ADMIN: Sources for JKR Interviews, Chats, Etc.

[Penny & Bryce Linsenmayer]

No: HPFGUIDX 21159

Hi --

I see there have been some complaints about the request that people cite
sources when they say "JKR said ..." or "Such & such is going to happen
in Book 5."  Let me explain a bit ....

The reason that you see some of the older members requesting that these
statements be accompanied by a source is that we've seen things
misconstrued or misquoted many times over.  Here's an example.  The
quote that JKR made in a recent chat about Ron and Hermione -- several
months ago, a shipping war ensued and the quote was bandied about by the
R/H crowd quite a bit.  We had acrimonious debates about the meaning of
the word "between" because someone early on had attributed JKR as saying
"there's something going on between them, Ron just doesn't know it
yet."  Turns out that the word "between" (the word that caused all the
controversy & arguments amongst the shippers) was never used by JKR. 
There was considerably more ambiguity in JKR's words when someone else
actually looked up the quote itself from the transcript.  

The above is but one recent example.  So, many of us are in fact very
skeptical about believing "JKR said ..." statements without viewing the
actual transcript.  

One way that people can find a source is to search the chats that are
linked on the HP Lexicon site.  Steve & Doreen have collected links to a
large number of JKR chat transcripts & interviews.  I've done that
before when I wanted to be sure about the wording.  You can't globally
search (a drawback admittedly), but you can search keywords in each
individual chat transcript file.  

In closing, this is not an official policy or draconian rule.  It's
simply a request.  But, don't be surprised if you are asked for the
source if you don't provide it upfront.  That's all.  

Hope that clarifies things --

Penny