There has been discussion, between many Finnish postcrossers in a group, that what is the best time to take addresses and send cards. Best time meaning that you are more likely to get new countries or more variety.
(I know for many people it doesn’t matter, you just send cards, but for me personally as someone who likes different cultures and geography I’m always more than excited to receive new countries!)
So what I’m asking is have you noticed a difference in the variety depending on how many addrresses you take and what time of the day?
I personally have mixed experiences. Maybe it has nothing to do with the algorithm or anything but that’s why I’m asking, if you have realised something. It would be really interesting to know!
I actually do have a specific time of day that I request addresses! Although it’s not for variety purposes, since I tend to only request one at a time.
I like to request them in the evening, as writing a postcard is usually a winding-down activity and I don’t normally go for a walk to the post box immediately afterwards. It works perfectly because usually the system marks cards as sent the following day, which means that I don’t have to worry about not getting them mailed immediately
I have some kind of “routine” too! I often take them in the afternoon, before 16 because my post office mails them at 17 so I usually want to get them sent the same day! But not always.
Now it’s 3.30 (am) and I took two addresses, the other went to a country I have sent just one in May 2020! Maybe just good luck… But the last 8 addresses are only to Germany and Russia and I took them in the afternoon. Maybe we’ll get more comments on people’s experiences. I think this topic is interesting.
I enjoy mailing to European countries. Totally unscientific…but I noted that if I request addresses in the late morning here in metro New Jersey/ New York, I will get more European addresses. Of course, because of the sheer weight in numbers, you will draw Chinese addresses no matter when you pull an address.
I often request addresses in the morning and early afternoon (CEST,CET) and I mostly tend to get addresses from Europe and large postcrossing countries in other continents.
Generally, if I request all my addresses at once, I get a few German addresses, at least 2 USA ones, 2 or 3 from Russia (usually the European side of Russia), 1 from China, and the rest other European countries with the occasional Asian country, or a different country from the Americas sprinkled in.
I usually request addresses at night or in the evening the day before I will send the cards. With limited postal service (can only send to Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, USA, Thailand, Malaysia & Singapore) the system mostly give me addresses to Japan.
I don’t know if it’s really random or there’s certain alogaritm system about it, but I assume you will get more address to a country that has many active members and perhaps the country where your cards arrive the fastest. But this is just my thoughts lol
As I don’t want my recipients to wait too long for my card and the mailbox is emptied at 7 a.m., I always request an address around 5:30 a.m. (except on Sundays, as the mailbox is not emptied :))
I didn’t notice anything extraordinary about the countries I got, I thought it was absolutely random, since for example I had to send a card to a Taiwanese woman a few days ago while her last card had been received a week before (I don’t know if I’m clear).
On the other hand, in 28 cards sent so far, I have not sent anything to China, which I find surprising… Also, I sent 25 postcards before sending my first postcard to Taiwan…
I’ll try to request another schedule and I’ll let you know
I’m in the central US…If I draw official addresses on weekday mornings I usually get a member in Europe. If I do it on weekends I receive more Asian addresses
I usually get addresses on weekend afternoons, sometimes I used to do it on weekday evenings but haven’t done so in a long time.
When I was in Europe, I very rarely got addresses in Asia… Unless I got addresses in the European morning. It was so rare that I can’t tell if it really mattered or it was a coincidence, but I got more Asia in the morning.
Right now I don’t see a pattern. At some point I used to get USA a lot but it was the middle of the night for them…
Maybe we’ll get more comments on people’s experiences. I think this topic is interesting.
