That is exactly what we are discussing here! The thread is called “the health of postcrossing” and as in health of you and me external factors play a major role.
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Postage costs matter to me…it’s $1.45 from US and considerably more in other places. I don’t care about the time factor as it’s snail mail. You have not sent an official card in more than 3 years; why don’t you participate more? You have many open slots and are choosing not to use them. Your claim that more open slots would increase member participation does not seem to be true for you. Likely its not true for others for a variety of reasons, including rising postage costs.
Your conclusions seem to be based on your own opinions rather than the reasons given by members who actually send cards
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But everyone has their own level of postage they are ready to accept. The same for the price of cards and perhaps their local availability. And if the postage or card price exceed that level, then the people stop postcrossing, for stopping is easier than reducing it, becsuse stopping is just one step, while reducing means you are teased everytime you draw a new address.
And there are new pupils in school every year. So if people stopp postcrossing when leaving school, there are certainly enough new pupuls to start with it. Regardless the most postcrossers are adults and have ever been since I started.
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It doesn’t have to be true for every member.
I have seen several threads where members wish more slots to send. It would be nice to give the possibility to them.
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(Little off topic again, I guess, but
Yes, for some can be like you described. Some can enjoy small amount.
For example a budget allowing to use some amount money to something.
Yes, the school, new students come, but this hobby is not as much talked as when this was new(er). That time forums were very popular, but not anymore. Those who made the big Finnish group, could hear it in “every” forum. I heard too. Now most feeds are of what you already looked/listened/read.
But, I think this history and individual choises and financies are not relevant, when the idea is to give a bigger choice to those who can. (Like: why forbid it based on that someone else doesn’t have money.)
Yes, this turns to become a simple “more slots for newer members”-thread like we already had a few, although the title “the health of postcrossing” is broader.
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No I don’t mean that what is sometimes suggested, that new/ish members should have 20 slots or something or as many as they wish. Sometimes it’s even suggested people could buy more slots, so there always members to whom the money is not an issue.
But I agree, the “health” is not just one thing.
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There are plenty like myself a year or two in and highly restricted in slots - I’m at 14 and all are always travelling. So we participate in Forum activities - I’ve sent hundreds of cards through there that could have gone the official route if available.
Cost would become a prohibitive factor eventually of course but I am a long way from that yet.
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There is no need to guess or invent anything. Countries statistics are available on the Postcrossing site.
The data you provided was probably 10…15 years ago. And your actual data is completely different than you indicate.
And if we take some TOP-10 postcrossers and study which countries were present among their postcards 10 years ago and now, we can see the dynamics of changes in the distribution by countries.
I did all this 5 years ago and wrote about it on the old forum. I’m too lazy to repeat myself, to be honest.
My data covers solely the Year 2022 and is from the statistic Postcrossing sent to me some time ago, while your link to my “complete different” data shows the list of all my received cards (while you argued with sent cards before) from the last 9.5 years.
You’re doing fine. I was actually thinking how this very discourse might be impacting the health of postcrossing, but then again I believe it’s positive, so no need to raise a big stink. You’re absolutely right - plenty to do here - you’ve simply chosen something less typical. But we’re still beyond happy to have you, and if ever I see a card come in from ol’ @greenskull , I’ll treat it with the same care as from some moving island in the South Pacific! 
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If we take the last 1000 postcards that you received, then the distribution by country would be like this.
| Country | % | Total cummulative % |
|---|---|---|
| Germany | 23,10% | 23,10% |
| U.S.A. | 17,80% | 40,90% |
| Russia | 6,90% | 47,80% |
| Netherlands | 5,80% | 53,60% |
| Finland | 4,90% | 58,50% |
| Japan | 3,90% | 62,40% |
| United Kingdom | 2,50% | 64,90% |
| China | 2,40% | 67,30% |
| Czechia | 2,40% | 69,70% |
| Poland | 2,30% | 72,00% |
| Taiwan | 2,30% | 74,30% |
| France | 2,20% | 76,50% |
| Canada | 2,00% | 78,50% |
| Austria | 1,70% | 80,20% |
| Belarus | 1,60% | 81,80% |
| Switzerland | 1,40% | 83,20% |
| Belgium | 1,10% | 84,30% |
| Italy | 1,10% | 85,40% |
| Lithuania | 1,10% | 86,50% |
| Ukraine | 1,00% | 87,50% |
| Portugal | 0,90% | 88,40% |
| Australia | 0,80% | 89,20% |
| India | 0,70% | 89,90% |
| Others | 10,10% | 100,00% |
As we can see, Germany, Russia and the USA are not 90%, but only 47.80%.
And the share of countries far removed from Germany (USA, Japan, China, Taiwan, Canada, Australia, India, etc.) is not less than 30% of all received postcards.
And the share of remote countries is growing.
If you want, I can take your first 1000 postcards for comparison and we will see how right I am. Just say you don’t believe me 
Sent is not received and you started the argument with the claim that I would send more cards to east Asia and to Australia.
If we take first 1000 postcards that you received, then the distribution by country would be like this.
| Country | % | Total cumulative % | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 216 | Germany | 21,60% | 21,60% |
| 120 | Russia | 12,00% | 33,60% |
| 87 | U.S.A. | 8,70% | 42,30% |
| 76 | Netherlands | 7,60% | 49,90% |
| 48 | Finland | 4,80% | 54,70% |
| 43 | Taiwan | 4,30% | 59,00% |
| 36 | China | 3,60% | 62,60% |
| 35 | Czechia | 3,50% | 66,10% |
| 33 | Belarus | 3,30% | 69,40% |
| 25 | Poland | 2,50% | 71,90% |
| 25 | United Kingdom | 2,50% | 74,40% |
| 22 | Ukraine | 2,20% | 76,60% |
| 21 | Japan | 2,10% | 78,70% |
| 15 | Canada | 1,50% | 80,20% |
| 15 | France | 1,50% | 81,70% |
| 14 | Hong Kong | 1,40% | 83,10% |
| 12 | India | 1,20% | 84,30% |
| 12 | Spain | 1,20% | 85,50% |
| 11 | Austria | 1,10% | 86,60% |
| 10 | Australia | 1,00% | 87,60% |
| 10 | Switzerland | 1,00% | 88,60% |
| 9 | Belgium | 0,90% | 89,50% |
| 9 | Portugal | 0,90% | 90,40% |
| 8 | Others | 9,60% | 100,00% |
As we can see, Germany, Russia and the USA are not 90%, and even NOT 47.80%, but only 42,30%.
And the share of countries far removed from Germany (USA, Taiwan, China, Japan, Canada, Honk Kong, India, Australia, etc.) is just about 23.8%. It is about 6…7% less.
So, the the share of remote countries is growing.
It’s a good idea to take a postcrosser that is in the TOP 10 for research, plays non-stop and started from the very beginning of Postcrossing. And you will see that my statement about the increase in the share of remote countries is even more noticeable.
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Lets take your last 1000 sent cards:
| Country | % | Total cumulativel % |
|---|---|---|
| Germany | 30,70% | 30,70% |
| U.S.A. | 30,00% | 60,70% |
| Russia | 27,30% | 88,00% |
| Japan | 1,60% | 89,60% |
| Finland | 1,50% | 91,10% |
| Netherlands | 1,40% | 92,50% |
| France | 0,90% | 93,40% |
| Taiwan | 0,80% | 94,20% |
| Czechia | 0,70% | 94,90% |
| United Kingdom | 0,60% | 95,50% |
| Canada | 0,50% | 96,00% |
| Belarus | 0,30% | 96,30% |
| China | 0,30% | 96,60% |
| Hong Kong | 0,30% | 96,90% |
| India | 0,30% | 97,20% |
| Singapore | 0,30% | 97,50% |
| Australia | 0,20% | 97,70% |
| Austria | 0,20% | 97,90% |
| Luxembourg | 0,20% | 98,10% |
| Poland | 0,20% | 98,30% |
| Switzerland | 0,20% | 98,50% |
| Belgium | 0,10% | 98,60% |
| Brazil | 0,10% | 98,70% |
| Others | 1,30% | 100,00% |
The share of remote countries is at least 34.4%.
Let’s take you first 1000 cards:
| Country | % | Total cumulativel % |
|---|---|---|
| Russia | 21,60% | 21,60% |
| Germany | 20,80% | 42,40% |
| Netherlands | 7,60% | 50,00% |
| U.S.A. | 7,30% | 57,30% |
| Finland | 4,80% | 62,10% |
| Czechia | 4,10% | 66,20% |
| Belarus | 3,40% | 69,60% |
| Taiwan | 2,90% | 72,50% |
| China | 2,20% | 74,70% |
| France | 2,00% | 76,70% |
| Poland | 1,90% | 78,60% |
| Ukraine | 1,90% | 80,50% |
| Japan | 1,80% | 82,30% |
| Canada | 1,50% | 83,80% |
| Spain | 1,10% | 84,90% |
| United Kingdom | 1,10% | 86,00% |
| Belgium | 1,00% | 87,00% |
| Lithuania | 1,00% | 88,00% |
| Portugal | 0,80% | 88,80% |
| Hong Kong | 0,60% | 89,40% |
| India | 0,60% | 90,00% |
| Indonesia | 0,60% | 90,60% |
| Latvia | 0,60% | 91,20% |
| Australia | 0,50% | 91,70% |
| Others | 8,30% | 100,00% |
The share of remote countries is at least 18.0%.
As we can see, the share of remote countries to which you send postcards has grown significantly
This happened mainly with the help of the United States.
And I did not take Russia into account in any of my calculations. Although, if you send and receive a postcard from a postcrosser who lives in Siberia, it may take longer to travel than a postcard to or from China
In any case, using the example of your volume of postcards, I proved my thesis that the share of remote countries in the distribution of Postcrossing postcards around the world is growing. We can count received or sent it doesn’t matter.
Therefore, the average postcard travel time is growing. And taking into account the fact that the rule of slots has not changed for about 10 years, the intensity of the exchange of postcards is falling.
All other factors are less significant.
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In general, initially, by the health of Postcrossing, I understood intra-annual seasonality.
And I described a simple criterion by which one can assess how high the activity of the game is.
But after 5 years, I see how much the nose of the curve LAST 60 DAYS has shrunk, which is caused by a more global factor, which is the reason for the stagnation of Postcrossing postcard traffic.
This is not the health that I originally had in mind, but in fact it characterizes the state of Postcrossing even more strongly.
I would very much like the founders of Postcrossing to listen to me and trust my research and conclusions. And they will consider the possibility of adjusting the slot rule.
This will only give the most positive result for Postcrossing. Postcard traffic will rise. Beginners and intermediate players will have more enthusiasm and motivation to send and receive postcards.
Well, if someone is embarrassed by the ability to send and receive more, everyone has the right to determine the enought level of slots within their own higher maximum level.
You keep mentioning this. I’m assuming you’ve raised your concerns with Paulo and Ana. Have they ever responded to you? I just say this because, of course, we can’t expect them to keep up with every thread in the forum, so unless you’ve spoken to them elsewhere, there’s no guarantee they’ve seen any of this.
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There was some formal reaction from the founders on the old forum. But we never specifically discussed it with them.
I tend to think that they are aware of this topic now and 5 years ago when I brought it up on the old forum
Of course, adjusting the slot rule will require some work on their part. But I am ready to help in the use of my abilities.
I admit that it will be necessary to think carefully about the procedure for switching to a new slot rule.
Then they have to change the software code on the server.
An to keep in mind that the amount of data will grow somewhat faster (according to my estimates by +10…15%).
But it is important to understand that with the growth of traffic, donations will grow proportionally, which will cover additional costs. This is also important to consider.
Since postcrossers will have more joy and satisfaction from Postcrossing, especially for beginners and intermediate players.
They can also add some new features. But they may make some additional features available to donators, for example, just as an idea. This will encourage members to be more willing to sponsor the game and thus more than cover the costs of updating it. But this is a topic for a separate discussion and completely at their discretion. I do not know their plans and intentions.
But I would appreciate some feedback on the issue of adjusting the slot rule.
PS As a special feature available to donators, for example, it could be mandatory to receive a postcard from one of the five most desirable countries that are labeled as the most desirable.
I’m just fantasizing.
But in any case, Postcrossing should develop and be updated, and not stagnate with the rules unchanged for almost 10 years. It is clear that development needs a budget. That’s why I write about some of the features available to donators.
I ask everyone not to take this as criticism. But as ideas, which are actually not so bad
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The longer I follow this discussion, the more I come to the realization that you are concerned with changing postcrossing.
Adjusted to the time as you write. But your suggestions are only based on facts and figures.
Which is not bad at first sight, some of your ideas sound plausible and are understandable.
But Postcrossing lives from the people who do this game.
Everyone who signs up knows the rules. That’s fact.
A registered card allows us to draw a new, random address.
We doubt whether the sending will be accelerated or made more attractive by changing the algorithms.
Because it’s people who send postcards.
Let’s assume:
We started this hobby euphorically.
And learned very quickly that patience is one of the greatest virtues you need here. If someone doesn’t have patience - then your proposals doesn’t change anything.
The person loses interest in postcrossing, perhaps also because he/she had imagined something else others.
In the meantime this has changed for us and we love this hobby.
But you don’t allow any other arguments, like those mentioned again and again by other members.
A very important factor is certainly the economic situation. With monthly inflation (here in Germany) of 6-8%, money is tight. And even if you “only” send 20 cards a month, that means a total of around EUR 20.00. And there are now people who need this money for other things that are more important than postcards!
For us, postcrossing takes up a part of our lives.
However, should something change drastically, be it family-related, health-related or even financial, postcrossing will be pushed into the background. Definitive! Activities are restricted or even terminated.
If the people who do postcrossing can no longer do it or don’t want to do it, then they will no longer take part.
So it’s no use if you change the criteria as blatantly as you suggest.
You will not be able to capture the human factor with all its characteristics in your calculations.
We can discuss this for a very long time, but the administrators have the last word.
And that’s good.
Because we think they too will think about how and where innovations and improvements can be introduced.
Have you already calculated how many people might quit if you install the new rules? Because not everyone is ready to try new things in life.
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How would that be a fact. Constantly questions are asked, that one should know if they read and knew the rules. (Also even knowing the rules is different than doing the actual thing.)
What new thing do you mean here?
No one is forced to send more, but I think you too know how common it is that members want to send more.
And I know about the inflation, but still for some 20 Euros is very little. Some quit the more expensive things, and maybe could afford send more. In family crisis etc, some focus on a hobby like this. This human factor also includes that we all are different. If someone don’t have money, someone has, somene doesn’t have time, someone has. Why would these affect the idea to give a possibility to send more? There are members who would send more, if they had more slots.
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