I love the ideas for how to spend the points, that's really cool. :)

For earning points, I like where you are headed, but I also think a reward for expanding the questions about the book/generating good discussion should be rewarded. For example, let's say someone's comment or question on the book we read generates a really fabulous discussion with multiple members of the community - above and beyond the questionnaire. If that person got more than (arbitrary number "3.14159") comments from more than (arbitrary number "3.14159") members of the community that were in depth and related to the discussion point(s) they brought up, it should be worth something because it really engages people, etc., in participating.

Does that even make any sense?

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It does, but because of how small the community itself is, having a set amount of comments/participants may not work. I had thought of including posting a separate discussion topic as grounds to gain points, but then it seems like someone may be able to post ANYTHING and get rewarded for it, if that makes sense.

I think that if someone posts a separate discussion thread that has a lot of activity / participants, they could indeed be given extra points. Maybe the discussion thread they post must have a specific word count or should be in the form of something. Like,

"What about this thing that happened here. I think it's important because

a)
b)
c)"

And if there's enough activity they can be awarded points. But also it'd be hard to gauge that because there are so few members at the moment, you know?

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I also see your point. It might be helpful to wait and see how the first discussion goes for this sort of system, and go from there, perhaps?

What about giving points for doing a short survey on other books people are reading outside of the community, so that recommendations can be generated for additional "extra credit" reading? As an idea, have five to ten questions that can be answered by members about other books that they are reading, and award points for complete, thought-out answers to those questions (or make each question answered worth a set amount of points, and allow a larger variety of questions). If the questions are geared to not "spoil" the book for others, it could be a cool way to tap into each other's libraries without necessarily just reading the top-vote book each month.

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I agree that waiting for the first thing would probably help.

And the second thing could be fun! Would you be interested in making a rough draft list of some questions, and the other mods and I could work from there? I think it'd be good to incorporate other things we're reading as well as the group discussion books so that the people who don't like the book being done can be doing something, too!

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I'd be glad to make up some question ideas, I'm on it! :)

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Yay! Just inbox them to me on Facebook once you have them! I'll share them with Liz and talk about it and maybe add some of our own if we can think of any! :) You're the best!

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Sent, and you have a big list to work with - hope it helps! Let me know if there is anything else I can do. :)

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I'm adding a link to the sidebar on this right now. Let me know what you think!

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I like this idea a lot. And maybe connecting themes from the current read to other favorites.

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I'm posting from my phone, so excuse errors :
Points for. .... making a visual representation of the book and photographing it, writing a poem based on the story or characters, we could even do a scavenger hunt with the things to find having some connection to the story (which we give them a list of things to find),and just other interactive things which force us to really engage ourselves into the books

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Ugh,I forget that we don't get notifications when we post from the mod journal and never remember to check back. -_-

I really like the scavenger hunt idea. I don't know about the poem thing because I really dislike writing poetry, but I'm sure others may like it!

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I'm just trying to think of things I had to do with book reports and stuff. Just different ways to engage, you know? And of course, these artistic, poetic, scavenger hunt things, don't need to be mandatory obviously, but just other ways to encourage activity and prompt discussion.

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