had that yesterday, got 4 cards (all from the US and 3 IDs were really close together) 3 of them given out on 12th, a day not a single received of mine was registered.
It was on the 11th - and someone in France and the first US card of that batch got the address then.
As I went active again in december and haven’t gotten a card from then (had 1 or 2 more sent back then) I assume there might still be some on the way.
And I’m even out now, but only because cards that were traveling (and actually not even mailed on 11th and at best just drawn on 9th/10th/11th) and arrived later than said 11th/12th are registered already.
As I got “you’ll get a card” messages in the hurrays for the cards registered after 11th/12th there will still be more on the way so it will again be a constant trying to catch up too much received - even though I’m not a rare country.
Will - again - end when it gets too annoying and I’ll go inactive just sending out until I’m even - and then go onto the next Postcrossing break for a (longer) while.
And it would have been more fun to not have these 4 cards so close together (and that was pretty likely to get them that way, IDs just 2 digits apart from the same country, would need a delay on senders side to not arrive together).
Please don’t do that! When we draw an address, someone is due a postcard, so we should mail it now. If I understood correctly, people are complaining not about getting cards, but getting too many from the same day (although the cards arrive on different days? ). But honestly, I cannot do anything about this, so if I draw an address, I will send the card.
And yes, there are recurring complaints about too many German addresses / cards. This makes me sad too, but I will not stop doing my favourite hobby.
When you got those hurrays, did you have more sent than received or where you already even? I suspect that the “you’ll get a card” is not connected to the address actually being given to someone but instead it will be in every hurray when 1) you have sent > received and 2) you are active. I don’t have any proof (yet) though
Just thought this again, because often it’s seen that people should choose to send within their own country and to repeated, to help the balance (which I’m not sure if it would help much).
But, should then also inactive (when you send, but don’t receive) become not possible?
Maybe only travel mode would be, that you address is not given.
The inactives need addresses (if they keep sending). But their address is not helping the situation at that time (hopefully is later).
So here I think, what if the inactive (when you only send) was not possible, how much would it change how the addresses are given?
(I mean, how much would it change, if you either are inactive (don’t send, don’t receive), or active, when you send and receive.)
I assume this is for the sake of argument, because the lack of inactive state would be a disaster when you move house or can’t receive for some reason and cards to you are lost.
Inactive it’s not just sending without receiving, it’s also a break when you might not even send because you are too busy/other reasons. So not all inactive will continue sending but it depends on the circumstances.
I think it is a bit dodgy that we go inactive to stop receiving too much, but I have been doing it too. Maybe it should be forbidden to go inactive for not real reasons like a change of address (but how can the staff check on everyone?) or maybe it should be forbidden to go inactive and keep sending.
I don’t know how it would affect the situation.
I don’t think this is a solution. You can’t know when the recipient will receive a deluge of cards and you can’t predict it solely based on location. I am in Asia and I have this situation too, but I had it as bad when I was in the UK. How rare is rare enough? I don’t think it is possible to make an informed judgement on how to implement this. Also, what if you forget to send it later? You might be more organised than me but you never know…
This I was trying to write (and thought did I repeat “if/when they only send” too much but apparently not)
So either you are active and send and receive, or inactive, when don’t send and don’t receive.
But maybe the travel mode would stay.
And yes, only a thought, of course I don’t know how many there are only sending for example hundred cards or more and not receiving.
I know. This topic is about getting more cards than one sends, so if you intentionally delay your sending two months, your card is already expired, and the receiver’s address is given again, causing again “one too more card” for them. So you would not help, but worsen that situation. (And of course break the rules, when one should send the card as soon as possible.)
Aaah I see, I misunderstood then But yes we’re saying the same thing.
Maybe it would still depend on the country the inactive person is from? Or rather on their personal activity. I’m trying to think of this scenario but it’s making my brain hurt
@Johnk60 Believe it or not I actually received my first card the night after I posted this .
Good to know the neighborhood kids aren’t stealing the mail again. (It can sometimes be a problem where I live.)
I have now my sent and received even but many cards are travelling. Should I now put my mode to inactive? I have never used it. I guess it won’t worsen the situation for others if I refrain from sending new cards while inactive.
And then, when more cards have arrived, I will gradually make myself active for a minute every now and then…?
I really would prefer not to get some ten cards at once.
I tried this method but it didn’t work. I changed myself to active once a day for 5-10 minutes but I didn’t receive a single card. Eventually I got tired of trying so I switched to active and received 20+ cards at once. I haven’t tried again since.
Are you not wanting to receive cards at all?
Then I would put myself inactive before these travelling ones are registered, and new ones would be on their way to me.
If I would like to continue sending and receiving, I wouldn’t do anything.
I don’t know the situation in you town, but here I get mail either two or three days a week. Some card are sent many days apart from the same country, and these still arrive at the same day. (Of course it can be the deliverer is sick on some days and other things.)
For example, on 2nd January I got cards from USA , sent on
19th November
29th November and
10th December
On 13th January I got cards from Germany, sent on:
28th December
1st January
9th January
So, addresses are not given the same day, but they arrive at the same day.
Similarly, addresses given on the same day, arrive different days.
It’s not to blame how the algorithm works or how often/many times addresses are given, at least not always.
For me, being inactive makes a bigger wave in my mail, than the small waves happening when I stay active. I assume the algorithm likes when I’m predictable
Maybe “everyone” had travelling cards to Finland and your wasn’t there for the “non repeated” -wanters? But interesting of course.
I looked the random members from Finland, looks very good, no one had big differencies, so seems like we are perfectly “normal” being not too common and not too rare (so I would think there is no “need” to play with the inactive, unless you really don’t want to get any cards).
I tried this method once, recently. I’m from Austria which is one of the less common countries. I switched from inactive to active for exactly 2 minutes, and received 11 cards (so far) with that date, which is nearly as much as if I would’ve gone active completely (16 times was the most so far when I just stayed active)
Wonder if that missing ones in the 60s will also arrive 65,66, 68 would still be not received yet.
2 cards from Singapore also from 12th.
For no card received by someone on that day that’s quite an amount (don’t think I had so few variety in two “mailbox happy” days with that many cards also.
I receive many cards on the same day too, then many days with no cards at all. Today I received 3, and yesterday I received 6. Out of the 9 cards I received in these two days, 7 cards were sent on 12 January.
In the past, I have not noticed this before, but I never spent any time thinking about it before participating in this forum post thread.
I prefer not to give much attention to this, as it makes Postcrossing less enjoyable for me. I do not want to stress about the algorithm and how it works, there is already enough going on in my life. I just want to enjoy the cards when they arrive, even if it is many on the same day. This is not a judgement of anyone else, just my own feelings about this now.
I have been on a PC-break for a while, and now I am back. Sending and receiving postcards both give me a thrill.
This week, something funny happened:
I had sent one card and received 3 cards back. All of them were from the US and their numbers were consecutive (see attached Screenshot).
While I really enjoyed getting these lovely cards, I am wondering how this can happen? Is this a “normal” behaviour of the algorhythm? Or is this just a happy coincidence? If so, I think this is a lovely story.
). But honestly, I cannot do anything about this, so if I draw an address, I will send the card.
But yes we’re saying the same thing.
65,66, 68 would still be not received yet.
