It’s been mentioned before, but I think a couple of my travelling postcards have been recieved, but the postcrossers are deliberately not registering my postcards, because it is not what they like.
One postcrosser states in their profile that they only like tourist viewcards, and doesn’t want any old tourist cards.
At the time I only had a few viewcards of another part of the UK, but the postcards where printed in mid 1990s, which I don’t class as old, but the photos on the postcard where taken with a film camera.
So maybe they thought this was old.
They live in a neighbouring country where travel times a usually less than two weeks.
All this said, I have no proof, but just suspect it.
It could genuinely be lost.
It’s a shame, that I make the effort, use nice postage stamps and then have to patiently wait for them become expired.
Recently I drew a person who had a list of preferred subjects that seemed quite reasonable. Then I read this: “To avoid duplicates, please take a look into my online album with received cards”.
I looked at their album, and discovered it was sorted into 127 (!!!) sub-albums. And these sub-albums were named eccentrically. Some are named by subject (art about women & girls), but others are named by month and year (the date the card was received?). Many of those sub-albums contain dozens of cards. In short, it is a truly unreasonable request. If the person had everything sorted cleanly and simply by subject, I might have tried to honour it, but it was laughable. I’m sorry, if someone has received in the area of 3,000 cards during their Postcrossing life, they must expect to get some duplicates.
In addition, they linked to their Favourites wall (= cards wanted), but it in turn had over 1,500 cards in it, so again it was not realistic Life is too short! And it is my impression, from such a request, that they only care about what is on the front of the card, and not what is written on it.
Literally that same day, I drew another person who said: “I am not picky about the cards at all. I REALLY, REALLY, REALLY appreciate all cards I receive. Please don’t worry about duplicates, and do NOT waste your time going through my received postcards. It is YOU who makes the card special.”
One made me grit my teeth with frustration. The other made my heart swell with gratitude. I need hardly tell you which card was a joy to write.
I always check what they had favourited from my country and then the general style what they seem to prefer, like photos/illustration, some colour etc,
Yes, me too. I don’t bother looking at the receiver’s favourites from other countries, but I am interested to see what they’ve favourited from my country. And just in case there’s a lot of them, I only look at the first page.
I hate this so much!
I am only 360 postcards in but have recieved the same FOTW postcard from China, three times and the same Aviation postcard from Russia twice. But love them all, it maybe the same postcard, but the stamps used, the postmark and most important what the sender has written is all different.
That’s generally what I do, too. In this case, none of their favourites from my country were cards that I had. So I picked something that matched one of their prompts, did a cursory look at their wall to see if it was among their Received cards from my country (it wasn’t), and sent it off with a pleasant note.
It’s possible they simply enjoy taking a long and meticulous browse through other people’s albums, and imagine everyone else must be the same
I don’t know, the whole concept of people not registering cards they don’t like seems like a new fashion since the “new” forum started over a year ago. Since then, a lot of people seem to think that a lot of other people register selectively. I still refuse to believe this happens a lot, I never had reason to think that myself and maybe I am too naive and it has not occurred to me - if the person is active, I just think the card is lost. If the recipient disappeared, then I make myself believe the card has arrived but they just never bothered.
In this case, I find it quite far-fetched to think that someone is THAT picky. Of course, it depends on how the whole profile comes across and how it is phrased. You could check the images of their registered cards, if available, to see if they registered anything that wasn’t a shiny new viewcard. You could also report the profile because if they truly say that they only want one thing, then that is against the rules (no demands). If they say that is what they “like” then so be it, if they say that is all they “want” then it is a different matter.
I have never received a duplicate myself and I think it would be a lot of fun, to see how they differ in the back. I guess with series it is more likely. I have two viewcards with a very similar picture of the same place, but different angle and different framing of the postcard around the picture, but one was an official and one from a penpal. So almost a duplicate but not quite.
I also don’t agree with this concept of duplicates, they would only be duplicates if the back was exactly identical and that is impossible. So they are different cards that happen to have the same picture!
I too don’t want to believe this.
I’m just growing suspicious, it probably is lost. ‘Ofcourse it’s just a suspicion, I have no proof, and couldn’t go to the admins with this accusation, I could report the profile, but don’t want to go down the route of naming and shaming postcrossers. Its not me, I’ve accepted that picky profiles are part of the project, write a postcard and move on’
During the summer of 2021, I had a few picky messages in the Hurray’s, but lately things have picked up, well apart from the unusal expires.
The whole thing of people deliberately not registering cards was even discussed on the old forum before I joined Postcrossing back in 2013.
If people cheat by not registering cards, then it is on them to shame and it is right to report them to the staff if the behaviour of those people bothers you.
My strategy is to not care any longer after you dropped the cards into the letterbox. Most cards will be registered quite soon, others will take longer and the rest will never arrive or will never be registered and you will usually get no information why.
I agree with this. I put about the same amount of effort in every postcard that I send, but once I drop it off at the post office, it’s up to the vagaries of the postal system. At this point, there is nothing that you or the recipient can do. I also think that a lot of people tend to forget that there’s a pandemic going on that may delay or halt deliveries. And if someone gets sick, it’s going to take them quite a while to get anything registered.
If even taking into account all of this you still feel uneasy about it, you can always contact the admins for guidance.
I recently reported someone as I felt their demands were too much. Fortunately the admins agreed.
To me it’s the fact that someone has taken the time and money to send me a postcard that makes me happy. I received one that I hated but still took the time to thank the sender. I didnt put that I hated it though.
What annoys me more than duplicates or ones that aren’t my favourites are blank or ones that just say "Happy postcrossing ". I have received both. Thankfully they are rare. I dont have a “dont send” list any more but I have put that I prefer to keep my cards family friendly. That’s because an erotic postcard would upset me due to trauma in my past.
Hello! I recently contacted the admins with a request to check one profile. As a result, the girl made significant changes, but her requirements were simply terrible!
I live in Saskatchewan and there is increasingly very little postcard choice, if you can find them at all.
I am jealous of all the choices in Europe and Asia where it’s so easy. For that reason I am always a little perturbed by people who have such a narrow focus of interests.
I also think Postcrossing has turned from a ‘people connection’ thing to a ‘i am a collector’ thing for a lot of people. But that might just me seeing the glass half empty.
I’m really sorry for this experience.
I know is easy to say: “let it go, not all Postcrossers are the same”.
But recently, is like people have chosen to become rude and ruder.
A fellow Postcrosser from the Spanish forum (new to Postcrossing, by the way), received an official postcard with the ID and one single line “write your profile in english”. I mean, if you are going to send the card anyway, why not to be kind and write something nice, meaningful, and then, drop a line about it, like: “hey, not sure if you know, but your profile should be written in english. Keep that in mind. Bye. With love…” Whatever…
It’s so easy to be nice, but this person chose “violence” to write a postcard.
Maybe the sender thought the longer message will not be understood?
Maybe the sender also is not good in writing English?
Maybe they didn’t feel it’s easy to be nice, when they are put in front of strange language? Maybe they were prepared to write a long message to someone, and then seems like the receiver won’t understand?
Maybe they have written many nice, meaningful messages to non English profiles and only get aggressive responses, or stupid ones?
Why not the non-english profile be kind and say, thank you for the card, sorry about my profile being with a language you didn’t understand.
Sounds a little drama queen (the behaviour, if it’s true) that the person doesn’t follow the rules asks extra “kindness”.
What happened to “sorry I did wrong, thanks for pointing out”.
Yes, people are rude nowadays. Old times people were embarrased to break the rules and said sorries, but nowadays they ask to be treated delicately and try to draw the attention away from the fact that they actually did wrong and make the one who points it out to be the bad guy. Seems to me.
It’s hard to tell rude gesture or straightforwardness in the case given above. I assume the short one line is written not out of rudeness but directness, even maybe the receiver felt it’s rude. Things hard to explain by written text. Sometime a “haha” can be seen as mocking or as real laugh
As I pointed, she is a new user.
Now she knows her profile must be writte in english, because that is the main language of Postcrossing.
There is a lot of new people “breaking the rules”, first time here can be overwhelming if you aren’t fluent in English, and if that first experience is like this one, probably will feel discouraged.
Life is too short! And it is my impression, from such a request, that they only care about what is on the front of the card, and not what is written on it.
people were embarrased to break the rules and said sorries, but nowadays they ask to be treated delicately and try to draw the attention away from the fact that they actually did wrong and make the one who points it out to be the bad guy. Seems to me. 
