I would categorically object to the idea, for security and privacy reasons… I wouldn’t want people (who potentially have my address) to know that I am away and that my house is sitting empty. What if I get burgled whilst I am away? Who would be responsible? Postcrossing for allowing random users to see that I am away from home? You would only need a couple of dishonnest people for it to become a problem.
Also, if someone is in travel mode (especially in a rare country), perhaps they don’t want to be deluged with requests for swaps, but actually prefer to either do official IDs or swaps with people they know on the forum. I think that the current system where you can post offers in the Trades section of the forum works well… I’ve been able to organise some good swaps with people travelling to places such as Guatemala, Cambodia, North Macedonia, Bosnia, Vatican etc. You just have to be patient and over time you are able to arrange swaps with exciting places
Uhm, no! As many have written before me, it is absolutely nobody’s business when I am where in another country.
For me, this has not only something to do with privacy but also with security.
Are you aware that there have been many cases where people have publicly announced when they were absent from home and then was her home broken into?
For many years, it has been discouraged to publicly announce a longer absence from home with a period of time.
First of all, I thank all those who are participating in the discussion on this topic. In fact, I think it’s interesting get different opinions and points of view
Now I would simply and briefly say my thoughts regarding some points and important problems that have been said:
Privacy: I understand perfectly, privacy is a very important thing for everyone, including me. If the site will allow to see in real time the users in travel mode and in which state they are, then to respect privacy, users will be free to choose from the settings whether they wants to be seen or whether to remain invisible. In this way I believe that the very important problem of privacy is largely solved and overcome.
Exchanges on the forum: Yes, the swaps announcements on the forum work very well. The problem is that most users do not use the forum for “their choice”, but simply because they are not aware of it or do not know how to use it correctly (after the first access, for example, you do not have the possibility to publish in the sections with the padlock symbol).
Fraud risk (user is in a country with travel mode but then send from his own country): This risk is relevant. In fact, the verification that Postcrossing does on the travel mode takes place only when you ask for an address and not when you activate the travel mode. This risk can be significantly reduced if the verification by Postcrossing takes place directly when a user want to activate the travel mode and not only when the address is asked. However this risk can also be totally eliminated. Indeed today, most direct swaps take place with a photo proof by both users: so if the user in travel mode is in a country, in the photo proof you will see the postcard with the address of the recipient written and already franked with the stamps of that country. So, in this way, I believe that also this problem is largely solved and overcome.
Spam, time and money: This problem can be solved in the exact same way to solve the privacy problem. If the system in the settings gives users the choice to make their travel mode visible in real time or to keep it invisible, users can take advantage of this freedom of choice in the best and most appropriate way for each of them. Those who freely decide to make their travel mode visible, it means that for their privacy it is okay, it means that they are willing to receive many emails with direct swap requests, they are willing to spend money and time to send postcards during the own travel mode. On the other hand, those who are not willing for reasons of privacy and spam or available for reasons of time and money to make their travel mode visible, can freely decide from the settings to keep it invisible. In fact, my suggestion was based only on an additional possibility to be given to users in their own settings and then to be managed freely. In fact, I believe that today “being able to choose” is very important, my suggestion was not intended as “forcing” users to make their travel mode visible and I’m sorry if you misunderstood me.
The spirit of Postcrossing: I also like the official Postcrossing that allows us to receive in a causal way and therefore there is the “surprise”. Furthermore, I fully agree that Postcrossing is based on “connecting not collecting” but I would like to remember that it is mainly based on this and not exclusively. In this regard, I would like to remind you that Postcrossing itself says it: Is Postcrossing suitable for collectors?
@Alberto99 a heart for your Postcrossing enthousiasm!
I enjoy watching What is happening now? on the homepage. And spot rare flags.
And I am curious as well about data of Travel Mode. But even an extra column on the country page won’t work.
I do hope Postcrossing will get us updated now and then. Which is still necessary as not everyone is aware of this feature. Recently I received a card sent from a country missing in my list, with an ID from a top country.
Allthough I was connected I felt discollected.
I agree with you that it is a bad idea. However, PC would most definitely NOT be responsible if your got burglarized while you were away. I am sure if they ever put such a system in place, they would absolve themselves of all responsibility in the Terms, which all users would have to agree to to join.
@littlesthobo I repeat that if “such a system were put in place”, in order to respect the privacy of all users, everyone would be free to choose from their profile settings whether to show the travel mode and the country in which they are temporarily located or whether continue to use it keeping it hidden. If you think about it, in the profile settings you can choose whether to make the profile page visible to “anyone” or “only to members” of Postcrossing. I believe that this choice fully respects the privacy of users and since privacy is important to me too, for example, from the first day I signed up, I chose to make my profile page visible “only to members”. If, for example, in that same settings page, immediately under the choice “Profile page visible to”, there was the possibility for all users to choose whether to make their travel mode visible to all when it is active and the state in which it is temporarily or if using it while keeping it hidden, I don’t see where the problem lies as the privacy of each user would be totally respected. Each user would simply have one more choice regarding their privacy.
@littlesthobo Yes, it is true, there is a probability that this can also happen and that therefore the user who activates the visible travel mode saying that he is in a certain country, then in reality he is at his house because he has the stamps of that country. However I think the probability of this happening is extremely low if not even zero for two very simple reasons:
Let’s take an example considering that the user in question activates the visible travel mode by saying that he is in a certain country. Knowing the post office websites of almost every country in the world, I can tell you that most of them do not offer the possibility to buy their stamps online on their website. Furthermore, most of those from which it is possible to buy them online and therefore from your own home, do not allow people not resident in that country to make the purchase (in most cases the user is in fact required to enter during the purchase phase a phone number belonging to that country). Finally, the post offices of some countries (especially those from which there are no users registered on Postcrossing) do not even have a website and therefore the problem of buying from home does not arise.
Suppose that the user in question from his home still manages to find a way to buy the stamps of that country in which he claims to be in travel mode. At this point he would have spent some money to buy these stamps, he would have used them to frank the postcard on which the address of the recipient is written and he would have sent the proof photo from his home. All this would be absurd and utopian as the user in question would have spent money to buy postage stamps of a country, would have made them unusable by using them to frank a postcard that he will never send from that country being at his home. So basically he would have totally wasted his time and money.
Now that I hope I have clarified this matter, I kindly ask all users interested in this discussion, what they think about this suggestion which, optionally and therefore respecting everyone’s privacy, would include the introduction of making their travel mode visible when it is active and in which countries you are temporarily In summary, those who for privacy reasons or for reasons of spam, time and money do not want to let others know their travel mode, would select in their profile settings “travel mode visible only to me”, while those who would have no problem would select the ‘travel mode visible to all users’ option.
Travel mode visible in real time
Only to me
To all users
0voters
To make this suggestion even more understandable to everyone, I do this poll which would represent the two choice options that you would have in your profile settings regarding travel mode.
Please, let me know what you think and if you want, you can also vote in the poll in order to have better statistical information
I think most people would not like to have their travel mode and travel location published, because of the already mentioned privacy reasons and for they do not want to be spammed with swap requests while being in a rare country, so I think the necessary programming would be an upheaval that does not pay and it would make the software unnecessarily bold.
You responded in the first part of your post to something I said to somebody else. I believe the context has been lost
As for the second part, I am honestly not sure which countries you are referring to that will not let you buy stamps from their postal website unless they are citizens of that country. That sounds very bizarre to me and has certainly not been my experience.
Furthermore, right now I can go on eBay and Etsy and other websites and buy stamps today from almost any country in the world and have them sent to my home. There is nothing illegal about this and stamp collectors do this all the time.
I still don’t know why you’d require photo proof of a sent card when there is already a safeguard in place requiring you to us a local IP in order to be granted a foreign ID.
I think he is referring to the practice that regular swappers have, to send each other photo proof of what they are sending, to avoid being cheated. I wanted to reply to that point because from the point of view of someone who swaps rarely (= me), that is not common practice at all. I tend to swap when I have something that can interest the other party, I don’t even care if I get something back or not. I am too lazy to provide photo proof unless explicitly required, if it reassures the other person.
But you are right that, if we are talking of official cards, there is already the country ID and the IP verification.
That’s the other point. If this is optional, it is simply not worth the trouble of implementing, as it would be useful or interesting to so few people.
Also, some people seem already confused about the existing features of postcrossing, be it because they are not so internet-savvy, be it because they don’t speak a lot of English so it all looks confusing. So maybe it is good to keep things simple.
Another thing I thought is, let’s see it from the OP’s point of view. Okay, you can see where people are in the world in travel mode. How useful would that really be? How many active postcrossers are on holiday/business in a rare country at any given time? 5? 6? 15? How many of them would accept to have their status shown? Half of that?
Unless you are constantly searching, you might miss the window of time when someone is in a rare country, therefore making this not so useful. Maybe you search today and there is no one in the countries you are interested in, then all week you are busy and don’t check, and you miss the fact that Member X spent 3 days in Guatemala or wherever.
Or maybe you contact them and by the time they find your message they already left (maybe they don’t have a local phone so they can only check from the hotel. Maybe they don’t have time for non-essential communication if they are busy/the internet is slow where they are). Again, it is all not worth the trouble, for a shot at something rare. It would make like 1% less rare. Better than nothing maybe, but probably not worth tweaking things for.
This isn’t a problem for anyone - just those who would like to extend their swap possibilities, to collect more countries… Everyone who wants to widen their Postcrossing activities manages to find the forum and use the games to extend their collections - or just their Postcrossing fun / experience.
I’m sorry, but in my opinion this suggestion is a bit egotistical, based on a personal wish to extend collections and to “use” other members who are on holiday.
Don’t get me wrong @Alberto99, i can understand your enthusiasm, because I once was a beginner too who couldn’t wait for a new country.
Yes, absolutely. It’s important that people understand the function and randomness of Postcrossing - and it’s ok just like it is.
I voted for the “visible only to me” option for the following reasons:
I’m not a country collector, so not only do I not want to disclose my travel location, I’m also not interested in seeing this info from other users.
What others said - when I’m traveling, I’m usually already sending a lot to family and close Postcrossing contacts, when I still have time and know how easy it is to find stamps and a mailbox, I will draw addresses in travel mode.
Privacy concerns - even if I can choose to disable visibility, it’s another potential risk I need to think about, when right now, I just activate it.
@littlesthobo Yes, of course, I am aware also of the fact that on Ebay and similar websites you can find stamps from all countries of the world. In fact as you said, collectors also use this type of channel to buy them in which, however, the stamps are usually sold at a higher price than their face value because they mainly take into account their collection value (therefore considering the year of issue, the number of circulation, the country of issue etc …). As for buying from the official post office websites of various countries, trust me it’s not as bizarre as you say. I can assure you that as I have already said that most of the official post office websites do not allow online purchases of stamps, only a small part of countries allow them. Especially considering that in this discussion we are mainly talking about “rare” countries according to Postcrossing statistics. For example, in Africa there are about 50 states and perhaps only 10% of these (for example Tanzania, Botswana and some else) allow you to buy stamps online. Unfortunately, in many of the countries considered “rare” in this context, the post office does not even have a website.
Furthermore, I suggest you to reread what I wrote in point 2, which is the most important and that I had specifically written considering the possibility that the user from his own home can still buy stamps from his own home in any way. If you read it right, you can easily understand with a little math that the probability that a user decides to waste time and money in this way are very close to zero and will tend more and more to zero as the number of users increases.
@elikoa On this, I fully agree with you. In fact I decided to open this topic and then the poll just to understand and get an idea of what a sample as representative as possible of users thought about this topic .
This is simply not true. I pretty much only buy stamps from eBay because I pay much less than I would at the post office or from postal websites. Yes, rare collectibles will go higher than face value. But ordinary common stamps can be easily found and auction’s won for less than face value. I have never once paid more than face value for a stamp. I use them for postcrossing. How often do you buy stamps on eBay? And which country’s stamps are you buying for postcrossing purposes at the collector’s price?
I realize that this is a tangent but I find a lot of the comments you are making have strayed far from the point of the original post in this particular thread.
Many of the points I would have raised have been mentioned before.
@littlesthobo the United States (and Canada) is classic examples of countries that do not sell stamps outside of their respective countries.
I’ve tried to purchase stamps from Canada Post website, for prior trips to Canada, but as I am UK based without a Canadian Address or phone number, I cannot proceed with the orders.
For me Ebay in many circumstances is more expensive or about the same price as buying direct from the post office, many of us use stamp dealers in the UK, which also ship internationally.
When I first joined the forum, I posted a few pictures of new stamp issues of some of the UK territories such as the Isle of Man and Jersey, and was inundated with swaps for stamps and postcards from these countries, dispite not being there.
@littlesthobo Yes unfortunately we have strayed from the point of the original post in this particular thread, because you are probably not realizing that the most important point of that kind of problem you have rightly written about is not buying stamps from home.
The point is another and you probably don’t understand yet. I will give an example so as to be as clear as possible. Let’s suppose that you, from your home in Canada, despite the verify carried out by Postcrossing on your IP address (which at this point would be done immediately when you activate the travel mode and not when you ask for an address), still manage to activate the travel mode by saying to find you in Cape Verde and set it in “visible to all users” mode. I, who have never received anything from Cape Verde, see that you have activated the travel mode and you are in Cape Verde and therefore I write you a message to ask if you are interested in making a direct swap with me. At this point, you who had previously purchased the Cape Verde stamps from your home in Canada in any way, decide to accept the direct swap proposed by me. Then we send us the photo proof of our postcards:
In the photo I send to you, you will see a postcard with your address written on it and franked with Italian stamps which I can send you from Italy.
In the photo you send to me, I will see a postcard with my address written on it and franked with Cape Verde stamps.
So at this point, after having both seen the photo proof, we send our postcards. And here’s the key point that I think you don’t understand:
I send you my postcard from Italy because it is franked with Italian stamps and therefore you will receive it.
You, on the other hand, from Canada, will never be able to send the postcard that you franked with Cape Verde stamps.
So in the end, I would be screwed because after I sent you my postcard I would not receive anything in return and therefore I would have lost money. You, on the other hand, will receive my postcard from Italy, but you will have lost even more money than you made me lose. This is because you have spent money to buy stamps issued by Cape Verde, you used them to frank the postcard addressed to me making them unusable as from Canada you will never be able to send a postcard franked with stamps issued by a state different than Canada.
At this point, if you have not yet understood my clear and elementary explanation regarding this concept, continue to think of it as you wish…
If other users have understood my explanation, it means that it is not my problem… and so as not to stray from the main topic we can therefore close here about it.
I take this opportunity to thank everyone who voted in the poll and I hope more other users vote. It would be nice if users from all continents vote or at least if could vote those who are from countries where more users are registered .
Obviously, those who also want to write their thoughts on this suggestion in words can freely do it by replying to the topic .
There are users from 4 continents who have answered the poll: Europe, Asia, North America and Oceania… and 13 different countries - that’s a pretty good spread already
20 out of 21 respondents so far would prefer to keep travel mode private…
Let’s see how the poll develops as more people vote, but I currently don’t see much enthusiasm in favour of the proposal, either in the votes or in the comments.
Update: stats are now 25 out of 26… seems pretty clear cut
it means you don’t get an address with an ID of your own country.
Thank you 
