#penpal app

[letterbirdapp]

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#LetterbirdTradition #DigitalLetterExperience #LanguageLearningJourney #PenpalsAroundTheWorld #Letterbird #PenpalsWanted #PenpalApp #Penpal #Penpal

[boycigs]

guess who is actively liberating themselves from c.ai.

[calamari-minecraft-corner]

Penpal au my beloved I need to write wren and dream being deranged at each other in different ways so bad rn

[iknaenmal]

ive got so much oc lore in my brain....... you guys arent prepared for this

[vensv]

slowly app id: XQY06W

pleaseeee send me a letter i need penpals🥹

[timove]

It's been a while since I've used Slowly. But today I got a new letter from someone, and I think it's a great way to pick things up again.

I really missed sending letters

[7i74]

btw I'm back on slowly after a long hiatus...

add me at P0N80J

[oxbloodfoxglove]

after weeks of trying to persuade myself to do it and getting stuck in a cycle of anxiety and avoidance, i'm finally, finally replying to people on the penpal app and actually trying to talk to new people

i'm so incredibly anxious about this but desperate to make new friends so i'm just trying to push myself to do it anyway, aaaah.

[flirtreview]

A friend for every purpose

[therosielord]

What's happening on Xiaohongshu (aka Rednote, the Chinese tiktok-like app) is legitimately so amazing and beautiful and has given me more hope about the state of the world than anything I've seen in years.

Things could have gone so badly. Americans very quickly flooded a Chinese app that previously only had Chinese people on it and wasn't even in English. The Chinese users could have rejected us and told us to get out of their space. The American users could have been super obnoxious and racist. I'm sure that's what both of our governments expected would happen in a scenario like that.

But the exact opposite has happened. The Chinese users are, for the most part, absolutely delighted to see such a huge influx of foreign users. Because they can't use Tiktok, they don't get to see nearly as much content from the rest of the world. We're bringing foreign content to them that they normally don't get to see. And many creators on Xiaohongshu woke up to find that they had gained like 20k followers overnight. They've been nothing but welcoming to the new American users and have been making jokes about how we're free to stay as long as we pay the cat tax (show them pictures of our cats) and help them with their English homework.

And Americans have been incredibly respectful. Most of the Americans I've seen on there have already started captioning their videos in both English and Chinese, and when people only caption their videos in English, other Americans show up in the comments to remind them to please caption in Chinese because we are guests here. It has become common practice for Americans to write their comments in English and add the translated version as well. Many Americans have started actually learning Chinese. We've been making jokes about how we are making sure to take our shoes off at the door of Xiaohongshu.

We have been learning so much about each other. Americans have learned that a lot of the things we've been told about China, like their social credit system, are made up. And they've been learning a lot about us, like how our healthcare system is awful and Americans aren't actually all wealthy like the movies make it seem. We have a lot of struggles in common. College graduates in both countries are having a really hard time finding good jobs right now. Housing is expensive and hard to find in both countries. We are both dealing with censorship from our governments, although it takes different forms.

And of course, we love so many of the same things. Food, travel, fashion, crafting, cat pictures, music, etc. All of the things that most humans enjoy. Both of our goveernments have tried to convince us that we are so different from one another and that we should be enemies, but it's so clear that when people from across the world come together and can speak freely, the natural human instinct is to bond over the things we all love.

There is so much kindness and genuine curiosity and willingness to learn about one another happening there. I've literally been brought to tears multiple times seeing the types of things people are saying to one another. One video that really got to me was this Chinese woman explaining that in many Chinese schools, they would do English homework assignments that had the prompt "Pretend your name is Li Hua and you are writing to your penpal in America." So there have been millions of these letters from "Li Hua" written to imaginary American penpals over the years. And she said that after all these years, Li Hua is finally starting to get letters back.

Even if tiktok doesn't get banned, I'm staying on Xiaohongshu as well. Who knows if our governments will allow this connection to last. The Chinese government apparently showed its support for the Americans coming to the app to learn about China, but who knows what our fascist government will do. But even if this doesn't last, this moment has been beautiful. It's proven to so many of us that the Chinese and American people are so similar and that we have a genuine desire to connect with one another. In a time when so much of the world is full of hatred and fear, this completely organic connection between the people of two countries that are supposed to be enemies just blossomed overnight.

To me, this is proof that the natural instinct of many, many people all across the globe is friendliness and curiosity. We have such a strong desire to connect with one another. We will find each other wherever we can. I'm so happy to have this.

[magnetictapedatastorage]

utterly deranged idea for a psudo-social-media site based on defunct penpal app "wayfare" where each day you and a penpal recieved a quest to photograph a specific category of thing. the hypothetical site would do that, but for the entire website at once. so for example the first day it would be "weather", the second it would be "local transportation", etc. there would be no other way to post on the hypothetical site though

[caffeinated-coffee-bean]

Crossover fanfic idea:

Alfred joins a dating app due to Jason, Dick, and Tim’s insistence that he needs to have someone his age to talk to. When Alfred joins he’s not really interested, but under the watchful eyes of his grandbats he swipes for a bit. Before he can swipe again he gets a match notification and the grandbats cheer, encouraging him to message them. So Alfred sends a message to the other person explaining how he was being peer pressured into joining. The other person sends back a laughing emoji and types that their nephew was doing the same thing to them. Charmed, Alfred begins to converse with the other person daily, moving over to text and deleting the original app. After a stretch of time they decide to meet up in person. Alfred tells the family he is taking a weekend off to see his friend and each of the bats are surprised, but insistent he takes a break to relax himself. Bruce reminds him to take the superior bank card so Alfred has access to all the money he needs or wants while out of town. The morning Alfred is set to leave all the bats have appeared at the entrance to hug the older man and wish him luck before he heads out the door. Once in New York City, Alfred finds his hotel before going to find his meet up spot. He arrives early, but as he walks in he sees his pen pal was already there at a table. Alfred made his way over and introduces himself before sitting across from her. After they order drinks Alfred’s penpal’s phone rings and they answer it. His penpal asks if their nephew can stop by to pick up his glasses he left at home this morning because his office is a block away and Alfred says of course. So as they wait for their food, the two of them talk about their kids they have raised as their own. Both of their wards’ parents had died before their time in violent ways and when the wards were extremely young. Just then the establishment’s door swung open and a frazzled college aged brunette entered. He scanned the room and visibly relaxed at spotting Alfred’s penpal. The young man made his way over stammered an apology and thanked his aunt for grabbing his glasses. Alfred had a feeling that he had seen this young man before, but brushed it aside as the city was large and overcrowded. Alfred’s penpal turned back to him when the young man left and apologized for her nephew Peter being a bit forgetful. Alfred smiled and explained to May that he understood. When they were headed out of the establishment, Alfred had offered his arm to May who blushed at being treated like a lady from old films, a big crack and crashing filled the air. Looking upwards there was a rhino looking person held in the air by spiderwebs. May squeezed Alfred’s arm and under her breath breathed Peter. Alfred understood in an instant. When the cops appeared to wrestle away the rhino man, May tried to make an excuse to leave to check on Peter, but Alfred whispered in her ear that he knew and understood that she needed to make sure he was okay. May was a bit startled before looking at his face. May stated, “You are part of the life” to which Alfred nodded. Alfred joked, “You only have one, I have an entire flock” and let May go as they reached her bus stop. May and Alfred parted ways for the day with smiles and waves. Over the next few months the two would call each other and mention how their worrisome wards escaped death this week. Eventually Alfred convinced May and Peter to stay at the manor for a weekend. As soon as they arrived Peter was kidnapped by the batkids and May pinched Bruce’s cheeks. That night Gotham was shocked that the entire bats ensemble was out and had Spiderman with them. Did the bats kidnap Spiderman? The Gotham News got so riled up that Metropolis across the Bay decided to send reporters to investigate. Lucky they did because then Superman was shaking hands with Spiderman and the bats. Meanwhile back at the BatCave Alfred and May were having tea, enjoying the friend they found who understands them.

[butts-bouncing-on-the-beltway]

With regard to donating to fund-raisers and the analogy to panhandlers, what do you make of the difference in scale that the internet makes possible? I absolutely agree with the underlying approach — I keep $40 in my wallet so that I always have a $20 to give to panhandlers I see — but there's a limit to how many dishonest panhandlers a person is likely to run into. Internet spam and scams are of a staggeringly larger scale; for example, the head of trust and safety for Dreamwidth has put the scale of these scam networks in the millions of accounts. Obviously vetting practises help a great deal, and I think initiatives like Crips For ESims For Gaza are great, but I'm a little bit hung up on the analogy to in-person panhandling when the scale is so different.

Disclaimer: my tone may sound harsh here, I am having trouble softening my words one this right now, but I truly mean no frustration towards you and really appreciate this question as an opportunity continue this conversation in the Commons constructively

I mean. Make a budget for it?

Like. I've said this before, but given I've decided to hunker down in this foxhole, let's do it again.

All my life I've had a panhandling budget because I came from a family where you simply didn't say no to such requests if you didn't have to. But much like the tired old analogy at this point, you can't help someone else put on an oxygen mask if you've passed out because you don't have enough oxygen yourself.

So my mom told me this was one of those places in life you set a boundary with yourself. Identify how much you can actually safely reliably spend towards financial redistribution, and set it aside in cash each pay period to give out.

My mom's approach was very first come, first served. Whoever asked her, she handed out all her cash. I found that when I was trying to create a similar routine for myself that this led to a constant exposure to people I couldn't serve at all. So I created "allotments". It became my routine to take out a $20 bill at my bank every pay period, and then have the teller give it to me in $5 bills. The first 4 people I met who asked for it got a fiver.

Then came the digital age. Cash wasn't the main way people asked for money anymore, and my fivers were simultaneously going farther and going nowhere at all for weeks on end, especially during the pandemic when I became largely housebound.

These days, I keep $10 cash in 2 fivers, and each pay period I restock it if it's been depleted, and add $10 to a digital distribution fund (I use money transfer apps like venmo, paypal, and cash app for parking this money until expenditure). My allotment is still the same, $5/ask. During low-density ask periods, I will donate my "excess" at the end of a 3month period to a bail fund or prison penpal program, and if there IS no excess, it's because I was able to distribute the funds myself.

They're not big donations, but a lot of the time I've been able to make them recurring. Obviously, genocide upon genocide upon pandemic upon genocide has meant that I rarely have excesses, and many asks have to go unanswered by me. At least if I want to keep my own household alive and well. And I've been told in the past that some even prefer getting my repeat small petty cash funds over getting larger one time donations.

It's still hard to be constantly exposed to desperate asks you can't answer, but when you treat it like a sustainability thing (this is a thing I can continue doing indefinitely vs this is a thing I can only sometimes do without hurting myself).

Like any budget, sometimes things get tight. Mine has been bigger and smaller at times and there have even been deeply painful periods where my budget was, legitimately, $0. But once that changed, I was right back to it.

The more the world changes, the more it stays the same I guess

[vensv]

please i’m begging you if you use slowly and don’t wanna reply to someone for whatever reason, just decline the fucking letter

[sitp-recs]

Hey Liv, I was sure you had an epistolary list somewhere, but I can’t seem to find it.

Would you have some recs for me? It doesn’t have to be full epistolary, as long as there are a few letters exchanged.

Thank you

Hi anon! I’m pretty sure I have an epistolary list somewhere but for some reason I can’t access my masterlists atm (which is mildly concerning lol I hope it’s just an app glitch on my phone) but in any case here are some recs for you!

Re: Harry's Crush by @lettersbyelise (T, 4k)

Ever get that feeling you're being talked about behind your back? Harry doesn't, he's too busy being stupidly, obviously besotted with the guy in the lab downstairs.

Garden War by @cibeewastaken (T, 5k)

Harry and Draco are quarantined in their houses, a lake across from one another. What better ways to spend this time than to annoy each other with letters and attempts to prove that their garden is better ?

Lettered by pir8fancier (M, 8k)

Harry has a secret penpal, whose identity is as plain as the nose on his face. Except he's not wearing his glasses.

Per my last letter (I hope you choke on it) by @fluxweeed and @lastontheboat (T, 10k)

Or: the one where Harry has writer’s block and Malfoy isn’t helping.

Yours Truly by @skeptiquewrites (M, 15k)

Every single one of Harry’s exes has gone on to marry the next person they date, and with the upcoming nuptials of numbers six and seven to each other, Harry’s feeling exhausted by it all. It doesn’t really matter if he lets people assume Draco Malfoy is his boyfriend for a moment of peace. In any case, Draco’s been away for five years and there’s no way he would find out, right?

Let's Go Outside by cryptonym (E, 24k)

Harry's done with the sofa, the hall and the kitchen table, baby.

On Our Way by evils (E, 30k)

Draco is trying to spend the summer keeping his head down, but a repair project and a certain snowy owl have other plans for him.

Howlr by partialtopotter (E, 47k)

Howlr is the new dating application enchanting Witches, Wizards and Everyone in between. Are you looking for the one or a one-night stand; it’s all here folks. Howlr is sponsored by Weasley Wizard Wheezes, the same team that brought us the Spellular just two years ago. Ginny Weasley, famed chaser for the Hollyhead Harpies, swears by the app, ‘guaranteed to make sparks fly,’ she says. The magic awaits you!

Catch 22 by jad (E, 50k)

As if NEWTS weren't enough, Dumbledore's gone and had another one of his 'bright ideas.' If all ends well, the Houses will be getting along in no time. Or according to Harry's correspondent, an Apocalypse will be in order.

Bonus: art!

Going Postal by dustmouth (T)

So Draco and Harry sort of maybe have a bit of a thing going. Which is all fine and good, but would probably be more effective if they managed to be on the same continent for more than five minutes at a time.

[erikacousland]

Americans Crying at Letters to Li Hua on Chinese App RedNote - YouTube

Carl Zha talks about how Americans discovered that Chinese people have been writing moving penpal letters to them for decades, so Americans decided to write back to their "long lost" Chinese friends on Chinese social media app RedNote. Amazing Sino-American cultural exchange flourishing as digital Berlin Wall comes down around two people long separated by Cold War Propaganda

*

@davidhart9007 I teach a Chinese student who has been studying English with me since 2016--his English name is Jack, and he lives in Xiamen. We have a 2-3 hour lesson every Saturday--morning for me, and evening for him, and we were talking about the Red Note phenomenon today, and how it is opening communication between the Chinese people and Americans. I forgot to tell him the Li Hua story, so I sent him a message about it on WeChat--that is how we have our lessons. He sent back a voice message saying that he has been sending letters as Li Hua to imaginary friends since elementary school. He is now in his Junior year of High School, and in the message he said that in his English mid-term test this past week, he had to write a letter as Li Hua explaining Chinese caligraphy to an imaginary friend. I had several students who I taught for many years, from all over China, as far west as Xinjiang Province in the west. I am planning to go to China this coming summer so I can visit Jack in Xiamen and possibly some of my other previous students, and then head to the Qingdao Beer Festival!