Although J.K. Rowling‘s Pottermore announcement this morning was frustratingly vague, at least one fan claims to have the goods. Jess at JoRowling.net just tweeted a bevy of screenshots from what she claims is the Pottermore site; if these are real, it would seem that she got a test beta to explore the digital community.

According to Rowling’s live press conference at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, Pottermore users get to play along with the plotline of the first book, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone: They choose a username, get interrogated by the Sorting Hat, and are granted a wand from 33,000 different combinations. The plotline of The Chamber of Secrets should go live on the site in early 2012. But enough of that — let’s get to the pretty photos!

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We were right! A few minutes ago, J.K. Rowling‘s big announcement hit the web: Her new website Pottermore will be “an online reading experience unlike any other” which gives younger fans a safe digital space to discuss the series and the world, with Rowling herself popping in to share tidbits that didn’t make it into the books.

…And that’s about it. Aside from some nifty graphics in the video, there were no other details about the ins and outs of the site. I figured at the least we’d get a tutorial for using the forums, writing groups, or whatever facets make Pottermore a unique community. Oh, we get the exclusive chance to download digital Potter ebooks. Woo?

What had me excited was the detective work we did leading up to today, not the announcement itself. Sorry to say, the news isn’t nearly as thrilling as some of the theories circulating on the Internet: An official Harry Potter encyclopedia, and yesterday’s new rumor of a treasure hunt.

The Guardian reported that an apparently secret memo accidentally released to another paper claimed that Pottermore would be an online scavenger hunt with clues leading fans to prizes in the real world. As I mentioned in last week’s Fan Service, many studios have engaged fans with these ARGs (Alternate Reality Games), with explosive results.

There’s a big chance that Rowling and co. have tricks like this up their collective sleeve; after all, she hinted that Pottermore is “the same story with crucial additions” — sounds a bit like a tie-in game to me. But if that’s the case, why keep up the subterfuge? Better to come out and verify the rumors.

The Leaky Cauldron suggests another detail of this online world, leaning more toward the role-playing side:

This better be true — I want a unique wand!

Another part of this that makes me grumpy is that Pottermore isn’t technically available to the fans yet. It’ll be open for business in October, but you can register for the chance to get an early look at all the hubbub. Weirdly, when I clicked “Submit your e-mail” on the site, the page simply refreshed. I wouldn’t be surprised if they stored my Gmail, since that kind of e-mail address seems to be automatically logged in no matter where you go on the Internet. Or the queue may not start til July 31 (Harry’s birthday, natch), as the message on that page indicates.

Rowling did leave us with the same vague clue: “Follow the owl.” The bird blinking at you in the photo is the screenshot I took from the site, and seems to be the only owl in question for now.

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Carolynn led us over to Trademarkia, to the discovery that Warner Bros. has trademarked the term Pottermore, with intent for using it for advertising and communications but also specifically Christmas decorations, photos, bookbinding, and even scientific tools. Here’s the quote that Carolynn found on Facebook, that most interests us:

Providing multiple-user access to a global computer information network; providing on-line chat rooms and electronic bulletin boards for transmission of messages among users in the field of general interest; providing on-line communications links which transfer the web site user to other local and global web pages; providing on-line facilities for real-time interaction with other computer users concerning topics of general interest.

I’ve heard rumors that Pottermore would include an online community where fans can talk about the series and Rowling herself might even share some in-world content like short stories. Speaking of new bits of canon, the other theory is that Rowling is finally debuting the Harry Potter encyclopedia that she’s been working on for years.

According to the Potter wiki, Rowling has always staked her claim on this project, even though she needed some time after the last book came out in 2007 to simply get over the exhaustive process of writing all seven books. In 2008, she took legal action against fans who had been compiling their own, unofficial encyclopedia, though the site doesn’t say which fan project this was.

There seemed to have been an encyclopedia housed at MuggleNet that’s since been taken down, but there’s also the Harry Potter Lexicon, which includes an atlas of the wizarding world, a potions guide, and and even a section on Muggle studies. It seems to be more of an in-world piece of fan literature, while Rowling’s is supposed to exist for the fans, outside of the world of the books. The encyclopedia will allegedly include steps for making a Horcrux, the process by which Peter Pettigrew transferred Voldemort into a new body, and other explanations.

So there you have it: Two more theories to chew on until early morning of the 23rd.

Update: We found these photos, recently added to the Pottermore Facebook page, that seem to corroborate some of what we were thinking. Like this one, of a library:

Although these photos are dated 2010 — another shot of the library has a sign that says Next Fiction Reading 20 June 2010 — this is the first time that they’ve been linked to the Pottermore page.

In the upper left-hand corner, you can see the Pottermore logo blurred out. There’s also a toolbar leading to other sections of the site: Home; Encyclopedia; Pottercast; Community (where this library is based); Store. The bottom of the page offers Tutorials — on using the site, or writing? — along with a bonafide Writing Competition. And beneath that is a link for “Child Safety Information,” implying that the site’s creators intend for Pottermore to be used as some sort of social network, but that younger, less Internet-savvy readers need to protect themselves.

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Imagine the anger of his fellow Redditors when his lies began to unravel in response to simple questions and details that he had gotten wrong. Lucidending has since retreated, though Gawker staff writer Adrien Chen caused a stir when he claimed to be Lucidending. He’s not; the Twitter confession turned out to be an ill-timed joke. But he did get a Gawker piece out of it, on Redditors’ notorious skepticism: Last month they hurled accusations of fraud at Maya Gilsey, who legitimately was trying to raise money for cancer research, but fell for Lucidending’s cliches. Whether the readers bought into the hoax even a little, or actually poured emotion into that AMA thread, they’re probably all feeling pretty dumb.

These kinds of stunts are becoming more and more prevalent on Internet forums and fan communities. In June 2010, Lady Gaga herself got hoodwinked into tweeting to Ana, a Little Monster who was allegedly dying from leukemia. (Her “brother” @JoelxSoul corresponded with Gaga on Ana’s behalf but then suddenly disappeared.)

The scam prompted me to remember a similar incident from 2002, when I was a big participant in the ReBoot message boards. I wrote about this topic in greater detail at my old job, but here are the pertinent facts: As with the Lady Gaga debacle, a poster wrote on behalf of Libra Phoenix, a 16-year-old suffering from heart and lung cancer who feebly asked the cancelled cartoon’s creators to make new episodes before she passed away. It was admittedly a desperate move, but while her illness couldn’t revive the show, she did get a signed poster from the cast. Then only a few months later, someone posted to the boards that Libra Phoenix didn’t exist, and the whole thing had been a ruse.

Finally, I was recently reading Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet, a book written by Sherry Turkle around 1995, right as Internet life and multiple online identities were starting to flourish. Turkle introduced the Internet urban legend of “the case of the electronic lover”: A man called “Alex” logs on to a text-based community under the identity of “Joan”, a disfigured woman. Joan cultivates friendships — and, strangely enough, some lesbian role-playing — with other women online, but when her friends and admirers want to meet her, Alex decides that Joan has to die.

From that point, the hoax is quickly discovered when Joan’s “husband” (another identity) is unable to provide accurate details about which hospital to send flowers to, and the story begins to crumble. The women are disgusted and feel violated, Alex disappears, etc. And like with all legends, this scam seems to have evolved to its current format: Centered more in the world of fandom, validated by Twitter activity and fan art/fanfic, with the con artists (or as they’re known today, trolls) seeking money and/or validation by the celebrities in question.

Funny how it started with sexual conquest and has come around to a different sort of gratification, that of “the little people” getting acknowledged by those they admire. Ironically, it’s not the celebrities who get hurt — come on, they can’t care that much — but rather the scammer’s peers who, like the Redditors, put aside their hard-won skepticism to welcome someone into their fold.

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SomethingAwful

OK.

I’ve always been curious about this. We all know about the walk of shame, the whole “we’re married now, right?” stories, and the general bullshit that surrounds the common human practice of getting some strange every once in a while.

But even allowing for the general latitude that comes with this particular territory, my experience with this topic has resulted in some nagging questions. Is it really THAT weird to not be uncomfortable the next morning? What the Hell’s wrong with snuggling for a while when you wake up? Does EVERYBODY avoid the person when they happen to run into them later?

Pardon the potential ludicrousness of these questions, but some recent (drunken) conversations have brought them to the forefront of the psyche of yours truly. I told a friend that a one nighter resulted in a long distance friendship that rather clearly has no potential for a repeat performance…we’re basically internet friends. My buddy thought this was freakishly weird. He also thought it was weird that my friends knew.

This seems to be one of those topics that everyone has experience with, but no one really wants to talk about. So let’s exploit the anonymity of the internet, dammit, and pull back the curtain: share your insights, maybe we can clear some of the fog.

I love how you think my options are being a virgin or feeling shame that I have had sex.

I normally just rob their apartment after they’re asleep, so I can definitely see the awkwardness of still being there in the morning.

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No, this isn’t someone’s art project or a Jan Švankmajer still. Some one compiled the worst of Russian food forum pictures to show off the country’s “delicious” meals. Err….

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We’ve added a couple of different forums to our group and opened them up to the public so we can all interact and share with everyone.

• Coffee House – Come hang out with b5 bloggers, readers and anyone else who happens to pop by!
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What are you waiting for now? Come and join us in the b5media public forums.

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Of course it’s a rumor, but she’s definitely seemed a little medicated on a few of the American Idol airings. Wonder what’s up. I wonder if the pressure of working with Simon is just getting to be too much for her. Do you think all three judges are going to stay on long-term for the show? I can’t imagine them hanging with it forever, might be interested to get some fresh new blood in there though. Simon will of course stay forever, but please, whatever you do Simon, DO NOT put David Hasselhoff in there with you.

Oh well, as other forum commenters stated, she’s still looking good, that’s for sure.

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