Read, like, comment on and report public letters
Find letters in the public gallery by search or topic, like them, leave a comment, report a letter or a comment that breaks the rules and follow new letters by RSS.
5 minutes to read
The public gallery is open to everyone. You need no account to read. To like, comment or report you sign in, and any plan will do.
Find letters in the gallery
- Recent and Popular
- Recent shows the newest letters first. Popular sorts by likes, then by views.
- Search
- Type a word and press Search. The field says what is searched: Search titles, first lines and names. The rest of the text is not searched, and a search covers the newest 500 letters.
- Topics
- The row Topics lists the most used tags. Choose one to see only the letters with that tag, or All to see every letter. The tags on a letter are links to the same lists.
- Clear filters
- Removes the search word and the topic in one go.
A card shows who the letter is from, its title and opening lines, up to 3 tags, and its numbers of views, likes and comments. A page holds 12 letters.
The first card can be a sealed letter marked Next Letter. It says when the next approved letter appears, and nothing else about it.
Read a letter
Open a card to read the whole letter. Above the text stands the name the writer chose, or Anonymous. Under the text you find Written and Views and, for a letter that has been delivered, Delivered and Time in the post.
- A public letter has no attachments, and pictures inside the text are not shown.
- Links in a letter were put there by its writer, not by FuturePostman. They open in a new tab.
- Opening a letter counts as a view. Repeated openings from the same network address within a few minutes are not all counted.
Like a letter
Press Like under the letter. The button changes to Liked and the number goes up by one. Press it again to take your like back. If you are not signed in, you are taken to sign-in first and come back to the letter afterwards.
- You can like a letter once. Your like is remembered: when you come back to the letter, the button still reads Liked.
- Only the number is public. Nobody sees who liked a letter.
- Likes and likes you take back are counted together: 60 within 1 hour.
Comment on a letter
Write in the field Your comment under the letter and press Post comment. A comment has 2 to 2,000 characters: the button stays grey below that, and the field takes no more. A comment appears at once. Comments are not reviewed before they are shown.
How commenters are shown
Comments carry no names. A comment by the person who wrote the letter is marked Letter writer, every other comment is marked Reader, and each shows its date and time. Your account name and your email address are not shown to anyone.
- A comment cannot be edited after it is posted.
- The page shows the newest 100 comments of a letter, the newest first.
- You can post 5 comments within 5 minutes.
Delete a comment
Press the bin next to the comment, then Delete. The comment is removed for everyone and cannot be brought back.
- You can delete your own comments.
- Under a letter you wrote, you can delete any comment.
- Staff can delete any comment.
Report a comment
A comment you cannot delete yourself has a flag next to it, Report comment. Press it, say what is wrong in Report this comment if you want, and press Send report. A moderator looks at the comment and can remove it. The letter itself is not touched.
You can report 10 comments within 24 hours.
Report a letter
Report a letter that breaks the rules described in what is not accepted.
Press Report
The Report button is under the letter, next to Like. You have to be signed in.
Say what is wrong
In Report this letter, describe the problem under Reason (optional), in up to 500 characters. You can leave it empty, but a reason helps the moderator.
Send it
Press Send report. The page confirms with Report sent.
- A moderator looks at the letter and either keeps it in the gallery or takes it out. You are not told the outcome.
- The writer of the letter is not shown who reported it. The report is stored for staff, with your account and your network address.
- You can report 3 letters within 24 hours.
Follow new letters by RSS
The link RSS feed above the letters leads to the feed of the gallery. It holds the newest 30 public letters: title, opening lines, date and a link to each letter. Add its address to a feed reader to see new letters there. The feed exists in every language of the site, and it can be up to 5 minutes behind the gallery. More about the feed is in API and RSS feed.
What can go wrong
| Message | What it means and what to do |
|---|---|
| That was a lot in a short time. Please wait a while and try again. | You reached the limit for likes, comments or reports. Wait until the time named above has passed. |
| This letter is no longer public. | The writer or a moderator took the letter out of the gallery while you had it open. |
| This comment is no longer there. | The comment you wanted to report was deleted in the meantime. |
| You are not allowed to do that. | The account is blocked, or the comment is not yours to delete. Contact support if you think this is a mistake. |
| The report could not be sent | Shown above one of the other messages of this table, which says why. |
| The comments could not be loaded. | Press Try again. |
| Something went wrong. Please try again. | The action did not reach the server. Reload the page and repeat it. |
- Public lettersOpen the gallery.
- Share a letter in the public galleryPublish an email letter for anyone to read, signed with a name you choose or anonymously, and manage it afterwards on My public letters.
- How public letters are reviewedA moderator reads every letter before it appears in the public gallery. How you learn the decision, what is not accepted and which changes are reviewed again.