@SPlams – I dont’ disagree about it being a total beta process. I’m just saying I can see where they have some serious learnings to do. That’s every new site with 500K hits every 3 seconds though. I’m still smiling, at least I was able to sign up for the beta.

Maybe the number of welcome emails sent will grow as the site becomes more stable. Right now Pottermore in itself is generally stable but there are quite a few options that don’t work properly, and you get the “due to overwhelming demand we cannot… bla bla bla” page quite regularly.
@Nickan8r71
I’m really happy that you’re following me on the scottish book. While I really appreciate Pottermore and the huge amount of efforts put in the creation, the beauty of the environment and the extra info (and hey, who doesn’t need his or her potterfix, now that both books and films are over ? ^^), I’m a book lover and nothing will ever replace the feeling of a page of paper you carefully turn with your fingers, the anticipation rising before an important discovery waiting next page… And just having the object, the book in itself that you can, as you say, take and check whenever you want… That’s irreplaceable ! I’m just a tad worried that now that Pottermore is here, the encyclopedia might never be released…
I have faith in Magic though :-)

@Noz, I’m worried that the encyclopedia might not be released either, but I’m mostly hopeful it’s still on Jo’s agenda. It’ll probably be delayed at least some. I just hope it won’t only be available as an e-copy. I love paper books. They give me something to read when the power goes out. :)

@Robby If I didn’t make it clear in my post, then what Noz said is exactly what I meant.

I think that the number will be held on the low side for a while longer. Once the obvious crashes, and glitches, and buggers are sorted out, they will load the Beta onto more servers and let more folks in and repeat the process… I think the final test will be the last 2 weeks or so. By then the site should be running ‘full bore’ and if there are no undue problems the Beta will be completed and deemed stable.

The last 2 weeks seem a bit short to test the site at “full” capacity. Because for all we know, we could go from 1 million of lucky few, to 10, 20 or 50 million fans trying to log in on the 31st of october. They need to know quite early if the site can withstand THIS crowd… :-) Pottermore has to work flawlessly with the first million (and still have extra-power – extra bandwidth – left) so that they can say “ok, let’s open the gates. Let the flood get in !!!”

Still waiting for my Welcome email to come. Glad that the Pottermore blog updated, I just wish that they could tell us more in terms of when they are sending out the batches of emails.

Still only 23,401 students in pottermore. That’s only 2% of beta testers. Don’t worry, guys, your welcome email is coming and pottermore is worth the tortuous wait :)

There were no Pottermore Insider updates indicating additional welcome e-mails sent on Saturday, 20 August. Hopefully, there will be more sent and announced on Sunday, and the batch numbers will increase…a long ways to go to a million to test the beta.

UpToNoGood7: That is (I assume) the number who have got as far as the sorting hat. More will not have reached that point, and there may be as many as 40,000 who have got access to the site.

With no Insider updates for over two days (last update, Friday at 12:30 BST, now Sunday 6:30 BST), I hope that doesn’t indicate they’re struggling to fix the glitches. Even if as many as 40,000 are in, that ‘s only 4% after a week of beta, not even an average of 1% per day. With 40 days to go, they’d need to average 24,000 people per day to reach the million. On the positive side, it means they’re likely to let in larger numbers soon to provide a true test.

I’d say it’s a sign that they don’t work on weekends…. :-)

noz what do you mean?

the fact that no email was sent on saturday and sunday is, as far as I’m concerned, more a sign that the offices are closed on week’ends than a struggle to fix the glitches. There will be new sendings on monday I guess. I hope so anyway :-)

@Noz, I agree with you. I’m sure the offices are closed on the weekends. Hopefully, that means they will send out an extra Welcome emails tomorrow to make up for it!