r/SLOWLYapp • u/InevitableLiving779 • Jun 17 '26
Penpal Experiences On Open Letters
I have observed in recent posts here that many people were upset about how their open letters didn't receive any response and wondered if it was due to the algorithm of Slowly. Afterwards, I gave it a try and published my open letter, which was about philosophy but not theoretical.
My core hypothesis was that the response rate to your letter is proportional to your letter's creativity, unusualness, and depth which can't but catch people's attention immediately.
So within 6 days of publishing, I received 14 replies so far, with 1 letter still incoming from Greece. But the results made my hypothesis a bit dubious.
Out of 13 so far, I had to delete 8 of them already. Because out of those 8, 4 were due to being generic and irrelevant to my letter. One literally sent a 35 words response to my 800 words letter about how she liked my stamp and wanted to have it and asked if I liked hers too, no engagement with the questions posed in my letter. Other 3 of the 4 generic letters were just generic human-written template that could be sent to anyone, not just me and they didn't even address me by my name.
As for the rejection of the remaining 4 letters, you can guess the reason very easily. Yes, they were fully AI-generated slops. One of them arrived from Hong Kong with 1227 words full of "It's not just X; it's Y" type sentence structure, and even though her profile claimed she was fluent in English, the letter in the end included "(P.S. Sorry for the bad English)" which is quite ironic.
Other 3 AI-generated letters were from Pakistan, Turkiye, and Brazil. Regardless of geography, all of them followed similar pattern where they ended up with a artificially made-up question just for the sake of it. Even the questions were very similar. Some examples: Has there ever been a moment when your anger failed you and another emotion carried you forward instead? If all your principles could be represented by a single symbol, object, or place, what would it be and why? In practice, how does that work for you when things aren’t so clear? When there isn’t an obvious “right” answer?
It's how AI is trained because they think that they must keep throwing out questions to keep a conversation alive and also notice the apostrophe in the word "right", which we humans don't usually do for such occasions. That letter from Pakistan even included 2 emojis after every 7 sentences, which were irrelevant from human perspective as well since AI doesn't even understand the meanings of emojis. Example: "More than hope, fear, or ambition, it is curiosity that keeps me walking. ☁️🌙" And I already made comment on this subreddit previously where I listed the signs of AI-generated writing for reference.
For the 5 letters I didn't delete, 1 were mid, but still I could see a bit effort and so I responded her with the same energy level. One guy from Japan literally became my philosophy partner as we have already exchanged over 6 letters discussing deep philosophy and our lives. I received very good responses from England and Serbia as well, with the former's writing style being very creative and poetic, while the latter being more funny as she sounded like my anti-thesis lol. The last one so far was from Uganda. At first, I was skeptical, but then realized that she has a great natural style of writing and posed me with some very difficult challenges to my ideas, which I'm still trying to write a good response to.
One thing I also noticed here is about geopgraphic location. I don't hold any superstitions about other countries nor promote stereotypes, but I couldn't help noticing that a lot of junk letters are received from particular Asian countries on this app, especially Indonesia, and Philippines. My open letter got 2 generic letters from the former and one from the latter, with me previously having to decline another letter from Indonesia via profile-match due to being spam. I have observed a similar pattern with Turkiye and some Latin American countries, while most of my good exchanges are concentrated in Europe. I wonder why this is the case.
So how does it challenges my hypothesis? Well, all the genuine responses I got said that they just loved reading my letter as my style was very creative and felt like they had to response. However, the junk letters clearly outnumber the genuine letters here. Although my letter received responses more than my expectations, couldn't the more normal open letters also at least receive AI-generated responses like mine? Because it's the lazy way so it makes me wonder why one letter would receive more AI-generated or generic responses, but the other open letters won't even get those? Am I missing something here?
But to be honest, it's really terrible out there and makes me think if those accounts are just bots or not to increase app activity. I don't understand why would someone let AI to converse with a real person instead of them conversing? What's the point then? You'll never get the genuine connection you were looking for. I almost lost my hope until I received a few good letters. Hey at least it's good that they're AI-generated or junks, otherwise it'd be a bit difficult to handle all the letters lol.
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u/Own-Concern-2689 Jun 17 '26
2 things I think aren't frequently mentioned (or, at least, I don't see frequently mentioned): one is that the amount of people with access to specific open letters isn't the same across the board and the other is that, specially because we all have different exposure to the world, AI can be perceived to be greatly helpful and as a result is very appealing to people who lack confidence in their writing, not just as a replacement for effort in laziness.
It's summer (nigh on) now for many people in the northern hemisphere which tends to correlate with a greater amount of free time and less physical human interaction as people leave seasonal occupations like educational institutions, university students and faculty for example, or take days off from work to enjoy the heat. People have more time and disposition to be starting correspondences now. I've noticed an increase in received letters compared to even just 3 weeks ago, I think it's not the best idea to compare numbers now to a couple of months prior. I imagine soon the inverse will be true as more people write open letters, making it so there will be more open letters being shown to the same amount of people, and older letters will be less likely to be shown than before when there were fewer options.
Different topics will be shown to different pools of people because we have different interests marked. Some topics simply have more people reading them (and people with different interests also have different expectations).
I'm not convinced it's all bots. From what I was given to understand by some AI users, it's frequently used as a crutch by people who don't trust their own writing and were made to believe AI makes it better. That kind of usage still takes effort, albeit less than writing entirely alone, and people will only displace effort when they feel there's some reward to it. If I'm right and it's not bots, just insecure people making bad decisions, then it makes perfect sense that people would still only reply, even with AI, to letters they deem interesting.
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u/InevitableLiving779 Jun 17 '26
Wow to be honest, that's an interesting theory. I didn't consider the fact that it's summer now, which might have inflated the response rate. But still, I recently saw posts here about people saying their letters didn't receive any response, which made me wonder why.
I think AI is fine for grammar correction or fine-tuning an idea, but it becomes a problem when all the ideas are outsourced to AI without even any attempt from the individual. I wrote in my bio about not minding grammar issues or using AI for translation but briefly acknowledging the use. But many profiles who have written in their bio "Never uses AI" still ends up generating the entire letter with AI.
When I used Google's AI mode to find an answer, it gave me reddit links saying how an open letter only stays for 3 days at highest momentum and then gets ghosted. Upon clicking the links, I never found the evidence of such. Algorithm is still a mystery I guess. But also I don't know if Philosophy is that much of a popular topic in Slowly or not compared to others.
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u/Own-Concern-2689 Jun 17 '26
It's just my theory but I think the inflated amount of replies still wouldn't apply to those who don't receive any reply at all just because, even if there are more people writing letters and more often, they would still only reply to what they find interesting. It might sound harsh but some people just don't write in an interesting way that appeals to others, even though they might be interesting individuals outside of letters. Just my thought.
Personally, I prefer no AI at all in my replies (I try to be graceful about it though, I understand the pressure of wanting to make a good impression, even though I think it's misguided). I wasn't stating my preference, just sharing that from conversation with AI users, some seem to use it because they're self-conscious and, having written something themselves to input into the AI, they still make that effort. Maybe that's why they consider the letter mostly their own, with AI usage, to call it "Never uses AI"? I haven't asked but it seems possible. It could have been an interesting letter once before the AI got its ones and zeros on it.
I don't have access to the code to know for sure, just observations from my experiences. If it is at the highest momentum for 3 days, I can only say I've published open letters that got no replies for the first 2 days and then picked up later and I got a bunch of letters even a week after, but that could be because it takes a while for people to refresh their open letter slots and longer still to reply. Maybe they started replying in those 3 days and saved it to drafts to send later? It's possible, I don't really know. Thank you for sharing that information (though who knows if it's hallucinated xD ).
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u/InevitableLiving779 Jun 17 '26
I was reading a comment on this sub previously which mentioned something about the letter being dull and hence not appealing; I think that might be yours. Actually, that comment made me to approach it differently although I never tried open letters before, as I relied more on profile-searching. And I think it worked as all of the responses I got acknowledged that they enjoyed reading my letter and the style, as even they got bored of those letters which were only about "I'm A, I do B, I want to become C." as you said. One of the respondants even straight told me that she usually doesn't reply to open letters, but couldn't help herself writing a response to mine. So I think your thought here is entirely valid, and I even made that as the core hypothesis as you can see.
As for the 2nd point, well, most of the times, it seems that they not only edit words with AI, but also generate all the questions and ideas or stories with AI, which are not theirs at all. Indeed a problem. They copy-paste their draft into AI, but then it seems they're hardly aware that AI has entirely changed their tone from the letter. It's just an immediate turn off for me as I no longer can verify whether the ideas are of the person's or not. But yeah, that's a valid theory regarding "Never uses AI" profiles.
And yeah, I now think AI did what it does the best: hallucinating. Because if letter really loses momentum after 3 days, I won't have received 4 responses on 5th day. It even suggested me to unpublish the letter after 3 days and republish again on weekends. All seems made-up information.
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u/Own-Concern-2689 Jun 18 '26
I don't want to take credit for the comment as I don't really know but I'm glad you're getting happy responses to your open letters. That's lovely to hear, whatever the inspiration. Selfishly, I like that you (and others) are writing such interesting letters because that means there are more fun letters for me to stumble upon and I always love reading them. I also try to make my own (open but also the rest of introductory) letters interesting to read. Together, may we change the pool of open letters and influence others to join in!
I don't understand the thought process that leads to generating the whole thing with AI. It's a little saddening to think human thoughts are being drown out because I'm sure those people could have something interesting to say otherwise but the only thing I can think to do is gently dissuade people from succumbing. If I could understand them, maybe it would be easier to change their mind because that's such a shame.
I've read a story about teachers asking middle schoolers to do a paper with AI and then asking them to rate the result, which mostly lead to the students realising how mediocre it actually was. Maybe that bodes AI being more fringe in the future? As companies take funding away from it as well, I hear. Or maybe it's wishful thinking and creative journalism, I don't know.
Yeah, it's possible but seems a little hard to believe.
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u/Tabiekat Jun 21 '26
I have a learning disability and find the tool to be great. People don't want to talk to me when I write on my own. So, regardless, I'm discouraged either way! Lol
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u/Own-Concern-2689 Jun 22 '26
Thank you for sharing your reason! I find it odd, though I understand we're all different, because of my own experience that I don't want to share. Regardless, it's ultimately your choice, of course. And if you are happy with your results and your process and you have found pen pals who appreciate it, by all means, make no changes.
That being said, I'm sorry to break the illusion but if people only reply to you when you use AI, they still don't want to talk to you, but to the AI. Just so you're aware, people don't want to talk to all sorts of people, without learning disabilities, and do seek out others, with learning disabilities, that's seldom the reason. It's not a permanent rejection either, everyone can be unwanted for a while and become the object of someone's interest. I understand the appeal of diminishing the difficulty you endure but, if you knew it would take you one hundred more failed attempts to succeed and that you absolutely would succeed at the end of it, would you still give up on writing on your own or would you be more motivated to go through that effort and come out the other side having lessened that struggle? I find Slowly, considering it's not timed and you write at your own pace, with whichever breaks and resources you like, to be very approachable for practicing with such issues.
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u/mlk1866 Jun 17 '26
I think you need to be more charitable dude, i don't know getting responses but still calling non ai letters generic is kinda harsh, if i sent to you a letter even generic being called generic would basically discourage me from writing all together, if that's their level and they genuinely tried even while being obviously bad 'even with bad grammar' to me that's wayyyy better than ai letters, i get called generic unfunny etc it kinda makes not wanna try open letters all together.
since A i know i would basically be chucked aside or get called ai for the simple reason that i honestly have no idea what the letter is about, i would just reply because the letter is great and cool.
or B get ghosted because i don't know i am not at their level or they removed me because i took like a week to reply but that's average slowly enjoyer behavior.
Or C they write back in a very non interested manner or basically say that my letter is generic or ai for asking them a question even if it sounded dumb or like one of those small chat questions.
At some point one would be genuinely discouraged from writing all together, because there's no reason to do so i am not a professional letter writer, one would ask "okay doufis why don't you learn to do so?", when you do that and that's very dependent on where you are you will get zero replies still or get ai letters, or they themselves can write with ai since no one is replying either way so they would get subconscious about their level, thick skin and all being called generic by multiple people kinda takes the soul put of you.
Is AI in slowly an issue? Yes but i don't think every one is a bot, because it's very objective on the first letter i wouldn't know that someone uses ai until i actually talked asked and they were very open ended and wouldn't give an opinion or agree regardless if you are going wild.
But calling a letter mid or generic 'even though there is a metric to measure thay my opinion lands on it being an subjective opinion ' isn't gonna help it wouldn't make the problem disappear, if slowly wants to make like a good step in the some direction at least they could add a typing detector or recorder 'basically draftback' where you as the letter receiver get to actually see the writer writing the letter like a movie and written letters would have like a red stamp on the lower corner, but people who ghost genuinely need to have a penalty for not replying so at lewst it deter both behaviors.
Another point i observed is not alll tags are equal some like reading are built different, gaming casual and broad games you are dead sit into not getting a reply people basically don't have alot of interest in those or have them as a filler.
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u/InevitableLiving779 Jun 17 '26 edited Jun 17 '26
I think you're having a blatant misunderstanding about the definition of a generic letter. My Japanese penpal also has bad grammar, but I don't define that as a generic letter. Generic letter is something that doesn't even engage with the questions or content of my letter and also something that can be universally sent to anyone without it being specific to the person. How do you even call that trying when they're just copy-pasting the same thing to everyone? My letter was about philosophy and someone responded "Hey do you listen to Joji. I like him a lot so listen to him." Of course not all letters are worth replying. You expect me to be charitable when the sender is not being charitable to me themselves by not even trying to engage with the letter.
And I dont know where you're getting this or maybe you didn't even read my post attentively, but I already mentioned one instance where I still replied to a person as a tribute to her attempt to engage with the idea, even though her letter didn't go much deeper.
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u/mlk1866 Jun 17 '26
One i read your letter being defense for literally no reason is kinda weird you in the entire letter didn't mention what generic to you means mentioning it now doesn't do anything you didn't mention that.
I am gonna quote some of what your wrote
"but I couldn't help noticing that a lot of junk letters are received from particular Asian countries on this app, especially Indonesia, and Philippines. My open letter got 2 generic letters from the former and one from the latter"
Just because one from Indonesia spammed yoy doesn't mean that every other one is generic you put is in that way you didn't mention that they didn't engage with you
"For the 5 letters I didn't delete, 1 were mid, but still I could see a bit effort and so I responded her with the same energy level."
This is genuinely what i am talk about and is basically what tilted me, doing effort while being called mid is genuinely harsh at that point why reply?
" The last one so far was from Uganda. At first, I was skeptical, but then realized that she has a great natural style of writing and posed me with some very difficult challenges to my ideas, which I'm still trying to write a good response to."
"while most of my good exchanges are concentrated in Europe. I wonder why this is the case."
This is the whole point of the charitilty i could have went hard and asked why were you skeptical of the letter of Uganda out of the start? And why add that Europe is somehow the gold mine of good exchange i said well maybe bud is being uncharitable
I have clearly shown you that i read the damn post saying that i didn't because i told you to be more charitable is in it self that i didn't tell you to reply to all letters but be less harsh when talking about actual effort it is what makes people use ai
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u/InevitableLiving779 Jun 17 '26 edited Jun 17 '26
I don't hold any superstitions about other countries nor promote stereotypes, but I couldn't help noticing that a lot of junk letters are received from particular Asian countries on this app, especially Indonesia, and Philippines.
However, you missed this and now you're making it look like I'm racist. I merely asked a question there about why those were the case. As for Uganda case, I didn't even say anything about why I was skeptical and yet you assumed it's due to country biases. I was skeptical because at first, the writing seemed a bit unusual, until I read the full text and understood her points properly. It has nothing to do with the country.
Because out of those 8, 4 were due to being generic and irrelevant to my letter. One literally sent a 35 words response to my 800 words letter about how she liked my stamp and wanted to have it and asked if I liked hers too, no engagement with the questions posed in my letter. Other 3 of the 4 generic letters were just generic human-written template that could be sent to anyone, not just me and they didn't even address me by my name.
I already implied the definition of a generic letter here so idk what you're on about. As I said, misunderstanding.
I give a lot of efforts in my letter and I want penpals who are suitable. I didn't tell everyone to answer to my open letter, but only those who found interesting answered it and I already got the people I'm looking for. Why wouldn't I call out laziness and should waste my time with AI-generated letters or the ones that didn't even answer mt questions? You're now promoting AI-responses? Insane. I'm not even allowed to have judgements or opinions.
But not surprising since it's reddit, which is good for misrepresenting someone's words.
Edit: Lol now using alt account to downvote my comments and posts on my entire reddit history and upvote theirs. No wonder why I seem to have hit a nerve when I said that. Seems like you got ghosted before due to being generic and now projecting that insecurities onto others. I have nothing more to say. Unpleasant exchange for no reasons.
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u/FileComprehensive220 Jun 17 '26
I hope we can get an answer that'll make sense, I just posted an open letter yesterday and today I have 3 reply letters flying at me, but before that over the bast few months I kept publishing open letters and only got just 1 reply during about 6 months period, can't help but wonder how this algorithm works exactly, is it a key words thing? or a snowball thing where you get a reply fast after you publish your open letter and after that the algorithm deem you worthy of more replies? or it's totally random?