The ground rules.
There aren’t many, and the software enforces every one of them.
- Write to the person you’re writing to. We check every new letter against the others here, to see whether the same paragraphs have gone to somebody else. Copy-and-paste messages are held back, and can get you banned.
- Adults only. You need to be eighteen, going by the date of birth you give, or you can’t set up a desk.
- 3 conversations at a time. A conversation you’ve set aside to rest keeps its seat, and an invitation you’ve sent holds one for as long as it’s out. Nobody can buy a fourth.
- Nobody is told who pressed first. Seeing more of each other takes both of you asking, and neither of you finds out who asked first.
- You can pass on any question. It doesn’t cost you any level, and it doesn’t count against you.
- Between people new to each other, addresses, numbers and links are removed from letters until a conversation reaches level 16. After that, it’s up to you whether to share them. Two people who already know each other write with nothing taken out. Either way, we never give your email address to anyone.
- Between people new to each other, a photograph uncovers slowly, as you write, in the order its owner chose. A person looks at every photograph before it can turn over for anyone. There is no fixed turnaround; your own page shows where it stands. If you already know each other, there are no faces to uncover, and your lists turn over instead.
- Anything said about you is kind. Somebody you used to write to, who was new to you, can only pick from a fixed list of good words. Nobody can write free text about a named person anywhere on the site.
- Block, report, leave. You don’t need a reason to block somebody, and it ends everything between you straight away. Reporting freezes the conversation and sends it, letters and all, to a person here; the other person is never told. If you leave, your letters are hidden at once and everything about you is erased after 30 days.
- A conversation that goes silent closes on its own. After 28 days without a letter, the Post Office closes it. Nothing else about how you write, or how often, is ever shown to anyone.
If a decision goes against you
A held letter, a refused photograph, a restriction or a closed account was decided by a person, and a person can change it. The help page says how to reach us, and it works even if your account is closed.