Active Status Changes

[Prof. Dario Brighton]

I wanted to make everyone aware of some changes that have been made to the way the house cup standings are calculated. These changes are designed to make the race more exciting and a better reflection of the hard work of all members.

The main reason why we have to review how the cup race works from time to time is that HOL houses aren’t equally matched in terms of number of members. Unlike at Hogwarts where you get a fairly even spread of new students to all 4 houses, we often find ourselves in a situation where one or two houses have significantly more members than the others. This can make the race very unequal.

The important thing for members to note is the change to ‘Active Status’. In previous years, you were considered active if you’d earned any points within 60 days. Now, you must earn 30 points within 30 days to be considered active.

Please don’t worry, whether or not you’re set as active or not isn’t a reflection of you or how well you’re doing (we know it can take time to receive points after you’ve submitted the work). Also, any points you earn will contribute to your house’s total regardless of whether you’re active or not. Active Status is simply how we calculate the comparative sizes of the houses and the ratio we use to ensure that the smallest houses still stand a fighting chance.

I would also like to take this opportunity to apologise for a bug that has meant Active Status hasn’t been displaying correctly on profiles or in the search. This was never a bug with the actual point calculations: the issue never affected the house cup race, it just meant that profiles displayed incorrect information.

The cup standings on the homepage won’t suddenly change as these updates have already been put in place. The only change you may see is the word active on your profile the next time you earn house points.