Friends Near and Afar, Letters we Share and Cherish.
Creating the perfect “About Me” (or 'bio') for your Slowly profile is really important. My friend and penpal -little-ghost had lots of good ideas and wrote some excellent topics on our sub-Reddit for the SLOWLYapp.
While sadly their account at Reddit has been deleted, various important user tips posts they made have been preserved – and I thought they deserved to appear in a Blog format. So, here is the first one.
A new series of National Flag stamps, these started appearing in January, 2021. Slowly Team had not disclosed any information about them – and we were surprised to find some new 'empty slots' in our stamp collection albums. While we did not know the rationale at first, from observing the first issues it appears they are planning to release a MAJOR new series - one new stamp per Nation, that is currently 129 total.
Or so they seem.
Every once in a while we have a comment or discussion pop up in one of the topics. Someone intrigued by how come a given user is capable of collecting foreign location stamps, etc.
There are Ways of 'Spoofing' one's real location, and anyone seriously interested in this could search for more info, learn and experiment, and soon enough be on their way.
In the community of Slowly app Stamp Collectors, specially for the people with the larger, almost complete collections, this is a good topic of discussion.
And opinions DO vary – a quick search of relevant topics in our subReddit finds arguments both For and Against the existence of that particular stamp.
So, what is the big question? If this stamp, which nobody I know of has in their possession, even as a stamp received in a letter. Does this HB2017 really exist?
Or is it an Urban Legend ?
Yesterday I received a direct message on Reddit from a fellow user, with mention of a topic he created. His topic is very well written, explained and provides numerous links to additional information.
The theme of the post is the Privacy of our communications with our pen pal friends in the Slowly app. I responded with various comments, and immediately asked if he, /u/CrazyLizard on Reddit, would be interested in being published here, as a Guest Author post in this Blog.
CL agreed, and we collaborated to bring it here, hopefully reaching a larger audience as well. The full article follows. Thank you, CL!
I have always liked Typography – the study and use of different styles of fonts for projects, ranging from a flyer to a newspaper or magazine page, to a full blown book.
There are many beautiful fonts, and today we have easy access to them – many can be acquired and installed in our own computers without cost.
Recently I have started on a Web Development course online, and this opened up many new and interesting paths. Like looking under the hood and seeing how a website is built, how they achieve any particular effect or feature.
Nice! Found a way to create a direct shortcut to the Android Advertising ID controls, right on the mobile device's work area.
Now, one touch press opens it... instead of having to find the icon, then load it, go through various levels in settings to reach the 'Advertising ID' control. (normally located at Settings — Google – Ads – Reset Advertising ID)
I have posted in our Slowlyapp subReddit in the past, various topics about the occasional discounts offered by Slowly app team.
Sometimes it's for coin purchases (which later can acquire the pretty stamps for use inside the app). And at other times, it's an attempt to gain more users for their paid service level, created last year, and called 'Slowly PLUS!'.
Power tools for Power Users – a better text editor for your Slowly letters? Adding Word Count and other functions, full screen and No Distraction modes? Plus spell checking, emoji support, and free of cost. Maybe a better alternative to the limited editor in the Slowly Web client?
Our reliable, ever watchful friend LessonWang brought the news as usual — a new Slowly stamp set had been released. Somewhere in the World, usually going unannounced by the Slowly Team (which is a pity, in fact).
But thanks to LW, we slowly stamp fans get the news soon, and can start plotting ways to get these new stamps.