Yep, we had you! All the news from asking for donations to 5-minute long episodes of MuggleCast were pranks.

We fooled some of you (who were very sad and supportive), and just entertained the rest of you. At any rate, we're glad to have everything back to normal!

Special thanks goes out to MuggleNet staff members Dylan, Micah, Nick, Matt, and Ben for pulling this one. In case you missed it, you can view all of the pranks we had yesterday right here. We also have our posts from last year's prank at this link.

It is with deep regret that I inform you of a radical corporate reshuffle at MuggleNet as a direct result of the current economic problems. Earlier today, Emerson Spartz, founder and webmaster of MuggleNet.com, was overruled by a large pack of monkeys who rebelled after hearing they'd no longer be fed bananas while working the inner parts of our site. The lead monkey, who only wishes to be called Larry, is now webmaster of MuggleNet.

As a cost-cutting measure, and to make sure the monkeys continue receiving their bananas, all but two of the staff have now been fired. Some of which, have been with the site from the beginning and will be missed by us all. I would like to take this opportunity to welcome our new webmaster, Larry, to the team and to thank Emerson, Micah, Ben, Ciaran, Damon, Jamie, Rachel, Laura, Dylan, Jill, Rosey, Brendan, Jackie, Becky, Eric, Michael, Kat, our transcribers, editorial staff, fan fiction staff and our interns for their contribution over the years. We wish all of them the best of luck for the future.

Check out the new profiles of the remaining staff here and don't forget to leave a good bye message in the comments section for those staff who were fired.

The good news: a new episode of our Harry Potter podcast is here! The bad news: our show is now formatted to comply with MuggleNet's money-saving policies.

What does that mean? We'll have to severely shorten the length of new episodes from here on out (they'll average between 5 - 7 minutes), so you may notice that things feel a bit rushed.

To download, just click here. This show will not be available in iTunes for the time being. We hope you... enjoy!

In line with recent cut backs we have had to come up with ways to generate income to offset costs during these difficult financial times. In addition to our 'Advertise on MuggleNet' section, we are now seeking donations in the form of Galleons from visitors. As a thank you, anyone who donates will be placed on our appreciation page, which can be viewed here.

Thank you for your continued support during this transition phase.

Another site announcement: our image gallery will be switching to a one-pic-a-day format to cut down on bandwidth costs. Hosting thousands of images was simply a ridiculous idea, because who ACTUALLY looks at all of them?!

With this new gallery, you will be able to see every image we pay for in a very easy-to-use format. All you have to do is visit the page once a day and you will be presented with a Potter-related image. The images are carefully chosen based on what's hot in the fandom that day. Enjoy!

As previously mentioned, given the current economic conditions, MuggleNet needs to do away with excess. Therefore, within the next 24 hours we will shut down MuggleSpace, our online Harry Potter social network. The more than 15,000 of you registered is just not enough to sustain the community over the course of the next fiscal year. This decision did not come easily, but it is only one of many corners our staff needed to cut.

If you want to do your part to try and help us recover, you will see there has been an "Advertise on MuggleNet" section added to our left-hand navigation. Please check it out and consider all the options.

With the beginning of the new fiscal year and the current economic conditions, MuggleNet regrets to inform its loyal followers that it has had to make some drastic changes to its website to offset cost.

In order to create a smooth transition, these changes will be made known to visitors throughout the course of the next 24 hours.

As of the time of this posting, we have made a few initial changes. Several pages located in our left navigation have been disabled because they are too costly to host. We have also removed layout choices and now operate with one economy-friendly layout. It's not the friendliest design, but it's MUCH more affordable (that lamp in the header features one of those cool money-saving light bulbs).

We hope that you can still support and enjoy the site even with the changes forthcoming.