At the top of my postcards, I always write WHERE I’m writing from and WHEN I’m writing. This is just how I was taught to start letters. I’m not surprised most people don’t do it anymore, because nowadays people start out with e-mails or texts, which include the date automatically…
Also I usually include a weather icon and the temperature. Always done this in order not to waste precious writing space for talking about the weather
I’ve noticed that many postcrossers actually ASK for this information in their profiles, adding a sentence like: “I would love it if you would mention the date and temperature/weather type on your card.”
So how come this doesn’t seem to catch on among postcrossers?
As someone who started this hobby from penpal, writing name of the place, the date and sometime weather has been a norm for me and I do it on every card I sent
Maybe for some they don’t start this hobby from writing letters? So they don’t see it as an important thing
Or maybe they just forget . Space on postcard isn’t much and some people who have big writing may want more space for their message
I write the date now but I usually only write the weather if a profile asks for it. I mail cards within a day or two of writing and get the cards hand cancelled which shows the date and city, state. When writing letters I was taught to put date and return address in top corner but on a postcard space is limited so I leave off the return address. I thought the hand cancel would be enough. I look forward to seeing what others think.
I always write the place from where I send, and the date. If the receiver mentions in the profile, I also write weather and temperature, but not necessesarily always if it isn’t. May be it’s because I don’t mind the weather of where my incoming postcards come from (if it’s not something special). I know basically what season / climate is in the different regions of the world. If it’s not something very special - good or bad - I do not mind. But I understand that other people may be interested in such facts, and so I write it whenever it’s mentioned in a profile.
I usually start my postcards with “Greetings from Helsinki, Finland!” so no need to type the location again. I always write the date and temperature as well. I have noticed that many people don’t and I find it odd. I was taught that the date should always be written.
I usually don’t mail my cards on the same day, and sometimes the mail sorting facility processes mail slowly so if I write the date, the gap between the date of card writing and the date of card postmarked may be huge… I just don’t want to explain to the receiver so much abt this lol
Abt the weather, it is always the same thing- sunny and rainy on the same day. (Malaysia has only one season) Sometimes there are huge winds but yeah, as a person who writes frequently, writing nearly the same info everyday is too redundant.
I feel that some postcards are too small to fit such info too, especially those nicer postcards here which are mostly A6 size
Hence, I only write those info when it is requested ^-^
I always write the date as well and I think it is a bit of a pity when people don‘t do it. I have a friend with whom I have been writing postcards for more than ten years and she never writes the date, so that now after this long period of time, I can no longer tell exactly when she wrote the card (not even the year) if I cannot read the postmark. For „historical“ purposes it would have been so nice to know!
As for writing the temperature, I sometimes do it, but I often write cards in the morning and it has bothered me as of late that the temperature at that point is not really „representative“ of the whole day.
Mostly I write down the date. Weather & Temperature only when asked for (and I don’t forget). Mostly I use ID stickers with the text “Greetings from Bremen”, no need to repeat the location. And although I was taught to include location and date on any letter when I was young, the location was somehow optional later on (times change, right?). But I’ve never included dates on my postcards before I started Postcrossing. As any formal writing rules don’t apply to postcards. I’ve just started adding it, because I like it when it’s on my received cards
I write the date and the temperature and short weather, like “sunny” or “”rainy”.
I always appreciate when the date is written because I usually cannot read the date of the postmark because it is over a stamp or the ink is not dark enough.
For location, I always write my US State, not my actual town name. The state gives a general location and I do not feel the name of my small town is important. The postmark, if it can be read, would show the nearby larger city. Mail is not postmarked in my town.
Usually I would not write things like date & wheather. The wheather doesn’t seem to be such an interesting topic to me (unless unusual or related to the card). And the date is indicated by the system. So I would only think it’s interesting if it’s another day then the day I draw the adress.
But if the recipient asks for such infos of course I include it.
And sometimes I do write it, because I know many people are interested. So maybe, one day, I’m so used to it, that I make it a habit …
I feel like the date is very important to include because it helps find the ID of the postcard should the ID be missing or ripped off (the latter has happened to me a few times thanks to the card-eating machines of the USPS). Of course other details like the name also aid in the search, but having more info I’m pretty sure expedites the process.
Since I’m still sort of new, kinda, I’ve only very recently settled on how I want to do it going forward. So for a short while now, it’s been date and town. If someone asks for weather info, I’ll add that if I remember to.
The date I write down, but I have no weather rubberstamp or sticker and there is in most cases more I want to write but no more space at the card, so the weather will not be mentioned.
. Space on postcard isn’t much and some people who have big writing may want more space for their message
