1) I'm not confident about GM so I'll bounce to the whip instead ^^

2) I don't mind any years. I liked the idea of getting sorted into houses and being first years gives more timely reasons for explaining the history of a character...but as others have said, this might end up having a few months of RP where we just talk about back story.

3) 2017 seems popular and I've no problem with that.

4) I'd rather a meddling GM, like we all post our character descriptions and the GM acts as a sorting hat, decides on punishment for misbehaviour, gives news from the outside world (someone has robbed gringotts, escaped Azkaban, etc) and whatever else suits the story line.