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Post by ginny on Feb 17, 2020 8:44:29 GMT
. That said, the response rate to my surprise letters/postcards is unexplainably low and sadly other members have a similar experience, so I am not sure I'd suggest the site to anyone. Sometimes I wonder why I keep trying with that site and then I think that, in addition to all the disappointment, I have also found a few great pen friends there 😊 I find that this happens a lot - people say 'write to me' or list their names, and when it comes to writing back, they fall off the wagon. Actually, this happened a lot in the Facebook groups I was part of (as I said, I'm not on Facebook anymore, but I used to belong to several groups there), and one of my friends who's still active there says it's still like that now. That can definitely be very off-putting. |
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Post by Mia on Feb 17, 2020 12:15:17 GMT
I tried Interpals, but the only good thing about it was that it introduced me to Postcrossing. As Interpal letters became non-existent, I was still getting a mail fix via postcards. Then, I discovered the forum. I still have some very good penpals from the penpal ads on the Postcrossing forum. I also joined Round Robins (you sent letters to everyone in the group) and I still write to one person after 11 years from the RR group.
There are a few other Interpals-type sites with messaging on their websites. Many people appeared to be wanting more than just penfriendship.
I joined Swap-Bot. There, you could join a "swap" to send postcards, letters, or whatever it was for that particular swap. The person you were sending to and receiving from were randomly assigned via the site. I still have 2 very good penpals from penpal letter swaps. Letters & postcards make up a very small amount of the swaps on the site. There are Artistic Trading Cards, and crafty/arty things.
I have found a couple of penfriends via SendSomething.
I have put my name in Friendship Books, even made a few myself in 2008 (but haven't had one return). I have a couple of penpals I can forward FBs onto.
InCoWriMo and LetterMo have been good for finding penpals, although there is quite a large failure rate not working out for long term penpals. I do have some penfriends from both fountain pen geeks and fountain en network forums.
Some people are on all these sites and you can't get away from them!!
And of course this forum has been good with the Five Questions making any first letters more unique. I really must know which direction you stir your coffee/tea!
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Post by hoyabella on Feb 17, 2020 12:32:46 GMT
I tried Interpals, but the only good thing about it was that it introduced me to Postcrossing. I didn't make any penpal via interpals, either, but a girl I contacted on Instagram, who is in touch with people everywhere, says it's the best, together with Students of the world (which I haven't tried and which requires a subscription fee). Now that I mention instagram, many of my "friends" there say they have found penpals by means of the #penpalwanted hashtag or by directly asking people whose feed they like. |
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Post by katiel on Feb 17, 2020 15:43:28 GMT
... together with Students of the world (which I haven't tried and which requires a subscription fee). Just a heads up, Students of the World definitely does not require a subscription fee. It’s totally free and has been for at least the 6 years I’ve been using it. Can’t verify if it was before that though. But it’s 100% free now. 🙂 Which is good because I’m way too cheap to pay a subscription fee for something like that (and it would probably limit the number of people who participated, and this way there are loads to choose from). 🙂 |
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Post by hoyabella on Feb 17, 2020 16:45:43 GMT
... together with Students of the world (which I haven't tried and which requires a subscription fee). Just a heads up, Students of the World definitely does not require a subscription fee. It’s totally free and has been for at least the 6 years I’ve been using it. Can’t verify if it was before that though. But it’s 100% free now. 🙂 Which is good because I’m way too cheap to pay a subscription fee for something like that (and it would probably limit the number of people who participated, and this way there are loads to choose from). 🙂 Sorry for my mistake, I was really sure it required a fee. Thank you for correcting me 😊 |
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Post by ginny on Feb 21, 2020 11:35:42 GMT
Just a heads up, Students of the World definitely does not require a subscription fee. It’s totally free and has been for at least the 6 years I’ve been using it. Can’t verify if it was before that though. But it’s 100% free now. 🙂 Which is good because I’m way too cheap to pay a subscription fee for something like that (and it would probably limit the number of people who participated, and this way there are loads to choose from). 🙂 Sorry for my mistake, I was really sure it required a fee. Thank you for correcting me 😊 *** I hadn't heard about Students of the World so far, so thanks for mentioning it. The sites I'm familiar with that require you to set up a profile (Global Penfriends and Penpal World) have a free service that includes basic stuff and an 'enhanced service' that requires a subscription fee. The 'enhanced service' includes a few gimmicks that I - and most other people - wouldn't really pay for, but it also enables you to block out people based on their country and / or gender (I wouldn't pay for that service, either, but apparently some people find it worth the money), and it means you can communicate without any restrictions. There are people who only want to communicate through the platform, and for them this is an important aspect (again, not my scene). The communication restrictions are cumbersome for free members, obviously, and I find that off-putting.*** |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 21, 2020 21:39:58 GMT
This has been my first year of taking part in InCoWriMo and I'm loving it....tho' it's going to definitely take me well into March to reply to everyone!  Apart from this forum another group I'm a member of is the League of Extraordinary Penpals which has a database of over 450+ folk all wanting to write! Their addresses and hobbies etc are all listed in a database which is fun to browse through to write random surprise letters. You get a monthly email on the 1st of the month and their FB page is good too  There's a small subscription fee (payable monthly, 3 months, 6 months or 12 monthly) but nothing that will bankrupt you  |
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Post by ginny on Feb 22, 2020 11:20:50 GMT
Just a heads up, Students of the World definitely does not require a subscription fee. It’s totally free and has been for at least the 6 years I’ve been using it. Can’t verify if it was before that though. But it’s 100% free now. 🙂 Which is good because I’m way too cheap to pay a subscription fee for something like that (and it would probably limit the number of people who participated, and this way there are loads to choose from). 🙂 Sorry for my mistake, I was really sure it required a fee. Thank you for correcting me 😊 I had a closer look at the site and see that hoyabella isn't entirely wrong about a fee at 'Students of the World'. The regular service focusing on e-mail pals is free, but there also is another section, expressly focusing on snail mail penpals (and only available for kids, students and teachers!) - and there you have to pay a subscription fee. It's run confidentially, with lists that aren't published, and a 'matchmaking service'.
However, since you can pretty much write what you want in your penpal 'ad', you can also say that you prefer snail mail. I have seen a couple of profiles where that's mentioned. The majority of people, however, seems to be looking for e-mail exchanges.
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Post by katiel on Feb 22, 2020 21:03:47 GMT
Huh. How about that. You’re right! I went back and looked at the site and you’re right, there is a paid section. In all the years I’ve used the site, I’ve never even noticed that section before. 😂 I’ve always just used the other section and wrote that I was interested in snail mail.
Although, now that I’ve seen that section, I’m not sure why anyone would use it. It seems so much more cumbersome than the regular section. And the free section seems really snailmail focused. (I’ve got more penpal requests from there than I can keep up with). It’s a mystery.
As for the students thing: I found out that they considered “students” anyone interested in learning about other countries and cultures through communication. So...I guess everyone.
I’m not sure this is the absolute best site to use or anything (it kind of sounds like it from my posts, but mostly I was just trying to clarify things), but I’ve had really good success with it. 🙂 (and also some hilarious encounters: Jeff’s favorite was a man from Ghana effusively complimenting my “smile so shiny” 😂)
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Post by ginny on Feb 22, 2020 22:31:53 GMT
Huh. How about that. You’re right! I went back and looked at the site and you’re right, there is a paid section. In all the years I’ve used the site, I’ve never even noticed that section before. 😂 I’ve always just used the other section and wrote that I was interested in snail mail. Although, now that I’ve seen that section, I’m not sure why anyone would use it. It seems so much more cumbersome than the regular section. And the free section seems really snailmail focused. (I’ve got more penpal requests from there than I can keep up with). It’s a mystery. As for the students thing: I found out that they considered “students” anyone interested in learning about other countries and cultures through communication. So...I guess everyone. I’m not sure this is the absolute best site to use or anything (it kind of sounds like it from my posts, but mostly I was just trying to clarify things), but I’ve had really good success with it. 🙂 (and also some hilarious encounters: Jeff’s favorite was a man from Ghana effusively complimenting my “smile so shiny” 😂) I agree, that snail mail option seems to be a bit cumbersome. I certainly wouldn't use it. But then I'm probably cheap, anyway - I wouldn't pay for *any* penpal service. It was different when I was a teen, we didn't have the internet back then, so in order to get addresses, we had to make more efforts and sometimes spend money. But now? Nah.
The quote about your 'smile so shiny' almost made me spill my tea all over the keyboard of my computer. That's a bit like the letter I once got from a man in the States (he was in prison, by the way - I reckon he got my address via a friendship book) who asked me what I like to do with my 'own dazzling self' during my spare time. I also loved the letter from a young man in Liberia who asked me to send him a camera so he could take a picture of himself that he'd send me then. He also mentioned his shoe size (just in case I wanted to do something extra). It might be a bit mean to laugh about that (I have been to Africa, so I've seen the poverty there and know that even sending a letter from there can make a dent into people's budget), but I couldn't help it, it just came across as funny.
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Post by emeraldscribbles on Feb 24, 2020 13:02:22 GMT
The two penpals I have had the longest (20+ years), I was matched to one through school and I was matched to one from an ad in a youth horse magazine  I've found penpals through the years from the now defunct Penpal of the Week site...I've written to a few people on here...and I've written more than once to people that originated from InCoWriMo. |
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oregonclaire
Pencils
Posts: 96
Looking for Penpals?: Yes. Global penpals welcome
Country I live in is: USA
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Post by oregonclaire on Feb 24, 2020 18:44:56 GMT
If you have any sort of interest in making things with yarn, the For The Love of Letters group on Ravelry is great. The mods organize monthly letter and postcard swaps, and it's been a great source of reliable correspondents. I started here a year ago, and still actively participate.
The groups r/penpals and r/penpalsover30 on Reddit have also yielded some fruitful correspondence. Two of my most regular correspondents have come from r/penpalsover30. r/penpals seems to attract a younger crowd (which is great if you're also younger!) and is quite busy. Generally, the better and more engaging your "seeking penpals" post is, the better response you'll get. If you just like sending out mail and don't care about getting a response, r/RandomActsofCards is for you.
Instagram is harder to sort through, but the hashtag #penpalswanted will yield accounts that post ads for people (as well as other related hashtags to search on). I also follow the account @penpalsover30 and have one regular correspondent that I found through that account.
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Post by ginny on Feb 24, 2020 19:18:59 GMT
If you have any sort of interest in making things with yarn, the For The Love of Letters group on Ravelry is great. The mods organize monthly letter and postcard swaps, and it's been a great source of reliable correspondents. I started here a year ago, and still actively participate. The groups r/penpals and r/penpalsover30 on Reddit have also yielded some fruitful correspondence. Two of my most regular correspondents have come from r/penpalsover30. r/penpals seems to attract a younger crowd (which is great if you're also younger!) and is quite busy. Generally, the better and more engaging your "seeking penpals" post is, the better response you'll get. If you just like sending out mail and don't care about getting a response, r/RandomActsofCards is for you. Instagram is harder to sort through, but the hashtag #penpalswanted will yield accounts that post ads for people (as well as other related hashtags to search on). I also follow the account @penpalsover30 and have one regular correspondent that I found through that account. Thanks for your input! I've met a few people via Instagram already - we'll see how that will work out in the long run. I'm not on Ravelry or on Reddit (so far), but might give it a try some time. I'm not a young whippersnapper anymore, so the account for folks over 30 sounds more like my kind of thing :-) |
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Post by penguy on May 13, 2020 19:04:57 GMT
I found a number of pen pals on FPN, but I didn't use The Write Stuff. If I found a post that seemed interesting I would note who posted it and if I saw other posts by the same person that seemed interesting I would send a PM asking if they wanted to correspond. Lettermo was another site that I found that was a good place to find someone to correspond with, but last year you couldn't PM and there was no way to make contact to start corresponding. I had participated in the Challenge for about 5 years. And now I am on The World of Snail Mail, the best site I have found for finding people who are interested in corresponding and letter writing in general.
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Post by Lupine on May 14, 2020 19:59:51 GMT
And now I am on The World of Snail Mail, the best site I have found for finding people who are interested in corresponding and letter writing in general. I am so glad to read this! I haven't tried any other resource for pen pals. Sometimes it's better to be lucky than smart! |
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There's a small subscription fee (payable monthly, 3 months, 6 months or 12 monthly) but nothing that will bankrupt you 
I've found penpals through the years from the now defunct Penpal of the Week site...I've written to a few people on here...and I've written more than once to people that originated from InCoWriMo.
