A guide for new correspondents
How It Works
Free to read, free to place, free to receive. Words first; photographs only when both correspondents agree.
Proposed This page describes the service as planned. Nothing here is available yet.
For people placing a notice
- Join (adults only). Members would confirm they are 18 or older and pass an identity check before placing a notice or sending a letter.
- Write a free notice. Up to 60 words in your own voice, with a category, your city and state — or the nearest larger city, for privacy — your age and what you are seeking.
- Get a Box Number. An anonymous number is assigned at random. It is never based on your name or e-mail.
- Verification and moderation. You confirm your e-mail, and a moderator reviews the notice. Phone numbers, e-mail and street addresses, links, social handles and money requests are not allowed and are screened out automatically.
- Published. Your notice appears in the online personals and the monthly edition.
- Letters arrive by mail. Readers write to your Box Number; each letter is printed and mailed to the private address you gave the Gazette. Receiving letters is free.
For people writing a letter
- Browse. Read the personals free, by category and state.
- Write. Choose a Box Number and compose a one-page letter (about 400–450 words) in the website's letter desk.
- Safety check. The letter is screened for contact details and money requests before anything is printed.
- Pay or use a credit. A single letter is proposed at $3.99, or use one of five letters in a proposed $19.99 monthly membership. See Rates.
- Printed and mailed. A print-and-mail provider prints, envelopes and posts it. You never see the recipient's address.
- Replies and the reveal. Replies travel back through the Gazette. Photographs, contact details or a video call are exchanged only if and when both people agree.
Why real paper?
A letter takes time to write and time to arrive. That time is the point: it slows the conversation to the speed of thought. Read more in Slow Dating.
Why no photographs?
Photographs invite snap judgments; words invite curiosity. Keeping pictures out until both people agree gives shy, older and thoughtful people a fair hearing.
Who reads my letter?
Staff are not meant to read private letters routinely, but software and the print provider must process the text to print it, and limited review may occur when safety is at stake. Exact details will be published before launch.