Owl Watch 2011 is officially at an end, continue on for details…
OWL WATCH WRAP UP (9/29/2011 @ 7:21 pm EST): Well it didn’t go like any of us expected, and in one day over half of the emails were sent at once. But we can say one thing for sure: it has been a wild ride.
With all the Owls having flown out, it’s time to shut down Owl Watch 2011, but fear not because a new Pottermore News section will be created soon to take it’s place. The site still has a lot of things it needs to get accomplished, bugs to iron out, games to get back online (*cough* DUELING *cough*).
I want to thank each and every one of you who checked here for your Owl news. I hope you continue to come back to read my other articles. Hope you have checked out Potions 101 for your potion brewing needs, and also Elm’s Two Cents which is my unfettered opinion on Pottermore and it’s beta process.
OWLS HAVE BEEN GOING OUT DAILY SINCE SEPTEMBER 8TH.
Another Rita Update (9/11/2011 @ 10:00 pm EST): Well we still aren’t at 50%, so miss Elm still isn’t getting her bleeding Owl Watch back. But since today was an eventful day in the Pottermore world, I thought I’d come by and do an update.
They have been putting in place updates on the site all weekend. So far we’ve seen an update on Potion brewing that eliminates the one click fail and time turning cheats.(Please note, some people are still able to time-turn. But I had a couple who could just after update, and now can’t. Think no one will be able to soon enough.) Also they are now awarding different point values depending on the potion you brew. For more details on this check out Potions 101. They have also added a remove all notifications button. These are all things that users have been begging for on the inside.
That’s the good news, the bad news is with three weeks left we still have a LOT of the million registered beta testers still on the outside of Pottermore. And despite updates to Potions, some people are STILL stuck with looping potions.
Currently there are 311,101 people inside Pottermore. Click here for a screenshot of the current Great Hall standings.
Rita’s Update (9/7/11 @ 8:30 pm EST): It seems that Pottermore has been setting e-mails to come out in phases, and are not always announcing the waves. In the past hour multiple beta’s have received their owls time stamped for just minutes before they were received. Seems we can’t rely on them to alert us every time they are coming out, so keep your ear to the interwebs or whatever you Muggles call this digital contraption.
Currently there are 226,204 students inside Hogwarts. Here is a screen shot of the current house break down.
Communication has been practically nil since the Insider Blog entry last week where they answered a few questions last week. Dueling has not come back online, and Potions is still on a version that was uploaded August 25. Seems like everything is moving in slow motion in the Pottermore universe.
Rita’s Update (9/6/11 @ 8:30 pm EST): Well, now you are getting warmer, Pottermore. Not only have you sent out waves on both Monday and Tuesday, but you’ve also fixed your population glitch in the Great Hall!
There are now 208,637 students in the Great Hall, quickly approaching 21%. But if you want me to give little Elmy back Owl Watch you’ll have to get to 50%, AND SOON.
Rita’s Update (9/4/11 @ 11:29 am EST): Rita Skeeter, still here, but the little Muggle born ElmBlade begged me to post an update.
First of all, the Insider finally posted it’s blog entry answering questions from inside Pottermore. Too bad they answered a grand total of FIVE questions of the thousands of questions that have been posed to them. That is not enough information, Pottermore. You’ll have to do much better than that to shut old Rita up!
They also posted at the same time that they were sending out a wave of e-mails. This was Friday, and we have been seeing owls trickle out over the weekend with reports of users receiving them every day.
Unfortunately, it is IMPOSSIBLE to tell around how many have been let in since Friday, since the number of students listed in the Great Hall has been going DOWN instead of UP. No one really knows what this means, it could be many things. Could be the site banning cheaters, could be users deleting accounts, but though the number has only gone down less than a hundred, that would have to be a higher number of ended accounts to cancel out the new users.
Elmy keeps saying she thinks it’s a glitch, and perhaps she’s right. We do know the site is run by dunderheads. In fact just Friday they were incapable of posting the correct link on their tweets, and posted the update for the Friday wave on an entry in August confusing many people trying to locate the announcement.
Perhaps you should get some potterheads on your P.R. team Pottemore.
Without reliable numbers from inside, we now really can’t even tell how many people are in Pottermore, and how many people are still waiting outside of it. Can we rely on the numbers in the Great Hall at all? Can we even rely on the Insider blog to tell us the truth?
Jury is still out on that, and I’m keeping hold of Owl Watch 2011 until I feel I have satisfactory answers.
Rita, out.
RITA’s Rant (9/1/11 at 8:28 pm EST) – This is unacceptable, Pottermore. Simply unacceptable. Do you know what today was in the Wizarding world? Have you even the tiniest clue? Is there even a SINGLE Potterhead on your entire staff?
Today was the first day of term at Hogwarts. Today the Hogwart’s Express departed Platform 9 3/4 at 11 am. Where were you Pottermore? WHERE WERE YOU?
Last week you posted one of your FAMOUSLY VAGUE statements about your intentions for the beta testers still waiting for access to your pitifully unprepared website.
We are planning on giving more people early access over the next week or so and then we will pause sending Welcome emails for a while so that we can see how things are going.
To most people, this reads as the promise of waves of owls for a week before an indefinitely long break. And yet six days later, you have sent only ONE CONFIRMED WAVE of owls? At first, many remained optimistic, figuring SURELY on September first a huge was was coming. Many, including the Muggle who reports on this silly little blog, thought it would be even bigger than the MASSIVE seventh wave you gave us a week ago.
Then today, NOTHING! You let this muggle born, ElmBlade in, and yet you leave me out in the cold? I’M RITA SKEETER!!!
You offered special early access to Pottermore to a million people around the world, and yet a month after the Quill Challenges began, you have only 143,000 users online? Did you even NEED so many testers or was it all just one gigantic publicity stunt?
I’m no stranger to publicity stunts, and knocking the little man down to get ahead, after all I am Rita “the Bug” Skeeter, but over 850,000 people all at once? That’s just down right cruel of you, Pottermore.
Your lack of communication is APPALLING. Your use of half-truths and false promises DESPICABLE. And if I think so, it MUST be so, as I have a very flexible set of morals myself.
At this stage we can’t even tell if we are ON the break you mentioned yet, or not. Also, a week ago you promised to answer some questions on your “Insider” blog this week and yet have posted hardly ANYTHING since. You are inept and insensitive, and I urge you to correct your ways before inflicting further damage on what WAS the most LOYAL FANBASE IN THE WORLD.
You’ve managed to turn one of the most cheery, fun-loving, happy fandoms into 850,000 depressed, disappointed and angry individuals.
THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE POTTERMORE! Get your act together, or I’m going to come down there and take over this joke of an operation you are running, and I’m bringing an 850,000 strong mob of pissed off fans who just want to catch their train to Hogwarts.
Time to get talking, Pottermore. Balls in your court. I won’t be releasing Elm until you answer some questions, and give us SOME KIND OF INFORMATION.
Till next time, Rita.
WAVE TEN UPDATE (8/30/11 @ 5:26 pm EST): According to official info from Pottermore, the “tenth” wave of e-mails started going out at 8:15 am EST (1:15 pm BST). I put “tenth” in quotes because the wave from Monday was unacknowledged by Pottermore officially. I will be counting it as there was a substantial rise in numbers on Monday and none on Sunday. Qualifying it, in my book, as it’s own independent wave.
Hogwarts is now at 129,000 making it smaller than the wave yesterday where we jumped from 101 to 121 thousand. But the night is not over, there could a delayed segment in this wave as we saw in some last week. Keep you posted.
PS— Don’t forget if you have questions about Pottermore check out the Ask Elm entry —>
NINTH WAVE UPDATE (8/29/11 @ 8:50 am EST): We have reports of betas receiving e-mails and some gaining access with out e-mails starting about thirty minutes ago. No official word from Pottermore but I’d say the 8th wave of owls is starting to hit.
Don’t get upset if you see nothing at first. Mine took a long time to appear, and I received no early access while I waited.
More updates are below the polls!
ONLY ANSWER THIS POLL IF YOU HAVE ACCESS TO POTTERMORE
(otherwise it defeats the point)
POST HURRICANE UPDATE (8/28/2011 @ 12:26pm EST): Well we here at the WNN have weathered Hurricane Irene.
It looks as if Pottermore unfortunately is not sending out new waves of owls over the weekend, and personally I have my fingers crossed tight that the next wave will come on Monday DESPITE it being a bank holiday in the UK (it’s don’t wanna go to work day, or something like that).
Currently the numbers inside Hogwarts have just surpassed 97,000 students. I believe that 10% of the welcome mail has been sent, still leaving 90% of beta testers out in the cold. Here’s hoping for more giant waves like the last couple before they take the long “break” they talk about in the Insider Blog.
Still with an eye on the sky looking for owls (and hurricanes)!
FRIDAY UPDATE (8/26/11 @ 10:21 pm EST): Today the 8th wave was released at 11:00 am EST (4:00 pm BST) and the e-mails hit inboxes over a span of HOURS. Again, some were able to log in before their e-mails. Others could not, but then an hour or so later received the e-mail and could.
Three waves in a row occurred at nearly the same time each day. These last two waves practically tripled the number of students that were inside before hand.
Currently we are at over 72,000 students in side. CLICK HERE for today’s house standings screenshot.
We are not sure if they will be breaking for the weekend. Based on the Insider I like to think the next lull won’t be until the end of the week span before the “break” they speak about in the blog. So hopefully we will be seeing wave number 9 at the same time tomorrow as these past couple waves.
Still with a weather eye on the sky, hoping to see more owls in flight!
THE BIG UPDATE (8/25/11 @ 9:36 pm EST): Today we saw the BIGGEST owl wave yet! And for the first time, Insider Blog actually updated with some information! If you haven’t read their new entry, CLICK HERE to read it.
Today at 9:45 am EST (2:45 pm BST) the seventh wave started to fly out. Due to the massive size of the waves now e-mails are not all hitting immediately. Today mine did not arrive immediately, but a good forty minutes after we saw them arriving for others on twitter.
According to the blog entry linked above, they will be sending larger and larger waves, but after a week there will be a “pause” it is unspecific as to how long this pause will be.
Today’s wave added at least 20,000 beta testers. The count for students in Hogwarts has risen to nearly 50,000!
I predict that the eighth wave will likely be around the same time tomorrow as it was today, and the day before. Close to 3:00pm BST. I also predict all of day one and most of day twos will be in before the lull.
If you would like to see a screen shot of current house standings: CLICK HERE.
WAVE SIX UPDATE (8/24/2011 @ 7:15 pm EST): Today we had what was the WEIRDEST wave of welcome e-mails since Pottermore started admitting people last week.
Ten hours ago at 10:00 am EST (3:00 pm BST) Pottermore updated Insider and tweeted that they had released more welcome e-mails. But at first very few people reported receiving anything at all!
Indeed it seemed for the first couple hours to be the smallest wave of owls yet. During these hours we at WNN received a few reports of users who had not received an e-mail logging in to discover that they had access to the site. The email didn’t come through until hours later.
When the tweets started hitting at 4:30 pm EST (9:30pm BST) many thought the seventh wave had come early. But once sufficient time passed and no update from Pottermore came about a new wave it became evident that wave six simply had a weird delivery delay for a good portion of it’s recipients.
Wave 7 is yet to come folks! Current numbers inside Hogwarts show it approaching 31,000 students. This is still a very small amount of the whole.
We will just have to wait and see what the 7th wave has in store for us!
Still stuck at the #noowlparty? Check out this video to learn how to make a Flaming Butterbeer! (Thanks @NoxOwl3 for the link!)
UPDATE EARTHQUAKE EDITION (8/23/11 @ 9:45 pm): Today’s been an eventful day for this reporter, who felt the rolls of an Earthquake who’s epicenter was just a couple of hours away. Perhaps Mother Nature didn’t get her Pottermore welcome owl yet either?
There has been no sixth wave as of yet. It has been 34 hours since the fifth wave.
They broke their pattern today making the next move incredibly hard to predict. We shall have to wait and see what they do next.
FIFTH WAVE UPDATE (8/22/11 @ 1:39 pm EST): The fifth wave of owls hit around 12:15 pm EST.
NO OWL UPDATE (8/21/11 @ 7:32 am EST): It’s officially been THREE DAYS since the last wave of owls, and it’s anyone’s guess when the next will come. It’s afternoon in London now, haven’t lost hope for today yet!
BORING UPDATE (8/20/11 @ 8:33 pm EST): Weekend is officially over in many time zones, and while there were no owls sent out over the weekend, we have hope that Monday just might be the day. Remember they normally come out between 7 am and 7pm BST (7am there is 4.5 hours from now) and the Pottermore Insider Blog has said that it will update and tweet when waves are sent out.
Inside the pupulations are as follows:
- 24,050 total students
- Ravenclaw – 7,099 students
- Hufflepuff – 5,669 students
- Gryffindor – 5,656 students
- Slytherin – 5,626 students
HOUSE CUP STANDINGS:
- Slytherin – 3,354
- Gryffindor – 3,312
- Ravenclaw – 3,288
- Hufflepuff – 3, 012
Hopefully in a few hours, we shall see some welcome owls arrive, until then we have our eyes on the sky as Owl Watch 2011 rolls on!
More updates are below the polls!
ONLY ANSWER THESE POLLS IF YOU HAVE ACCESS TO POTTERMORE
(otherwise it defeats the point)
Break down of “OTHER” as of 8/20/11:
Russia – 27 – 16%
Australia – 8 – 5%
Philippines – 8 – 5%
Belgium – 4 – 3%
Ukraine – 4 – 3%
Россия – 4 – 3%
Italy – 3 – 2%
Canada – 2 – 1%
Germany – 2 – 1%
Kazakhstan – 2 – 1%
Brazil – 2 – 1%
India – 2 – 1%
Belarus – 2 – 1%Countries with < 1%
Indonesia, Egypt, Sweden, Korea, Trinidad and Tobago, Panama, Aargentina, Romania, Sout Africa, Україна, Hungary, Ireland, Azerbaijan, Portugal, & Singapore
WEEKEND UPDATE (8/21/11 @ 1:17am EST): Good evening/morning fellow Pottermore betas! As the weekend rolls on, we’ve still had no sighting of the fifth wave of Welcome Owls. It’s now been 42 hours since the last batch was released. Looks to me like they are waiting out the weekend before allowing more users onto the site.
Current student count inside Hogwarts is 23,505 and rising slowly every couple minutes as users from the last two entry pools are sorted into their houses. This is 2.3% of the total pool of 1 million registered beta users.
We will have to wait to see what they’ll do going into the second week of the test, but hopefully there will be less of these two day gaps between owl releases. This, of course, is pure speculation.
In other news, Evanna Lynch, who played Luna Lovegood in the movie renditions of Harry Potter, was evidently given access in the last wave of owls as she was sorted today. She tweeted about it today in surprise:
That’s all for now folks, until next time we hear at Owl Watch 2011 continue to keep watch for the next wave of welcome owls!!
EVENING UPDATE (8/20/2011 @ 3:10 am EST: Howdy folks, just thought I’d give a quick update to let you all know we are STILL WAITING on the fifth wave of owls. It has been just short of 20 hours since the last batch hit inboxes.
Currently there are a little over 22,000 students enrolled in Pottermore Hogwarts, this is just over 2% of the million registered beta testers.
Slytherin is in the lead for the house cup with 2,937 points. But the other houses are creeping up behind them. Ravenclaw has 2,809, Gryffindor has 2,780, and Hufflepuff with 2,592. Making that race still fairly close.
CLICK HERE FOR A SCREEN SHOT OF THE HOUSE STANDING (SPOILERISH)
No word on when more owls might be arriving, and reports on server status are mixed. Less talk of log in glitches, but many get the site is at capacity Purple Screen of Death.
Truth is, its impossible to predict when the next wave may arrive! Keep an eye on #OwlWatch2011 for updates, and keep those eyes on the sky. (Also, get people you know who already have their welcome letters to come answer the polls!!!)
WAVE FOUR UPDATE(8/19/2011): The fourth wave of owls of an indeterminable size hit around 12:30pm BST (7:30am EST). This reporter still hasn’t gotten in. (Siriusly!) The good news is that we waves are coming faster now, so hopefully with that picking up I and the rest of you will be recieving e-mails soon.
Current Hogwarts student count as of posting this is: 18,714.
Stay strong people, and keep watching those skies for Owl Watch 2011.
UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE(8/18/11 @ 7:38pm EST): Elmira Blade, reporting from outside of Pottermore. You know, as I haven’t been allowed INTO Pottermore yet. Starting to feel like Rita Skeeter, only without the ugly fingernails, and way nicer. Anyway, I’m digressing, back on topic.
THE THIRD WAVE hit about 7 hours ago, and we won’t have a good estimate of how large it was until more of the new users are sorted. Currently the Hogwarts student count is at 16,700 which is up two thousand from what it was before the wave. Judging by twitter response I would say this one is smaller than the first two, as the BOOM that accompanied the first two was much larger than what we saw today.
In fact many were skeptical that owls were in flight at all until the Pottermore Insider blog updated to announce the release. Fortunately, the Insider says it will be updating the blog with EVERY NEW WAVE OF OWLS. Meaning no more wondering if that person on twitter really just got a welcome e-mail, or is just screwing around. You can go straight to the source. We here at the WNN hope they keep to this as the radio silence is not very helpful overall.
I’ve been probing users on the inside of Pottermore to see how they feel about how the site is performing for them. Here’s some thoughts from those on the inside:
Well…the servers seem to run smoothly atm 🙂 Almost no error messages or ‘this user is already signed in’ issues. Only the Wizard Duells are down.
There only seems too be one glitch in potions. If you try to mix the forgetfulness potion you have to stir it up counter-clockwise. But it won’t react for me! 😦 Don’t know if everybody has this problem.
I must say that I wish there was a chat or DMs to get to know people. And some Mini-Games to earn Galleons would be nice since my cauldron tends to explode *coughs*
Greetings – @PotionMist
This is a positive one on the servers, while others like @NettleDraconis1 report getting what we call the Purple Screen of Death multiple times over the last 24 hours. This is the purple screen that tells you the site is at capacity, and counts down to refresh itself. Those of you from day one of the quill challenge probably know this screen pretty well!
I got my Pottermore email around 2 am CST on Tuesday a few hours after that the whole site crashed. I wasn’t able to access it again until around midnight Tuesday night. Once I did get back on however the duels were down for maintenance (and still are). And everything has been more glitchy since then. The site however when working is absolutely amazing and I know alot of people are getting impatient, but I promise it is worth the wait.
Sati Snape aka @MidnightStar117
As of now Dueling has been offline for well over 48 hours, we don’t have an exact time frame for when the game was taken down for maintenance.
I haven’t had a problem with the servers. But if you leave yourself logged in for too long it redirects you to the login screen. and tells you to log in again, but it says you’re already signed in.
We’ve heard this problem has been occurring to a lot of users, so don’t panic if someday it should happen to you!
Pottermore is a must for all potterheads. The additional info/story cuts give you a lot more insight not only to the books, but the author as well.
But it’s not without it’s frustrations!
I spent a great deal of time on the 2nd screen of chapter one. I’m not sure whether this is a glitch through pottermore or my laptop – either way it was frustrating after the wait for my owl!
I tried everything to progress and eventually resorted to asking a fellow potterhead. I tried exactly as advised – no use. I signed out and back in but that didn’t make a difference. I then downloaded Google Chrome, the browser that the other user was using. In doing this, I managed to get a bit further but not the result I wanted.
Thankfully, you don’t need to complete this to move onto the next part of the chapter and at the end it gave me it anyway! In other words I’d spent ages trying to fatham it without success only to find what I wanted in the first place!
The loading of scenes for me seems a bit slow but at the moment I’m on a netbook so I won’t know until I use the PC tomorrow. If it is the site itself then I will feedback to the as well as the problem I first encountered.
Like I said; frustrating!! But please bear with any glitches/problems you encounter because – in my opinion – it’s well worth it!
I know a lot of you are feeling like your moment will never come, but believe me they are coming! Patience is waning on all fronts, but we have to stay strong.
Look at it this way, the longer we’re on the outside, the less glitches we’ll face once we are on the inside!
Still with an eye on the sky, as Owl Watch 2011 continues!!!
THIRD WAVE UPDATE (8/18/11 @ 4:12pm EST): The third batch of owls went out at 6pm BST (1pm EST). More news about this to come shortly.
QUICK UPDATE (8/18/11 @ 12:00pm EST): Nothing new to report on Rhenish front so far today. Numbers onside are creeping towards 15,000 users. Expect larger update from me in aprox 5hrs. See you then! Try to stay positive people!
EVEN MORE BORING UPDATE (8/17/2011 @ 7:19 pm EST) : It’s been 41 hours since the second owl release, and so far nothing new to report. The number of Hogwarts students exceeds 14000 now, and we hear the servers are getting better.
Hopefully there will be some kind of movement to report soon.
VERY BORING UPDATE (8/17/2011 @ 9:40am EST): So it’s been well over THIRTY HOURS since the second wave of owls hit inboxes, and we haven’t seen any come out since. Still radio silence from Pottermore and there is no indication as to when more people might be allowed into the site.
Insiders are reporting improved server conditions, but some also still report log in issues where the site will believe they are already logged in elsewhere when they are not.
As of 9:30am there were 13,697 Hogwarts students inside Pottermore. Which is just a little over 1% of registered beta testers!
If that number seems small, that’s because it is. Hopefully the next wave, whenever it comes, will significantly increase that.
Keeping an ear to the ground and an eye to the sky! Owl Watch 2011 continues!
EVENING UPDATE (8/16/11 @ 8:00pm EST): It’s been a quiet day in the Owl Watch 2011 news room today, with no new owls released in over 18 hours. Reports from inside Pottermore has told us a bit more about what’s going on. Currently the number of Hogwarts students inside is climbing towards 11,000. Many users are reporting server down time, as well as log in problems.
It is our belief that until these server issues are stabilized we unfortunately will not see another flock of owls racing out to welcome new Pottermore beta testers. Adding to the the weight being placed on the servers would only increase the difficulties at the moment.
So that wraps up day two of OWL WATCH 2011. Hopefully tomorrow will bring calm to the servers, and owls to some of us on the outside, just waiting to get in. Good night folks!
OWL UPDATE (8/16/11 @ 9:19am EST): Apparently, this reporter just shouldn’t sleep! I have received word that the second batch of owls started arriving at 2:00 am EST. I still don’t have mine, but if you’ve got yours make sure you fill out the poll on the top. Not enough data to see a pattern in these releases yet,BUT both waves have been of about 5000 people.
EARLY MORNING UPDATE (8/16/11 @ 1:15am EST): Good evening/morning folks! As you can see from the poll contained in the last up date, the majority of entrants from the first batch were from the first two days, with smaller percentages sampled from later days. It is unclear HOW the people from each day were chosen, or whether it has anything to do with registration order. Perhaps demographics come into play? The truth is with out more information we may never know.
We know that the first wave was quite small, with reports from the inside of Pottermore seeing counts between 4000 and 5000 listed as the number of students in Hogwarts. It’s obvious that they can’t do only one batch that tiny a day, otherwise we wouldn’t all make it into the site before the close of September, as promised. Many people are offering mathematical theories as to the progression of upcoming owl deliveries, but please take these with a grain of salt. Don’t drink the sand!
It is our HOPE to see another wave of owl deliveries at some point during business hours today, BST. But until then, #OwlWatch2011 is still in full swing!!
(No letter yet? Join the #NoOwlParty on twitter to find some fellow impatient beta’s waiting for their chance to get into Pottermore!)
SUPER SPECIAL UPDATE (8/15/11 @ 2:45pm EST): Well, unless you’ve been under a rock you’ve seen that the first batch of Pottermore betas have hit the site. I, unfortunately, was not among what seems to be a group of maybe 5000 users. If you were one who got in, please kindly answer the following poll:
SUPER SPECIAL REPORT: AS OF 10AM EST THE LOG IN HAS RETURNED TO POTTERMORE!
SPECIAL UPDATE (8/14/11 @ 8:20pm EST): Doesn’t look like Sunday was our day, many excited Twitterers are quite sure that MONDAY is the day, so keep your eyes peeled as the day wears on, and we get towards business hours in London where the Pottermore headquarters is located.
For a technological assist, I have installed the Page Monitor add-on to my browser and it is checking both the Insider Blog and Pottermore’s main page twice a minute for any change. Try it out, it’s nifty! But make sure you go into options, or else it will only check the page once every THREE HOURS.
Needless to say #OwlWatch2011 is in full swing!
(8/13/11 @ 10:07pm EST): I write this at the close of Saturday August 13th, and tomorrow by anyone’s account we will be trudging into the vague time frame of “mid-august”. Everyone would like to think the next day surely is the day our owls will arrive and we’ll be welcomed into Pottermore.
Dreams aside, lets talk over some theories I’ve seen roaming the wild land known as Twitter. Many have stated that they believe one of the next FOUR days could be they day, and many for valid reasons.
Sunday August 14th, 2011
Because it’s the first day of the week, just as they started the Quill Challenge on a Sunday am.Because 14 is a multiple of 7.Because it’s the earliest and WE WANT IN.
Monday August 15th, 2011
- Because normally mid-month is thought of as the 15th of said month.
- Because that’s what they told the French:
- Because Monday is the beginning of the work week.
- Because if not Sunday, then surely MONDAY right?
Tuesday August 16th, 2011
- Because 1 + 6 = 7.
- Because it’s the real mid-month in a 31 day month.
- Because Harry received his Hogwarts Letter finally on a Tuesday.
- Because if we have to wait later than Monday, there might be CASUALTIES.
- Because this is my theory, so I want it to have more bullet points. 🙂
Wednesday August 17th, 2011
- Because there’s a 7 in there.
- Because a person heard from a person …
- Who read it on a message board that …
- The daughter of a Sony employee said it would be Wednesday.
Needless to say in reality, we’re all grasping at straws. All we can do is wait and keep a sharp eye on our inboxes, as well as the Pottermore main page. It was said on the Insider Blog that the log-in button would return when the site was finally letting people onto the site.
I’m not going to wear out my refresh button though, I’ll be checking for the button, and hopefully so will all of you. We can be one giant watch rotation, someone always looking, the scene never unattended. So if you checked Pottermore and the button is still there, tweet it with #buttonwatch.
Official hash tag for Owl Watch 2011 is #OwlWatch2011. Use it if you’ve gotten your owl. Use it if you HAVEN’T gotten your owl. Use it if you think you saw an owl in the drive. Use it to connect with others who are eagerly awaiting their owls as well.
So keep an eye out for news on #buttonwatch and #OwlWatch2011,and hopefully we won’t be waiting much longer.
-Elm
PS- I LOVE comments, and most who leave one get a tweet shout out. You know, if you’re into that kind of thing.
Blog of a Pottermore Beta 
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pleasant blog site, that i can come repeatedly.
I love this blog! I just got into Pottermore 2 days back and enjoying it thoroughly. Keep it up ElmBlade43.
Love your blog! I check it every day bc you are prompt and my school doesnt block the site!
Have to say Em I love this. You have kept us #noowlparty people entertained and informed. Thanks so much for sharing such a great blog with us 🙂
Pingback: Owl Watch 2011 (updated 9/1/11) (via Blog of a Pottermore Beta) « phoenix21
*Claps loudly* well said Rita! Truly appaling behaviour from pottermore to leave soo many in the lurch! pfffft And what indeed about yesterday? The one day that it’d make sense to let people in ‘like for real’ ;p , a true Hogwarts experience missed if you ask me. Hope Rita can pack her bags soon, so we can have our dearest Elm back! (hint hint pottermore: update your insider blog please) xxx
I’m BladeCastle160 and I’m not in yet (I’m a Day 4er), so I didn’t vote, but I can give you a little amount of information for your poll to update. Россия is Russia, and Україна is Ukraine., only they used their own alphabet while writing their country’s names. See you when I’ll got my letter!
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Can I just say, I was in fridays wave – I couldnt log in at first, still no email, but then 3-4hours later I tried again. Success, still no email. Checked this afternoon and I received it 15 HOURS LATER. So, DONT LOSE HOPE!
Congrats on receiving your welcome email.
I really liked the article, and the very cool blog
How big was the fifth wave? How many people are currently in pottermore?
Thanks for all the info! It’s so helpful for you to do this 🙂 One question though, what did you think the pattern was? I could never work it out, I thought maybe it was every other day excluding weekends, bit slow really!
I really love your blog! It’s filled with useful information and I love your view on things.
I’m not really mad about not getting the mail, I’m mad because they don’t send them out continually. I’ve noticed that just the fact that a batch is sent out makes me feel satisfied, even though my mail hasn’t been delivered yet! (I expected my mail end September anyway.. stupid fan speculation xD)
People shouldn’t worry so much, you’ll get it eventually. Even though receiving it early would be nice (:
Btw, I registered on day 6. Any other day 6 registrants who didn’t/did receive any mails? 😀
New batch of emails and I got it :D:D:D:D
Congrats! And have fun. Let me know if you have any info you’d like to share with Owl Watch.
Just to let you know:Россия and Russia are the same country.You have separated them in poll results and also Ukraine and Україна ….
THANK YOU! I copied and pastes those directly out of the stats because I didn’t know what they read exactly. I shall fix it tonight.
First off, I really enjoy your blog 🙂
I answered my magic quill question on day one after stalking my computer screen for hours, and I still haven’t got my admission e-mail 😦 I thought for sure since I answered the first day I would be in the first rounds of getting in, but no. So I can just pray I am in the next wave of owls. Anyway, Do you think in JoRo fashion there is only going to be 7 waves of owls? If so since only about approx 2% are in then maybe the next waves will be much much larger.. idk just a thought.
I also answered the quill question on the first day and haven’t received my email, a bit disappointing to say the least…
Please update count for “other” in second poll?
Nobody from Serbia got it?We’ll get our mails at September 30th…
I don’t think the 5th wave will come soon, if you open the pottermore page sometimes the overwhelming demand stuff comes up. I think it means they still need to upgrade their servers before they let more people in. Correct me if I’m wrong
Truth is, we just don’t know. BUT the same studded has BEEN happening and they were still letting additional people in.
Well then all fingers crossed 🙂
Thanks so much for the Owl Watch 2011 update. Elm is always the go-to gal!
Fantastic Blog Lauren!! Glad we have you for all the updates and the insiders info 😀 Hope the owl is on its way to you shortly!
xxx
Hi–
I love reading this blog, and just wanted to let you know how great it is! I appreciate that you aren’t running around posting a bunch of spoilers per se, but are giving the inside scoop on the student count, server issues, and Pottermore blog updates… all the stuff I am craving right now as I wait for my own ‘owl’ to arrive.
Keep it up!
Cricket
I’m glad you are enjoying it! Trying to keep the Pottermore verse informed. There will be spoilers later, but it will be everyone’s choice if they want to see them, they’ll be in separate entries from Owl Watch 2011. Which I will continue until every last Beta tester gets into Pottermore!
Thanks for reading! – ELM
Oh meant to say how surprised I was to see how skewed the countries are to the USA… I have a bunch of idea going through my head as to why that could be…but nothing that seems to make sense to me to speculate on it.
*Glow*
Hey there–gosh had to get to the end of all the comments to say Good Job on the newest update–a lot of helpful info there… but of course we have nothing to do but wait and wish right now! Thanks for keeping us all posted on what is (and isn’t!) happening!
*Glow*
Thanks so much for this watch post! It’s helping me retain my sanity! Haha I’m not the most patient person in the world.
Why is the number of Hogwarts students increasing, if they are not sending any owls. If I had received my welcome email, I would have immediately logged on the site and got sorted.
Students are only counted after sorting and some have not sorted. Hence the number slowly getting larger despite no new owls. Thanks for reading!
I like ur blog, thank u for keeping us informed
I love reading your blog! 😀 Anyways, it’s so annoying that they are being such prats and not sending us our owls. Humpy
I got very lucky and got meself registered on the last day. The answer also happened to be the easiest that day.
I’m a Day 1 myself and I’m ecstatic – loving the experience so far!
Haha, I love your bullet points. XD Also- great pic you made! Really digging the news report thang. Very cute. ^^ Excellent artwork as well. 😀
Also, I (HexSilver) think that when they say the site will be open in October, what they really mean is October 31st . . . but only because that would really drive the rest of everyone nuts. And JKR and company seems to be oddly good at that. Maybe she really is a Slytherin. *ponders*
Okay, why did they do the Quill thing so soon if they were just gonna make us sit on our hands for a couple of weeks? HexSilver wants to know. *nods*
That’s a good point. But then again J.K. Rowling has always made us wait and wait and wait. Wait for a new book, details on the new book, what the new book will be called. We should all be used to this by now. Hahahaha!
This blog was great. So funny. The rumor mill has been in overdrive lately. There is also this chart going around saying what dates you should expect an email based on what day you registered. Of course none of it is confirmed so it’s hard to know what to believe. My theory is that the reason why everything is so vague is because the people who run Pottermore don’t want to make any promises it can’t keep. Meaning that because setting up anything big like this web site, there’s all kinds of problems you can run into. Bugs in the programs, system running too slow. I imagine the Pottermore people don’t want to say exactly which date and which people will be getting emails is so if a problem happens and they can’t send out emails, then people will be pissed and start complaining. But if they keep it vague then people will be happy no matter when they get their email. Idk, just a theory though. Haha!
Awesome! I agree with you! I think it will be the 15th! I just wrote a blog about this too! Check it out?! http://www.goldnight154.blogspot.com/
So great!!! And why you are my personal pottermorefamily authority. Thanks for keeping us informed!
This felt like a weather forecast! I loved it! Very well written 🙂
I’m glad you enjoyed it! I finished the picture and this is what ended up coming out of it. Thanks for commenting!!
that picture is hilarious. :)) Pottermore, you heard Elm here, sending letters later than Monday is dangerous to every Pottermorefamily member’s health. :))
Epic read once again btw. 🙂
I feel like the graphic really sets the whole tone. Lol. Thanks!
i love the phrase “Because it’s the earliest and WE WANT IN.” exactly my line of thinking. ^_^
I didn’t know this was going to be funny when I started writing it, and then it just kind of happened! And we really DO want IN. 🙂
Who me? Into that kind of thing? She knows me too well in so short a time 🙂 For me…the wait is different…as a day 7… cus I know everyone else will receive an owl in advance!
Aw, I didn’t know you were a day 7! Well lets just hope the site is built sturdy and they’ll get us on quickly. I really think they will want EVERYONE to be on it a good couple of weeks before it goes public, not adding betas up to the day before.
They are gonna want to see what this puppy can handle.
I’m a day four, so I’m a little less concerned about when they start letting people in as well, but I’ll still probably freak out when it starts. 🙂
I am at the end of the line also. And I just love the name April so you must be sweet.
Aw thank you Edward! I had not seen this comment until now–you made my day 🙂 Nice to keep company wit you at the end of the line 🙂
Oh, I’m a day 7 too (stupid things from RL -like work and internet issues- got in the way so couldn’t register sooner), so I’ve already accepted my wait is longer. But for a moment, when the first owls started arriving, I thought I wouldn’t get one, and that was really bad, so now I do not worry about: I’m already part of the million, and is that what counts. Although, it would be *really* nice to get in before Sept. 30, you know. But I also think all the betas will have more than 2 weeks to use it, otherwise there is no point in giving the betas.
Btw, loved the tags idea, makes the wait a lot more fun 🙂 See you around!!!