The First War Mods (![[info]](http://www.insanejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} thefirstmods) wrote,@ 2009-10-12 14:48:00 |
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| Entry tags: | applying, game canon, regs, resource |
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| Origin |
Originally created by a stationary company in India, the journals have spread outward with varying degrees of success. They were met with initial resistance in western Asia and remain a sub-culture phenomenon there and out-right failed in eastern Asia. However, they took root in Europe and gained enormous popularity there. The first journals to be sold in England were brought in by a French novelties company, Lire et Ecrire, but now there are several domestic companies that produce journals and they can be purchased from almost any stationary or book store. Differences between journal companies are minor and mostly involve stylistic choices. Some of the cheaper brands can break down easily while the more expensive ones come with more options such as colored inks or formatting spells and tend to work better. The Ministry of Magic issues mid-range journals to all of its employees to facilitate official communication. Ministry journals come with pre-loaded privacy hexes to allow Ministry workers to send messages to an entire Department or group at once. |
| Usage |
Magical journals work much like muggle 'blogs' by allowing what is written in one journal to be readable to anyone. A journal owner simply writes on the first page of their own journal and instantly the message is readable to everyone, unless hexed private. Journals are considered translated objects, because they are larger on the inside than their physical mass should allow. Though they appear to be thin volumes, they actually contain as many pages as needed to show all of the messages the owner has. Messages say in a journal until removed by an owner and if not cleaned out periodically can get ridiculously long. Journals do not use traditional ink and quills but come with a specially made stylus that writes only on journal paper. Regular ink will damage a journal page and will not be translated to other journals. |
| Magic |
Privacy Hexes Privacy hexes can be placed on a journal to make certain entries or parts of entries private only to the user or to other parties. Privacy hexes must be addressed to specific users, i.e. [To Molly, Alice, and Lily]. For convenience, most journals will 'store' custom hexes that can be later be cast to a specific, pre-defined group, i.e. [To the Order] or [To Friends] but cannot be sent to an undefined group, i.e. [To everyone who hates the Ministry]. Hexes are currently unhackable, but once it became known that Death Eaters were using journals to stay in contact, the Ministry put some of its best people on trying to fix that. They have so far been unsuccessful, and the project is considered classified as the Ministry is sure they will eventually succeed and don't want the Death Eaters to revert to more traditional (and more secure) forms of communication. Tracking and Anonymity Every message in a journal appears with the user's name next to it. However, it is possible to hex a message to be anonymous. Anonymity hexes are easy to break by those who know what they're doing. [OOC note - Anonymity hexes must be noted in a journal entry's title.] However, it is currently impossible to track someone's physical location through the journals. Sending Items Small, flat items (generally paper items) may be sent to specified journals if attached using a specific charm. The item will disappear from the host journal and appear between the pages of the receiving journal. Items cannot be sent to multiple journals, unless there are items included - the journals will not duplicate the item. Pictures attached using spellotape or a basic sticking charm will be recreated in ink on the viewed journal entry. OOC Notes |