about us

archway is a modern day harry potter gpsl centering on the american wizarding community in new york city (where MACUSA, the magical congress of the united states of america, is located). we chose america because wizarding london has felt a bit monotonous in recent years and we wanted to try something different! there may not be as much canon surrounding wizarding america, but we consider that an opportunity to let our creativity flow and let our imaginations run wild together. what’s most important is all of the ridiculous, dramatic, and magical scenarios the wizarding world has to offer and how they inform the characters we’re writing—not being sticklers for details.

applying

characters: your character can be from anywhere in the world as long as they currently reside in new york city. while we’ll gladly welcome characters from older harry potter communities, we do suggest bringing new characters to encourage some fresh ideas for this particular magical setting. all kinds of characters are welcome! we hope that a new setting will inspire a diverse group of personalities, backgrounds, and more. characters with special abilities (such as being a werewolf, animagus, etc.) but they will be on a first come, first serve basis after joining and capped like at previous communities. setting up: journals should be in character. your journals must have an ic and ooc contact post ready to go when you apply. please make sure your posts are backdated before applying! we don’t require character biographies or lengthy blurbs but do want to see some basic facts. when applying, you must have the following information in your ooc contact post: full name, date of birth, hometown, occupation, school & house (if applicable), wand, and patronus (can be unknown). examples: we do require examples to join. please submit a link to your examples in the mod dropbox - do not pm or copy/paste them into a comment for us to review. we don’t care what type of examples you provide (narratives, scene replies, and first-person entries are all fine) as long as they showcase your best writing.

activity

monthly requirements: we require two posts a month that can be anything you want, as long as one of the two is interactive (excluding technology-related updates; see more about that below). you can literally post "talk to me!" in your journal with comments enabled and that counts toward your interactive post for the month. we understand that real life comes first and people are a lot busier these days, so we won't immediately eject you from the gpsl if you miss a post one month; what matters is we see you're around and making an active effort. plots & activities we'll be regularly introducing plots on the fp that will impact characters in their day-to-day lives. these can be anything from a magical creature outbreak to spells gone awry to something even more involved! there will also be plenty of activities such as ffa posts, group threads/plotting posts, news, gossip, and more. we'd love to hear any ideas you might have, so please don't be shy and let us know in the dropbox if there's something you'd like to see! interaction: we can't stress enough that the key to a long-lasting gpsl is interacting with other members of the community regularly. while we don't want to police people, archway probably isn't the right place for you if you're happier hiding in customs and only come around the one time a month you’re required to. this is a collaborative environment so we encourage drama and creativity out in the open.

odds and ends

handwriting fonts: whether or not you use a handwriting font for your character is completely up to you. if you want to claim one and use it to create your posts, that's absolutely fine! if you don’t have photoshop or if you’re simply too time constrained to use it that often, do not feel obligated! all text posts will be considered handwritten on parchments anyway. communication & technology: like harry potter communities of the past, journals and sub-communities aren't powered by the internet so they shouldn't be treated as such. rather, they should be treated as magical parchments that your character uses to communicate with their friends privately or the group publicly. we know it’s 2019 and it’s likely some witches and wizards are in the loop about no-maj technology. this is fine, but on the whole we’d like to avoid integrating technology into archway. magic is the standout feature of harry potter communities and the absence of instagram posts and text messages is something that sets it apart (though we may introduce some wizarding takes on sharing photos & dating apps in the future!). until then, please avoid things like plug.dj, rabb.it, instagram/tinder posts, or other activities based around no-maj technology. we won't be implementing any messaging platforms (wire, discord, etc.) either and would rather everyone focus on being active on the friends page. wizarding america: please visit our pages here & here for further information.