I find it special that people find it such a problem to receive such a friendly reminder.
Not so nice for the people who make the effort to send you a nice card, that you don’t care if it arrives or get lost. And if a card isn’t registered, apparently it’s everyone and everything, but not you.
Come on, we are all human, also you (and me) who register all cards very seriously can accidentally forget a card. Nobody is perfect. And it’s really not that bad to see if you missed one. Then you check it and if it turns out that you have registered everything, you move on.
I had a huge number of expired postcards between September 2021 and May 2022. Had never so much in all the years before.
Nevertheless a reminder won’t change anything. As not only I’ve stated before: people who play fair would register the cards as soon as they get them.
The others don’t care, with or without reminder.
Overlooked cards are such a low number that it would be less than a drop in the ocean.
Not to talk about the technical side, I don’t know if it would be a big effort or not for the administration team.
Even if it will be without ID, I still wouldn’t want to know where to expect a postcard from. I was also asked once whether the postcard did arrive by chance, not only I was told what is on the postcard with the ID and told that the photo is uploaded (probably with the fact that I should register it and see the photo)? just knowing what’s to come made me a little disappointed, the official postcrossing is supposed to be a surprise. with a reminder it would lose that moment of surprise
Well, that wouldn’t be that often…The most cards would be still a suprise for you. ;)) I also asked in this way sometimes, otherwise the receiver wouldn’t now what looking for (or it comes into her or his mind “Ah, yes, I got it and put it on my desk!”)
For example - I sent a card to Japan a while ago. After a while I wondered why it travels so long this time and checked if I maybe forgot the ID - yes, I forgot. So I messaged the person in a friendly way if by chance the card arrived so I could give the ID (maybe the person don’t know about the help function). There even came no answer at all…
Hi, I like the idea of one reminder email from official PC, maybe after 300+ days, so it’s really only in rare cases send. Because it’s a chance to get some more cards registered.
It should be possible and not too hard to implement an automatically send email.
And it could include a button “read the email, not received the card”, so it’s clear the person is still interested in PC, not just giving it up for any reason.
Wanted to hint at some already existing topics concerning the theme of expired cards:
Yes, it can also only be 1 email. The reason I thought of two moments myself is because a card that arrived in the past 2-3 months may still be “close by” somewhere. On the shelf in a cupboard, or on the table. But after 300 days, can you still find the card, which may have arrived in 30-60 days? So much can have happened in those 240 days, making it more difficult to find the postcard.
150 days and 300 days is also possible. We can think together which moment (or moments) is/are best.
Another topic that might also be relevant:
When you wait and register a whole pile at once you may miss a card.
That you think you have registered it, when you have not.
To be honest if I had done this and then got a reminder message about expired card it wouldn’t make any difference. I wouldn’t go and search or clean all my tables or shelves for looking a postcard. I maybe would check my postcard boxes (but how would I know what I’m looking for without ID) but that’s all I would do.
People here frequently cite Russia as an example of excessive expired cards. Yes, there are all kinds of Postcrossing system things that go wrong: lost card, forgotten registration, etc. But please keep in mind one other thing: hundreds of thousands of Russians (M & F) have been conscripted, taken from their homes, shipped to a foreign country and met their death. Likewise, hundreds of Ukrainians and perhaps Belarusians may have met the same fate. I think about this too, during national disasters: how many Postcrossers may have lost years of postcard fun when their house was buried in a landslide or sent down river in a flood?
My point is that we shouldn’t necessarily or immediately assume that a lack of registration or recent logins are the intentional actions of a member.
The bad thing is that lots of accounts are inactive with people who log themselves once or twice per year, that is not acceptable imho, in that case Postcrossing should advise them to check their mail and be more active
I would not want a reminder at 60 days, because it’s too easy for a card to take longer than that, especially if it’s coming from a rare and far away place. Then, when it finally did arrive, it wouldn’t be a surprise anymore. Or worse, I would start to expect it and wait for it, then it never would arrive, and that would be quite upsetting.
Checking the mailbox can be an emotionally difficult thing for me, and Postcrossing was supposed to make it fun again, not add to my anxiety.
I might be okay with a 300 day reminder, because if a card hadn’t arrived by then I would assume it wasn’t going to. It might make me momentarily sad, but at least it wouldn’t lead to false hope.
One problem, though, is that the vast majority of expired cards were probably either never actually sent by the sender, or lost in the postal system. I can see most active members receiving a list of expired cards every year looking for them the first few times without finding any, then learning to just ignore such emails in future.
By the way I think Postcrossing does send official emails to people who stop logging in at all or registering any cards, but unfortunately if someone’s unable to log into Postcrossing, they may not be checking their email either.
To sum up, I wouldn’t be against a reminder at 300 days, but I’m not sure how much it would help, either.
I don’t think a reminder email is a good idea if it’s only one expired card - that will just result in spam for those of us who receive many cards a month.
However, I think, it’s a good idea if many cards to the same recipient are expired. In that case, there may be a problem on the recipient’s side:
typo in the address
traveling and has forgotten to set their account to inactive
moved and forgotten to update the address
lost interest in Postcrossing and forgot to register the last cards
problem with the local postal system the recipient may be unaware of
In all those cases, I believe, a reminder can’t hurt. But it should really only trigger if more than 10 (or so) cards to the same person expire within a short timeframe.
I’m not interested in such an email because I register all my cards as soon as I recieved them. I’m honest, I wouldn’t check my last bunch of recieved cards (where cards from RRs and swaps are included) to compare them with a list of shortened IDs to find out if I forgot a card.
I’m sure you mean well, but I would feel harassed by an email like you suggested it in your first post.
I’m not doing this. When I’ve sent a card, I let it go.
I received some prepaid cards from Australia and they were no problem for Deutsche Post AG.
Deutsche Post AG sold prepaid cards themselves in the past.
I think such a reminder does not help very much for the most of those cards have not arrived and in most of the other cases the addressees are no longer interested in Postcrossing, I suppose.
Thanks, this is good to know!
Although, to me, the Australian ones look more professional and all the same, while ours can have different image as “stamp” and don’t all look the same.
Let’s say, a reminder contains information about a card which was sent 70 days ago. From a country where normally it takes one or two week to reach me. So I have to look through all my received cards of the last 8-10 weeks…
No way!! For people who take part in RR or any other games this means a hundred of cards.
When I open my mail box I immediately sort the mail and put it on my desk.
If I really forget a card I would find it latest a few days later when I put them into the box or clean up the desk and the room. Cleaning is of course a repeated thing so it’s impossible to overlook a card which may have fallen behind the desk (which could of course happen).
I think there are already ways practiced that should help
For example when a user goes inactive a reminder is already sent to these members. When the user is regulary online and registeres regulary it might just be the case that the card got lost.
For me I feel the same as many said before: I would not want to know what card is on it’s way.
The fact that people do not want to receive a reminder or do not feel like looking around to see if they have received a card says more about the person than about the reminder.
The email is not a personal attack on you or a reproach for not registering your postcards.
It’s just an extra check. You may be registering all your cards perfectly.
But as said before, we are all human and it can happen to all of us that we forget to register a card.
Not on purpose, but by accident. Nobody blames you for not registering the card.
It’s only a question to look extra if you really haven’t had it.
Very good that you all register every card equally, have a perfectly clean house and never make mistakes, but we are with thousands of postcrossers. This is not about you personally but about all of us.
Postcrossing is something we do together. Sender and receiver.
It’s not just about the receiver, the sender also deserves that you do your best.
No one can force you to search, but it would be nice to do, out of respect for the sender.
You can think for a moment where it could be. And search there.
We can all accidentally forget a card or whatever, why we don’t registering it.
Just checking to see if you have it is a small effort - great pleasure.
And yes of course, the postcard can’t have been sent, got lost in the post,
or didn’t arrive for some other reason.
But no more interest in postcrossing is no reason not to register the last cards.
If many postcards expire, you will already receive an email from Postcrossing.
So waiting for 10 cards to expire, that takes too long.
and all the same, while ours can have different image as “stamp” and don’t all look the same.