Slowly User Guide, new Achievement Stamps

We knew about them.

Some of us are part of the Slowly Translations project, and as a matter of fact, see the new and upcoming features showing up as new 'strings' to be translated before a new version is out.

Last month, we got a large batch of strings to translate – and they included many new Achievement stamps, which were released on November 6, 2020; along with the new Android v.6.2.5 mobile client. (The iOS version arrived later, in the same day)

We did translate all of them to Brazilian Portuguese, with help from Draculalien– best to have someone else to bounce ideas with. These are all live now in the Mobile versions, and in the Web Client as well.

22 ALL New Achievement Stamps – what are they ?

There are many kinds. I will group and explain them here, with some illustrations (all are in the snapshot above, courtesy of LessonWang)

Some of the new stamps are RETROACTIVE (i.e., you will get them if you fulfilled their trigger condition in the past), others are NOT – and require new actions to release them to your collection.

All of this is empirical, based on our exploration and chasing of as many as we could get from Friday morning to now. There's a flurry of new Topics in our subReddit for Slowlyapp, explaining and showing some of the stamps, what to do to get this or that.

Now let's try to make One Guide for All of Them... :)

Stamp Collection Size :

This comes in 3 increments.

All of those are RETROACTIVE, awarded if you have the required number now. Someone with say 320 stamps gets not only the Silver Collection stamp, but also the Bronze one. (A Gold Collector will also get the other two lower levels stamps)

** Those of us in the Stamp Collections Guild are already discussing what comes next — there are about 670 stamps in total now. My suggestion would be 'Platinum' and 'Diamond' levels above (750 and 1000 stamps maybe?) This is just fan talk... But maybe they like the idea? :P

Received Letters Totals :

Very similar to the Collectors stamps, and also Retroactive. There was a 'You've Got Mail' stamp for 100 Letters received in the past; and now we have two new ones :

Sent Letters Totals :

Very similar to the Collectors stamps, and also Retroactive. There was a 'Serious Writer' stamp for 100 Letters sent in the past; and now we have two new ones :

Twinkle-Twinkle

As in, “twinkle, twinkle, little star...”, a very pretty new stamp – you get it if you have all 12 Zodiac Sign stamps in your collection. Retroactive too, so you will get it now, or whenever you get all 12.

First Bucket of Gold

Awarded for those who achieve a 500 Coins balance in their accounts. This will apply to new or old balances, just wait and it will come to you. (it's Retroactive if you had the coins already)

And that was all of the Retroactive ones.

From here on, all of the described stamps will require a specific action or trigger to release them. (they will NOT be given if you had performed the action in the past, something like Gifting a Stamp, for example.

Footprints on {{Continent}}

This is one of the completely NEW stamp ideas. Nothing like them existed until now.

There are 6 'Footprints' stamps – one each for the continents of Africa, South America, North America, Europe, Asia and Oceania.

They are delightful designs. I was very curious to see them, and pleased as they are pretty. :)

These are Triggered when a pen pal in a given Continent sends YOU a letter. So, if a penpal in Africa writes a letter, you will get their continent's stamp.

REALLY FUN FACT — the stamp is released and you get a pop up warning instantly, as soon as they press the 'send' button. No need to wait for the delivery as usual. :)

If you are in Asia, for example, when you send a letter to any penpal they will receive your 'Footprints on Asia' stamp if it's not in their collection yet.

Those 6 are FUN and Easy to collect — just need a pen pal in each of the six continents. If you don't have one yet, go look for some good people in User Explorer!

Typing Machine

A new stamp for those of us who appreciate the power and speed of the Slowly Web Client. Smart Writers choose Web mode, which can run on laptop or desktop machines. All it needs is a web browser. :)

Very simple to get — if you have Web mode running, a simple webpage refresh will load a client update, and if you hadn't received it yet, it's INSTANTLY given. Done.

Stay Hungry

For me, a completely obscure expression, but according to Slowly Team, it's part of a Steve Jobs quote — “Stay Hungry” (and Foolish). As this is not very clear, in some of our Translations we replaced this with the better known Apple related expression “An Apple a Day... “ (...keeps the doctor away).

This idea was a suggestion from Luca, from the Italian Translation Team, and we have used it for the Portuguese translation too.

The stamp is awarded whenever you first load the Slowly iOS or iPadOS mobile versions. Not Retroactive, as mentioned.

Long Time No See

This is awarded to you when you send a letter to a friend who hasn't been in touch for 30 days or more. Very easy to get it, right?

Just look at your pen pal folder and see someone sitting there for longer than 30 days without a contact. Send them a letter, and upon sending you will instantly receive this Gorgeous new stamp.

Got a Cat, and a Black One - who can resist ? ^..^

Old Friends

This one is awarded to you when you receive a letter from someone who has been your pen pal for a year or more.

Older users? All you need is to send some of the old pals a letter. If they reply, you get it. Works like a charm. A nice design, well done Slowly team.

Newer users? Keep writing, and it will be there for you later. Someone who owns this stamp could also use it on a letter, so it can enter your collection, but it's not an 'Owned one' yet)

Beyond Borders

This is for the ones who cultivate international friendships. You get this stamp if you have made friends in 20 Countries or more.

Note that it is NOT Retroactive -– if you have made friends all over, you will still need to add a NEW friend somewhere, just to trigger and collect this nice new, Elite stamp.

Don't have that many countries yet? Work at it, and someday you will qualify, plus meet many nice people.

Generous Heart

...is for those of us who Gift a Stamp to a friend. For those of us who like stamps, it's a common thing, in appreciation of other gifts we received or just to celebrate a good relationship.

Super easy – buy a stamp (or a set) and Gift to a Friend, and voilá, you unlock this one. NOT Retroactive, those of us who already did this gifting did NOT get one. Must be a new gift.

Fashionista

For the dapper set who purchase an item in the Avatar store. NOT Retroactive, must be a new purchase. Prices start at about 40 coins, so you get your avatar a new do, plus this neat new stamp. Not bad!

And we also have 'Let's Go shopping' once again!

An old Classic, this stamp was a bonus, surprise stamp for when the Slowly Stamp and Coin Stores first opened, in mid 2018. Back then (and for a limited time only), if you bought some Slowly Coins, you would receive this stamp too.

Long a very rare stamp, since it soon was not available, and most older users from the 2018 time when it came out are gone from the Slowly rolls.

Thanks to some lobbying by active users in the stamp aficionados community (myself included), this has been reinstated. Awesome, as I had chased for it and NO SOURCES that I knew of existed anymore.

Now it's back. Buy some Slowly Coins, and this will be yours too, free of charge.

Famous Last Words

Special thank you to all the folks behind the SLOWLY app.

Letters we share, with pen pals all over the world. A modern day take in the traditional penpal experience. Come and join us, using SLOWLY.

Follow Blog via your Fediverse/Mastodon account :

@friends-near-and-afar-letters-we-share@wordsmith.social

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