User talk:Bobby Skank

October 2007

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What Will Happen in DH

What do you think are the odds that two kids aged 19 and 16 came up with all the major fan theories as their own independent research? And not just any fan theories -- ones that represented all sides of the spectrum, all the differing points of view. And many of which turned out to be correct after all. You'd think that two teens would have become such literary geniuses simply through operating the site? Especially considering Emerson Spartz, who was clearly biased (see his comment about certain shippers being "delusional"), acknowledged that he lost most of his interest in HP years ago, and barely updates the site except to advertise his latest products? The authors clearly drew ideas and theories from their fan forums and the greater World Wide Web -- this couldn't have been more obvious. I can still try to pick out the topics if they're still in the database. Wikipedian06 02:23, 6 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Firstly, please accept my apologies if the formatting of this comes out all wrong, still trying to get used to how all this works! :)

Second, I have to say this discussion seems a little odd: I tell you that I know most about the writing of the book because I wrote it, and you ask me questions about how Emerson and Ben could possibly know enough about Harry Potter to write it without looking at any forums. They didn't write it, I did!!

OK, I guess it might be confusing that Emerson and Ben have their names first on the list of authors when they had very little input to the book, but at the end of the day that list is sequenced as it is for political reasons and isn't a reflection of contribution to the book. For the record, Emerson wrote the Foreword, nothing else. Ben contributed a little more - say 5% of the book - but none of the analysis chapters, and everything he wrote was either defined by me to start with or edited by me afterwards. So whether they know enough to write a book of this nature is neither here nor there: they didn't write it.

Of the analysis chapters - the main content of the book - I wrote about two-thirds, with the rest written by Gretchen (who appears 4th on the list of authors). And I'm not some dumb teen who happens to work on a HP fansite: I'm 38 years old, and I created and still manage the MuggleNet Harry Potter Encyclopedia. A quick look through this will verify my credentials for writing a book such as "What Will Happen..." without the need to take any ideas from forums.

Of course, as a part of the HP community, I was aware of the TYPE of issues that people were interested in during the run-up to Deathly Hallows. These are pretty obvious: is Dumbledore really dead, is Harry a Horcrux, is Snape good or bad, who is RAB, etc. I researched each of these issues through painstakingly detailed readings of the books and all of JKR's interviews, and I put my arguments together, which you have no doubt read in the final version of "What Will Happen...". I didn't access MN's forums (or the forums of any other site) during this process, and as I said before, the records of my forum account will verify this. The fact that I chose to address issues that are also frequently addressed in the forums is no basis for an argument that I took ideas from the forums, especially when my account records can prove I didn't. Of course I addressed these issues: these are the ones that everyone wanted to read about!

Your comments indicate that you think the analysis presented in "What Will Happen..." is of a high quality, and I think I speak for both myself and Gretchen when I say we appreciate that. I'm not quite sure we qualify as "literary geniuses" based on "What Will Happen..." but I'm glad you see it that way. :)

But anyway, to summarise: Ben and Emerson didn't write the book, me and Gret did. And we can prove that we didn't access the MN forums during the entire time period during which the book was written. That's about it really. :)

Bobby Skank 12:02, 6 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Ah, thanks for the insightful response. I never knew that -- and judging from recordings of Emerson and Ben promoting the book, I'd never have known that they produced so little of the actual content. Yes, I did think your work was of high quality, and you did a good job covering what people wanted to hear as well as representing multiple points of view. So the book sold well -- somewhere around $5M in sales? I assume you got over a fifth of that after the publisher cut? Wikipedian06 07:49, 20 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]