All About "Repeated Countries" Option

[elikoa]

@S_Tuulia

Wouldn’t that also mean you could send to same person many times and/or the one to whom you sent, can send to you. (Now it only happens with multiple profilers.)

I don’t think that would be the case because I assume the algorithm can be set up to not make two profiles meet more than once, even if there is no repeated nor send to own country. They must be separate things. Otherwise those of us that send to repeated and to own countries, would encounter the situation you describe already now.

By the way (unrelated to the above), I turned off repeated and I have 5 cards going to 5 different places and no Germany (only expired to Germany). I feel super guilty but at the same time it is so unusual so I am enjoying the variety. I will get back to repeated soon, as I always end up doing so.

[S_Tuulia]

No, I meant if it were truly the first free address (all settings removed), then it could be myself, or someone I sent a card, or they to me.

When there are settings etc. involved, like not to send to myself, then it’s not anymore “truly” first in first out -method. Just thinking this, because often it’s presented like a super easy method to “just give the first free address” (like this hadn’t enter the founders mind ), but if I already sent to that, then there has to be skip, if I sent to the five next ones too, then there is five more skips.

If one should send to their own country (not sure if this would cause even more same country in the end and worsen the repeated problem), why would this be more important than option to not accept sending to same person again? Should there be option to tick “I can send repeatedly to same member” or “I accept giving my address to the one who I have already sent”.
Or, if we would remove options, maybe sending to same person would become obligatory too?
Because with multiple profilers this already can happen both ways.

So if you have to choose own country, maybe then also sending repeatedly to same person? If it would be the first free address, and if this is seen like a good part in solving this problem.

Like I somewhere wrote, I think it’s good, in the beginning keep “not repeated” so if one country is blocked, not all travelled are waiting to be expired. And when you have many slots, then it’s good to choose repeated.

(Sometimes I wonder if members with many sent cards are causing problems, because these are the ones who send a lot, and many of these have already sent with each others So they need a newish member address. And if no such is free, some newish one gets too much cards because of that too?)

Edit. Sorry this might be long and unclear!
I just end up thinking things, when often the “first free” is seen as easy solution, but the more you think, it isn’t. In my thoughts

[elikoa]

@S_Tuulia

So if you have to choose own country, maybe then also sending repeatedly to same person? If it would be the first free address, and if this is seen like a good part in solving this problem.

That’s an interesting idea, I never thought about it

@S_Tuulia

Sometimes I wonder if members with many sent cards are causing problems, because these are the ones who send a lot, and many of these have already sent with each others So they need a newish member address. And if no such is free, some newish one gets too much cards because of that too?)

That is also an interesting thought, it kind of relates with big country/small country and also big sender/small sender but often the biggest senders are from the bigger countries (better/cheaper postal systems etc.)

[anon91696667]

Since my account is very new and I only have 6 slots available, I have the option unchecked. I might activate it once I have more slots available, though.

[Robinchen]

I changed my settings to sending to repeated countries. I expected to get all Chinese addresses and this is why I changed my settings - to help even the imbalance now that the suspension is lifted.
However, I wrote 8 cards and only two are to China. I even got Austria and Denmark

This option sure is full of surprises

[Johnk60]

Ana has said elsewhere that the numbers have balanced so that Chinese address giving is back to normal. It’s now a matter of all those Chinese members to receive the recently sent ones.

[Robinchen]

I doubt this. I am drawing addresses again and now I get all China as expected. But this is fine

[Florallle]

Yes, I saw that too. It’s very encouraging.

[Izzy2018]

I’m all in (which is fine with me…)

[Kanerva]

I did not get all going to China either, but almost:

Now it will be interesting to see how long they will travel and how much variation there is in travel times… I was surprised to see that at the moment I have more cards travelling, than I have officially sent to China during my five years of postcrossing. So, it was about time to send some more.

[pcronn]

Anyone else with an abundance of US addresses? I’m not complaining, it’s so much cheaper to send domestic I just find it interesting.

[jaenelle]

I get quite a few USA addresses, it’s one of the biggest countries in pc so has to be given out a lot.

[Johnk60]

(Deleted by author)

[pcronn]

No I know, usually for me on repeated it’s about 50/50 Germany and US, so this was just a surprise having so few German addresses. Just an observation, I don’t mind

[Appaloosa05]

I have repeated countries checked and own country checked. When China was unavailable I was mostly getting U.S. & German addresses which was nice because they travelled quickly and of course U.S. postage is much less expensive. Now I have a number of Chinese addresses but they seem to be traveling fairly quickly so that is encouraging. I’m glad we can send to China again. I have started printing out the addresses in Chinese and attaching those to the cards and it definitely seems to make a difference in the speed of delivery.

[Robinchen]

I started writing official postcards again a few days ago. Last time I wrote offical postcards was in May when there were still many cards going out to China.

So now I did not know what to expect and must say I was rather surprised by the countries I got (of course with repeated countries on).

I wrote 62 cards in the past week.
Of these
35 cards to to USA
8 cards go to Germany
5 cards to to Russia
3 cards to to Belarus
1 card goes to each:
Belgium
HongKong
Finland
New Zealand
Canada
Czechia
UK
Kazakhstan
Netherlands
Thailand
Spain

I will write more cards tomorrow. Since this will be a crazy day I am looking forward to see what I will get then

[Jarana]

In 2023 I got 15 countries with 129 cards (a few to USA und Russia are still traveling) in repeated countries mode. I think it was a good mix, lots to USA und Germany, but those are often reliable and I expected most cards going there.

For 2024 I switched off repeated countries as sort of an experiment. I wonder if I will get more different countries. But so far, I haven’t requested addresses, real life was busy enough.