Would it also feel weird if youhad to send to the Åland Islands, wich belong to Finland, but are an autonomous region of FI and count as own country in Postcrossing?
I think that many military people say they are living at the country they are stationed it.
I used to live close to a Nato Airbase and made friends with spouses of Air Force employees. They always said I live here or when I lived there… my friends all lived off base and loved to experience life in whatever country they were in at the time.
I see it that way: if the person is physically in italy they are in italy. No matter of the address of their po box
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What do you mean?
Yes it would feel weird in that sense, that it is part of Finland, just another region. (Also Sami has autonomy. Still it’s not treated as it’s own country that it is.)
But also no, I knew it, and accept it.
I can get an address to any Finn that residents in an area not “FI”, which I also accept.
(Did I answer you?)
But I’m thinking, does the op think the member might “hide” their true residence, and therefore is not comfortable getting this address? Maybe they even know this person?
I would send the card and not sign, if that would make me feel better.
But I’m sure the postcrossing team will answer too, when they have time.
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This is only a theory, but I think it goes by where the member is physically residing because otherwise the system would let APO addresses exchange with people in the country where the base is located, even if they had chosen not to send to own country. Basically, if the member who’s address you drew was considered “in USA” they could be given the address of an Italian member living right next door, who for safety reasons had chosen not to exchange cards within Italy.
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The turning off your own country option was never designed or meant as a “safety feature.” Where on earth did this idea come from? It’s honestly quickly becoming a pet peeve.
As with the feature to turn on/off multiple postcards traveling to the same country, the sole purpose of the feature is to satisfy Postcrossers with a preference for international postcards.
Seriously, specially in Europe, there are literal next door neighbors who live in different countries. If you’re truly worried about safety, get a post office box.
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Maybe from there that sometimes it’s suggested members should be forced to send to their own country too, and the reply has been, it won’t happen and safety and privacy been one of the reasons. Sadly of course we can’t prevent everything, to keep it safe, but it’s at least something.
Well seriously, this is becoming my pet peeve.
Not all countries have PO boxes.
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This is off topic, but how cool it is! Are there many dogs in service? What does a military vet do?
Actually yes, it was. On Postcrossing, you cannot block any countries yourself, you send to the address assigned to you. The only country you can effectively block is your own, mainly because of those safety/privacy reasons and people not wanting other people from their country knowing their address.
Like @xxxyyy said, getting a P.O. Box is not an option for everybody - not everywhere are they available and not everyone is willing/has the spare cash to pay for one.
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The Forum Guidelines says:
“No discrimination of any kind is allowed — everyone who follows the rules of the game should be allowed to participate. Forum games may be based upon exchanging postcards or other items from specific countries or regions, or maintaining a diversity of participants, but they may not exclude participants or countries in a biased manner. The only exception to this is that you may exclude your own country/territory (as defined by the 2-letter ISO code) to protect your privacy. If you see any discrimination, you should report it to the moderators.”
The same applies on the main site.
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In so far this function discriminates people living on a border, for they cannot protect themselves effectively in the same way.
I agree. Still current situation is better than forced to send and receive from own country. Someone suggested it would be “not send within 100 kms from my address” but at least here this is nothing and 100 kms is “close”.
In this case the APO is far enough, and I think I would feel safe to write who ever it was. Even lunatic ex partner. They can’t know who the sender is. If the sender’s profile is too revealing, maybe edit and leave some parts out.
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When I was in Peace Corps I was stationed in Zaire Africa and I had an APO address because I was living in the “bush”, a very small village about 1000 miles from anywhere 
. All of our mail went to the main Peace Corps office and it was delivered by US staff or neighboring PC Volunteers when it could be. Perhaps that it what it is happening. I don’t see harm in sending the post card, brighten someone’s day they are probably in a very isolated area.
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Privacy and safety are two different things. I know this as a native English speaker, but I’m willing to bet both the dictionary and thesaurus will back me up on this.
One could wonder what about participating in Postcrossing is so scandalous that it would merit a desire for privacy, but that’s neither here nor there. I never mentioned privacy, I mentioned safety.
To me, privacy and safety often go hand in hand. Real life is not about what a thesaurus says.
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I think this is a very interesting topic, as for example I’m in Italy, if I get that same address I’d need to pay double, sending to the US but actually for someone who is in my same country?
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Yup!
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Maybe the card / letter will be sent first to USA then they’ll send it to the APO address. If it’s true, what a waste of time
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Army Post Office, usually used by Army and Air Force/joint bases.
Hey! So I was actually a dental assistant and prophylaxis technician in the Air Force. I used the abbreviation “vet” for veteran. I recently got out of the military!
As for your question though, I believe the Army is the only branch in the US that has an actual veterinary job! They will typically see military family pets for wellness checks and immunizations, sometimes for emergency care if they offer it. They also see military working dogs! It totally depends on the size of the base and the bases population, that will determine how many working dogs they’ll have. At my last base in California they had 3 or 4 working dogs and they often did training shows during base events to show off the canine’s skills. It’s pretty cool! On some occasions, the dental clinic for normal human patients would get an opportunity to work with the base vet to clean a working dogs teeth! I never got to do it, but its very cool.
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I often receive postcards from people who are living in a country and are not citizens, such as Chinese students living in the UK or UK students living in France. I am happy to receive a postcard from another country even if they are not citizens of that country.
Another situation that some might find annoying is when someone from Germany sends me a postcard that they picked up on their USA vacation.
These unusual situations do not bother me at all.
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