Housekeeping of images

I wonder if Postcrossing deletes images of postcards where both the sender and the recipient have closed their accounts? Or maybe only images that have no links (no sender & receiver & no likes)? Or maybe some other criteria must be met? I am curious :nerd_face:

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Interesting question

Sometimes I look at my postcard wall. There are more than a few images that were received by members who subsequently closed their accounts. The images have remained.

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Probably because your account is still there. But what would happen if you deleted your account as well?
Maybe if someone, for whatever reason, has the link to a picture, it maybe works even when neither of the accounts exist anymore :thinking:
Also, some of them might be stored in the wayback machine. Some profiles are, so maybe postcards as well.

maybe it would be a good idea to delete these photos so that there is space on the postcrossing server. Anyway, nobody can look at them, if, as you write, somebody has a link to the postcard.

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If one views the gallery of postcards sent from a certain country, the card should be visible there.

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Maybe @paulo could know? :innocent:

Yeah, I was gonna say I think I’ve seen cards sent from one closed account to another closed account in peoples favorites.

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They are not deleted. For example, the majority of members who sent or received the first few postcards of CN-1 to 50(?) from China have their accounts closed. But the numbers of the ID still exist. They completed the process of sending and receiving, so the ID makes sense to exist.

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It makes sense from user perspective but it isn’t very sustainable if your space requirements are constantly growing. Based on the stats there should be around 1.5TB of pictures. It isn’t too much but it could be a place where a project that is funded from donations could save some resources. That’s why I am curious how Postcrossing manages it :slight_smile:

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But if these pictures are finally deleted, they also disappear from the favorite walls, right?

Of course, this is not a real problem at first, but there are some games, such as the “Favorites TAG”, for which they are needed, since not every participant has external albums.

And I remember a game (RR?) where, for example, it was necessary to have a certain number of favorites marked at the favorite wall at Postcrossing, otherwise participation was not possible (I know that I then invested some time to reach the prescribed amount).

However, I can’t say if this game made it into the new forum. It was just such a flash of thought.

That’s why I was thinking maybe only pictures that are not linked anywhere are deleted (no likes, both sender and receiver closed their accounts). But we don’t know what system is in place, if any. So far, based on what people above said, it seems that no pictures are deleted. Which is odd, but maybe it wasn’t necessary yet :woman_shrugging:

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Yes, if the ID isn’t linked to anyplace, without a photo, a sender or a receiver, it’s just like a “dead ID”. Maybe it’s reasonable to consider deleting those IDs. But if the ID is with any of the links, photos, receiver or sender, it requires more consideration before deleting.

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Hello! Is it true that this question is still unresolved?
I sent a card with the ID DE-12463139 in December 2022 and uploaded a photo. First everything was fine. A few weeks later, the recipient closed his account and the picture of the card was also deleted. Since then I have always had a difference of 1 between the total number of cards I sent and the wall. Can I add the photo again?
Up to now you had the impression that a deletion takes place when sender AND recipient close their accounts. But here it is only the receiver.
Best regards!

That is really sad - I suppose the recipient deleted the photo before he closed his account. In this case you can’t upload the card again I fear. (Just give it a try…:wink: )
I have plenty of cards sent to accounts that have been closed or deleted, like Postcard DE-12139652 , but the scan remains.

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That sounds plausible. Thank you very much for the quick help.