If I was you, I would keep that slot now and save it for WPD. As you say, there’s a possibility your other travelling postcards won’t be registered on time, so this guarantees you can at least send one on the day.
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I think that World Postcard Day is NOT about the number of cards sent, but rather the number of people sending cards!
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It’s not about numbers at all!
I like the idea of anyone being able to send a card on WPD (regardless of whether they have an open slot!) but I bet that would be very difficult to implement, technically speaking.
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I think there had been an extra card slot for some reason sometimes, but it cause trouble when members “lost” that free slot when it was registered. They asked “my card was registered but I didn’t get a free slot”. I don’t remember where this was written.
And what if it expired, should it be two, or three extra slots.
Anyone can send a card on that day, maybe to their friend, old teacher, a new baby in family etc. It doesn’t have to be official postcrossing address. I know many want that badge, but there is still time, I would keep few slots open from now.
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Here is reply about this topic, (and topic about this suggestion, so should these be removed there as well)
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Yes, that’s what I did on the first WPD. I sent 3 official cards because I had kept those slots open, but I also sent postcards to all the children of friends. Many were very grateful. They were the first personal items of post that some of those children had ever received.
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@S_Tuulia , I completely agree. It’s World Postcard Day, not world Postcrossing day.
Controversial maybe, but Postcrossing could perhaps encourage us to send to people who would otherwise not receive snail mail by removing the WPD badge rather than having us compete for it.
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Or if we sent unofficial/non-Postcrossing cards, we could show proof of postage on 1st October to get the badge anyway?
For some it seems to be World Batch fetch Day…
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I wish that new slots could be added for every 25 sent cards after 50, instead of the current system of one new slot for every 50 cards. This would make lives a lot easier for countries like India where the median travel time is high.
To answer a few objections.
-
People will hunt for rare countries?
One new slot every 25 is a relatively mild rise and the number of slots won’t increase dramatically to allow hunting for rare addresses. -
Prevent overcommitment
People who have sent 50 cards are well-versed with the system and have taken months to reach the number. So the issue of over-commitment is very low at this point. -
You can also do direct swaps ??
Sometimes we want to send cards but don’t have the time to arrange a direct swap. Official PC is a suitable option for such cases.
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I am relatively new to postcrossing (joined about four months ago). I have ten slots now, which are always filled. I would like to send more postcards, and I want to do it with official postcrossing, since all these games on offer just confuse me.
I know I am lucky to have reached ten slots so quickly, because I am from Germany. Advice for newbies from the big three: check both same country and repeated country in your settings to reduce average travel times.
Here’s a suggestion that might make things easier for beginners in countries with long travel times: for everyone who has less than twenty slots, increase number of allowed postcards by one every three months if the account was active during that period, e.g. at least one sent postcard.
I guess once twenty slots are reached it doesn’t really matter how long you have to wait for new slots, as the chance for a card to be registered every couple of days is high. If twenty seems too high, make it fifteen. I just feel that the time component could make it easier for beginners, because you can count on it and it’s not as random as your postal system working.
Just to be clear: I see this as in addition to the current system, not instead of it.
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Lol point made.
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Main problem (for me) at the moment is I send a lot of cards but cards going to Russia either expire or aren’t registered. So if I have 17 cards traveling, 7 of them to Russia and 5 of them to the US (which also often take 3 or more weeks!), that’s really frustrating
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Traditionally cards to Russia can take very long, that is nothing special. My cards to Russia take between 8 days and more than 100 days.
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Great idea about an extra one per year!
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I never even consider picking and choosing who to send to. I had one occasion where I had nothing in common and even had opposite beliefs than the person I received. So I just wrote them information about the photo on the postcard.
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Yeah it’s very slow, I’ve now got a few penpal postcarders so the mail box isn’t empty as much when waiting for official ones
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This topic has been on my mind lately. Currently I have 23 slots (soon to be 24). I’d love to be able to write more official cards, like 10 a day. I’m aware of RRs/tags/swaps, and have sent ~600 cards through those methods in the last 8 months. However, I prefer official cards the most.
When I participated in Postcrossing around 2012, mail traveled a lot quicker in the US and other countries, and slots turned over quicker. Now the mail has slowed down in the US and elsewhere. I think Postcrossing should consider adjusting the slot limits as a countermeasure. The maximum can remain at 100 slots, but I think the rate at which members “earn” slots can be accelerated. It makes sense that new members are limited, so they do not over-commit. But more established members can have more trust.
Because of the slot limit, I’ve been resending cards to members after 20 days of travel time to Germany/USA and 60 days to China, just to speed it up in case the first card was lost (if the member is active and registering cards). I don’t mind the expense and the upside is the member may receive a bonus card from me. I joined two other postcard exchange sites, so I can send more “official” cards, but Postcrossing is the most robust.
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100% agree. I have 11 slots and will sometimes go up to two weeks without any postcards registered. The system should take into account a user’s activity level and allow for another slot every 10 cards past 100.
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