
Plot Calendar
Find it under Quick Links → Roleplay Tools → IC Calendar.
A month-by-month calendar of everything happening in-character: scenes, active plots, character birthdays, and any Hogwarts-world notes staff have added (Hogsmeade weekends, holidays, that sort of thing).
Any day with a colored border has something going on. Just click the date to see the details below the calendar. Since our story doesn't run on a normal single timeline (some of you are writing in September, some in May, all at once!), there's a jump-to dropdown at the top so you can hop straight to whatever month/year you need instead of clicking through one month at a time.
FAQ
Why can't I reopen a scene once it's closed?
If the thread's still sitting in an active forum, you can reopen it no problem. But once a thread's been moved into an archive forum, it's considered finished for good and reopening isn't possible at that point. If you think something got archived too early, just flag it to staff. You're able to continue using Edit Info even if it's archived.
I picked a plot for my thread but it's not showing up on the plot's page. What happened?
If you're not staff, plot assignments go into a quick approval queue first rather than appearing right away. It's not stuck or broken, just waiting on staff to take a look first.
What's the actual difference between OPEN and TAG?
OPEN means there's no set posting order, so anyone on the site can add themselves to the tagged characters in the scene and can jump in whenever they want. TAG means there IS a set order, and it's specifically your turn right now.
Do I have to fill in the scene description?
Nope, totally optional. It just makes your scene easier to recognize at a glance in My Scenes and Plot Tracker, so it's a nice-to-have, not a requirement.
My character's birthday isn't showing up on the Plot Calendar.
Double check the birthday field on your character's profile is filled in and readable as an actual date. They will only show on the calendar if the date is put in the format Day Month Year (ex: 17 April 1904).
The calendar opened to a random month I'm not even writing in. Is that a bug?
Nope, that's expected! Since everyone's writing in different months at once, there's no single "current" month for the calendar to default to. Use the jump-to dropdown at the top to go straight to whatever month/year you actually need.
Can I still edit a scene's info after I've already posted in the thread?
Yes. The Edit Info button on the thread works anytime, not just when you're first creating it.
That's the whole toolkit! If anything looks off or you're not sure what a badge means, just let me know!
here comes the sun
