Whatever happened to Pottermore
The website announced by J.K. Rowling back in July has yet to come out of beta. That means that only a select group of Harry Potter fans has been able to access Pottermore. When will it ever open to the rest of the public? Who knows.
Back in June, J.K, Rowling went on YouTube to announce the coming of Pottermore which promised to extend the Harry Potter experience even further. The site was going to include new information and also allow fans to purchase the audiobooks and eBooks. A beta was going to start July 31, 2011 and the general public were to be admitted at the end of October. Well we are now into the second month of 2012 and still Pottermore remains closed to the general public.
According to Pottermore Insider one million Potter fans have been able to access the beta. Unfortunately according to the same source, the beta has been extended indefinitely. The site says that they want to continue improving Pottermore before they open it up to the general public. They need to be careful or the general public will no longer care.
The Harry Potter series has been a phenomenal success for its author. It catapulted her from an unknown single mother writing in coffee shops to the 13th wealthiest woman in Britain. A lot of that happened because of the juxtaposition of her books and movies.
Although many of the books had been published by the time the first movie was released, the latter part of the series was still being written. The books got bigger and the movies darker as the series progressed. One year you could buy the book and within the next year or two you could see the movie. The momentum of one carried over to the other. When the last movie was released this past summer, it felt almost like the loss of a good friend and people were eager to sign up for Pottermore in the hopes of continuing the fantasy.
Here we are many months after the site was announced and anticipation has waned. People have moved on to other movie and book series. The children who grew up with Harry Potter have moved on to other fantasy series like The Twilight Saga, J.R.R. Tolkien, and others. The momentum has died. Most people probably haven’t thought of Pottermore in ages.
One million people are getting to enjoy the site, but that is a fraction of the audience that J.K. Rowling could have expected if the site had opened on time. Actually the perfect time for the site to have gone live was back in July when the last movie opened. There would have been a natural bridge from the movie to the online experience and that could have happened with better planning. Timing is everything. It doesn’t take long for a media phenomena to become old news. That’s exactly what has happened to Pottermore.
February 4th, 2012
It’s a real shame too. I was looking forward to continuing on with the story because like you said, after the last movie, it felt as if you lost a friend! I know when the last movie finished, I felt as if I won’t have any good movies to look forward to. I don’t really like Twilight because I was taught that vampires burn in the sun, not go disco ball. Haha, anyways, I would still love for the site to go public, but it needs to happen soon because I’ve already forgotten which order the books go in…
February 4th, 2012
Well… people like the author of this article probably moved to cheap things like Twilight, because it suits her, but she cannot speak for everybody (although she obviously think that she does)… The Potter moment will never die, because wonderful literature and storytelling remains, in one shape or another, for those who will seek for. As about the others, who are looking for a website but forgot which order the books go in (and who also probably think that Dostoievski is a disease)… they can stop waiting for Pottermore whenever they want, because it will not mean for them more than a few clicks anyway.
February 4th, 2012
Cruella, for someone who seems to have all the literary answers, you sure do have bad grammar and spelling.
February 5th, 2012
I was one of those betas – and I haven’t been to Pottermore in months. The sad truth is, Pottermore turned out to be a stupendous disappointment and a total bore–the first misstep JK Rowling ever took. It’s already irrelevant, and has been almost from the beginning, so it no longer matters if they open it to the general public or not. Very few people care anymore, sadly. I had such high hopes for it, and not one of them was realised. *sighs*
February 7th, 2012
Probably too busy creating “irrefutable evidence” to convince the legions of gullibles that she actually created the stuff.
February 8th, 2012
I still care about Pottermore and I don’t think I am one of the few. Like Cruella said, the fandom will never die out, there is no chance for that happening in the next… 10 years? People go back to the books all the time, they rewatch films as well. And when Pottermore opens, they will log in out of curiosity, because that’s what Potterheads do – if something has anything to do with Potter series, they will go and check it out. Speaking as one of the betas, I wasn’t disappointed with Pottermore. What did you guys expect? I am happy that I was finally oficially sorted to a house, and was given a wand. I also like McGonagall’s beautiful lifestory that is described on the site. It is also fun to duel. Maybe just potions are not my thing… it takes too much time to brew them. Oh, I think I should add that I am not a 12 year old obsessing over HP and how wonderful are the games on PM, but a 19 year old who gets excited by anything HP related. Of course, this is just merely 1/7 of the site, there is gonna be more to Pottermore than just it. Why not try to be patient? They WILL open it eventually.
February 9th, 2012
She needs to release the iBook version (and Kindle, I guess) of Harry Potter. That’s the only way the momentum will keep going..
February 9th, 2012
If we can’t get onto Pottermore, ok. But release the e-books for crying out loud! I work 45-50 hours per week so I don’t have a lot of time to waste on the website anyway, but I’d really love to add the books to my Kindle. While I don’t think I’ll ever stop being a fan of everything Harry, I do feel Ms Rowling and the folks in charge of this whole Pottermore thing, have let down millions of loyal fans. But I guess they’ve already got their money so what do they care?
February 10th, 2012
What I dont get is why when she extended the beta “indefinitely” she didnt allow for another million people to join? That would make more sense. I just dont get her reasoning. She wants to make it better but allowing for 1 million people to join and then basically spit on the other people beacuse she said it would be open for everyone on LAST YEAR October buy not letting them join AND letting the people already join let them play for basically ever. Thats horrible marketing. I can get if the website had technical difficulties but come on. its been months in open beta and they arnt letting new players join. Im sure many users stopped logging on and they should have the policy if they didnt log in for lets say 2 weeks there accounts would be deleted and it would allow for other people to join. It might not be much but it would give some hope to people.
February 10th, 2012
I am a long time Potter fan as well, and can’t deny that I’m disappointed that Pottermore is still unavailable. Actually, I think Tony – despite atrocious spelling and grammar – made a great point. Why not let new people join as the original beta crowd loses interest? I also see people on Twitter talking about how they haven’t logged on in months. They should really consider letting memberships to expire for people who are no longer interested, and make room for the fresh perspectives of those who still care.
February 11th, 2012
The Potter moment will never die? It never was alive…
The Simpsons Season 23 Episode 6 – The Book Job Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llbk9jfmgiw
February 11th, 2012
I was one of the lucky million who got into Pottermore as a beta. While it didn’t live up to what I was expecting it wasn’t a huge let down. Sure there are some things that need to be ironed out and improved I still think it’s a great site. If people are only logging in to play on the games (casting spells and potions) I feel that’s not what Pottermore was initially created for. There are people on the site who are only on there to win the house cup by gaining points by playing the games on there. The new Harry Potter content is incredible but it does take away some of the mystery of the books. I particularly like McGonagall’s back story.
In some ways I can see why they no longer have an official opening day as there were a lot of technical difficulties on this site and still are in some ways. I think there does need to be improvements before it is opened to everyone.
No, I haven’t been on Pottermore in a good few weeks due to life getting in the way and I wouldn’t be happy if I went to log on and found my account had been deleted due to me “no longer being interested”.
I’ve been a fan since I was ten years old now at twenty-two I still love Harry Potter and I always will.
February 14th, 2012
When she will open Pottermore for the public I was hoping to be open in november for the public. When she will open for the public.
February 15th, 2012
I am a part of the beta group, I got in the first night, and I LOVE it. It is quite magical. The reason that it is still in beta, I’m assuming, is that they are still working out a few kinks. There are new suggestions from the members everyday in the forum about things to change. We’re helping her make it a better experience for everyone. Be patient, it will be well worth your wait.
I think that if she did not announce it as widely as she did, it would have been better, because there was a lot of anticipation from Potter fans. But like I said before, be patient, because we’re still making changes!
February 15th, 2012
It may be open to some, but you can only participate in the first book so far, so the whole site had been explored after maybe two weeks. There is nothing left for us to do!
February 19th, 2012
Here’s the thing…at least make the ebooks available. I mean really, that’s what many, many people want and would by. If the ebooks had been made available for purchase through the many venders such as B&N and Amazon then they would be making millions to say the least. This is absolutely rediculous! How much longer are the fans who catapulted Mrs. Rolland’s to the top going to have to wait?
February 22nd, 2012
Yea, I’ve been a HUGE Harry Potter Fan for years, and I have to admit, I completely forgot about this site. I found out about it too late and when I did, I couldn’t get a freakin account. They just went too fast and unless you have NO life and NOTHING to do, you were pretty much outed as a candidate for being a beta user. Honestly, I don’t even care anymore. I have many other interests to keep me occupied and the hype has definitely died down. Life goes on. Oh well, I’m sure it’s a nice site and all. But I give up on it, maybe I’ll remember it a year from now and it will actually be open. Who knows.
January 17th, 2013
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