In general, if a character did not participate in a scene or specifically talk to someone who did, their character should not know that that scene happened. The player may read the scene, but they must not have their character act as if they saw or heard of it. We hold this rule and the IC/OOC distinction very seriously!

To help make information available, five rumor boards will be available for use, one for school-wide use and one for each House's use (The Rumor Mill, Ravenclaw Mill, Hufflepuff Mill, etc.). Admin, Faculty, Staff and Students may post on the appropriate board at any time. Students will only be given access to their particular House's rumor board. If they want to know rumors from another House, they will have to ask a student from that House in an IC situation.

Any material—news, gossip or otherwise—posted on these boards will be considered general school or House knowledge and may be discussed in future scenes.

Tips for Spinning the Rumor Mill
When posting on a Rumor board, you should not copy a scene. Instead, you should use things like:

"Did you hear...
"Did you see...
"While walking down the hallway (or courtyard, or by a classroom), I saw/heard...
The following conversation was overheard...
Earlier today, ...

• Don't post the entire conversation or scene. Instead, post highlights.
• Snatches of phrases are an excellent device (i.e. "so he said, what if we sneak over to…").
• Retell things from your character's POV ("I thought I heard him say…")

If you have trouble, you can send a scene to an Admin or Moderator and ask them to turn it into a rumor for you.

You may want to distort what is actually posted. If you've played the children's game Telephone, you'll understand. In this game, one person whispers a phrase in the next person's ear, who passes it on to the next. By the time it reaches the last person, it is often very different (and hilarious) from how it started. Do the same with rumors. If you retell it, tell it differently than was on the boards.