Hello! I have two expired postcards (of many more in total) that are a bit different. The profiles have sent only one postcard each and have not logged on the site in months. They also have very little profile description. Obviously these people don´t use postcrossing anymore, so I was wondering if there is a way to report a profile or what else can you do in a situation like this? Thanks a lot;)
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I have come across quite a few addresses, where the profile is absolutely blank. It kills my enthusiasm to sent card to this person, because when we read profile, we are actually creating a virtual friend and I Generally select card ,to the persons choices. So in such case I just take one card at random and write few nice words and post it.
Also, Many times, people just register a card without a word and I wonder if the receiver did not like card or they have some language problem.
Personally, I feel the postcrossing is not just sending and receiving cards but exchange of thoughts and ideas.So if any one who cannot express and has communication issues , should they really continue postcrossing. ?
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I’ve just moved this thread from #everything-else to #postcrossing:general-topics as it fits better there.
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Hello @elizabete_hi
Welcome to our Community 
I have changed the headlineof this topic…
I think it is more about people who don’t logged in for months and about expired cards to them.
So other people with the same problem can find this Topic better.
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2 out of 4 of my expired postcards at the moment went to people who no longer use Postcrossing. They haven’t logged in for months and they were new members at the time.
I’ve seen there’s even a word for this specific type of profile you’re describing: ghostcrossers.
I’m not sure if there’s anything you can do about it. Maybe message them to check if your card has actually arrived? I don’t know. I wouldn’t bother, honestly.
There was a suggestion that postcards travelling to ghostcrossers get automatically registered if they haven’t logged in for more than 6 months, which wouldn’t be a bad idea at all, IMHO:
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It happens a lot and there is nothing to do about it, unfortunately. It is, in my opinion, the biggest problem in postcrossing, but unfortunately you cannot force people to participate. It happens also with people who were active for a long time, and then they suddenly stop. Maybe sometimes something happens to them, but a lot of the time they just lost interest, especially the newbies.
That’s it. I believe Postcrossing sends automatic reminders to people, but again you cannot force them to log in/register/participate.
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LOL good one
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We send multiple reminders as well other emails and actions.
We have seen over the years the expiry rate drop as we deal with this issue.
Vicki
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I fully agree to this suggestion, even my 25 odd cards have expired, half of these have logged for quite long time.I also upload all my cards, as it gives me satisfaction.
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If your address is only given out when you send a card and it is registered as received… why are these addresses being generated in the first place, when the system algorithm surely knows they have not sent cards recently?!
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When a card retires, I often write a little note to ask politely if it could be that the card should have been forgotten to get registrated or may be have gotten between some papers and been missed. For the case it hasn’t arrived I offer to send a new (2nd) card if the receiver sends me a little note that he/she didn’t get the card. However, I never ask to registrate a non-received card.
In many (most?) cases the card gets registrated then. Sometimes the receiver doesn’t answer and the card keeps retired. Sometimes I send a 2nd card. Independent of how long the receiver hasn’t been logged in, but I wait for the little note to be sure that the receiver still is interested.
I had some very nice contacts this way. Only once the answer was a bit odd. The receiver told me to wait three months more and then ask again. I didn’t do so. I’m not going to run after expired cards several times. I offer ONCE to send a new one. If the receiver doesn’t agree (or want it), I forget about it.
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Addresses are only given out if the person has logged in within the last 30 days, otherwise the account is set inactive by the system.
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it would be better if accounts that have not logged in for a long time are deleted, I have seen so many that have not been logged in for 10 years! the number of members at postcrossing is not right at all, as many are no longer active! And yes, I would also be in favor of the cards that were sent to ghostcrossers being registered by the system after a while! because the postage is expensive and it is unfair if you send a card and don’t get it back!
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But think of all those who came back to Postcrossing last year during the pandemic, some of whom hadn’t logged on for years. It would have been very sad for them to have their previous Postcrossing record, especially their wall, deleted. I don’t know how many people came back, but I think it would have been in the thousands.
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I agree with things like auto-inactive or auto-register for accounts not logged in for a long time, but deleting account is not a very good idea in my mind. I’ve seen many people active for years then inactive for years then back again. Postcrossing can be a life-long hobby, and we meet with changes in different life stages. It’s quite normal to leave for a while, as long as we are responsible and don’t disappear in a sudden.
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the accounts could be set to inactive so that they can be fetched back if necessary, but in the meantime they are no longer counted towards the number of members and they cannot be found by other members either!
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Accounts are set inactive after not logging in for 30 days. Why additionally hide them?
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Yes, I also encountered the same trouble. When I was asked to send the card, the receiver had not logged in for a long time. Now the card has been sent for two months, and the receiver has not logged in for two months. It’s about to expire. I don’t know what to do. I’m a little worried👀
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It’s never fun to have cards expire, but they’re also not wasted - you still receive a card back if one you’ve sent expires.
I personally would not be for auto-registering them, it would present untrue data and I don’t really understand what the point would be?
Expired cards are just part of the process, along with empty Hurray messages. They make the fantastic connections we make and amazing cards we receive even sweeter, in my opinion.
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When one of your sent card is registered, your address is release in the address pool and waiting for someone to pull the address. Then you will get a card back when the sender send you a card.
For expired cards, your address will never release into the address pool. So you will not receive back a card.
Expired cards mean it is lost and gone and you will not get a replacement for it. Nothing. Zero.
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