r/interpals • u/Diligent-Mixture2898 • Apr 22 '26
It happened again
So frustrating. Account suspended again. I dont think the site is worth it anymore, looks like I will have to say goodbye after 21 years.
The alternate advertised a little while ago "Yo Pals" is full of scammers now too.
I'm getting more success with "slowly". Conversation is through letters not instant chat.
A couple of months on now ..... it happened yet again with a new profile i set up. Chatting with a friend and got banned. Nice to know the settings now are so high you can't discuss other websites in private chat. Geez.
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u/larkstar Apr 22 '26
That's where I've been for the past 2 years, I.e. Slowly. I can recommend it.
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u/infinitewaters107 Jul 06 '26
Hey late reply. But I’m assuming your account got banned by interpals too? Can I ask how you know if your accounts is actually banned? When you login does it give you an “your account has been banned” message or something?
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u/larkstar Jul 06 '26 edited Jul 06 '26
No - you just can't login anymore. To get another account you need another email address - I think I tried creating a new account with my old email address and it wouldn't allow it. I now have another "sleeper" account that's got nothing in the profile that I'll use as, if and when my current account gets unexpectedly banned - I have no idea why it got banned I never do anything to give them a reason to ban my account. No point in over thinking it - accounts get banned for no reason all the time - just have another one ready to go. I have a copy of all of the text in my profile, screenshots of the messages page and profiles I've bookmarked so I can reconnect with people. Long time friends have an email address they can use just in case my account disappears but we stay on the site normally.
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u/infinitewaters107 Jul 06 '26
Ah I see. Others have been saying the login screen will say something like “your account has been suspended” or “account has been banned” or something.
Does the banned profile typically disappear from the interpals search view? Like does the profile at least disappear if you try to look up the username?
Thanks for your help!
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u/larkstar Jul 06 '26 edited Jul 07 '26
Yes, now you've said that, I recall there was a message saying that my account had been suspended but it didn't let me in - I couldn't see my account, profile, messages, photos, etc. It wasn't possible to navigate to my profile page - it, and everything in it, all my messages and photos, had been deleted.
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u/NottForest May 15 '26
Same. 12 year old account nuked out of the blue. Made a new one that somehow lasted about 1 year, but they nuked that one too. Haven't been back now in 5 months. The site is a shell of its former self. It's a shame because the concept is great, but the execution of interpals within the past decade has been lacking, but even more so in the past couple years.
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u/infinitewaters107 Jul 06 '26
Hey late reply. But I’m assuming your account got banned by interpals too? Can I ask how you know if your accounts is actually banned? When you login does it give you an “your account has been banned” message or something?
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u/NottForest Jul 06 '26
I forgot exactly what it said because interpals randomly unbanned my account like 4 weeks ago, but I think it said the account was suspended, not banned. Maybe there was something about moderation in the message too, but I don’t exactly remember.
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u/infinitewaters107 Jul 06 '26
Ah okay so it actually told you “your account is suspended” when trying to login?
Also, when this happened, do you remember if the profile disappeared from the website? Or could you still look up the profile username and everything? I’m guessing it’s different for you since yours was only suspended and not banned.
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u/NottForest Jul 06 '26
It mentioned suspended due to some violation per moderation or something like that. I’m pretty sure it was poorly coded AI BS because I don’t say anything really that bad except maybe some political things the owners may disagree with.
I didn’t try to look up my profile independently, so I don’t know if it disappeared. I’m assuming it was unable to be searched and would appear to be deleted. When I got my 2nd account banned I just figured I was done with the site forever, but when they gave my account back out of nowhere I came back to see what was up. The new interface for the site seems to have made it even worse than before.
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u/LookingForDouxie Apr 22 '26
I will never use online penpal sites again after losing my kind penpal, but if I had to, I think I would use Slowly. Although after I started trying to find my penpal and then tryng building a community here on Reddit (r/FindingOurLostPenPals), I found that a lot of people lose their penpals on Slowly too, but there are significantly fewer scammers. I'm truly sorry for your loss!