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.
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
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?!
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.
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.
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!
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
Agree. You can tell things about yourself without revealing anything too personal. That’s why I don’t understand why some are afraid to tell about themselves. How can it be too personal to talk about your interests on a general level?! You don’t even have to reveal your age or profession or family. It’s hard to feel a connection with a person and write them a postcard if the person doesn’t want to tell anything about themselves. Or maybe these people just don’t care and Postcrossing is not important to them at all. I just write about the weather and that’s all.
About the subject. I have sent a card to pets a few times. Such profiles are not my favorites but not the worst either. I think they’re a bit boring and unimaginative, but I bet the people behind them think they’re fun and interesting. I often just write the way I would write to people. I prefer to write to people.
I think there is definitely room for this type of profile on Postcrossing. I sent to a dog once and somewhere on the forum someone had linked the profile of a little potted tree. I seem to remember it really hoped for postcards of trees in the forest. That made me laugh.
I think it’s all in good fun. There are some really creative Postcrossers and I bet some really imaginative responses come to those types of profiles.
I’m happy to write to whoever or whatever the profile presents as, but I think it’s easily solved, if you don’t like this type of thing, to simply write to the " parent or guardian" of pet/ tree/ dish sponge and write as you normally would.
For me a big part of Postcrossing is the surprising delights and tiny joys you stumble across. I also really enjoy seeing how other Postcrossers utilize the site and how many interesting/creative ideas I run across.
I personally wouldn’t want to set up my profile as my pet, but if your friend wants to, go for it!
I think it’s okay to use Postcrossing in the most comfortable way for the user, as long as it’s not harmful. I consider sending to such an account as sending to another person’s account. There is a human behind that after all. Sometimes playing along is fun, too.
The first address I pulled was Gordon the cat, and that was an interesting first impression of using Postcrossing for the first time. I sent a tiger postcard and wrote a message as if I were the tiger, like “Rawr! Hello from a fellow cat in the Sumatran jungle”. And I got a funny reply in the Hurray Message. He wrote something like “I’m sending the dogs to face your teeth”.
I pulled the address for a dog and had a lot of fun picking out a card and writing from the perspective of my two cats. I think as long as the user is not demanding certain types of cards it is just fine to write a profile from a pet’s perspective.
Your friend could also use first name and last initial instead of full name. Or first and middle name. Although I’ve been doing Postcrossing since 2011 and I’ve never had an issue, I can understand the hesitation to give out one’s address.
I’ve received at least two pet profiles to send to, and it was fun. I think of it as an opportunity for some creative writing. People ask for all kinds of things on their profiles. Poems, doodles, the weather, favourite music, recipes etc. Lots of these things are of no interest to me whatsoever, but I do what I can to accommodate, or just write my own message if I can’t.
For me demanding certain type of role play is as “bad” as demanding certain type of card.
It’s like very picky postcrosser who only likes one type of card, and expects the sender maybe go shopping, because they think shopping is fun
Especially when they hint the person not taking part isn’t creative or doesn’t have sense of humour etc.
But, luckily not all “animals” are like this, and have the human part in profile too
And yes, members ask for date, weather, but that’s only part of the card. Some non human profiles tell/demand how to write the whole card, that’s wrong.
All of us have received at least one card that just says “Happy Postcrossing”. So if some members put very little effort in sending a card to humans, then yes I suppose they will put little effort into sending a card to a pet, a school class, a library, or anything else that has an account. Fortunately most members send a nice card with a pleasant message to every account that they draw.
Well isn’t that only fair to treat everyone the same? (I mean do you think should pet account get an extra attention and “better” message than a human?)
Just like human writing only “Happy postcrossing” there are “pets” doing that too
I once met a profile that belonged to the (3!) dogs of the house and they wanted to receive cards of other dogs and perhaps 2-3 other specific animals and a specific type of card.
That was it.
In the end of the profile they mentioned also accepting all types of animals
The actual humans were mentioned as mum and dad.
Perhaps I’m too old-fashioned but I failed to see the humour in the profile.
Apart from the narrowness of the card wishlist, what I found being a bit annoying was the fact that the name of the address was the name of the 3 dogs and not of the human beings.
In the end I did send them a card of an animal but reluctantly. I was a bit bummed.
However, I just couldn’t find myself addressing the card to the animals so I wrote a “Dear friends” instead.
I understand that I’m being too strict and that my opinion is probably unpopular. Sorry.
In the end everyone does as they feel like.
It’s not old-fashioned, but rather that people are different.
For me, humour doesn’t work in the way that someone tells me “this is fun/humour and you must now like this, laugh or be amused”. And if it’s demanding too, I guess it’s more likely members don’t find it fun/funny at all.
I wonder if these “pets” follow the wishes of other profiles each time. Or do they just play being the dog and not understanding/hearing cutely looking to opposite upper corner
But I think and hope they understand not everyone is up to such things they tell in their profile.
I sent a tiger postcard and wrote a message as if I were the tiger, like “Rawr! Hello from a fellow cat in the Sumatran jungle”. And I got a funny reply in the Hurray Message. He wrote something like “I’m sending the dogs to face your teeth”. 
