Did Postcrossing change the algorithm of matching users? Over the past several weeks I’ve been getting matched with users from an unusually wide variety of countries where Postcrossing is not as popular. Normally at least 75% of my traveling postcards are going to either Germany, USA, Finland, or Taiwan. Yesterday was the first time ever since sending my first postcard to Germany that I do not have a travelling postcard to Germany, and I’m already at 14 traveling postcards. Anyone else experiencing this phenomenon? I’m honestly happy about it as my Postcrossing experience has been more interesting lately.
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I haven’t noticed any special changes compared to before, except that I rarely draw addresses within my own country (Finland). It’s definitely not a popular country anymore, probably because of the recent increase in stamp prices. As before, I mainly draw addresses from Germany, the USA, the Netherlands, Taiwan and now China. Sometimes there are nice new surprises like Greece or Namibia.
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I’ve gotten used to having at least half of my traveling cards going to Germany, but nine of my last eleven addresses have been for USA members, with only one in Germany and one in Hong Kong.
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It’s holiday season in Germany, some federal states have public holidays and school holidays, so maybe more german members have go inactive for this time.
Also for some postcrossing is more a indoor hobby, and so they are in summer less active.
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It could possibly be because a lot of people have turned on repeated countries at the moment, to help with the backlog to China. I assume this also means the get a lot of cards to other very active countries.
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Could be. I’m on repeated countries and I think it’s pretty well balanced between Germany, the US, and China (although less than at its peak in early May) at the moment. But in the past month I also “caught” Taiwan, France, Canada, Austria, and Spain 
The more people turn repeated on, the more variety
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This is not due to inflation and increased postage. Postal expenses in Russia increased slightly in January - by 1 ruble within Russia and by 3 rubles abroad. To make it clearer, 1 ruble is equal to 1 a euro cent. As for inflation, we are now experiencing a process of deflation. The reason is simple. Summer is the holiday period. People go to the sea.
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Interestingly its the opposite for me…I teach and have summers off. I dont do hobbies during the school terms as I have lectures to write and essays to grade, but in summer the time is all mine so I send more cards and do more bead work.
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For what it’s worth, here are my current traveling cards. Not much difference to me …
(As with the two expired cards to Denmark and Slovakia, the 51 day USA member has been inactive since I sent the card)
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Of course, everyone does different things in their free time. For some it´s gardening for example, hard to this hobby in the winter months here in Germany.
(I also think, in Germany we have a different holiday system than in the USA, in Germany there are six weeks in summer and shorter breaks around the year.)
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For me it’s the opposite, have less more variety than before. I have repeated country off and still 26 out of 61 cards are going to Russia (plus 10 to Germany, 12 to USA and 6 to China). That leaves not much room for variety which makes me feel a little sad, a bit mor diversity would be nice, considering that repeated countries is off 
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Is the cost of postage per country a part of any algorithms overall?
I’m one of those (and not only, some of my pen pals who are also postcrossers stop completely during summer time).
I’m inactive from around March until end September.
I only do Forum games during that time. When I took part in more than two RR some years ago I cut them down, too.
I in summer prefer being in the woods, parks, garden, enjoy garden work and the sun ect. I do my remaining mail activity outside but I won’t sit down a whole bunch of hours for writing then 
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I suddenly got Hungary, a new country for me
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Opposite here, not as much time outside over 30 degrees with humidity and rain during summer.
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The large amount of Russian addresses could be partly attributed to the fact that a few countries (including USA) don’t currently post to Russia while Germany does
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I think I am balancing you out! About 80% of mine are travelling to either Russia or USA. TBH I am craving a little more variety!
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Postcrossing went viral on Tik Tok in the US. Probably contributed to an influx of new US postcrossers.
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I agree, I miscalculated. I don’t know which brands had to be glued in 2017, but in this post we are talking about a rise in price not in 6 years, but in recent months. And again, Germany pays 95 euro cents for stamps, which is equal to our 83 rubles. We have enough stamps of 65 rubles. Believe me, we have begun to live worse. And they certainly didn’t get poorer.
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I’m just starting out. I have 5 traveling and 3 have been registered and they’ve all been to different countries. I haven’t even sent inside my own country (US). I thought I was just getting lucky or something because this didn’t seem to be the norm from what I had seen from others. Hoping the trend continues!
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