Hey y'all! I could have sworn that the method to pause on new friends is to go to the hamburger menu on the bottom right. But I swear I don't see it there.

Does anyone know if they moved it?

Hi everyone

I just got a reply from my penpal, and I'm very confused. He didn't mention a single thing I wrote in my last letter. I talked about various things, including my thoughts and experiences, but he just went off on a completely different topic. What's even weirder is that he wrote it as if he were giving me all this great advice. I don't think it's AI, because AI would definitely acknowledge what I'd written, and I'm pretty sure his writing style is organic.

Ironically, he started the letter saying he wanted to be "thoughtful." Does he even know the definition of the word? I felt the opposite when I saw he didn't address anything I shared. Worse, he didn't even answer any of my questions!

I'm not a fan of ghosting, but I'm kind of stuck on what to write back. He's just not engaging with what I'm saying and seems to be writing whatever he wants. Should I gently point out that his letters are way off-topic, or just explain that I feel unheard?

(not talking about relationships lol only friendship)

as per my experience, it's really hard to make good friends nowadays. i've always wanted to have a close/best friend from another country but for some reason it wasn't successful at all. can y'all share your experiences of you made any best friends through slowly? maybe ended up meeting irl as well?

also dp you prefer communicating through slowly or switching to another app after talking a while? honestly i feel demotivated for some reason when switching to social media so i prefer talking through the app for a long time although it's a bit hard to wait until a letter recieve from the other corner xO

edit: thanks for everyone who shared their experiences and took time to reply to this. i really appreciate it ☺️🙏🏽

Hello guys, I just need your opinion because I read a topic about grammar and I realized I am using Chatgpt to translate and prove my word. (I wrote a letter in my mother language first and ask chatgpt to translate in English). I wrote a letter with sincerely but I don't think I can write a letter in serious topic that need an advance vocabulary. Btw, before sending the letter I always read it again and edit when some sentence look like using AI.

So.. is it ok to do this🥲 Sometime I feel guilty for my bestie penpal.

https://app.getslowly.com/p/collection/VBWy4zeo97

We’ve all received some weird, random, or downright scammy letters—whether it’s a sales pitch, suspicious AI-generated junk, or classic spam. This thread is here for you to share your experiences! Let’s keep it all in one place to make it easier for users to spot common patterns and see what others have encountered.

This idea came about after noticing a lot of repetitive posts about similar topics. u/yann2 and I thought it might be helpful to create a single thread for these types of letters. Neither of us want the sub to be over-moderated, however, so if this format isn’t working, we can always go back to freestyle posting in March.

Examples of what's appropriate for this thread:

• "I waited 36 hours and I only got this lousy letter!"
• "Do you think this is AI?"
• "This person is trying to sell me a timeshare in Bulgaria!"
• "My penpal proposed marriage to me on our second letter!"
• "I received a letter with strange, broken English—looks like it was written by a bot."
• "I got a letter with the exact same text as someone else posted last week!"

Some ground rules:

1. Redact any personal info: Make sure to remove usernames or any identifying details before sharing.
2. Explain why you suspect AI. Many people aren’t familiar with the typical "tells" of AI-generated letters, so share what gave it away, if you can.
3. Avoid broad generalizations about entire countries. There are people in many countries working hard to maintain genuine penpals, and we don’t want to make it harder for them
4. Don't be sexist. This is about bad behavior, not gender. Both men and women can engage in dishonest penpalling, and it’s a matter of character, not gender.

Hi Guys,

I used to be a content writer, and my boss was very strict about grammar and punctuation. He's a total grammar police. Seriously, it was traumatic. I got ripped apart for every little mistake. Even years later, I still recheck every sentence I write in English, even texts to my friends.

Now, I'm worried it's going to make my penpals think I'm using AI. I don't use weird, formal words like we often see in AI-generated stuff, but I am really careful with grammar and punctuation. I've seen so many posts here about people thinking others are using AI because their writing style is too perfect, and it's making me paranoid. I don't want my penpals to get the wrong idea.

So, should I explain to my penpals why I'm such a grammar nerd? Should I tell them about my crazy ex-boss and the whole trauma thing? Or will that just make things weirder? What do you guys think? Any advice? None of my current penpals have said anything about my writing, but I have been ghosted by a few people, and I'm starting to wonder if they thought I was using AI.

Hey all,

I have been on Slowly for over 4 years, but after a 3-year break, I came back and noticed a lot of low-effort letters more often. (And seeing Reddit posts about AI-generated responses and potential scams doesn’t help). I posted an open letter (here) hoping for real interactions, but most replies have been disappointing.

One person caught my attention. After three letters, I started noticing some strange patterns. Their bio raised further suspicions, and now I’m convinced it might be a slow-burn social engineering attempt.

I’m sharing the correspondence below.

The person's bio

Here's the bio translation:

"I am 25 years old now. I like beautiful, natural, and cute things. I like Western and Japanese songs, but not the loud ones. English is an interest of mine, I know a little. I like One Piece (but One Piece is on a break, so there's nothing to watch).

I like handsome guys, of course, not too old, not too young, and if they're mixed-race, I might consider it 🤔! Foreigners, let's see what you look like! I can accept people from the Netherlands 🇳🇱, Spain 🇪🇸, or Canada 🇨🇦.

I don't want those who come to cause trouble. I've encountered people who are very casual with just a few words and those who can't provide a real identity. I’ve also met scammers who claimed to be doctors but couldn't answer simple questions when I asked where they worked!

I've also met people who say a lot of things, but once I respond, they never reply again. It's really strange. If there’s no reply after waiting for a long time, I’ll delete them!

I have encountered some enthusiastic pen pals, and we're chatting for now. However, there are also those who disappear despite writing often, and I just leave it to fate. I can still tolerate this kind.

If you want to add me on another platform, I’ll first check your appearance and see if there’s anything shady before adding you. Otherwise, I’ll just keep writing letters here and collecting stamps!

Or tell me how to get the mission stamps. There are still some mission stamps that I haven't gotten due to system updates!

If there’s anything you want to tell me, just reply. If not, then it’s up to fate"

At first, I didn’t think much of the bio, but some things stand out now. The focus on "foreigners" and the comment about “first checking your appearance” seemed odd. She also has 824 stamps, but there’s no info on when she joined or her Sent:Received ratio, which is strange.

First letter

The first letter was also odd. It ignored my open letter points and contradicted her bio, which mentions avoiding casual, non-committal replies and fake identities. I replied normally, assuming it was just a misunderstanding. I gave her the benefit of the doubt.

Second letter

Third letter

But the last letter really set off alarms. She mentioned Chinese New Year (which I hadn’t brought up), and then asked for my diploma. That struck me as suspicious. Going back to her bio:

• The specific preference for people from the Netherlands, Spain, and Canada is weird.
• Complaints about scammers could be a tactic to lower my guard and make me feel pressured to "prove" myself (e.g., photos, ID, diploma).
• Asking about my financial situation seems like an attempt to profile me economically.

Obviously, I don’t have any other choice but to report this user. It’s sad to see Slowly turn into this, though I guess it was inevitable.

.

We have a new Mod contributing to our sub

cicada_shell has participated in our sub for some time, and I am happy to announce he accepted my invitation to join our small mods team.

Thank you!

He made a recent post with suggestions and one of them was already implemented, as I agree it was a good idea - we have our Stickied 'Pen Pals Wanted' mega-thread once again, as well as our sister subreddit created for that.

He also made a suggestion for another Mega-thread

One that could handle some repetitive posts like:

- 'I waited xx hours for this!' and a rant with snapshot of some very low effort reply

- 'Is this AI??' is becoming quite frequent also

- and anything else like that

Cicada_shell will be handling this new thread, starting with a nice explanation on what the thread is and why we have it. And hopefully we can have people adding their contributions there. 🙂

Thank you, cicada_shell, and welcome to our team!

I'm new to Slowly and would like advice on the best way to handle letters from people I'm not interested in penpalling.

1. I got a response to an open letter that doesn't acknowledge anything from my letter and seemed scammy enough that I'd rather not reply to it. Should I just delete that user forever?

2. Another response to my open letter, this time definitely a real person but based on their bio I know we would not get along well because of a major political difference I'm not willing to negotiate. Just delete forever, or send a message explaining why and then delete forever?

How do you handle open letter replies from people you're sure won't be a good match for you?

A Returning Feature in the Slowly App sub :

A Topic for those who want to find new pen pals -- by posting their info, usually including their Slowly ID.

While many of us prefer other methods to find longer lasting friendships, some users are attracted by the EASE of posting a short write up, including their Slowly ID or not.

Exclusive new topic for Pen Pals Wanted !

Exclusive new Pinned Topic for 'Pen Pals Wanted' posts :

From now on, this type of post will be limited to comments added to this Special Topic ONLY. The Topic will be Pinned (Sticky-ed) at the very top of the sub, so people can find it easily.

A new Topic for the same use will be created every six months. The previous semester's topic will lose the 'Pinned' privilege, but will still be around. (dropping down into the older topics list)

Advantageous if you have posted here already too -- as your Post REMAINS in sight, and gets more attention. BONUS.

** We will KEEP this topic running for 6 months

Hi, will you open a new topic for 2025 H2?

There are a lot of posts here, and we will leave the topic open until later. Maybe open a new one for July to December 2025 ? (If there are a lot of replies, we can consider reducing the topic's duration)

This topic gets a lot of comments, so as the Original Poster, I keep replies notifications off. (I do monitor and respond to a lot of them in all other topics) You can still reach me with an u/yann2 attribution in a comment here, or by sending me a DM if necessary.

Good luck to all of you. 😎👍

Why is this being Done?

Simply to reduce clutter, the number of those 'pen pal wanted' topics, which are interesting only for a limited number of users. This was discussed a few times and was first implemented here in mid 2020.

Concentrating all of those posts here (and sometimes there are MANY) will also make them easier for interested readers as well. They have a one stop shopping window on who is interested in connecting via this method.

ideas, suggestions?

Some Suggestions if you post here :

• Introduce yourself, even briefly, before signing off and dropping an Slowly ID.
• You could mention some of your interests, maybe an approximate age and location.
• What would you like to find in a good penpal? Language(s) you are fluent in?
• What type of letters do you prefer sending and receiving? (short, medium, long)
• A little more about yourself. Some interesting, funny or witty bit can add to your post.

Remember that you are offering friendship, and people will need to be interested, curious and motivated to select connecting with you as a possible pen pal.

Done that?

Read your comment carefully.

• You can always EDIT it if needed, to correct errors or add extra info.
• About the Slowly ID, one possible way to preserve your privacy would be to offer to share it with any interested people via Direct Messages. (DM is sometimes called 'chat', or private message as well)
• This keeps your ID out of the public view and even Google indexing. Recommended.

Rules and Moderation :

If someone posts a new topic with this kind of content, a moderator will respond to the user. The topic will be locked (no more comments allowed), and soon removed from sight.

A message will be sent to the user indicating this topic is now the proper place for their post.

Thank you for participating and supporting our Sub, we all want to make it a nicer and richer place for all Slowly users.

P.S. : older 'Pen Pals Wanted' Topic are retired, but still here.

They had a LOT of replies, like this one with 260 replies, or another with 110 or so -- so you could take a look at them for reference, if you are searching for possible pen pals.

What about the sister subreddit, r/Slowly_Penpals_Wanted?

It still exists, and you can post there if desired. The idea behind it was that it could allow people to create NICER posts, with images included, pretty text formatting, etc.

But we have not seen much of that, and maybe some people don't even know that subreddit exists?

In response to a user's request, we bring back this pinned topic feature, and I hope you find it useful. 😎

[GIVEAWAY ENDED] Congratulations to the Winners!

I will dm the winners for their slowly ID so I can send them their chosen stams or set.

Hello. I'm enjoying using Slowly lately and I've met good penpals along the way. Now, I want to give something back to the community so I will make a small giveaway. There will be 4 winners, each getting 2 stamps or a stamps set worth 100 coins.

Requirments:

1. Have a reddit account of at least 30 days
2. Have a total karma of at least 30
3. Post a comment with 2 stamps you want or a stamps set (100 coins worth)
4. You haven't won in the last giveaway on this subreddit

The winners will be selected on February 1st, around 1PM GMT through redditraffler. Good luck!

In my opinion, separating those seeking penpals via Reddit into a separate subreddit wasn't the right call, and I believe a megathread on here would better serve us. I believe most people don't even know that there exists another sub for it. Many of the postings are also pretty barebones and low quality, not sure how to remedy that.

Additionally, I feel consolidating all AI-related questions, complaints, and so on into its own megathread might do some good to keep repetitive topics out of the general view. I received three very nearly-identical AI replies to my open letter today, and I believe it would be useful for people to see the language used by the LLMs so that we can better police against LLM-use in the community.

It seems that this app does not support offline editing, which is very frustrating for someone who has a flight tomorrow and owes a lot of letters.

Are there any other recommended methods to pin messages and then write like Slowly?

This is the main part of a first letter I've received recently. At first I was slightly perplexed but generally I had a good laugh thinking about whatever the state this person must've been in while writing this rant. Hey, at least it's clear she did carefully read my bio - that's a lot more than what I expect from a first letter these days, even if in this case it was channeled in a... curious manner.

https://preview.redd.it/cyt89w79blfe1.png?width=799&format=png&auto=webp&s=fe1d150c05eaec6a67692e0e23cc3d74f278d0e2

I write one letter every two months, and each one is quite long—typically between 3,000 and 5,000 words. Since this requires a lot of thought and reflection, I’m curious if anyone else who writes long letters has a system for organizing their thoughts over time. Do you use a specific app or method to jot down ideas, structure your content, or keep track of things you want to include between letters? I’d love to hear how you manage the process.

Update : He replied very very long and I'm so glad 😂

Hello, I signed up for Reddit just for this. I found out that Slowly became popular here, so I thought I could share my experience too. I downloaded the Slowly app last year because I wanted to practice English with people from other countries + I had been through a bad experience.

I vented about my life in Auto-match because I didn’t know what it was at that time. Only one name popped up. He was the one who read all my nonsense and actually replied hahaha. We’ve been talking ever since. We matched really well. We talk about everything, even his personal life which he shares with me.

Over time, we started exchanging small photos. Once, he even asked me about my ideal type and whether I was talking to anyone else on Slowly. (Our send-to-receive rate has been 1:1 since we started talking and I decided to delete other pen pals I wasn’t in contact with anymore)

But… we’re just friends. At least, that’s what I think. We’ve exchanged almost 100 letters now but I started noticing some changes in him (I won’t share his personal details)

Recently, In his next letter, he sent me a picture of himself for the first time (I never asked for) I was so surprised! He said he wanted to talk to me more often. But after I replied, he went silent (again) maybe he is busy🥺 I asked if he was okay and eventually, I decided to ask him what he thought about our relationship. Am I gonna ruin anything? That's why I said Slowly took me so far :(

Did I do something wrong? I’m actually an HSP (Highly Sensitive Person) and have an anxious attachment style🥹 Maybe he’s lost interest and doesn’t want to talk to me anymore? It’s just letter exchanges with a stranger but I feel like I’m losing my mind.

Ps. I'm single for a whole life and have a simple life, barely talk with people

But I know I should have a self-respect for myself I can't stay for a people who not have the same value as me. But.. lol this is just an app exchange letter to whome you never knew why I take it so serious😭

So should I wait for him like a silly🪿 or remove user and delete forever..

Hello everyone,

I would like to get the Achievement stamp "Letter Explorer". It says that one has to read 50 open letters in order to receive it, but what does read mean? Clicking on them, scrolling down until the end or answering them?

Thank you for your answer. Best regards Flo

.

Recently Slowly added a new feature on their website

And it is a handy one. The entry point to this is at https://slowly.app/stamp/

I had seen it last month, and took a quick look. Turns out it is quite handy.

We can find information about ANY of the many Slowly Stamps

And the info varies, depending on what kind of stamp it is.

Commemoratives will have a paragraph describing what they show.

Location stamps shows a paragraph with description of the landmark shown, as well as a map with the location.

Individual stamps in a stamp set show the stamp image, plus the set release date, and images of other stamps in that set - which are linked to each stamp's individual page.

There are also Categories

As shown in the banner image above, there are buttons right there you can click on to see:

- Flags

- Achievements

- special series like the Happy Hour, EU Castles, etc.

- They use the odd naming 'Regional' for what we refer to as 'Location' stamps in our own Wiki. There are 314 of them now!

And you can even see ALL of the stamps in a Country

...which is handy. This does not include all of the Global stamps, which every country has.

If you want to see any given country, the format needed is :

https://slowly.app/stamps/?country=FR

The FR in the example above is France's two letter country code. Use any other code as desired.

There is NO Search function on their site at the moment

...but you could use a bit of logic to find anything you are looking for.

A typical stamp page URL address will look like :
https://slowly.app/stamp/fr_amiens-cathedral/

....so you need this start point:
https://slowly.app/stamp/

...and you add the plain stamp filename, without any extension, to it.

How do I find a desired Stamp filename?

You could find it on our Wiki, using the Search function, which is quite nice.

Or, you could load my handy Slowly Stamps API tracking spreadsheet. This one has ALL of the stamps in one page. Use a Control-F to find the name of the stamp you want?

Example?

One of my favourite stamp sets is the awesome 'Purrfect Holidays' set. If I want to find one of them, I could load the spreadsheet, then Control-F, enter 'Purrfect' to search.

like this, 6 matches found, the complete set

If you slide to the B column, you see the stamp filename - without the extension (always .png), which is what we need to use for searching in the Slowly pages.

the six stamps filenames showing here

Copy the name desired and add it to the Slowly default URL shown above :

https://slowly.app/stamp/ plus xmas-cat-cocktail =

https://slowly.app/stamp/xmas-cat-cocktail/ which takes you right to it! 🙂👍

a cropped screenshot of the stamp's page

You can also see ALL stamps for a given country

...as mentioned above.

For this we use : https://slowly.app/stamps/?country=FR if you wanted to see France, FR.

Use GB for Great Britain, aka UK. Etc.

Not sure what is the country code you need?

Look it up on the handy Google Spreadsheet tab listing all Country Codes.

I thought this is a neat new added information source for serious stamp fans, so here is a quick guide to get you started.

Any suggestions to be added here? just leave a comment and I can consider and maybe add it.

Thank you!

I was happy that she sent me a letter and find interesting to have conversation and also promised to write me back. So, I completely expressed and respond in detail, although I wanted to write more but for the first letter I capped it. It's been 4 months, should I wait or write a follow up or remove her ?

2-3 weeks later she was off from the slowly but it's been more than a month she's back~ according to her bio as I saw today.

I respect her personal preference and choices and consider the daily issues a person has to go through. I just want to know, WHY, I had a high hope after what she expressed in a letter and it all end up in vain.

It's not the first time when I get ghosted, but this one is different.

I have so many things to say but I just wanted to hear what y'all have to say.

https://preview.redd.it/hrtbu54603fe1.jpg?width=1001&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=af4cbb96ac2870a6ad8ea8231ec4341266354970

https://preview.redd.it/4vmwitpxz2fe1.jpg?width=1039&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3233a4402fbb9b3e19cf04fc2c73175a783dd7af

https://preview.redd.it/jdodrik403fe1.jpg?width=1066&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=99796d11d64e5be9ef5dbf97a071804319b109bf

38 New Location stamps, added for 11 countries!!

Slowly team seems to have changed tack, as it had been a VERY long time since we had a new Location stamp issue. These are FREE for local users or visitors to the countries, and can also be purchased via the World Explorer random purchase feature, at 25 Coins per try (similar to the Time Machine).

This time, too many to include images on a single Topic, so this is the second one to complete the job.

See Part 1 of this month's new Location stamps HERE.

Italy gets 3 new ones:

Milan Cathedral

Mount Vesuvius

St. Mark’s Basilica, Venice

Japan also gets 3 new ones:

Atsuta Shrine

Kōtoku-in

Railway Museum

Mexico gets 4 new ones:

Angel of Independence

Castle of San Juan de Ulúa

Guadalajara Cathedral

Teotihuacan

Malaysia gets 4 new ones:

Batu Caves

Mount Kinabalu

Putra Mosque

Sultan Ibrahim Building

Poland gets 3 new ones:

Jasna Góra Monastery

Poznań Town Hall

Wilanów Palace

Thailand gets 3 new ones also:

Pha Taem National Park

Phimai Historical Park

Wat Nong Wang

38 New Location stamps, added for 11 countries!!

Slowly team seems to have changed tack, as it had been a VERY long time since we had a new Location stamp issue. These are FREE for local users or visitors to the countries, and can also be purchased via the World Explorer random purchase feature, at 25 Coins per try (similar to the Time Machine).

This time, too many to include images on a single Topic, so I will need a second one to complete the job. See Part 2 of this month's new Location stamps HERE.

Canada gets 3 new ones:

Canadian Rockies

Château Frontenac

Parliament Hill

Germany 4 new stamps:

Cologne Cathedral

Marienplatz

Lake Constance

New Town Hall, Hannover

4 new Spain stamps :

City of Arts and Sciences

Puerta del Sol

Sagrada Família, Barcelona

Santiago de Compostela Cathedral

4 new France stamps :

Amiens Cathedral

Mont Blanc

Palace of Versailles

Place de la Bourse

3 new Hong Kong stamps :

Big Buddha

Lion Rock

Victoria Harbour

I will be adding another new topic as we still have 20 more stamps to show!

More details later, as I need to add all of these to our Wiki - where detailed World Explorer pages for each will tell all about each.

Total Stamp Counts, top 20 Countries

Massive presence of Southeast Asian nations as we have seen in the past, but many other countries got a boost also.

"Top 20 Countries by stamp counts"