See the name or user name of the sender when entering postcard number

I do the same. I have been at big meetings where even just the names or nicks of all the attendees won’t fit into the postcard.
I always try to write at least “Hello from…” but some recipients don’t understand I am the sender. It also happens to me when I receive a meeting card as an official :postcrossing: card. But I always write a general “thank you, I hope you had fun” message, even if I don’t know who the actual sender was.
I’m noticing an increase in the number of postcrossers who don’t like meeting cards, and that makes me a bit sad, because :postcrossing: meetings gave me so much joy in the past year.

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But for the addressee it is a card with no message just a lot of rubber stamps. The addressee did not take part in it and probably does not know the participants at all, so I can understand the people who say no to meeting cards, although I don’t mind them.

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Yes, I know. I have already read this reasoning a few times. In this case, I think one should state they don’t like meeting cards on their profile. I find it ok if someone doesn’t like these postcards, but for me it’s not a reason to leave the message field blank. :slight_smile:

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First a little sidetrack thoughts:

I don’t mind so much the many signatures on meeting cards, although I prefer at least a little message to me. If it’s not clear who sent the card, I write a thank you without a name.

What I mind a little, is that sometimes my address is shared in these meetings, and it shouldn’t. If my card is signed by tens of people, they all see many addresses they aren’t supposed to see.

The community guidelines says:

“Keep private information private.
The addresses given to you are private information and can only be used for Postcrossing purposes. Do not share them with anyone or make them public on the internet. This also applies to what is written on the postcards you have received, so please do not scan it.”

But, in meetings, the addresses are sometimes shared.
Yes, it is a postcrossing meeting, but the addresses are meant for only the one who gets my address. Not to write the address and then pass it along to others.

I wrote about this a couple of years ago, and someone told me it’s such a busy situation, no one reads the addresses. Which of course they can’t know. Also, if it’s so busy, sounds like my card is just in a postcard stamping factory.

Of course someones can do it the safer way, to write only the id, and when all have signed the card, write the address so that no one else sees it :+1:

And to the original topic, when I have hard time reading the name, I try to interpret it the best I can, or if it’s very unclear, I write only “Hello”. But, as I sometimes get cards without a name at all, I think they don’t want to share their name, and it’s their choice.

I have received a Hurray saying “Hello Karto” :smile: (Karto is the postcard manufacturer, and their logo is handwritten looking text.)

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At meetups I’ve been to, we passed around blank cards and added the addresses later. I can’t say that always happens, and it wasn’t intentional to avoid sharing an address, but I will keep that in mind in the future.

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That’s also a very nice way, and how it should be done (maybe every one nowadays does it so), even though personally I don’t see a huge danger even if my address is there, but just a situation what shows how easily people forget not to share the address.

(I once got a meet up card, where one signer commented to me, so I knew she saw my address, and that felt weird.)

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When I attend(ed?) very big meetings, there was sometimes just enough room left for me to put my initials (rather than my stamp) on some postcards. Whenever I can, I try to keep the top of the card empty for a short message, but sometimes other attendees don’t get it and put their signature / stamp there! :smiley:
I also write a generic “Hello everybody, I hope you had a lot of fun” message when I don’t know who the sender is. I think that’s fair. :wink:

I had never thought about this…
Most attendees at the meetings I went to abroad (in Austria, Belgium, Portugal, Norway, the Netherlands) seemed to send meeting cards mainly to “meeting friends” or “meetup-card swap partners”. Many of them already know each other, so they already have each other’s addresses. It’s different when you send an official card from a meetup, but honestly, who has the time to read the recipients’ addresses when there are (often) hundreds, if not thousands of postcards to sign?
I don’t know how Finnish meetups are organized, since I have never been to one (or to Finland), but I certainly can’t remember any addresses I may have read on the tons of postcards I signed at the meetups I attended in the past few years.

That may be an idea, but it’s not always doable. Most of the meetups I attended were held in other European countries. I often travelled there just for a week-end, to attend the meeting. I tried to prepare my postcards in advance, because I had little or no time left to write them after the meeting. But it’s different when you attend a meetup in your city or country and can write messages and addresses, and mail your cards later on. :wink:

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it may not sound nice, but for me to play safe just Hello dear, hello friend and the messages…different part of the world, different way of writing it too. not only alphabets but the most important part, the ID numbers to can get confusing. :slight_smile: :face_with_hand_over_mouth:

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Thanks, @paulo for the explanation of why things are the way they are and how Postcrossing has thought about adding this option.

Thanks also @siobhan for summing up my opinion also - if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

When I receive a card where I cannot read the sender#s name, I just leave the salutation out of the “hurray” message ans say something like “Thank you for the great card of X! I really like (something that tells them that I am talking specifically about their card)”. When I receive such a message (without a salutation mentioning me by name) I am just as happy as if they had prefaced it with “Hello Courtney.”

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I like to see the screen name as I enjoy reading about the person before registering and many times I find that we have so much more in common than what is written on the card and I would have said more in my hurray! Message. I feel weird sending a second message after registering.

It’s also helped me in one case where the sender forget the card ID, and although I haven’t received a card that’s fallen off the system in a long time, it sure would be nice to message the user when the card does arrive after traveling for over a year.

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That is exactly what I do not want to have. If I’d like you to reply on my profile, I could write my screen name on the card. But the Hurray-mail should be a reply to the message on the card solely.
And if the sender forgot the ID or the ID is older than a year, then you can ask the staff and they will help you.

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It’s funny, sometimes I have that happen too, where after registering I see on the person’s profile that we have more in common. If I felt particularly drawn to say something, I might send a second message (I’ve done it a couple of times), but mostly I just feel like it’s one of those secret funny things to discover - like seeing someone who is reading one of your favorite books on the train or something. You smile to yourself and get off at your stop. :wink:

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Funny, I do the same and that led to some nice communication sometimes.

Same for me, I feel so uncomfortable addressing impersonally…

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I think an impersonal addressing is fine for the sender if (s)he omits to write his/her name or does it illegibly.

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Sometimes I am greeted, “dear postcrossing friend”, or just Hi, “Moin”. Some people don’t like sharing their name, I have received cards that are not signed, so I write just Hello or something like that.

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The blank registration message is the worst thing that happens. Simple Thank you is hundred times better. My name is Anu and there’s nothing you can do about that receivers read Ann instead of Anu from the handwriting. It is moving to read nice answers and appearance of misread names on messages reveal even more of what an effort a person has to make to send a heartfelt message.

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And you can’t always blame the handwriting, as my address is many times wrong. Even my hometown, with only four letters, is misspelled.

Sounds nice, I will remember this and use it if I don’t know the name, kiitos paljon!

@paulo happy birthday! good reply, which made me think of the following. If it is technically feasible, my suggestion would be to allow each user to decide how their postcards would be registered. Option A would be the existing system and Option B would be to decouple the registration from the message, and when the card was registered and the message box then came up the receiver could see the ID of the sender. So each member could choose whether to take the risk of not getting a message. It could maybe be very slightly confusing for the receiver but as long as there was an identical SEND MESSAGE button on both versions it should work OK.

If a member decided Option B wasn’t working for them they could turn that off and go back to Option A or vice versa. I think that could keep both camps reasonably happy.

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