But actually it’s not that conspicuous.
It wasn’t on the main page if you open Postcrossing.
And when u click ‘send a postcard’, there’s no any sign or message tell u that you will not get a card in return.
Do people really check the monitor everyday? I really doubt about it. So they may find even hundreds days later that they do not get anything in return but already sent out many cards.
Furthermore, from my point of view, send an e-mail is not a big project for them, right?
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So you know what you’re talking about?
As if Chinese parents think it is not unfair, disrespectful and unreasonable?
Btw, why is your post not off-topic?
But you will get a card in return. It’s a bit like inactive status… you can send and won’t get any card in return, unless you go active again (but then you will receive a card back for all cards you sent in the meantime). The difference of course is that the inactive status is chosen by choice while the route blocking is done by admins. But once it is restored, you will get all the cards until your sent / received ratio is balanced again.
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I wrote it already yesterday :
.
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If the postal routes aren’t working, users don’t get cards either way. Of course, once the postal routes start working properly, all users will get their due cards. It’s not common that new postal restrictions are announced via e-mail, so I’m not sure where this idea is coming from. What baffles me even more is that some users think that creators of this page should base their decisions on some voting system and democracy, although it’s never been the case. I think that the moderation of the page was kind enough to post this announcement here, and unfortunately it backfired. If it wasn’t announced, users probably wouldn’t have noticed it all, as the cards that are now stuck somewhere will start arriving anyway.
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I have no particular expertise in conflict alleviation, nor do I have any authority here in the forum, nor do I have any special wisdom to offer that you all don’t already have. I don’t wish to seem patronizing or minimize emotions in any way, but I do wish to say:
I think now is a good time for us to take a step back and have a deep breath.
Obviously, there are a lot of hurt feelings here now. People have expressed disappointment, isolation, concern that they are not being understood correctly, and more. A few have expressed these feelings in damaging ways, while many are simply expressing these negative feelings without any nefarious motive.
I want to reiterate to everyone that it’s okay to feel disappointed, or sad, or angry, or alone. Postcrossing means a lot to us, and has been beneficial to us during these last few difficult years, so it makes sense that the suspension would elicit strong emotions. Emotions are the result of our brains responding to our circumstances—nothing more, nothing less. Sometimes they make sense to other people and ourselves, and sometimes they don’t. The cause may seem justifiable, or it may not. But either way, it’s okay not to feel okay. It won’t last forever; there are better days ahead.
I want to reassure anyone who is upset about the temporary suspension, for any reason whatsoever: there is nothing wrong about how you feel. I hear your frustration. It’s okay to express it in a way that does not cause harm to others. You already know that. I’ve spoken to several of you who accept the decision to pause official cards to China for now, but still regret that it must be done. That is absolutely understandable, and you are not alone. Some of you wish that the threshold for ending the suspension be clarified. I get it—you want to get back to receiving postcards from around the world as soon as possible! 
Very understandable!
Personally, chatting with people here on the forum brings me tremendous joy. Many of you have helped me when I’ve felt down, and I hope to return the favor. Postcrossing feels like a safe place to listen, learn, and lift each other up when we’re struggling. I would like to see more of the latter, in this thread and elsewhere. When one of us is frustrated, we do our best to clarify their concerns. Sometimes that still doesn’t make the frustration go away, so the next best thing we can do is acknowledge the hurt, offer a listening ear, and give words of welcoming encouragement instead of tearing each other down.
I sincerely apologize for the grating optimism of this post; I don’t mean to gloss over anyone’s legitimate complaints. I just hope that we can all take a moment to remember why we’re here in the first place: to make friendly connections with each other and support each other (in addition to sending each other blue cat postcards and sticker sheets, of course!).
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I think we should trust Paulo. Hes been doing this enormous job a long time and Im sure any decision is made after lots of consideration.
Thank you Paulo.
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@Bille I know people ‘will’ get cards in the future. But we even can not tell when the time will come.
If they give up this project for receiving nothing and don’t know about this suspension. Do they deserve this unbalance send and receive situation?
If they know that and still decide to send out cards, that’s personal choice.
The cards that you are due are already on their way. They are sitting at processing plants in China. I think that there is some misunderstanding about this. Currently, Chinese users have more cards traveling to them than they are sending out. This is the way the unbalance tips, not the other way around.
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Everyone may made mistakes,even he or she did great work in this area/field,and we can make suggestion ourselves for what we think may involved wrong or unproper decision.Right？
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As with “votes”, shall we tell apart these two meanings?
- Vote as in election/referendum
- Vote as in poll/survey
During heated discussions, word choices were probably not the most accurate and rhetoric could’ve eclipsed substance. My understanding is that the bout of frustration and angst was largely caused by a perceived lack of prior consultation or of effective communication. Taking a step back, it seems that we can still discuss “votes” in the second sense – a simple way to express one’s opinion, which happens to be enabled by this forum’s poll function, alongside various forms of comments and discussions. In a broader sense, it boils down to consultation. Would it be a good idea to listen to each other (on both receiving and sending ends) before a final decision (suspension/reopening) is made? It can be either led by the admin or initiated by any member, and in fact is already happening here, if we are to peel away the trope layer.
If I’m not mistaken, there is a mechanism where the sent postcards exceed the received ones by a large number, the account will be set inactive until some postcards are received. Any Chinese Postcrossers who have encountered this situation?
Perhaps the unbalance threshold for automatic deactivation is relatively high (30 or 60 or proportionate to one’s number of slots). Suspending postcards to China at this point could be a preemptive measure against such deactivation on a large scale. Or perhaps the mechanism has a limit and cannot cope with high incidence rates.
Now that the suspension is in effect:
- If the postcards are traveling, then they will eventually arrive. Reopening is a matter of time but no one knows when. We can only rely on updates from the admins.
- If a large portion of the postcards are lost (very unlikely), then it’s a different matter. Again, only time will tell.
Although unsure why the individual deactivation mechanism does not work in this case, all we can do for now is wait, discuss and hope for the better.
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AegisW:
My comment said nothing about no one be able to comment. Please dont put words in my mouth.
This is not a personal decision by Paulo and the people fighting among each other on here is not helpful.
We have all been affected by world situations. Please. Take a deep breath and remember “this too shall pass.”
I would appreciate no nasty or argumentative replies.
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What I mean is even “someone’s decision is made after lots of consideration.” could be unproper and can be adjust.That will be our feedback and suggestion doing.
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You’re right, but it isn’t the case here.
This decision was made based on lots of experience in leading the Postcrossing project and on hard facts, statistic data. It was made in consideration of both parties involved in Postcrossing, the senders and recievers. The content of the decision isn’t new, it was made before when the postal ways and delivery of cards to other countries were affected. The process of communication didn’t change either, the admins even posted and explained the decision here in the forum.
Just because a decision feels improper, it mustn’t mean that it is improper. It’s totally normal that the party who is affected more by a decision has to struggle more to accept it, to deal with it. But this doesn’t mean that the decision has to be adjusted.
(Especially if it’s a temporary solution!)
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Cards from SG to CN are not arriving at their destination for me. I have at least 20-30 cards still OTW via official, forum and IG. The problem doesn’t lie with the route, it lies with their postal system.
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Yea they has lot of experience, I have no doubt.But on this.I have to say,It’s the first time they dealing this kind of thing.With our feedback and suggestion.They could do adjust.Maybe next time deal with similar stuff.They can learn something and do better next time.
Anyway the block of Mail exchange center is over.Cards will be delivered soon.
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Were your cards sent recently? 2 of mine did arrive but it was in January & February. I assume back then there wasn’t strict lockdown in Shanghai so China Post was still able to do their jobs delivering mail in normal speed
Reading some posts above, Chinese postcrosser mentioned that the huge backlog is caused by lockdown, and the lockdown is uplifted recently. Hope our cards will be received soon by our Chinese correspondences 
It’s out of topic. But my cards to Hong Kong has been way slower too than before. I know China and Hong Kong have different policy and postal service. I wonder if the lockdown in mainland China also caused slower mails to Hong Kong
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No, it isn’t. The suspension of sending to certain countries has occurred before. What they’re probably dealing with for the first time is the mass of harsh critics which were repeated in ignorance of all explanations, the completely unjustified accusations of political intents, even abominable third-reich-comparisons, and concerning distrust which were on display in this topic…
Please get me right, I really understand that Chinese users don’t like the decision. If German Post was on strike, lots of cards didn’t get delivered, and Postcrossing decided to stop giving out German adresses, I would be very sad too. But I’d tell me that the project Postcrossing has to be kept in balance and hope that the situation will get normal soon.
I understand you! But I think the decision is proper and had to be made. 
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For that aggressive part, Although I can’t apologize to you for someone else. But for myelf,I dislike the hate speech too.It’s rude to say such things.All I always appeal is for two things. First, make the suspension announcement at a conspicuous place.Second, Set a line and show us, once the register rate is over a certain percent,the suspension order stopped.I hope admins could consider it maybe next time.
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I think this necessary to repost admin’s reply:
This matter is mainly special in that the scope of influence and all Chinese users are banned. What the administrator did not do well in a limited time, perhaps is the obvious and timely announcement (like the Russian-Ukrainian war)