I have got thousands of postcards. I have deleted some pictures because 1) I received another card than the scanned one or 2) the picture was brutal. What is brutal in a postcard for me: a bloody head of an animal, a skull with the devil’s horns, male genitals, inappropriate text on the front of the card. No need to apologize.
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I can’t agree with this sentiment enough. I think that Postcrossing is about sending out joy. Once you send a card out, it no longer ‘belongs’ to you. The recipient should be able to do with it what they please, since the sender’s personal information normally isn’t on it - be it scanning on PostCrossing or another image hosting service, or deleting it, or even recycling the card itself.
I spent time scanning and uploading each sent card in a hi-res image, but personally don’t take offense to the act, as I notice a lot of PC’ers host their images on external sites. I don’t know what kind of organizational system they use, if any. I also really don’t know what the recipient might find offensive, everyone has very different backgrounds and stories - I don’t think they need to explain or justify this.
I do understand if a sender is disappointed by this, but if someone really wants to keep track of their own sent cards, scanning it and keeping it on an external site is always an option (there’s plenty of free image hosting services out there).
A majority of PC’ers I’ve interacted with (mostly on the forums) are lovely, interesting people. In fact, I’m sure that I’ve swapped way more cards on the forums than on the official site. I think the good greatly outweigh the bad here.
On a logistic side - I imagine it wouldn’t be cost efficient for PC to host two separate images for every postcard, along with separate comments; and I doubt people would be willing to pay the additional fees that would come with that.
I like the current system a lot, so both parties can see comments and favorites. I’d also hate to see the gallery flooded with doubles of cards (as most people don’t delete the images).
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I totally agree with you!
Once I sent out a card it’s no longer up to me what the recipient does with it.
I also think that my time is too limited to care about any longer after the card was registered.
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@Violet2022 …my comment about you being a new PostCrosser…I did not mean imply your opinion is not valuable. I just stated that because after a few years, you will come to realize that not everyone here is as open-minded about this subject. 
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@anon95027724 …No worries, I noticed several interesting things already (as you have since joining in December 2020). Have a good weekend 
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I know that the Postcrossing as a rule, that say, when you send a postcard, while it’s travelling you can upload an image of it. But after it gets to it’s destine, the person who receives can delete it or replace the image.
I think it’s unfair to give the opportunity to delete, because:
1st. The sender had the work of take pic or scanning the post card
2nd. It changes the wall of the sender, decreasing the pics of the sending postcards
3rd. I think it’s not ok, having others change your wall, by deleting the previous work we had.
I love the opportunity to showcase all the postcard that I send (without others deleting) and also to showcase the ones I got.
When I got a postcard that does not have a pic, I scan it and upload it, because I think it’s a way to thank the sender.
So my suggestion it to preventing the deleting of the postcards that people have so carefully uploaded.
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Generally I agree with you that it is nice to have all the cards we send on our wall. But bear in mind that what the sender puts on their wall also appears on the wall of the receiver. So you change their wall, too, by uploading your picture.
Sometimes the picture uploaded by the sender is not very good, so I like to delete that picture and take a new photo of the card to upload it myself. Others may not want a certain card on their wall and delete it.
The only way out would be to separate the sender’s and receiver’s walls so that you would keep the photo you upload while the sender can have their own picture on their wall (or none of the card if they don’t like it). This would mean, however, that potentially every postcard would appear twice in the photo bank. I don’t know it this is desired.
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I scan and upload all the cards, sent and received, but I don’t care about the pictures any longer after the card is registered. It’s no longer my business. I care only about my received cards.
And I don’t think it’s unfair, because the sender doesn’t have to do this “work” (sorry, but I don’t see a lot of work behind this) and on the other hand it would be unfair for the receiver if they can’t keep their wall as they wish to do.
If you don’t want your wall to be changed you force something to the recipient what they perhaps do not want.
If your goal is to keep pictures of all your sent cards for yourself you can upload them to an external site and keep track on them. Then you can also choose if you want to show those cards public too.
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Thank you for your in put.
Your suggestion as some meriti, but as you say we will have 2 pic of the same postcard.
Kind Regards
Thank you Angelthecat for you input.
When I wrote this I was looking for the point of view of the sender. I didn’t think about the impact of the receiver wall. So we have 2 will that can be different, forcing something to the recipient wall or forcing not having something in the sender wall. And the system agrees with you.
I’m new to postcrossing, I was exciting to show the postcard that I got and send, but maybe I should do like you do, forget what I send, because the true is the moment the postcard is received its no longer ours.
Kind Regards,
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I think this situation is neither unfair nor fair. Some receivers might not want certain cards on their wall (tbh I assume this is very rare as long as they don’t get some type of cards they really don’t like for some reasons)
The option to delete is good if the receiver doesn’t get the same card sent by the sender, or if the card they got arrived in bad shape
Perhaps it could be better that there’s no delete feature, instead replace image. So it can’t be left blank
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That would not be nice, if someone don’t know how to upload anything, and the already uploaded one shows their address or something they don’t want to see.
I’ve deleted I think two or three images, where my address was visible. I think it’s good to have this option. And recently the sender had uploaded image of a different card, which I deleted.
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I don’t often delete received postcards, but sometimes I think it appropriate. You mention the time and effort it takes to scan and upload postcards. Well, I sometimes wish individuals would make the same effort in selecting a card the recipient would enjoy getting. These folks often send junk and subjects that the receiver dislikes. I have no problem ditching these scans.
Another thought. One sender wrote me inquiring why their card didn’t appear on my wall. I replied that I deleted it. They then proceeded to make a snarky remark about Americans. Made me even more glad that I deleted their card scan.
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Yes, it’s a drag when your image gets deleted, but long ago, way before I joined it was decided that the image belongs to the person who receives the card after all kinds of complex discussion.
It’s not a simple change & there are lots of things about that discussion I had never thought of, so don’t expect that rule to change any time soon.
I agree that not being able to delete it might be an important safety issue. I also experienced a couple of uploads of the wrong postcard site, so being able to delete something quickly without having to scan something to change the picture instead of deleting it is essential for safety.
If someone likes their sent wall to be complete, they can mention it in their profile and upload the picture, which should be enough for the majority of people to keep the picture on their wall. I upload everything beforehand (apart from my first few cards ever) and I have less than 10 cards of a difference between my sent number and the corresponding images on my wall. So it doesn’t seem to be too much of an issue in general.
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Generally I agree with you. However, two different walls would still constitute a safety risk in terms of the address site being uploaded and the receiver not being able to change that without contacting the admins etc.
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I think it’s important to allow the recipient to delete the image for safety and privacy reasons.
Is it disappointing to see that the recipient has deleted the image of your postcard? Of course, especially when you’ve gone to the effort of taking a good photo or scan and uploading it.
But you also have no idea what the recipient has done with the physical card after they received it. The effort of picking out a postcard that you think will please the recipient, writing the card, buying the stamps, and travelling to the postbox/post office adds up to a lot more ‘work’ than uploading the image, and the recipient could (theoretically) throw your card out as soon as they’ve registered it - and that would be much more disappointing!
Ultimately I have accepted that the image of the postcard, just like the postcard itself, belongs to the sender until the postcard drops into the postbox, and belongs to the recipient once they receive the card. The sender has no control over what the recipient does with the physical card, so the sender also shouldn’t control the image.
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I wonder, if it could help both sides if the picture could be hidden at one wall (either the sender’s or the recipient’s one)? If one does not like the poatcard, they could hide it…
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I agree that sometimes people don’t know how to upload anything. But I think when you register the ID you’re using your gadget or your computer? Which is why I assume something can be uploaded whether it’s the right side of card, the right card you received or just a random picture from you to not make it blank added with a note.
I honestly don’t know why someone still upload the back part of card which contain personal information about the receiver. Thought everyone has read the guidelines lol.
The hidden card option sounds good! @geosmin_petrichor . Although when I draw an address I often go through their wall to see what kind of cards they’ve got from my country so I could try sending something different. And having a card without a picture is just not helping at all
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I keep all cards on my received wall, even ones I really don’t like. Why? Because I always check the sent wall of someone before sending them a card and if I see a lot of ‘junk’, I’m not going to send my nicest card. So even ‘not so nice’ cards give valuable information that way.
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