Sandbox / HP Headscratchers 1

A sandbox for analyzing the wonder that is Headscratchers.Harry Potter And The Philosophers Stone. I won't be copy+pasting anything: I'll be writing the name of the folder and giving my thoughts on the contents of it.

Page part 1

Where'd the Hogwarts Song Go?

• This one seems fine. There's a question asked, the answers don't derail anything, and it's short and sweet and easy to read.

Who'd Ever Want to Be King?

• This one almost immediately derails into debate and nitpicking about chess strategy and Ron's motivations for picking the pieces he did and the moves he did. The actual question got forgotten almost immediately, and the only actual answer given kinda missed the entire point of the chess match.

Hey Vernon! It's (Almost) Halloween!

• Uses the term "just bugs me", so we know this will be a good one. Anyway, this folder is a lot of back-and-forth just to establish that no, Britian in the 80s didn't celebrate Halloween much.

A Stone in Flamel's Hand is Worth None in the Mirror

• The actual question was answered multiple times with almost the same answer every time. The rest of this folder is just a derail into debating over logistics or motivation.

There's Only Power, And Those Too Weak To Seek It... Oh Yeah, and There's Me...

• A pretty short folder with no derails; all the responses are actually responses. It's fine.

Stone-Cold Voldemort

• A few minor tangents and conversation-making in this one, but nothing egregious. Seems fine.

The Most Muddled Halloween Ever

• This one starts out as a complaint about some confusing timeline shenanigans and just continues on as a debate about confusing timeline shenanigans, derails into discussing how old Harry and Dudley were, and then ends in people posting theories about the events.

Lily Potter - First Loving Mother Ever?

• It's just a debate, complete with conversation between posters and references to other Headscratchers pages, and the actual question is answered very early on.

Dumbledore's Gone? Everyone Panic!

• A Fridge Horror-esque question that dips into some debate. A poster with bad grammar appears and some formatting gets broken.

Hogwarts Sure is Roomy...

• Some minor debate, but most of the replies are specifically answering the question and giving different ideas about the situation. Pretty okay.

Who needs the stone?

• Halfway through the discussion, after the first question is answered, someone (possibly the OP) comes back and decides to ask another question in the folder. Then the rest of it is back-and-forth about the stone vs horcruxes, and it goes on for forever, long after the questions were already answered.

Shouldn't Harry be more affected by his neglect at the Dursleys' hands?

• No real debate here, but a lot of the same answer ("he does show PTSD symptoms") getting reiterated by many different people in many different ways, which eventually just gets annoying to read. If something has already be stated, why post the exact same thing in a slightly different way just below it?

'Fear of a name...'

• A bit of debate on this one, with the OP basically answering their own question in the question itself and others giving the in-universe reasoning's. Mostly fine, but more aggressive and debate-y than needed.

Why did the First Wizarding War end so abruptly?

• OP has bad grammar. Other than that, while there's a tiny bit of debate, it's mostly just people giving and expanding upon answers. It's s'alright.

Pointless Distractions?

• OP is a wall of text that asks more than 1 question. After those questions get answered another question is asked. Could stand to be split, but not the worst.

Why make it solvable?

• Almost immediately derails into debate. Only a few posts actually attempt to answer the original question.

Late Night Out is Extremely Bad?

• A bit of debate and it's also a bit bash-y toward McGonagall. Randomly there's another first-level bullet added to give what I can only describe as a WMG about the situation, and then there's two replies to that post, one of which may have come from the person who made that weird secondary bullet in the first place.

Attempted Murder

• Short and sweet and the replies are focused on the actual question for the most part.

Best Friends on a Last-Name Basis

• A question for the "whole series" for some reason posted on the PS page. There's conversations going on and tropers using anecdotes to answer the question (troper tales lite?). But besides that, at the very least it doesn't derail into a tangential argument.

Hermione Granger, World's Fastest Learner

• It was at this point I realized just how long this Headscratchers page was and I died a little inside. However, this folder is mostly fine, though there's two instances of tropers just kinda going on a tangent about how of course Hermione would want to study something so exciting, one of them being a first-level bullet for some reason.

Page part 2

All Bad Wizards Are Slytherins! Except for Him... and Him... and Him...

• One giant conversation more than a question being answered, reaching a boiling point when there's debate over whether or not it's okay for Rowling's character to say something misleading but characteristically prejudiced. The question gets answered numerous times as "Hagrid was exaggerating because he's biased".

Lily and James, Middle-Aged Twentysomethings?

• This one is fine; the question is the main focus and there's no in-fighting, just answering.

Hermione Not Smart Enough For Ravenclaw?

• Very debate-heavy, full of pet theories and things get reiterated a lot.

Charlie's Discount Wands

• Mostly a conversation about pet theories and minor debate, but at least it attempts to answer the question.

Psychic Dumbledore and Flamel?

• Pretty okay. Short and sweet and on-topic.

Quirrell Power To the Max or Quirrell Incompetence?

• Debate, some of it focused on whether or not someone can clap while holding something in their hands.

We Can Rule Together

• Short, sweet, to the point. Pretty good.

Quidditch Murder

• Another short and not-bad one.

Nicholas Flamel: Stupidest Genius Ever?

• Minor debate, but it's 'ight.

Why Trust Hagrid?

• Mostly fine, though there's some squabbling. But at the end there's a random, un-bulleted, question about Mrs. Figg, unrelated to anything mentioned.