“Happy Postcrossing” Text Cards / Cards with no or little Text

[Inspiranta]

Thanks for sharing your experience. I will know that there can happen such problem one day.

[S_Tuulia]

Sometimes also people feel pressure to write a strange language to someone who has it as their mother tongue, I see maybe both @Hathor and @EmmaG could be such?
So it can be easier, when it’s a strange language to both.

@Hathor

Meetup cards would have stamps with names e.g. writing on each of them surely?

I have received meet up cards that were mainly normal, telling they are in a meeting and other things. I even thought that was how it started, and then suddenly people “should” have their personal username stamp to use in a card.

Also sometimes members ask help to have the profile in English, or use translator. The profile doesn’t necessarily tell about the level of their language skill.

(And of course sometimes it’s just a short message )

[backbeat]

Recently I received a card that had no message written at all. Only my address, the ID, and weather were written there. The back was decorated nicely, with nice stamps and a few stickers, but no text at all.

I thought “ok, maybe someone who doesn’t speak English well”, but when I registered the card the profile clearly said that they are very capable of the English language, and it asked people to write something, anything, on the card about yourself because they think that’s the best part.

I thought about writing this person because I’m really confused why someone would make an effort with the card (at least it seemed so), but would not even write “Hello” while they ask others to please write something because they enjoy it so much. I’m soo curious for the reasons. I decided to not contact them about it back then, but clearly it is still on my mind

[wezzel]

I’ve been a Postcrossing-member for one year now and have sent and received about 160 cards. Among them was only one card with just “Happy Postcrossing” written on it. The sender also had an empty profile. I wonder what the point of that is. By the way, that person and I did share a common language, so language barrier can’t be the cause.

I’ve also received several other cards with only a short quote, “Greetings from in ” or another very brief message. This sometimes makes me a bit sad, as I often write quite a bit of text on a card, and my profile also states that the message on the card is most important to me. There was also a period where I received many Hurray messages with just “thank you for your card,” even though I had written a substantial message, and the person had asked for that in their profile. This has taken a lot of the fun out of it for me, and I’m still undecided whether I’ll continue with Postcrossing once my stamp supply runs out.

[S_Tuulia]

Recently I got a profile and the languages they knew was “german, german”
I think they used a translator, and it translated English to German too?
But I wrote a simple message, and tried to write clearly, so they can translate it, if they don’t know English at all.

[S_Tuulia]

Here is topic about Empty Hurrays:

Empty Hurray messages

9.9 times out of ten I get a wonderful Hurray message from the recipient, but every now and then…nothing. Just a computerised message that the card has arrived and has been registered. It’s really not a Big Deal, but I have never understood this. When you’re registering a card, there’s a very obvious panel right in front of you, to type something…anything… to the sender. It only takes 2-3 seconds to type ‘thank you for the card’. Could this be a cultural thing, or a new-person-doesn’t-understa…

Lots of complaining and beliefs what kind of person the empty hurray writes is or could be but I try to point out, that if a member is not on the forum, they really can’t know that the Hurray message “should” be long or personal.

So I hope you don’t stop this hobby because of short Hurray messages

[Stevyy]

@backbeat

I thought about writing this person because I’m really confused why someone would make an effort with the card (at least it seemed so), but would not even write “Hello” while they ask others to please write something because they enjoy it so much.

Maybe you find the right words in the next days, it could be worth a try to get an interesting answer. Maybe their text was simply copied from another profile without really meaning it. Or they don’t realize the paradox because no one ever told them. Or they like to ‘take’ but not to ‘give’. Or they simply forgot.

Of course, the answer could also be ‘because I did not like your profile’, so you have to decide if you want to read such an answer (which would be strange anyways, because there’s nothing not to like in your profile, just to be clear)

[backbeat]

After reading your post a few days ago I reached out to them, but I did not receive an answer so far. It was worth a try

[Tion]

I write “Happy Postcrossing” when I don’t really understand what to write. It happens that the recipient’s profile does not “catch on” and that’s it🤷

[ilenia]

I received a card that had a QRcore that linked to a voice message, and nothing else written, which was unusual…

[Selena]

Last month I received a card that just said “Hello, here’s a new card for you”. They didn’t even Happy Postcrossing

@ilenia I’m wondering about the card you received with only a QR code on it, especially since it took you to a voice message, or voicemail account of some kind? Was the voice message in English or a language you speak? What did it say, was it related to Postcrossing? I’m wondering if sending a card with only a QR code instead of a message goes against the PC terms of service? @admins

Terms Of Service

@ilenia

I received a card that had a QRcore that linked to a voice message, and nothing else written, which was unusual…

[ilenia]

the voice message was an actual message that came with the postcard, described the postcard and said something of the sender, but it was weird

[S_Tuulia]

I would have thought the code is only maybe an advertisement, and not opened it.

I like the text, as I can re-read my cards anytime.

[vesselland]

I have received this card. I wonder if postcrossing will be able to find its sender…

[alter3ch0]

I wonder if it had a message written in a paper and the paper wasn’t glued properly.

ETA: now I noticed there is no stamp as well! Weird.

[vesselland]

I’ve no idea. My address is written on the card with pen. It seems to have two different electronic sorting codes on it. No other marks.

Yes, no stamp, no ID, no nothing.

Perhaps postcrossing will be able to find it and I can check with the sender. I’ll keep you guys posted.

[_hope]

I once got a card with only my adress written on the card in big letters all over the card (+ the ID, of course). It was a native speaker, so it wasn’t, because of a lack of vocabulary. It feeled a bit weird first, but we don’t know why people do this. Maybe, they have an illness, causing them to barely being able to write or lack of time… So much possiblities.

[S_Tuulia]

I think they might see who is sending you from USA perhaps, since you are not having very many travelling to you.

But I have seen a couple of members tell here, they keep the address and send card again, on birthday or something, I don’t fully understand it. And if it is such, it shows how it can put unnecessary work to the team.

Maybe someone accidentally forgot to write it and stamp it?

[vesselland]

I’m just perplexed that it found it’s way without a stamp attached. There are no marks either that suggest there used to be one stuck on in the first place.

[Selena]

Maybe it was accidentally sent along with other postcards they finished and were mailing? When I am mailing a stack of cards, or even just a few, I always double check before putting them in the mailbox, to make sure they’re complete and ready to mail.