A guy I know signed up for Postcrossing quite a while ago but never got around to sending or receiving any postcards because of the covid pandemic and other problems. When he finally got around to checking back in, he found that his account was gone.
Then later, he found that his previous UserID is now used by somebody new who recently signed up for Postcrossing a month ago. He understands and accepts that. You can’t sign up and wait around forever (unlike accounts that are kept alive for years of inactivity).
So, what is the time-out period for new accounts that don’t have any activity?
Please let me know so I can tell people how long they have before they get closed off the website after they first sign up.
This is my personal experience. November 2016 I made and account, and I never sent the postcard after drawing an address (not a habit that’s allowed) . By February 2017 I got warning that my account would be deleted in 2 weeks, because it lacked of activity. I let the Postcrossing team deleted it (not logging in, in given time)
I don’t know if this has changed tho, knowing that many mail disruption happens worldwide due to covid restrictions. Hope that helps
Maybe better to tell those kind of people to delete their account.
Or starting to sent out a card?
-Probably you have done so-
I was happy with the reminderemails I received from postcrossing after signing up. I did not ignore those but sent out cards with a delay of 30 days.
That was my start.
Yes, I chose it deliberately. It is a common colloquialism whose meaning is clear. However, if you or anyone else consider it offensive in any way, I apologize, will change the title immediately, and refrain from using it ever again on this Forum.
‘kaput’ /kaputt is not an offensive german word. But the meaning is slightly different. Kaputt = broken, while you used it more like kaput = gone/deleted. You can still use it, but get ready to face confused Germans/ native german speakers
I’m afraid there’s not just a single answer to the question because there’s several conditions that can trigger an account to be deleted.
In general, if an account sent at least 1 postcard (that was registered), it won’t be deleted.
If an account signs up and never logins again, in general, it is deleted after ~90 days since last login, even if the account requested to send postcards (during this time there are a few reminders and warnings emails).
However, there are some cases where an account may be deleted sooner. For example, if the account didn’t validate the email address after the sign up it can be removed earlier (I think this is at ~60 days since last login at the moment).
Better tell them to sign up only when they intend/are able to use the account. No point in opening an account if it won’t be used.
Perhaps the best advice you could give an interested user is to not sign up until they are ready to send their first card. I’m not clear why a person would want to sign up well before doing that. There is probably a reason but it doesn’t come immediately to my mind.
Here’s another thing that guy I mentioned at the start of this Topic told me.
One of his reasons for signing up was to be able to see everything on the entire site before committing the time, effort, and money to sending postcards (let’s face it, postage in Europe and Oceania is downright expensive these days). If you don’t sign up, most of the site is off-limits to you, especially this Forum. There’s no “try-buy” possible. So some people sign up to see everything and then decide. Maybe there should be some kind of “read-only”/trial type of account for journalists and public relations people who are sympathetic to Postcrossing and may want to publicize it but are not going to send postcards because of their general work or life situations.
You can read most of this forum even if you’re not a member, same with the main site (guidelines, f.a.q. etc.) I think it’s good way, that one has the possibility to read all the information before joining, and they should, so people would not join in hurry and then come here asking some basic questions that they have already agreed to do, when they signed.
Of course if they don’t understand, it’s good to ask. But I would say anyone who thinks of joining, use few days to read around here, and then think if it might be good hobby.
Back in my day, I signed up on a whim, I always sent mail on and off all throughout my life. But I didn’t have any cards at home and I was about to leave for a big trip so I was thinking of starting to send cards whilst I would be on my trip. In fact, back then I thought I’d mainly use it during holidays to have more people to send postcards to (I was so disappointed that this was frowned upon because there was no travel mode back then).
After about a week, one of the reminder emails from Postcrossing inspired another whim, which was the whim to request my first address. I am 99,9999% sure I would have done so anyway, but maybe not within a week. Maybe two, maybe after my big trip.
But I can see one would start out slowly, and if they are less committed to the idea, put it off and forget (e.g. if mail has not been a big part of your life already. It wasn’t a huge part of my life at that moment when I signed up, but it was for a long time before so it was just a return for me).
