Further to most sent postcards, it would so nice to have a ‘most liked’ ranking of postcards. I know it’s fun for a lot of postcrossers to win the race of most cards sent, but there are also the ones, who care more about sending postcards that are well liked, and it would be fun to see that reflected in a ranking. What do you think?
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Looking at my 10 most popular postcards I remark:
6 of 10 are from Albania,
2 of 10 are from Ethiopia
1 of 10 is from San Marino
1 of 10 is a nude postcard from Germany
It is remarkable I live in Germany and most of my sent postcards are from here.
Does this mean Albania has the highest quality of postcards?
No, I wouldn’t say. I believe it is:
a) a rar country, the people would like to get a postcard
b) there are a lot of Albanian migrants who love their roots
c) it is in the country list in a top position
If I would make any conclusion out of most popular postcards, I would send all cards from Albania and I would only send postcards showing a naked woman.
I hope nobody wants this.
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I think the like doesn’t tell about quality? Neither does the photo (it doesn’t show if it’s a paper part, postcard, greeting card etc.)
Some like all cards they get. I like only cards I don’t have, so I remove the like if I get it.
Also problems could be, if someone sends many of the same, and all these are liked few times, should these be treated as one (I don’t think this is possible).
I have never thought it’s some kind of race to be one of the most sent…but yes, maybe it is for some.
To this suggestion, I don’t know 
(But then the top would get extra attention, and get more likes, and would that mean only those would get extra likes and hence “win” more probably again 
?
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I don’t oppose that idea (won’t block any Autobahn), but it may trigger a strange stress or competition for some. Also there are too many factors at work to bring a balanced result.
(also your assumption that users that send many cards care less about well liked motifs can be read as a bit insulting)
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Well that some members have sent over 10000 cards doesn’t ‚‘trigger’ any stress response in me… so I don’t think that’s a valid point.
Or it would mean that I’d continuously stressed… 
Also what are these factors, that would make it difficult?. It’s simple maths, the card with the most likes wins. What’s hard about that?
And I honestly don’t care if anybody feels ‘insulted’ by a simple, straight forward suggestion, if you want to take it personally, that’s up to you.
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Honestly I give up … The status quo cannot be challenged, it’s the rule… 
If a naked woman were to win (which I seriously doubt, having seen how many likes these cards usually get), wouldn’t that be a really interesting fact? I would find it fascinating…
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The card with the most likes is probably Postcrossing’s first card.
I some kind of like your idea, but as someone earlier wrote I also think that once such a list is set up it will probably stay that way more or less, because those cards are easier to find and liked.
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I fear that it won’t work. Cards that have a lot of likes, will be seen more often (and hence liked more often) than cards that may be extremely beautiful and rare but sent by a newbie for example whose sent cards aren’t seen as often. It’s like the rich getting richer… 
I have set myself another goal: I always do my utterbest to send cards from the wishlist. If I succeed, it sometimes happens that the receiver does not give it a like because it is no longer on their wishlist (and also the like from the ‘original’ card is gone). I understand and have no problem with that (after all I got a thank you message). Nevertheless, I strive to have a like for at least half my sent cards. I have 260 popular cards from 449 sent. That’s fine with me. It’s a very personal goal though.
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It was not the suggestion that can be read as insulting but this:
(bolding mine)
It sounds like you think/hint the ones who have sent much, don’t care about sending a card that is liked. Like these are two separate groups. If that’s not what you mean, you may want to reword it.
If it would be true and fair winner, this should have separate liking/favourite system.
(Some of these factors are told here already, why it would not be that now.)
Also, old cards have more likes as fewer cards were on the walls, people had less to like.
One of my most favourites was naked man, until it was removed.
My top 10 now is:
5 handmade
1 Japanese card sent from Finland
1 German card sent from Finland
1 French (?) card sent from Finland
a male butt (this also no Finnish, if I remember correct)
Christmas card
so if I would think these are the best ones what people want, I would send handmades, cards from not my country, nudes and christmas cards.
PT-1 has 4617 likes, so, like @P05tkatze mentioned, that would probably win.
And after winning, maybe get more likes again
But, now in the stats are my most liked, maybe each month would show top 5 liked of all registered that month?
(Although I think that wouldn’t be “true” either as like I wrote, I never favourite a card I got, and many are like me. Also, very competitive persons would ask people to like their cards still something like that could be nice - but nudes, especially males, get often likes, that would mean a nude could appear to someones mail, and I think this is not something that is ok.)
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I think it’s overwhelmingly true that the most liked cards are from rarer destinations.
Anyone who has sent cards from more than one country (either through travel mode or by living in various places) will have experienced the correlation between the ‘rareness’ of the ID and the number of likes.
My most liked card is a MOTW from Norfolk Island, with three times more likes than the next favourite card (incidentally also from N.I).
So while it’s a nice suggestion, the reality is that likes are not about the effort someone puts in.
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I like postcards with topics close to me. Nothing to do with quality or rarity/frequency/country of origin. My own possibility to get and buy postcards is limited. Therefore, my only possible reaction to the suggestion is to completely ignore it.
The rare-ID-phenomenon was mentioned already, the first-card-likes too. Then we have the millionths, which gather some extra attention with every countdown- or blog-post.
And then of course some extra-ambitious senders could promote their cards up and down the forum and at meetups and in social-media-groups just to increase their likes.
So yes, we would end up with cards with many/most likes, but these likes derive from a somehow tilted process.
And as it is with any competition, some might take it too serious, start spending too much money on seemingly extra-popular cards or whatever.
Honestly, if you give up after twelve hours and three comments (and no word by anyone ‘important’ like the admins, it does not seem to be very important to you.
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Your argument seems to be that it would somehow be unfair… I can’t send a hundred postcards a month due to financial resons, nor is that something I would want to do- so I will never be at the top for most cards sent. Not that that is my goal at all. But so the rich are getting richer on this site already! But when I suggest a ranking for most liked card, everybody gets upset… I Just dont get It.
I am very happy that I can see which ones of my cards are ‘populair’. Because it gives me an idea of what kind of cards that send are liked and what cards I should keep in stock. 
I don’t mind the suggested idea, as I don’t care for rankings.
I just wonder if people will start pushing people to like their card?
I mean, I have already received messages from people, because I removed their card. I sometimes do that, because the picture is bad, and I want to upload a better one. I do that sometimes after registrating them, but sometimes I don’t get the time to upload it again…
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I don’t see anyone upset, but think more your suggestion, and how would you organise it.
Do you mean this would be about all cards, ever sent?
Or withing one month, year or other time slot? (Like most liked card sent (registered) in 2024?)
One random from each sender? If same person sends same card, each getting likes, who counts these together?
Or maybe each member gets to choose a card to put there? Maybe someone else’s card, not to make this “please like my card”-competition?
Are you suggesting separate like system for this, or take it from what is now used in favourites?
Where it will be announced?
Are the country restrictions, maybe top 5 from each country?
There are good responses to your suggestion, please read those and think more. If I would be in position to implement this, I would need more precise ideas to keep it interesting (like not to have the first ever sent card win every time, that would become boring in the long run).
(Also I would expect to drop the attitude that those who send more would not care about if the card is liked 
it’s not friendly towards the loyal, old, many cards sent members. I would not take part in anything that hints such things and present members who sent a lot in bad light, even if it were only an opinion.)
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I just wanted the time window you mentioned. Because it could be fun to see trends of what is populair. Even more fun if you can break them down to liked by people from a certain country.
Also a lot of valid questions.
I am also thinking about how much work it might be to implement this in the code. The rankings there are know are pretty ‘easy’ as they are connected to members (800.000). Which is a way smaller database than the one of sent cards (more than 76.000.000). It takes more time to let a query search the latter database than the first database. So that mught requiere more hardware? So more costs.
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This would really be interesting! Once I recognised “old returning member” because the wishes were so different than what are now and what I remembered from the time when I joined.
(Actually such ranking could help a new member to see what styles of themes are popular (some like to buy such). Maybe also put pressure, but then one can not look at it.)
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Exactly. I have taken severall breaks and I have cards that were once on trend, but not anymore. Wishes on profiles change, not just because different people/movies/singers are populair, but also brands of postcards.
For example: I haven’t seen the wishes for novelle images multiples for quite a while.