FAQ for Leaders - Hosting an Activity

[hogsmeademayor]

FAQ for Leaders - Hosting an Activity

Can I host a Hogsmeade activity?
What information do you need for approval?
Do I still submit to the system?
I'd like to host an activity, but I don't know what to do. Can I still participate?
Ack! It's almost Hogsmeade and I'm late to signups! Can I still host?
What about my roster?
What about bonus items?
What should I include in my post's title?***
How should I tag my posts?***
What about the rest of these tags?***
Anything else I should include in my posts?
When should I post my activity? How long should I run it for?
I have a bit of a time conflict, but I'd like to participate. Can you help?
What should I do if I have to disqualify someone from my activity?
What should I do if I have a conflict with a member during Hogsmeade?
Can I still earn the participation bonus when I'm hosting an activity?
Any other tips?

Can I host a Hogsmeade activity?
All Club Leaders, Community moderators, or individual HiH members may host activities at Hogsmeade. The primary requirement is that your activity must be open to ALL members of HiH, so any normal participation requirements do not apply. Just submit your activity idea at the signup post (typically posted 3-4 weeks before Hogsmeade) for approval.

What information do you need for approval?
First, don't worry if you don't know all of this when you first submit. We'll work with you to decide things, and make suggestions based upon past activities and the current schedule. But this is the information we'll need before approval. Also, if you have a bunch of ideas, just give us the general ideas first, and we'll tell you which ones are likely to fit in best with the schedule.

What we need: your general activity idea & planned structure, how points will be awarded (in detail), and how it will count toward the participation bonus. You will also be asked to give the top three slots you will be around to post your activity (info on the specific slots will be in the signup post).

What we do NOT need: the specific questions you will be asking, your completely prepared puzzle/activity, the exact times of your deadlines.

Do I still submit to the system?
PROBABLY. Once you've approved the idea with us, you need to submit the activity to the system. You won't need as much information there, just activity name and points structure, but it has to be in the system to award points. For activity dates, just use the dates of the entire weekend.
If you are an individual member not hosting on behalf of a club or officials position we will submit the activity into the system for you.

I'd like to host an activity, but I don't know what to do. Can I still participate?
Go ahead and signup! We'll help you brainstorm, based on when you are available during Hogsmeade and what kind of activities you enjoy hosting. Or we can suggest activities that will help round out the schedule and balance the other activities planned. So if you'd like to host, have no fear, we'll come up with something fun.

Ack! It's almost Hogsmeade and I'm late to signups! Can I still host?
At any time up until we post the schedule of events, you can still ask about hosting. But the later you come to the table, the more events will have already been planned, so you will probably need to be more flexible with times & activity types to fit into the schedule at the last minute. There's always stuff to do though, so don't be afraid to ask. If all else fails, we can always get your club/comm some exposure by hosting a non-points earning social activity, so just ask at the signup post.

What about my roster?
Since Hogsmeade activities must be open to all HiHers, members are NOT required to sign up at your roster/join your comm. You may include a link to your roster and encourage signups, but it must be clear in your post that signups are not required.

What about bonus items?
You may choose to include bonus points or not, at your sole discretion. If you choose to include bonus points, they must follow the standard bonus structure of your club/comm. You may require roster signup ONLY to receive bonus points.

What should I include in my post's title?
The subject line of your post must BEGIN "Official Points Activity: " and then continue with an indication of your club/community and the activity. This is shortened from previous Hogsmeades for legibility, but should still be abundantly clear that it's an activity in which you can earn house points. For example: "Official Points Activity: Shutterbug Color Challenge" would be a correctly formatted subject line.

How should I tag my posts?
For points-earning activities, you should be using ONLY the following tags. Please do not repeat the official points-earning or participation bonus tags on ALL of your related posts, only on the post where they submit their entries.

"#weekend: official points activity" - submission post, any signups required to participate

"#weekend: reminder" - activity or deadline reminder, reminder that additional parts have been posted, deadline or voting extensions, call for more votes

"#weekend: voting" - where votes are actually submitted

"#weekend: results" - final results

In addition, please tag your activity post with what type of activity you are running. In most cases, you will only use one of these for your post (one notable exception being Sugarquill's Fic/Art Exchange, which is considered both Graphics and Writing):

"#type: graphics"

"#type: misc"

"#type: puzzle"

"#type: writing"

What about the rest of these tags?
The "#weekend: hh_flourish" tag is used only by the flourish mods, for any posts relating to the Hogsmeade editions of hh_flourish. Likewise, the "#weekend: hh_stamping" tag is used only for reminders or link roundups posted by the moderator of hh_stamping. Explanations of ALL the available tags are located here, at the member FAQ.

Anything else I should include in my posts?
As Hogsmeade takes place on such a tight schedule, all activities must include SPECIFIC deadlines, in UTC (required) and in your local time zone (preferred). (The time zone converter on the System will help with this.) Also, you must clearly identify how your activity counts for the participation bonus/banner.

When should I post my activity? How long should I run it for?
Since December 2010, Hogsmeade has run with slots for activity posting. A few days before Hogsmeade begins, a schedule will go up which shows your activity's slot and the timeframe of it; you are welcome to post your activity at anytime during your slot. You do not need to end your activity within your slot. Keep in mind that you can now schedule posts to drop in the future, so feel free to make use of that feature.

In order to count towards the weekend participation bonus, an activity must accept submissions for at least 8 hours. HOWEVER, members tend to be disgruntled about anything less than 24 hours, so if it's at all possible for you to do so, we highly encourage you to leave your submissions open for at least a 24 hour period. If you can't, a reminder when there's only an hour or two left might also help you avoid general angst. If your activity runs for less than 8 hours, please make it clear in your post that your activity does not count toward the weekend participation bonus.

I have a bit of a time conflict, but I'd like to participate. Can you help?
If you need to post your activity first thing Friday, but are unavailable at that time, you may prepare your post in advance and submit it to the queue. Prepare it on your own journal first to make sure everything appears correctly, because once you post it to hogsmeadewkends, you won't be able to edit it anymore. So quadruple check your tags, subject line, deadline times, AND THAT YOU REMEMBERED TO SCREEN COMMENTS IF NECESSARY before submitting. Just let us know if you will need this service when signing up, and we'll take care of the rest. (Did I mention checking comment screening before submitting?)
Since the new feature exists you can also schedule the post. Just let us know that you do so and if you need us to have an eye on it when it gets posted.

What should I do if I have to disqualify someone from my activity?
If they submit an entry but it's disqualified for some reason (too many pixels, wrong word count whatever), please let them know via comment or messaging the reasons for their disqualification. If you don't notice until posting voting/results, that's fine, but some explanation to them privately will help settle the issue calmly. IMPORTANT: The participation bonus is structured to allow room for error, so please let them know that the activity will not count toward the points part of the part of the participation bonus, since those 15 activities must complete the stated requirements, BUT that they are still eligible for the 100% completion banner, since they did participate, even if the entry was disqualified. Then contact us and let us know the situation, so we know how to count their participation. This will calm most reactions, as this is usually what they are concerned about.

What should I do if I have a conflict with a member during Hogsmeade?
If you are aware of any conflicts or potential issues, please contact us so we can help resolve the issue. The Hogsmeade welcome post contains our email and IM info, so please keep us informed. This also goes for any questions you might have or if you need assistance/a second opinion regarding your activity. If you can't get a hold of us and need immediate response, you may also contact Evy (slumber) or Sas (theaeblackthorn) for further assistance.

Can I still earn the participation bonus when I'm hosting an activity?
Absolutely! In fact, hosting an activity will automatically count that activity toward the participation bonus/banner. (Even if you're hosting multiple activities.) If it's the kind of activity where running it won't give you an advantage, you are welcome to participate in your own activity, but either way, you will still be eligible for the participation bonus and banner.

Any other tips?
Hogsmeade usually generates far higher participation than normal club activities, so keep that in mind when planning how many entries you allow people to submit. If you let them submit 4 entries each and do voting, you will probably end up with 27 tie breakers required. Plan accordingly.

For the same reason, graphic intensive activities may load slowly, so do what you can to help lighten the load. If it's a photoshop activity, keep your starting image relatively small. If it's a tag gifting activity, consider asking participants to deliver their gifts in a link instead of posting the image (since it only needs to be seen by the recipient).

And lastly, online word counters are notoriously unreliable, so we recommend you not use them. Also, not everyone has an exact definition of a drabble (or the same definition, lol), so please state exactly how many words you will accept, if you're planning on enforcing a word count requirement. Planning for a bit of leeway when judging is also advised.

Comments are screened so feel free to ask questions :)

Last Updated: 5 May 2014 by gryffinwhore

Comments

[hogsmeademayor.livejournal.com]

Yes, most definitely. Reminders are always allowed anyway, but especially if you know there are a lot of people who need to be warned or be disqualified. So go right ahead!

[slumber.livejournal.com]

Does hosting a Hogsmeade activity count against the 2 points-earning activities that a club leader is limited to? For example, I already have 2 activities planned for November, but would like to host a Hogsmeade activity too. Is that fine, or no?

Thank you! <3

[hogsmeademayor.livejournal.com]

It'd be an extra one ontop :)

[faeriesfolly.livejournal.com]

Are we required to host a Hogsmeade activity on top of our normal activities? I'm just starting a M-F job on Monday (so I have no idea what it entails), and I still have a second job that is moving to only weekends. It doesn't leave a lot of room to tack something else on with that. Thanks!

[hogsmeademayor.livejournal.com]

Late reply is late, but in case anyone else has the same question in the future: no, it's not required at all! You only have to host one if you are willing and able to do so :)