I want to start this of by saying I'm not part of any group that has been trying to write positive or negative reviews, which many of the recent ones have been (which should be obvious from just one sight on when they were written and when the accounts were mate). I'm also not part of the group too scared to post under their name, leading me to believe some have been written by the same person (which again, does go for both positive and negative reviews).

I joined HEX a couple years ago and never thought I'd stick around this long. I thought it'd be a month or two, and I'd be gone. The longer you stay on the site, the more you do realize that it has its issues. My enjoyment during the first year or two was much higher than any of the years after. It isn't a perfect website as many new people do believe it to be. However, there's also a lot of people who hold personal grudges against staff members from years ago who have done many wrong things, and still consider any and all staff to be as terrible as they were. I think HEX has been consistently and constantly improving things, with some of the most recent moves being a Diversity Committee as well as a 'Customer Service Committee' which deals with trying to make HEX more diverse and welcoming for people from different backgrounds, sexualities, gender identities, and trying to make sure no one gets unfairly punished and warned, which has happened in the past. People need to give them a chance to do better. Now a lot of people are upset about some recent issues. Someone posted a comment in a thread that was taken the wrong way due to miswording, and it wasn't taken down instantly. You know why it wasn't taken down instantly? Because they had to check into the situation. It was edited out the same day, and the person might've gotten a warning from it, or definitely some kind of notice since generally they are given out. Another was that a person was using HEX's new pronouns section to say she was a biological woman - not something harmful perse but due to history from this person it was meant in a transphobic way-. Again, not taken down instantly, but taken down eventually, with likely a warning and at least a notion. Staff was, in my opinion, extremely lenient and patient during the whole debacle. For both sides. Emotions ran high for many people, and staff understood that.
You ARE allowed to defend yourself. Whether it's from a transphobic/homophobic, or other hateful comment. What you aren't allowed to to is shame people, belittle others, bully, harass, or be hateful in return. An eye for an eye is not something staff believes in, which is a good thing. A recent group, which I can't help but assume a lot of the recent 1-star reviews are written by, has been doing these things and have considered their warnings to be unfair. (TW for this sentence ahead) They consider it terrible that "staff" has "forced" users into trying to commit suicide, but don't consider how their actions might've made other users feel - as they've bullied some (fellow members of the community) into feeling unwelcome and unsafe, too. As another comment stated: "There's a group of users, who are probably behind all the recent 1 stars, who have made myself and other members of the LGBTQ+ community feel unsafe on this website as they've been bullying members of the community and it's gross. " I'm also part of the group of people who have been made to feel unsafe by some of the bullying and nasty comments left by certain members of the LGBTQ+ community on HEX who has been very loud and active in 'taking action' against comments made, even ones with the bestest of intention that didn't even say anything bad. I shared my opinion on something, that didn't agree with theirs, and had posts directed at me as if to say that how I felt (and others that stood with me) didn't matter because they felt another way, and how my sharing my opinion was harmful to them and the community. However, these separate users are individuals, and there's plenty of people who stood by me and were glad I spoke up.
For every bad person on hex, there seems to be a 100 lovely people, and this is the reason I've stuck around.
Take the comments here with a grain of salt, and try it out for yourself. See what it's like. Everyone has a different experience, and some make life-lasting friendships on here. If it's not to your liking, or if you feel it isn't the place for you, there's a really easy way to delete your account. So just try it.

This isn't me trying to silence those who are posting negative comments. I know a couple of my friends who have had bad experiences, some of them shared on here, who I fully support for posting them. Issues should be posted. But positive reviews are allowed to be posted as well. Y'all are talking about it, so doesn't it make sense people that do like the site are also talking about it, and going on here to write reviews?

Let's look at what HEX says it provides:
Hogwarts Extreme is a free fan site that puts you in the world of Harry Potter. From the Common Room to Diagon Alley: interact and role-play. Win the Quidditch World Cup, engage in the wizard economy, take classes, play games, and more!

Is this a Harry Potter free fan site? Yes.

Do you have access toa common room, Diagon Alley, role-play forums? Yes.

Can you play Quidditch, participate in an economy, take classes, and play games? Yes.

You know what I don't see on their landing page? A statement that HEX will fix all of the worlds problems.

HEX has done exactly what it said it will - provide places for roleplaying, chatting and fanfiction. HEX gives you access to forums to chat, allows you to start and join clubs related to topics you enjoy, lets you take classes and earn House Points to help your house win the House Cup.

They have done what they set out to do, and therefore they get a 5 star review from me.

Now, let's look at the negative reviews and what they are saying. Many are upset that they broke the rules. Multiple accounts aren't allowed. Many curse words aren't allowed, as the website is pg13. I know, from being on the receiving end of warnings, that they give you notification of what you did wrong before just expelling your account though. So if someone says their account was expelled for cursing - they probably did that multiple times or excessively, or it was combined with other wrong-doings. HEX is very upfront with what is and isn't allowed, and if you aren't willing to abide by those rules, don't join the site. It's pretty simple.

There is loud outrage over the idea of users being homophobic or transphobic. Where exactly is it written that HEX has set out to fix all of the worlds problems? This is a Harry Potter fan site, not a public works department, not your city council, not a support system for the inequalities of the world. Why is there so much hate for a website because other people are $#*!ty human beings?

Furthermore, let's look at the concept of reviews. Currently as I'm writing this, HEX has 280 members online. There are 47 1 star reviews. That is 16.78% of the current online population. We know HEX has more members than just the current online members, but, we'll use this number for now. Only 16.78% of the community writing a negative review isn't that bad, especially when you consider that only about 5%10% of consumers write reviews. As I said, we know that the online community of 280 members online isn't the total number of members HEX has, so we can assume that the total number of reviews are actually much closer to teh 5-10% range. Are we going to trust a disgruntled few? Furthermore, around 20% of the reviews you see online aren't real. How many of these reviews (positive or negative) are the same person?

I take these reports with a huge grain of salt. Despite the fact that there are crappy people in the world, I think HEX is doing what they can to continue to make HEX fun for its users, which is what it has set out to do. Don't expect a fan website to fix the problems of the world and you won't be let down.

The staffs are extremely biased and unfair. They claim to be very understanding but that is definitely not true. It is well known that JKR's transphobic tweets hurt millions of fans. To make things harder than it already is, some users spewed over their transphobia and unempathetic mean comments and so called "opinions". As a response to this, the site staff said they'd fix things with very sugar-coated posts and also made sugar-coated review forms. The hope that all this gave was very short lived. Did they ban the users who spilled vitriol? No. Did they even warn them? Again, No. But did they warn the users who stood up for equal rights? Yes. Wow, the irony. Throughout this time transphobic posts kept on coming and the staffs did nothing other than mention sugary words along the lines of "y'all calm down give us time, we will fix stuff" blah blah blah. Recently a user, lets call them A, spewed a lot of vitriol. They accused all of us who stood for trans+ rights of "bullying and hate speech". We never bullied anyone, all we did was stand up against transphobic people who were being disrespectful to trans+ folks. The person A further made things worse by not only deadnaming another person but also never apologizing, rather justifying their actions again and again. You might think staffs would take action against this. But no. The staffs banned the user who was being deadnamed instead, saying they were bullying person A.
The staffs don't allow standing against transphobia, but they allow transphobia and hate speech as long as it doesnt include a word listed in their "list of banned words". They always say "report the bad comments". Rarely do they edit out transphobic comments and hate speech. But they edit out posts made against transphobia in lightning speed. There was a post made by a person who was never seeming to at least open up their mind an inch and calling their transphobia their "precious opinion". To this some of us responded in a very respectful manner and encouraged them to keep a slightly open mind and that why we feel their "views" are wrong. To this, we got accused of "public shaming" by the person and the staffs.
So to sum up in a nutshell, the site staffs are extremely biased and consider standing up against hate speech and homophobia as "bullying"

HEXRPG is, at it's core, a role-playing website meant to expand upon and help users enjoy the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. You have an actual economy, games to play. You can have pets, join clubs, roleplay, even talk to canon characters.
But. That's not all.
You can, if you are the autism spectrum, get bullied by staff members who say it is 'no excuse.' I have provided a screenshot of an autistic person being told they cannot get a free pass from the rules, which as you can see, was not what they were doing. This is one of many instances where autistic people are accused of this when they just simply want and need patience.
I agree with other reviews who say a certain staff member is the worst. I was one of the people she targetted. And I'm still on eggshells around her.
HEXRPG allows blatant transphobia and homophobia. HEXRPG staff members will rage at you if you come to them agitated about being bullied. You will be in trouble with the staff and they will shrug off your issue.
Rules are not enforced equally. I was sent to Azkaban for asking for advice from peers for overcoming abuse. While others are allowed to be blatantly suicidal, denounce the lifestyle of others, and be rude. I did not go into details about my abuse. I did not make suicidal comments. But I am autistic and this site is biased against them.
Things that also may make people not understand properly are language barriers. HEXRPG staff will tell you that is also no excuse. Everyone is expected to act and become neurotypical for the sake of the poor staff members.
Trans people are being attacked on this site. The posts were so bad, the posts were deleted. Posts are never deleted here, only edited. Yet the same transphobic person who has been doing this to us since 2019? She's allowed to garner sympathy and harass everyone and then play the victim. No ban. No Azkaban. No account reset. Nada. Because to them homophobia and transphobia are not as bad as the crime of being autistic.
Do NOT financially support them if you join. Do NOT contact staff or file reports lest you be the one in trouble. Don't even so much as try to breathe while on there.
Stay safe, Hexians. The fight isn't over. This is just the beginning.
Edit 6-14-2020
I will not be removing this screenshot. It is proof of the staff being insensitive and serves as a warning for every autistic person that reads this. Though the concern in your comment is noted. And I encourage these people that seem to have so many issues with what I say to contact me and talk it out instead of being afraid of me. I'm not attacking anyone on this site and I've been nothing but polite.

I joined HEX in early 2016 and it always seemed great for the most part - there's lots of issues but my own experience was generally pleasant. There's lots to do and a lot of friendly people there. But beginning in 2018, I saw warnings by members in other forums and apps I use telling people not to join HEX, as tempting as it seems, because racist and LGBTphobic dogwhistles are highly prominent on the site with nothing being done about them. At first I thought it was a bit dramatic but months later I realized... There are reviews here from summer 2019 discussing homophobia happening in the 'inclusive, accepting' forum during pride month and how mods were virtually silent - these are completely true and I witnessed it with my own eyes and saw the hurt it caused to the more vulnerable members. Since then, it's snowballed into a much bigger issue and I have found myself enjoying the site less and less because there is so much racist, homophobic, transphobic cr-p happening there and the staff just stays neutral (AKA taking the side of the oppressor). It's so shocking and disappointing, and it is getting worse in light of JK Rowling's recent transphobic remarks. I have seen transgender users begging for staff to take a stance and reporting people treating them like garbage, but staff just waters it down to 'differing opinions' and focuses on policing users over their tone when they are rightfully upset, all while cisgender people post in threads about how 'fun' it is to watch the 'drama' without caring about the obvious issues at hand. It's deeply upsetting, and frankly unacceptable. I would recommend not joining HEX and ESPECIALLY not supporting them financially until they begin to value their vulnerable users being targeted by so much bigotry recently. If you do join, stay safe and stay out of the forums because so many people there are so dehumanizing and cruel.

I was a former HEX veteran who frequented this place for RPs and socializing. For the first 5-6 years I felt welcome on HEX, and I was certainly looking forward to sticking around for a long time... until the site's admins began to show their true colors.

January 2018, got sent to Azkaban for trying to help a fellow new HEXian. They call it "acting like an admin." I call it bull$#*!. If I was truly trying to act like an admin, I would've threatened bans and started ordering people around as though I was a boss. But no, the admins wanted me to bow down and do whatever they told me to do.

Oh, and trying to reach out for mental health support? No chance, the admins will say that they do care for your well-being, but in reality, you're asking for trouble. Unless your life is 100% perfect in a fantasy world, the community as well as the admins will constantly berate you and bully you, demanding that you bring in more positivity when you just simply can't.

At one point in time, someone even sent me a death threat and yet the admins stood up for that bully. When I tried to stand up for myself, they sent me to Azkaban once again.

HEX's coup de grace is the fact the admins choose to stand up for bullies. After I got released from Azkaban, I only tried to interact with my friends on HEX at the Great Hall. That was, until people decided to use public prank items constantly for "fun." I kindly told them to stop, and yet they wouldn't. One person even had the balls to owl me saying that he was unapologetic. I reported the owl, and then one of the admins, Katie, decides to owl me saying that public pranks don't count as bullying and thus she wouldn't be taking action on it.

And then, not too long later, out of NOWHERE, I get expelled. Without warning.

I tried to give HEX a chance many times, and yet, the admins have proven time and again that people who go through depression and/or any other mental health problems are no longer welcome at HEX. I've even read other negative reviews on here, and after seeing the true nature of the admins, they have confirmed in my mind that they are no longer trustworthy.

I remember being on another RP site as well - Harry Potter Online RPG. The admins there were TRUE dictators, encouraging bullying using prank items and even banning me for trying to seek emotional support. And sadly, HEX has decided to go down that same path as well.

You know, back in the days people used to go on RP sites because they filled a need due to social media platforms being primitive and not being able to do much. They weren't perfect but it made the kids happy. But nowadays we have Discord, Skype, Facebook, etc to the point where a RP site no longer makes sense.

DO NOT JOIN HEX UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES! If you are looking to RP, consider finding a Discord server to join instead. It won't be perfect but at least it'll be FAR better than dealing with this excuse of a website.

I still can't believe I donated to that site for extra perks... sigh...

I was hoping the staff would sort out their issues over the last year or so but nope. My biggest problem with HEX now is the more recent racism, homophobia and transphobia that previous reviewers have criticized, as well as how moderators choose to allow this to happen purely because they personally don't interpret clear alt-right sentiments as an attack on minorities. If you report the people making actual hateful remarks, you get accused of ganging up on them just because you "don't agree" with them and also get threatened to be sent to Azkaban if you do it again, so the report feature is pretty useless.
Now, recently a past - now banned - user has made dozens of troll accounts trying to expose staff for their vitriol and bias (as well as spamming everyone with regular troll stuff, of course, which in fairness was handled quickly although not effectively since they kept coming back). Now this week, as seen in the picture attached, they made a threat against the website. Sure, it's likely the same troll seeking attention and trying to create panic, HOWEVER any professional organisation knows that threats like this MUST be taken seriously and precautions must be taken - *and* customers must be informed of what's happening and given advice and reassurance of the situation. Staff have chosen not to acknowledge it at all except for posting an extremely vague, almost pointless reminder about the report button. I owled people to ask if we can have an executive statement about the potential cyber threat planned in coming days and they said there won't be one because they don't want to give the troll attention. Um. WHO CARES ABOUT THAT. It's such bad PR for them to refuse to communicate sufficiently with users who have valid concerns about what could happen (such as the site getting hacked and their details stolen, etc.). It's really hard for me to be reassured that they're actually doing something about it when they're remaining so stubborn and resorting to secrecy instead of explaining the situation in an open, honest way. I used to love HEX, which is why I find it hard to give it 1 star, and the normal people there are usually great and it's definitely an addictive place, but tbh they've lost almost all my trust lately with their shoddy old-fashioned practices with regards to bigotry and poor communication.

I'm one of many users who joined Hexrpg when Pottermore started to go south and for a few years I loved it. However around 2017 they fired a lot of their kind helpful staff and started hiring more and more rude, insensitive, unprofessional bigots to replace them. Some of the things these people do include publicly complaining about specific users, editing sections of their posts to censor any kind of constructive criticism about moderators, and threatening people with expulsion for calmly disagreeing with them on minor issues. I was a moderator in one area for a while last year so I unfortunately saw a lot of the atrocities said about ordinary innocent users in the giant lower-mod forum I can only imagine how much worse it is in Staff forums. More recently, in the last 6 months there's been an increase in the number of people openly making homophobic and white nationalist statements, even going so far as to proudly post that they are "Anti-Equality" this intimidation has increased again in the LGBTQ-friendly forum now that LGBTQ Pride Month has rolled around. Staff refuses to do anything. I have reported several people in the past few months for making deeply concerning homophobic statements and bragging about "straight pride", but I get the same response of "Straight pride is the same as LGBTQ pride and doesn't cause any harm" (which is FALSE and insulting; straight pride is often about being proud of their privilege and power over LGBTQ and a celebration of how they deny LGBTQ people their basic rights, and straight pride causes DEATH to gay people who just want equal rights). They even went as far as saying that the people who have "Straight White Pride" statuses and avatars and (that were created by white nationalist groups!) are the same as people who say that Black Lives Matter, which again is simply ludicrous as White Pride comes at the expense of the LIVES of people of color! Two days ago one of my mentees (who is a transgender and gay young teenager) came to me upset because he saw people in the LGBTQ forum say that he was going to Hell for being gay and trans and staff were refusing to take action or make any comment. I asked a staff member how I should respond appropriately and she had the audacity to say I should tell a 14-year-old to "get over it and just don't read their posts." I am horrified by their lazy conduct recently and I simply cannot stand for their support of homophobic and nationalist bigots. It's seriously hurting many of their users and they don't even care, just because they think people who call themselves anti-equality "don't mean any harm because they're not personally attacking people." It's time for me to join many of my friends who have stepped down from their positions and left HEX in the last 6 months due to the hurt this has caused I encourage anyone who has morals to do the same, unless the staff decides to do the right thing like they used to do. And dear LGBTQ people please stay safe and be somewhere you will be protected from this violence.

I abide by the rules and know most of them by heart. I also don't socialize much, so I am able to keep my head down. On the surface, it seems like a marvelous game, but everything is so PC that it rots my teeth. If anyone has an unpopular opinion, they are targeted, and if someone voices a complaint, people that want to stay on the good side of the mods for the perks jumps on that person. I watch these conflicts daily, and I see people bullied by staff and their brown nosers constantly.

Not all mods are like that, but some are so rude and abusive that you have to thank them for treating you like dirt or they will happily ban you. I have had a few occasions where I was mistakenly owled warnings in an extremely unprofessional manner (one even had insults in it) and the only way I was able to correct their 'misunderstanding' was through kowtowing apologies before showing proof of innocence. They 'let me off' of things I didn't commit and usually with no apology, or a very grudging one given.

There are other mods who do treat people as human beings - sadly, they are rarely seen in public because they get targeted by players who are angry with other mods and lump them in with the rest of the staff.

As rude and entitled as MotherOf3 is, she does get the work done that admins and owner were not doing. Don't expect apologies from her when she snaps, try not to 'bother' her unless it's something Major, and go through the chain of command for everything else.

The multiple account thing is a huge problem - mods will also flat out lie and say you have the same IP as another account even if you don't. If you are on a cheap VPN that shares IP with others using it, and another HEXian is also using it, that is a ban. You can tell the mods your family plays, but unless you are close friends with an admin, you will have to go through the yearly purge and will need to very very politely explain that your family member also plays HEX and neither of you use the other's account. If you paid cash to have a name change and the new name was from a disabled account that had originally been accused of multiple accounts, the same issue again.

Trust me, those that pay cash are not favored. Nor are people who have been supporting the site for years. It's all about contacts and playing the vicious politics or becoming a lurker that memorizes rules as I do. The game itself is fun, but the majority of the people that run it or are vocal players that support the negativity are childish, immature, and destructive.

I've been on HEX for just over 5 years. There's a forum there called Dumbledore's Office (D. O.) which prides itself on being all about "acceptance and diversity" and in particular has a reputation of being a safe haven for LGBTQ folk to be themselves. There are about 4 lovely people who are regular posters in there to support others and give the forum a good name it doesn't actually deserve. Unfortunately this "acceptance" they (as in the staff, not the people I just mentioned) preach includes being tolerant of homophobia, transphobia, and racism/white supremacy. One of the most active threads in D. O. is a "safe place" for Trump supporters. As everybody knows, Donald Trump is a racist, transphobic white supremacist who has been implementing policies that severely endanger the livelihoods of LGBTQ people and people of color. His followers, in supporting his beliefs and actions, are thereby racist/transphobic by association and should NOT be allowed bragging rights in a forum that is supposed to be LGBT/POC friendly.
In addition to this, there are users who have things such as "#NoToMarriageEquality" written proudly in their random burst (like a status) for everybody on the site to see. I even have a screenshot of one user, Lilian Pearce, however I am paranoid they would trace it back to me. But this is of course blatant homophobia and has made myself and other LGBT people on HEX feel incredibly uncomfortable and tempted to leave the site, so we have reported these people, numerous times. However we keep getting told "Homophobic bursts are fine because she's not personally attacking a specific user and it's just freedom of speech." HEX, FREEDOM OF SPEECH DOES NOT (AND SHOULD NOT) COVER HATE SPEECH! And saying LGBT people shouldn't be allowed the same human right as straight people IS a personal attack on the many queer people on the site and is nothing short of bigotry. In fact if we report this bigotry WE get accused of bullying and threatened with expulsion for not being tolerant of such vile hatred! They could be the bigger people and remove homophobes, transphobes, and racists from their site and make it an ACTUAL safe place instead of tolerating (and defending!) awful people. But alas, the people who run HEX are just another bunch of liars that claim to care about sensitive social issues like this just for online brownie points and to lure in innocent marginalized people desperately trying to find somewhere they'll be accepted; they are perfectly happy to defend bigots who make LGBT people feel unsafe and afraid, just because they care more about retaining lots of users and making as much $ as possible.

I've never been so disappointed and disgusted in a place I once loved so much. Actively pretending to be a safe place for vulnerable peoples and then slapping them in the face by defending people who **literally see them as lesser human beings** is such a cowardly move. They know it and they really couldn't give less of a damn.