Hi all! and I have been discussing some options for next term, and we'd like to get your input.

I'm sure most (if not all) of you have noticed that there was quite a divide between Houses when it came to House Points and also to the number of members in each House. We'd like to try to change the way the system works to try to make it a bit more of an equal playing field.

One of our options is to resort everyone so that the number of members per House is equal. The problem with this option is that even if the members are equal, it doesn't necessarily mean that participation is equal. It also means that some members will be displaced in a group that they don't most identify with. However, it is still an option I am going to put on the table for feedback. If you can find a way for this to work, please let us know. If you have any other arguments for why it wouldn't work other than the two I've mentioned, please say so!

One thing I've wanted to introduce from the beginning was group activities. However, when we first started the cult, forum group permissions were not working properly. Even if you set a group to "Invite Only" or "Approval Needed", it didn't work properly and you were still able to join and see the forums. Now that this has been fixed, we'd love to introduce group activities. This way each House could work together in their individual forum group and submit one submission/answer for the whole group. Hopefully, this will help balance out the scales a bit.

We are currently leaning towards trying a term where there will be only group activities. We'd like to see the kind of impact this would have on the distribution of points. Please let us know here if you'd be okay with giving this a try! We'd love to hear everybody's input before we make a decision on this.

If you have any other ideas on how to even things out, we'd greatly appreciate it! We'd really love to make this experience the best for everybody as well as keep it a cult where everyone has fun.

I think it would be too difficult to wrangle groups. This term, I really wanted Quidditch to work out and it didn't happen because of various reasons like time constraints irl (including my own). I've never been a fan of group projects tbh.

Can we leave the already sorted cult members and just open up recruitment for the Houses that are lacking numbers? (Unless there are current members who would be willing to voluntarily change?)

I'm alright with group activity only. Also if there's a way to maybe use percents or count of who is active it might work better than moving people to other houses. It may be a touch more complicated though to figure out house points.

I understand the differences in houses members, but honestly being resorted is not something I would personally like. The whole purpose when we started was to be in the house we felt most comfortable with or fit in the best. The activities per house sounds fun, but what happens with members that don't like some of the activities? It wouldn't give as much diversity as we have now where each member can do what they enjoy the most and still contribute to house points. Unless I am misunderstanding how the activities would work. I know some love the RP stuff, others enjoy doing the assignments and others do the challenges and such. Would that be how the activities run as well?

I still really like to see the high numbers of house points adding up, but maybe beside that nice house point total could be an average points per member and that is what determines the House Cup winner?

It might help with the uneven distribution without having people re-sorted, although it doesn't really take participation into account either. It would even the houses out so that sheer volume doesn't guarantee a win though, I think?

I don't think averages are fair because they actually change the House Cup standings.

I'm fairly satisfied with how things are point-wise now, even though my own House is bringing up the rear.

I'm personally not a fan of resorting houses, I know that many people, myself included, have purchased CWs that reflect the house they've been sorted into. Also, many people feel as though they belong in those houses--I've felt like a slytherin for at least 10 years now and to go into a different house would be unsettling.

As for group projects, I feel like it would be unfair on those that put in the effort, I have been so so so busy this semester IRL and so I have barely participated since the start of term, even though I would have loved to, and I feel like that ones that do make the time would be just dragging everyone else along

But wouldn't doing it per member still give disadvantage in a setting where everyone can score points? Even divided by more members it still gives the house the chance to score high with more members playing or smaller houses have an advantage because lower numbers to divide by. Percentages would only work if there is a base number to go by like a distribution system of points per activity or set number of players. The average would fluctuate a lot and even a house that has earned a lot of points can still lose. The question would be how would the percentage and average be measured/added.

Honestly, I wouldn't mind being resorted - though I myself am a Ravenclaw, I could happily roleplay a student in any house, and a good chunk of the points are from RP opportunies. That said, I can see why a lot of people wouldn't want to change houses. We could allow people to make multiple characters from different houses, maybe? But I'm not quite sure how that would work for non-RP points.

I do think the average points per member is a good way to measure things! It's definitely more fair.

I really like how things can be done on an individual basis at an individual pace. It's one of my favorite things about our cult! c:

Maybe the House Cup can be determined by signing up ahead for certain activities? That way numbers and participation can be somewhat equal. Idk, I hope my idea doesn't sound stupid. 😅

I can't even imagine the work that went in to scoring/marking everyone's individual participation in all the awesome activities! I totally get the urge to move to group activities, even though it's not quite my cup of tea.

Maybe we can do a balance of some kind?

Yes, thank you for all the grading and administrative work! <3

(I totally didn't read through everyone's comment so if this was suggested already then ignore it xD)

What if you were to put a cap on max points earned per day by each house.

Let's say the max was 100 points (I just started so I'm not sure if that's a realistic number at the moment) A house with more active students could potentially reach the cap sooner, however it also gives the houses with less active students a way to catch up.

The downside would be houses having a higher chance of tying in the end.

Now that you break the group activity thing I am not sure I like it. I personally take pride on doing the challenges and being active with RP. Activities would mean we would be doing the work but not always getting to present it and that kind of defeat the purpose of wanting to earn points for our houses. At least for me that system is really a turn off if it is the only option for point earning we would have.

I'd be ok with the group voting system as long as it wouldn't devolve into a popularity contest because Subeta.

I imagine that cult members would just work towards the maximum point cap and then we'd all tie by the end? There's enough time and reminder pings to catch up by the end of term imo.

I'm definitely not a fan of resorting people. Like you'd mentioned in your opening post, a lot of members really identify with their house and I feel like this would cause many people to leave. I do like the idea mentioned above by another user about perhaps only opening up future enrollment in the guild for certain houses, until house numbers are about equal. New adverts could say something like "now recruiting for X houses" or something to that effect.

As for group projects, I'm happy to give them a try, but I don't feel like a whole term with ONLY group projects would work overly well. There's a huge disparity in member activity not only between houses, but between individual members, and it wouldn't be fair to saddle the more active members with the lion's share of the work and have the whole house earn credit.

I'm not sure on other people's thoughts, but I love things the way they are now. Even though my house is leading in the house cup competition right now, even if we weren't I'd be perfectly content with the way things are done.

Due to my IRL workload, having all of this required work in the cult would cause for me to either back kicked, or leave. I am a HUGE opponent of resorting and reshaping of groups.

I get that some people are going to be more active, but to be fair, I work two jobs, and get home late most nights. It's simply not going to work for people like me.

I think it would turn into a popularity contest. Also some people put HOURS into making ha's. It's not fair to them to work so much on them to be possibly voted out.

I think that's the biggest problem. Even if a house had a high number of people that doesn't mean everyone is going to participate.

I also feel that people shouldn't have to be resorted. I don't think it would possibly change the points to higher, because of quote above^