Would you reply to this DM?

Platform norms. Length bands, link penalties, and pitch tolerance are tuned per platform from Orbit’s own cold-DM campaign data and each platform’s published messaging rules. Reddit is the strictest (a link or pitch in message one routinely gets reported); Instagram suppresses link DMs from non-connections outright; LinkedIn tolerates business context but punishes sequence-blast patterns; X rewards brevity.

The you-to-I ratio. The scorer counts recipient-focused words (you, your) against sender-focused ones (I, we, our). Openers that skew self-focused underperform consistently; it is the most reliable single heuristic we track.

Specificity detection. References to something the recipient actually did (“your post”, “you mentioned”, “congrats”) are the strongest positive signal. The check is keyword-based, so a specific message phrased unusually can score lower than it deserves - read the findings, not just the number.

Scoring. Start at 100; red findings cost 16, amber 7. Bands: 85+ would probably get read, 60-84 needs a pass, below 60 reads as a blast. Calibrated to be tough - most real cold DMs score under 60.

What it cannot see. Whether the person is the right target, your account’s age and karma/connection footprint, timing, and follow-up behavior. Copy is necessary, not sufficient.

Norms last reviewed 2026-07-03.