Circles explained

Circles are communities on Waypoint Realms — a game store's regulars, a campaign group, or a city's board-game crowd. Each circle has a forum, a group chat, and its own sessions.

Finding a circle

Circles opens with your circles in a row along the top. A ring around one means there are new posts or a new meetup since you last looked; tap it to catch up. While you can still lead another circle, the row ends with Start one.

• Search in your own words — “a Thursday board game club near Evanston” or “people who paint minis”. The results say what your search was read as and why each circle is there (why these?). If the smart search can't answer, you get a plain name-and-description match instead.
• Narrow the list with the chips — All circles, Meeting up, Open to join, Active this week, New this week and, when you're signed in, My circles — each showing how many circles it leaves. They combine. Any Realm and More filter by Realm, size and content rating. On a phone, the Filters button opens all of them in one sheet.
• Sort by For you (circles with something on the calendar first), New, Top (most members) or Nearby. Nearby asks your browser for a rough location (to about a kilometre) and orders circles by how far away they usually meet. Your location isn't saved; it only travels in that page's address.

Each card shows the circle's Realm, where it usually meets (the venue most of its meetups use), its next meetup — or when its forum last moved — and, when there is one, why it's a fit for you: people you follow who are in it, a request you're in that it plays, or members it shares with one of your circles. Alongside the list, Find your scene suggests a few more, the Scoreboard shows the most active circles and where yours ranks, and Start a circle says how many you lead and how many you can.

Joining a circle

• Public circles are listed under Circles — open and join.
• Private circles are invite-only. Redeem an invite code to join.

What you get inside

• Forums — start threads and reply (members only).
• Group chat — #general for the whole circle, and #announcements, which everyone reads and only the Lead and officers post in.
• Circle sessions — games organized within the community.
• Tournaments & achievements for circles that run them.

Starting your own circle

Anyone can start a circle, free — creating one makes you its Circle Lead. A free account can lead one circle of up to 25 members; Plus leads two of up to 50, with a voice room; Pro leads any number, with no member cap. On Plus you can also add a Bigger Circle (+100 members) or an Extra Circle for $3 a month each, and a circle's lead can top up its voice minutes with a $3 pack from the circle's settings. Bought minutes don't expire; the plan's monthly minutes are used first. See membership plans.

A new circle starts with #general, #announcements, and a pinned Start here post in your name with a short welcome. Edit that post to write your circle's rules. For its first month, your circle's page shows you a checklist: write your rules, invite your first members, schedule a session, and share the circle if it's public. It disappears once you've done them. Rename, reorder or archive the rooms any time in the circle's settings.

In settings you can also pick the circle's Realm, such as Anime or Board Games. It colours the circle's rooms and lists it under that Realm in the Circles directory, where people can filter by Realm.

The cap follows the circle's current Lead, not whoever founded it — make a Pro member a Lead and the cap lifts. If a circle is over its member cap (say its Pro Lead downgrades), everyone stays, and new members simply can't join until there's room. To hand a circle over, make someone else a Lead in its settings, then step down.

Leading more circles than your plan covers

A circle is never deleted. If your plan drops (a lower plan, a trial ending, or an Extra Circle add-on lapsing) and you lead more circles than it covers, you have 14 days to choose which stay active, at Choose which Circles stay active. If you don't choose, the most recently active ones stay active. The rest become read-only: everything in them stays readable, but nobody can join, post, start a thread or add an event. A circle that another Lead's plan covers stays active. A read-only circle comes back as soon as you upgrade, choose it instead, or hand it to a Lead whose plan has room.

Taking your circle's record with you

A Circle Lead can download the circle's record from its settings → Export this circle: a zip with spreadsheets (CSV) and one JSON file. It holds the roster (handles, roles and join dates — never email addresses), forum threads and replies, wall posts, and the sessions and events run in the circle with who came. Members under 18 appear as “Member”, anything removed by moderation is left out, and chat isn't included. Officers can't export — it's the whole record, so it stays with the Circle Lead.

If Waypoint Realms ever has to remove a circle, its Circle Leads are offered this export first, unless the circle is spam.