I have just requested ten addresses.
One has sent 83 and registered as received 59 - this person has registered no cards since February 2018 but has since sent 22 cards.
Another has sent 702 and registered as received 701 - this person has registered no cards since November 2020 but has since sent 7.
Are Postcrossers allowed to not register cards? I wonder if by not registering cards they expect to receive a lot more than they should.
Suggestions please?
In the first case, the person might have been inactive and just now changed the profile status to active.
In the second case, it seems that the person had more received cards than sent, so the address wasn´t in the pool until now when the numbers got equal.
They might have set their account to inactive for a longer periode of time, and went back to active now.
If they were active and received postcards, those postcards should be registered.
It is possible to continue to send cards while being inactive for receiving cards, so often when you see large discrepancies, someone has sent cards while inactive or in Travel Mode â for example while moving, travelling, lacking a fixed address, or just busy.
(This isnât permitted for long â eventually everyone must receive postcards in return, or theyâre no longer allowed to keep on sending. Sometimes people prefer sending, and enjoy it so much that they stay inactive or in Travel Mode until that point, though.)
Sometimes people return after inactivity and resume sending cards⌠but forget to mark themselves as active again until later. They arenât selected until they set themselves as active again. Sometimes someone will send a lot of postcards and become inactive through not logging in before they are registered. When they return, they are already eligible to receive postcards in return.
So there are a lot of reasons this kind of imbalance may happen, and it shouldnât signify any presumption that someoneâs trying to cheat the system in some way, or that they wonât register cards sent to them, etc.
If people arenât registering cards that are sent to them, Postcrossingâs system detects this and handles it, up to and including deleting an account which appears to have been abandoned and automatically registering all the cards sent to it.
I hope that helps a bit!
Thank you for your helpful replies!
Itâs a pity that a Postcrosserâs âinactiveâ status is not visible on their profile. Perhaps a Postcrosser should not be able to send postcards while they are inactive. If they select âinactiveâ then become active again, they should be limited as to the amount of cards they can send until they start registering cards again. But maybe Iâm just being pedantic?
Why not?
What if you travel overseas and want to send postcard abroad?
What if you get a 3 months job in another city faraway from home and cant check your mailbox?
What if you were hired as musician assistant whoâs on tour across the country, living on a van without permanent address to receive postcard?
What if this? What if that?
Postcrossingâs system detects this and handles it, up to and including deleting an account which appears to have been abandoned and automatically registering all the cards sent to it.
How I wish this were so!
No system is perfect, and sometimes there are cases where the system works more slowly than people would like, or where the Postcrossing team would need to step in instead⌠but I assure you that there is an automated system and that it regularly does as described.
(I am a member of the Postcrossing team.)
It is. If there is a member whose address is given normally, like me, and I would just stop registrering the cards, I would first (I think) be blocked, then if I donât do anything, my account would be shut and the cards registrered. This happens if I donât send too (and still draw addresses).
But of course this isnât done for only one or two cards that I didnât register (because maybe itâs still travelling, the sender didnât send etc.), but if someone doesnât register at all, it is not happening forever.
Still, when a member is inactive, they can send, but they donât receive. (Edit to correct, of course they can receive and register the cards sent to them while they were active.)
It definitely works, I had some of those in 10 years of Postcrossing.
One can both send AND register cards when inactive. I set my account inactive for a couple of months earlier this year. I registered all the cards that I received (I had done the status change in advance, so no one would have to wait for my registration) and I sent as many cards as I was allowed as the China suspension just ended. (I have repeated countries on and I wanted to help narrowing the gap). I know many people check the stats and would wonder why I have so many more cards sent than received and why I hadnât registered any for a couple of months. So in the beginning I informed in my profile that I was inactive for the moment and when I changed my status again I added that I had returned back to active after a small break (so people drawing my address wouldnât have to wonder in vain and worry if I would register their cards).
I think one SHOULD be able to request addies, while inactive.
In the past I repeatedly had trouble with my computer at home and was always worried I would not be able to register cards in a timely manner, after their arrival. 
But I still wanted to send out cards, as I love that part most of all!
So I was inactive longer - as long as I could request addies!
Well ⌠should I report an account where the person abruptly stopped all activity seven months ago, roughly the same time as I sent the card? There appear to be ten others in the same situation, not just me.
I think thereâs nothing to loose if you report it, so I would 
Then do so, so the team can have a look into 
I have already reported one account where the member died many years ago but his account is still active!
Is there a best way to report an account which should at least be investigated?
Just 11 days ago I received this message, now I understand that it is the system that DID register a card that had expiredâŚ
The postcard US-XXXXXXX you sent to YYYYYYYYYY in Germany was registered by Postcrossing. 
Postally yours,
Postcrossing
I remember looking it up and the card had expired so I guess the user âabandondedâ their account and the system caught up with it. Other expired cards must have gotten lost in the mail or in the userâs house and gone unregistered that way.
If the member is dead, it canât be active, as the account will automatically go inactive after I think 30 days of not logging in.
One of my sent cards is also going to a postcrosser in China who has last time registered a card in 2021 and has send many cards in 2022 and 2023. Thatâs really strange and not a reliable âpartnerâ to send a card too. Frustrating.
But fortunately not a common thing I see on postcrossing.
There is an active member who joined in April 2022, and still has zero received cards. But they have sent 59 cards, including some sent recently this year. So I learned itâs possible to join Postcrossing and immediately set an account to inactive, which seems really strange to join a postcard exchange group but only send cards. I reported them, because I wanted to ask an admin about this. I am feeling perplexed that new members join and then immediately set their acount to inactive. Maybe they have more then one profile?