Hello! My friend was interested in joining Postcrossing but is wary to use a “real name.” They wondered about creating a profile from the perspective of their pet. I’m sure this has been answered before but I couldn’t find it -
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I’ve gotten two profiles that were written from their pet cats perspective
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maybe i shouldn’t “out” my self like this, although my about page/profile is my own. My name is not Harley & my dog loves to receive mail (but she is awful at paying bills) if your friend would like to create a profile for her pet i think its a great idea & i will be on the look out for cans or tuna and steak postcards (or ferret treats or bird toys or…)
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Sure, why not? I got a family who has a small pine tree in their garden and thats their profile focus. I sent a forest postcard and wrote about the flowering tree I planted in my back yard to honor my dog who passed away.
(But I’m sure they endure complaints from members who grumble about anything that is even slightly different)
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I don’t know if it is in the FAQs or the community guidelines, but members do it.
I have had a couple non-human card recipients.
I sent a cartoon dog card to a dog, but sadly they did not favorite it. Maybe they did not understand the message I wrote in dog language, such as bark, bark and woof woof woof, which are American English dog sounds 
and perhaps their dog only speaks dog in their own language?
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I’ve seen profiles created by animals.
And profiles statings, they would only write to humans …
And loads of tags for people loving animals.
Even one tag with writing letters from the perspective of the animal:
https://community.postcrossing.com/t/who-will-write-to-my-pet-tag/327019
Wauwau! (German dog speaking)
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I’ve read that you can even create a new account for your doorknob. So why not! 
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I’ve seen profiles created by animals, trees, aliens and ghosts…
There is even a profile of a coffee-machine
Personally I don’t like such profiles …but I guess the people who create them consider themselves very smart and creative
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I’ve heard about such profiles, but so far I haven’t gotten one like that. I would love to though, I think it’s a cool idea!
So I think your friend should definitely do it, the more the better 
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I guess they know this beforehand and understand it well and are good with that. At least they definitely should, and maybe rather apologise if someone was disappointed to their profile.
After all, Postcrossing is:
“The goal of the Postcrossing project is to enable anyone to exchange postcards with random people around the world. That’s using real mail, not email!”
So, people. Not doorknobs, plants.
Personally I don’t like this style plant etc profile, when/if they say it’s fun, humorous, creative etc. and just decide others (who joined here to exchange postcards with people) are not understanding them or are boring. When isn’t it them who didn’t understand what they joined 
I’m happy it’s not many this style.
And often it’s just another profile of a multi profiler.
I prefer these non human profiles would arrange swaps with others who like it in this forum.
This style of profile goes to maybe also picky, demanding, if they demand certain attitude or humour from others.
Sometimes it’s fun, but for me it’s like going to a meeting and suddenly the other one wants us to present our ideas as we were frogs. It’s not what I signed up for, so of course some are annoyed, some happen to be in a frog mood etc.
Edit. and not to mention members who don’t understand English well
I got one profile where it took me a while to understand it was this type of “humorous” profile.
So, like a point from a laundry machine but not clearly telling it. A new, not good in English member maybe is too confused with such.
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This sums it up for me. While I recognize that some people are sincerely attached to their pets and treat them as family members, and that there are many humans who prefer other species over their own, this just does not work for me. I don’t feel that it is in the spirit of the project, whose overarching goal is to facilitate connections between people. Maybe your definition of people differs, but for me, that is human beings, not dog, cats, cockatiels or door knobs.
The wariness about using the “real name” I get. The handle on the site can be anything one chooses, and the address can be to a post office box. In the U.S. you have to rent a post office box using your real name, and you can designate the names of all persons who will receive mail at the P.O. box - here’s the blurb on the application form from the USPS web site:
"List all the people, including members of a business, who will be receiving mail at this PO Box. All names listed must have verifiable ID upon request.*
*A parent or guardian may receive the mail of minors by listing their names (no ID is required)."
I’m pretty sure if I rented a PO box using my real name, and then sent mail to it using only my first name, it would be delivered. That is probably about as protected as you can get. The government views mail as a legal communications instrument, and thus has some requirements with regard to ID and delivery. The possibility exists that I could cheat the system and add my pet’s name, using my surname after it and misrepresent that to the USPS as my child thus no ID for the pet required. But why compromise your integrity to go there?
In the end , the more I think about this the less I understand the question. I don’t think I understand what the driving reason behind doing this would be (i.e what I would get out of it if I were to do it myself). I also feel like it is outside the expectations of most users of the service. I joined postcrossing to connect with other humans, not with cats or hamsters or hedgehogs. If I received a card from an account that presented itself as one of those, I’d be confused and disappointed.
Alas, there is more that I don’t understand than I do; that is the human condition I suppose.
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You do realize that actual humans created the account (not an inanimate doorknob or a family pet) and will read the cards as well as send out cards on that account. So you are still connecting to humans by sending a card, even if they are using an alias
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What bothers me about this is the reason you give for this… What kind of world are we living in where people are scared to make even the most basic information about themselves available to the public? Even to a tiny restricted mini-public like the Postcrossing community???
And, of course, if you’d rather not let anybody know anything about you,this also raises the question WHY exactly you’d want to do Postcrossing?!
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I think alias means using a different than given name, not pretending to be a laundry machine (for example), and expect others to firstly understand it and secondly play along. (And then, if I don’t, have me as a person evaluated.)
(For example I can have my username as my alias, but I’m still me. Edit. or better example having an online name, like in another forum the moderator gave it to me, and I’m that name there, but it’s still me and we share our normal lives. So for me alias: perfect, play pretend: this is not the place for that when there is this forum too)
Someone telling me I should pretend they are a laundry machine is like a school task. I’m not here to be told what to do other than what I agreed to.
But it has happened I was in a cat mood 
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Maybe not scared, but aware, small things connected make a lot.
I think it’s wise.
But, the profile can be empty too, or you can write things about you that are not too personal, like not your work place, not your family member names with age etc. I feel I have very generic information, but it still tells something about me.
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There is a difference between an alias and a persona in my mind. An alias is another name for the same thing. My handle here is an alias, it is not my real name. But the entity you interact with using that alias is the same persona. I do not present myself as something that I am not. This, of course, gets to a core dilemma of the internet age, but that is an issue for another forum.
I do recognize as well that you have no easy way to ascertain whether I represent myself with integrity here or not, short of encountering me at a meetup.
It seems like the proposal here would have me participate in someone else’s fantasy of being a cat or a komodo dragon, or a tarantula or whatever pet they want to represent. I’m not really interested in doing that. I suspect there are other places on the internet that are dedicated to that sort of activity, why not go there where that activity is the expected interaction?
I just find this concept incomprehensible; I do not understand the motivation for it. But hey, that’s me. There is a heck of a lot more i don’t understand about the universe than I do!
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I think most people want to participate in Postcrossing because they enjoy sending and receiving postcards. A few may have more complex reasons, but otherwise it’s pretty basic
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I would find that really awkward, probably a neutral message neither person nor pet focused, hoping they register the card and move on.
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