I really like if I see a profile that gives me info and tells me what I like to send.
However, lately I had the impulse on taking all info from my profile.
I write that people who do not wish to look through wishlists etc should just send whatever they like. However I list wishes for wishlist RR’s here on the forum.
It happened quite a few times lately that people sending official postcards to me complain about how picky I am.
So I guess no matter what you do, you can never do right by everyone.
For me, the main purpose of Postcrossing is communication. If a person has a blank profile, it feels like I’m just shouting at a wall instead of writing to a real person. I get that it can be a fun experiment if you want to distance yourself from wishlists but to me it takes all fun out of sending.
Of course some of us are more private and don’t want to overshare but that’s when you can either adopt a fake persona (perhaps your family cat) or share the bare minimum to make you sound like a real human.
I also like choosing a card based on the personality that comes across from a profile. This is still secondary to the message! I don’t mind a wishlist if it’s just a way to illustrate some of your likes. Lists are easier to read for those with less English. It only becomes an issue when the entire profile is a big shopping list and any personality is lost.
i once got an empty profile so i said something on the card like hey it would be nice if you said something about yourself so we know what to send you and talk about blabla. their hurray message was quite long and super kind, saying they are a private person with no social media and all but they told me a bit about themself. then they filled out a profile but it’s one sentence saying ‘i love cards with this and that’ and it’s super specific, lol. i’m happy i got the profile empty
Today I drew an address in Russia with no profile at all👀 just the address, so is it up to me what to do?any suggestions out there? It feels very….empty😶🌫️
Not completely, for you still have to send a postcard, the only difference is that you do not have any hint for choosing the card and what to write. In such cases I take a card with a sight of my town and write about my town.
I quite like it when this happens. I very often choose the card that I would really like to receive. Or, as I always upload pictures of my sent cards, something that I would like to see on my wall, but might otherwise be difficult to send to someone else.
Ha, ha. Interesting thread! I’ve been a member for a few years, but with a busy schedule volunteering, I request far less names than I’m allowed. (I love postcrossing and wish I had time for more!) Out of the few hundred I’ve received, I think only two were blank. To the first, I simply wrote, “You’re a man of few words.” He did seem to take that kindly and wrote a few words in his reply. The second, just this past month, had me a little miffed, but as I set it aside for a few days and thought about it, I guessed the person didn’t speak English well. I have lots of nice cards that don’t seem to fit requested categories, and never get used, so I sent one of those, with a nice note telling her, that I had friends in the U.S., originally from her country, plus a couple of lines regarding what I had done that day. Mail to that country usually takes awhile, so it hasn’t yet been registered.
Are they new to Postcrossing? Maybe they are not sure what to share yet. Usually a city card is good, with a friendly welcome message and mention the weather
Or have they been on Postcrossing for a while, with more cards?
Sometimes I look to see if they have any favorites and I select my card based on those.
If there’s no favorites, I look at their sent cards, and that influences my card choice to send them.
There is some freedom with no information shared. It actually saves me time thinking about the right card because it is entirely my choice, and it doesn’t happen very much.
I drew an empty profile yesterday so I checked if the person had cards favourited. They did and they were mostly cute illustrations. I picked a card with a cute illustration. I hope they’ll like the card but if not it’s no big deal. I tried.
Got an completely empty profile last night, no text, no favs, no english mentioned as language (spanish and portugese) and thousands of received cards.
Felt a bit sad to just choose “any” card because I’d rather sent a piece that brings joy that one that is just “any card”.
As I’m not a “only happy postcrossing” person on cards (never was) it felt quite difficult to write something not knowing anything except “he will need to translate it be careful do not write too much/compicated”.
Reduced the joy of sending (and choosing stamp or card) massively
Went through the scans that are on the wall (some missing) to avoid at least sending im a duplicate as best as I could.
But that might be one I’m not massively sad if it goes expired just because there is no connection at all.
(chose a viewcard with a lighthouse and a commemorative stamp with a soccer player)
in another thread I have learned, you come deeper into hell with a profile in non-english than with an empty one.
