An interesting idea that I could support.
Why?
I recently started to check the repetition tab to hold for about 2 weeks each month. Whether it is coincidence, or not, I am finding that I am getting more cards from different countries than before during the “non-repetition” weeks. It has made for some interesting variety.
I encourage others to try this. Even for a few days each month, or a week each month.
I also like the idea of experimenting with an annual repetition day - or a monthly repetition day even. We could start this like this (just a few ideas)
New Year’s Day (whichever New Year one celebrates)
February 1 - to kick off Month of Letters
definitely WPD - October 1
why not try it on one’s birthday?
what about clicking it on the day of one’s Postcrossing anniversary?
I would rather just see the repeated countries option eliminated completely and go to a true ‘first in first out’ system (obviously accounting for the postal monitor i.e. countries we cannot send to or receive from).
If postcrossing doesn’t want that, then it might be an idea to just encourage as many people as possible in a topic to turn off the option. Or make it a very regular activity. Every first day of the month or so.
That is very interesting. I did not expect to have a difference with just one account. I’d like to try it in the future.
I’ve noticed that people that have been in PC for longer and have number of 1.000 and 2.000 sent are more likely to have the repeated countries option ON.
I plan to do that in the future, once I get more slots. I undestand that when you have quite some slots and you’ve already sent and received to/from a lot of countries, repetition doesn’t make that much of a difference and it really helps the system.
My main point with this idea is that I imagine the Repetition option is less fun for newbies that have less slots. It is not the same having the Repetition on if you can send 15 postcards than if you can send 3.
Hence making it “A Thing”, an oficial day that can be celebrated, feels more like “we are all in this together” and will encourage participation while puting a positive note on getting the same country more than once, and getting more of frequent countries.
I know this will be a discrimination, but.
The one thing that’s not mentioned and that I was thinking about that postcrossers in the frequent countries should automatically have the button “send to your own country” permanently ticked. Then they would help all the other participants to have more variety. I don’t have any figures of course of how many participants of these most frequent countries have the button on, and longer than just for 2 weeks in December.
While I undestand your point of view, I think the existance of the “non repeated” button is still necessary, specially for newbies.
Once you’ve received 1k postcards from many countries, you’ve sent also to many countries, and you’ve sent to the same country countless of times, the repeating feature becomes less important. It is easy to care less about where you send and more about Who if you have been around for long and have already sent to a 1000 addresses.
But for people that are starting, and for whom postcrossing is a way of traveling through postcards, it can be pretty unmotivating if all your precious, scarce slots go to the same country.
While every address is different, it is not the same if I’m starting postcrossing and my map looks like this: Postcard 1 Postcard 2 Postcard 3
Than if it looks like this: Postcard 1 Postcard 2 Postcard 3.
Germany, Russia and the USA are very common countries, but for a newbie, those are three new countries, instead of one.
It is quite motivating and that is important because we all know that the first weeks of postcrossing are the worst. You finish sending your maximum of 5 postcards quite easily (even if you try to hold) and it takes time for your first Received postcard to arrive. It is easy to loose interest.
And, yes, “there’s the forum to send more”, but the forum takes some time to warm up and get a hold of how it works and you have to start intereacting (with limited actions) until you can write, answer, start a post, etc.
And not everyone likes the forum and the non-oficial PC and that’s fair.
Most of the time I have yes for “own country” (it’s cheaper and faster ) and yes for “repeated countries” (it’s always another person you send to or receive from ).
But to be honest I deleted “repeated countries” in March when several countries stopped mail to Russia to avoid that I only get Russian addresses. Even without “repeated contries” I get about 5 German, 5 Russian and 5 US-Amerian addresses at the same time and I didn’t want to send only to these three countries over weeks. Especially as in 2021 Russia was the country with the most expired cards for me.
At the moment I have 22 travelling (5 RU, 5 US, 2 BY, all other are 1 per country) and when I draw new addresses maybe tomorrow, I guess I’ll get 5 German ones and maybe some from TW and NL and another one from RU, US and BY.
To be honest, I’m not thrilled with this idea. I occasionally use the repeated option but most of the time I don’t use it because I find it boring to get the same countries all the time. I have nothing against these countries, don’t misunderstand. Of course, people are always different but I prefer to have variety. If Postcorssing starts demanding that you have to use the repeated option, I think many users will stop this hobby. If the rule is only for one day, many don’t necessarily want to participate in it.
As an example.
On average, I send 1 postcard every week or 2 postcards every two weeks.
Started again in November 2021 after a long (years) break.
Between November 13, 2021 and September 18, 2022, I sent 48 postcards.
Option ‘send cards to your own country’: on.
Option ‘send to the same country repeatedly’: on.
48 postcards
USA: 3
Germany: 16
Russia: 28. (19 received, 5 on the way, 4 expired).
Taiwan 1 (because, at the request of the Postcrossing team, after 4 expired cards to Russia, I once turned off the option “repeatedly to the same country”. Then I turned it back on immediately).
This is discussed in some other threads.
It could perhaps make the situation worse. More cards travelling fast, more free slots, more cards to this frequent country.
Like if a German gets USA address, it can take two weeks to get there and the slot is taken during that time. No one is sending “back” to this German address during this time. If the German member sends to Germany, it can take 3-4 days, even less, and the German slot is open again, they get more travelling slots faster, and the frequent country gets even more common.
So, would choosing “not to my own country” actually help more?
I don’t mind taking the edge off for someone who prefers so send to greater variety of countries. I personally benefit from the imbalance It saves me money on postage because with the repeated countries on I send pretty much exclusively to Europe, which is cheaper here. With expensive postage and rates going up, it can help to be more active. But I understand that for peope from outside of Europe it may be the other way around.
Speaking from the perspective of a Newbie from Germany. I have six postcards traveling at the moment and no more open slots. One to Germany, three to Russia, one to Belarus and one to the US. Four of these are to members who have not been logged in for quite a while, including the one to Germany. So I guess I will have to wait a long time until I get at least one more open slot.
Now how about allowing 2-3 extra slots to people who want them under the provision that these will always be addresses from “the big three”? This would probably help deplete the pool of addresses from those countries and would make it easier to get started and increase the number of slots for us beginners. Win-win.
Wow! I’m getting a headache trying to understand all the recommendations! I’m one of the “big 3” - USA - and leave all my options turned on. Since my postal service won’t accept mail to Russia right now, 99% of my postcards are going to Germany and USA. It’s still fun, but I can see why some people would like more options. I still get cards from all other countries, so I don’t mind.
BTW, I think it would be fun to have some Repetition Days and see what happens!
Most of the official postcards I receive say “I’m very excited because it’s the first time I send a postcard to your country”. I can understand this need from the users to have more diversity. For my part, I have the option turned on to send postcards to repeated countries and for now I feel comfortable with it. I only get the USA and Germany. I like it because I save money by sending postcards to the USA and I have almost never had expired postcards from Germany.
I undestand where you are comming from but, you said it as well, it will be discriminatory to make it mandatory just for some countries. They already get a lot of negativity by simply existing, because they are the most frequent countries and some people don’t cut down dissapointment from “Ah, I got [common country] AGAIN”.
And also this:
I know that for some people in the USA (that country is the one I’ve heard about the most) actually like the “Own country” option because they have postcard-specific value for stamps, it is waaay cheaper and they also try to “get all 50 states”, since some are more common than others. And, over all, while that could be a solution, I’m trying to think and gather ideas that will make people want to join, instead of choosing solutions that, yeah, they would work, but they need to be implemented as mandatory things for people from certain countries to do.
After all, this is a hobby, I wouldn’t want to make people “pay” for the country they are living on.
Also, I cannot quote everyone who’s been talking about “Own country” option, but it is something that doesn’t really make a difference if there are not a lot of users from your own country.
I’ve been a year in Postcrossing and during the year I’ve lived in two not-rare-but-not-frequent countries: Norway and Spain.
So, far. I received 1 postcard from while I was in Norway. Didn’t send one from and I have yet to receive or send a postcard to Spain. It will be way cheaper to send to my own country and I have the option ON but it is to no help.
I also prefer sending to as many different countries as possible.
But, I don’t know if it is just me, lately I feel like I am in PC with my “Repeated countries” option ON (I don’t, I double checked).
All I have lately to send is , and
And for receiving, it is the same three +
It feels a little bit ridiculous, this has been going for some time. While I undestand that now I get - in proportion - more addresses to Russia because my country has not banned sending mail there, it looks like those are the only ones I’m sending to.
My country can not send to 81 territories, true. But most of them are on the Rare group for PC. And there are 248 territories in PC, that’s still 167! I don’t know what’s going on.
That’s how all this started. I spent some time in the forum reading about other people’s comments in repetition, diversity in sending-receiving, and trying to find some kind of way to, while not decreasing the chance to get a common country, increase the chance to get a less common one while at it.
To me, if this trend of sending to , and continues, I will just try to turn on Repeated countries and test a bit @HookedonPostcards theory by myself.
That is why I thought about suggesting making something that could make a lot of people try the Repeated countries option. It is a way not to put the “problem” or “guilt” in the most frequent countries, because it is nobody’s individual responsability to be “many people” in PC. While making it an activity that is nicer because a lot of people are doing it at the same time + everyone still gets a chance to decide if they want to join or not.
Postcard 1 
Postcard 2 
Postcard 3.
) and yes for “repeated countries” (it’s always another person you send to or receive from 
It saves me money on postage because with the repeated countries on I send pretty much exclusively to Europe, which is cheaper here. With expensive postage and rates going up, it can help to be more active. But I understand that for peope from outside of Europe it may be the other way around.
Norway and 
Spain.