| Type | For-profit domestic corporation |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | LaPorte, Indiana, USA |
| Key people | Emerson Spartz |
| Owner | Emerson Spartz[1] |
| Website | www.mugglenet.com |
| Alexa rank | 20,000 (approx. as of August 2011[update])[2] |
| Registration | Optional |
| Available in | English (U.S.) |
| Launched | October 1999[3] (Incorporated in 2007) |
MuggleNet is a Harry Potter fansite founded by Emerson Spartz. The site is composed of news, editorials and synopses of the Harry Potter books and films, an encyclopedia of the books, an IRC network, in which the fans of Harry Potter can discuss predictions and share thoughts, a discussion forum, and media such as screenshots, theatrical trailers and book covers. There is also a fan fiction section, a weekly caption contest, and other occasional contests and polls. On August 9, 2005, it launched a podcast, dubbed MuggleCast, as well as its own line of clothing, toy wands, other merchandise. In 2006, MuggleNet released a best-selling reference book on Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the final book in the series. As of 2008, MuggleNet is owned by Spartz, Inc., an Indiana corporation registered by Emerson Spartz in 2007.[1] On May 29, 2010, MuggleNet 2.0, an updated version of the site, went live.[4]
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Emerson Spartz serves as the president, founder, and CEO of MuggleNet. As the MuggleNet CEO, he watches over a paid staff and volunteers.
MuggleNet benefits from friendly relations with J. K. Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter books, and the producers of the films. She has praised MuggleNet on her website and has awarded it her "Fan Site Award".[5]
Rowling recounts on her website that she occasionally visits the site and sometimes reads the comments left by visitors, while never commenting herself. The author also stated that she visited the site's chat room and was snubbed when she anonymously joined in a conversation about Harry Potter theories.[6]
In July 2005, Rowling invited Spartz and Melissa Anelli, of The Leaky Cauldron, to Edinburgh, Scotland for an interview at her home on the release of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.[7] A transcript of the interview was posted on MuggleNet.[8] Warner Bros., the producers of the Harry Potter movies, regularly sends MuggleNet stills taken from the upcoming movies before they are released. The studio also provided MuggleNet staff with advance views of the new official website designs, as well as including staff in a video conference to discuss the new Harry Potter theme park at Universal Studios Florida.
| Updates | Weekly |
|---|---|
| Debut | August 7, 2005 |
| Genre | Harry Potter |
| Website | www.mugglecast.com |
MuggleCast is a monthly podcast, featuring several staff members from MuggleNet, that discusses a large range of topics related to the Harry Potter series. The first episode was launched on August 7, 2005 and was made available through the Apple iTunes service. The regular hosts of the show are Eric Scull, Micah Tannenbaum, and Andrew Sims, UMDNJ, First Student Inc., with occasional appearances by Ben Schoen, Jamie Lawrence, Matthew Britton and Richard Reid. Former hosts include Elysa Montfort, Kevin Steck, Nick Myers, Laura Thompson, and Mikey Bouchereau.
MuggleCast was voted Podcast of the Year by the 2005 Weblog Awards, which are decided by popular vote. In late September 2006, it was awarded the 2006 People's Choice Award at the 2nd annual Podcast Awards in Ontario, California, as well as the Best Entertainment Podcast in October 2008. Most recently, it won the Best Entertainment Podcast at the 2009 Podcast Awards.
Each show is approximately 90 minutes long. The show begins with an introduction by Jim Dale and then the podcast's theme song, a rock version of John Williams' "Hedwig's Theme," created by Kenneth Marut and Andrew Walker. As of the 200th episode, the show begins with David Heyman, the producer of the films, saying 'Hello, this is David Heyman, and I'm the producer of the Harry Potter films and this is MuggleCast!' The hosts then state their names after a small introduction, and the show begins with a news discussion led by Micah Tannenbaum about the latest news on the books, films, and other Harry Potter-related issues. The show is then handed over to one of the "MuggleCasters", who goes on to read the listener rebuttals (MuggleMail) along with a voice-mail section, in which listeners can send recorded questions to the panel about previous episode discussions and questions about the Harry Potter series in general. A "Chapter by Chapter" segment is usually presented, in which the hosts present analysis of 2-3 chapters from one of the seven books. A few of their segments include "Chicken Soup for the MuggleCaster's Soul", "Quote Quiz", "Make the Connection", "Make The Music Connection", "Avada Kedavra, Imperio, Love Potion" and "Dueling Club". Transcripts of the podcast are available on the MuggleCast website, and are typically posted a couple weeks after the release of the audio episode.
MuggleCast continues to be an avid supporter of Relay for Life for the American Cancer Society.
Four members of the cast host a literature podcast named "Imprint; A Twilight Podcast", which focuses on the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer.
MuggleCast often records special live episodes of their podcast. This is generally done when there is a big story in the Harry Potter fandom. Former live shows have revolved around the news of J. K. Rowling revealing that Professor Albus Dumbledore was gay, the splitting of the seventh movie into two parts, and J. K. Rowling's appearance in court over copyright issues. They also have live shows during book releases, such as a live episode at Waterstones Piccadilly at the release of The Tales of Beedle the Bard.
MuggleCast has a friendly rivalry with The Leaky Cauldron and its podcast, PotterCast. Hosts of PotterCast have appeared on MuggleCast on occasion and they have teamed up to record joint podcasts, which were titled "The Leaky Mug".
One joint podcast was recorded live in New York City on November 12, 2005 at the Union Square Barnes & Noble, coinciding with the United States premiere of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. During this show, the mother of PotterCast and founder of competing fan site The Leaky Cauldron, Melissa Anelli, who was at the premiere after party, called in with Emma Watson (Hermione Granger), Katie Leung (Cho Chang), Robert Pattinson (Cedric Diggory), Jamie Waylett (Vincent Crabbe), Tolga Safer (Karkaroff's aide), and Matthew Lewis (Neville Longbottom) on the phone.
Two joint live podcasts were held in the summer of 2006. The first was in July at the Lumos 2006 Symposium, a Harry Potter convention that was held at the JW Marriott Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada. A few days later, The Leaky Mug team held another live podcast in New York City at the Barnes & Noble in Union Square, where the first live podcast had been held. The show was focused around J. K. Rowling's August 2006 visit to New York and the readings she did for the event "Harry, Carrie, and Garp" at Radio City Music Hall on August 1 and August 2.
During the summer of 2007, MuggleCast did a tour of live shows across America with the wizard rock band The Remus Lupins, discussing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows with the fans. The tour traveled eight states: Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Missouri, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. This tour was held right after the release of the final Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. During the tour, they analyzed important characters and situations for their episodes, which took place at various bookstores.
Several big names of the Harry Potter series have been on MuggleCast, such as Mary GrandPré, the illustrator of the Harry Potter books published by Scholastic, Jim Dale, who had narrated the American version of the books, Patrick Doyle, the composer of the fourth film, Warwick Davis, who played Professor Filius Flitwick and Griphook, David Heyman, producer of the Harry Potter films, David Yates, director of the final four Potter films, and Oliver Phelps, who played George Weasley in the films. Neil Cicierega, creator of Potter Puppet Pals was interviewed, and Stephenie Meyer, author of the Twilight saga has also appeared.
MuggleNet Interactive (often shortened to MNI) is a website spin-off of MuggleNet. It is an online forum, where users can interact with other users in a Hogwarts setting. In addition to the general chat areas, the site is known for its diverse offerings, including the roleplaying area, the blog-style Chamber of Secrets, the high-speed trivia games of the Quidditch Pitch, and the professor-led classes taught in a Socratic method. Semiannual House Cup competitions encourage house unity and often allow "students" to compete for honors in contests with essays, graphics, or other media. The MNI community also celebrates many holidays, as well as the shared birthday of Harry Potter and J.K. Rowling, with a "Ball" in the otherwise closed Great Hall. Many Easter eggs, known as "site secrets" among the users, are littered throughout MNI's pages and are often sought for their galleon rewards, but speaking of them on-site is forbidden. The many distinct components of the site contribute to the diverse community that it attracts.
The site was originally formed from "Personality Quiz" made in 2000, which was later adapted for the fuller version of the site as a Sorting Hat. Over the years, sections such as a Diagon Alley shopping area, a Dueling Game, Flourish and Blotts fan fiction library, quizzes, and other subsections outside of the forum structure were incorporated into the site. The staff hierarchy was originally modeled after the faculty structure at Hogwarts with Headmaster/Headmistress as the main site administrator overseeing moderating prefects and class-leading professors, but over time, non-canon positions such as programmers, artists, and quiz masters have been added in addition to other Harry Potter-themed appointments.
| Type | Non-profit organization |
|---|---|
| Website | fanfiction.mugglenet.com |
| Registration | Optional |
| Available in | English (U.S.) |
| Launched | November 2004[9] |
On the November 14, 2004, MuggleNet opened its fan fiction sub-site MuggleNet Fan Fiction (often shortened to MNFF) following in the footsteps of other Potter-specific fan fiction sites.
In 2006, the site began its annual "Quick Silver Quill Awards," where authors and readers could nominate their favorite fictions from various categories to be receive the recognition they deserved. Staff fictions were not allowed to be nominated for these awards, leading to a secondary "Modly QuickSilver Quills" being held the following year. These awards recognized the work the moderators do around the archives and the forums, and the stories they themselves have written.
MuggleNet Fan Fiction also hosts its own version of Hogwarts within its forums, offering classes to new authors who wish to learn more about writing. These are run by members of the site who volunteer to teach a subject that interests them and are very popular, with more authors taking part each term (run in trimesters). The classes are run in levels, first years, OWLs and NEWTs, getting progressively more in-depth, allowing the authors to choose at which level they wish to participate. On the October 31, 2008, MuggleNet Fan Fiction released its first podcast episode, a free audiobook service where a team of members known as "MerMuggles" read nominated fictions from the site's archives. The podcast proved very popular, opening the world of fan fiction to those who preferred not to read from their computer screens.
As of 2005, the MuggleNet network started generating a six-figure income through advertising revenue.[10][11]
In 2006, in advance of the arrival of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, five MuggleNet staff members (Ben Schoen, Emerson Spartz, Andy Gordon, Gretchen Stull, and Jamie Lawrence) co-authored the reference book MuggleNet.com's What Will Happen in Harry Potter 7: Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Falls in Love and How Will the Adventure Finally End, which was a published collection of unofficial fan predictions. As of July 21, 2007, the book sold 335,000 copies and reached #2 on the New York Times Children's Bestseller List. It spent 6 months on the list.[12] Spartz and his co-authors launched a marketing campaign in June 2007 to promote their work. This included a tour of the United States where they stopped at many bookstores and discussed their various theories and revelations.
In 2009, Emerson Spartz and Ben Schoen penned another book, MuggleNet.com's Harry Potter Should Have Died: Controversial Views From The #1 Fan Site. A cross-country book tour took place in the summer of 2009.
In March 2009, MuggleNet Fan Fiction released a self-help guide to creative writing entitled Sharpen Your Quill[13] The book offers advice on writing plot, characterization, poetry, specific genres and other useful information including grammar and fluent style. As a self-published book, the release made little revenue but the proceeds have been used to fund Audiofictions, the site's audiobook-style podcast.