I don’t actually like those meeting postcards… i mean, bunch of signatures and ink stamped names and that is the message pretty much? 
well maybe some greetings from xxxx meet up or something. I really don’t understand what is this “tradition” to send such a signatures only message to a total stranger. But i’m fine with those, it just something i’m wondering oh why 
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I had one yesterday where I was greeted by my username. It’s no big deal, but I do find it a bit odd.
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And if you go to a meetup and want to send cards from it with a message on rather than signatures, would people look at you askance? Would people there get upset if you refused to sign masses of cards?
I do wonder if the tradition started at a meetup where the participants didn’t have much English and this was their way to send postcards without having to write a message.
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Indeed, would be kinda interesting to know how this tradition started!
Yes, wondering also same thing now
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I am guilty of attending (organizing) meetups and signing/stamping cards there. For the meetup cards I send, I try to add two or three lines fitting to the respective profile, but that’s difficult sometimes. So yes, sometimes I do send cards with ‘only’ user-stamps.
While it’s not this 1000%-newbestfriend-directlinktoheartandsoul-connection some expect from every new card (it seems), one can still get some good nice fun out of such cards. Studies in stamp design? Studies of travel patterns? Counting the names you know from official contacts or from the forum? A statistic of popular colours?
Of course, if one really is bothered, one can always say so in the profile.
As for the origin of the ‘tradition’, there are others who maybe know. But I doubt it was lack of language skills.
An of course no one is obligated to stamp all the cards resp. let ones own cards get stamped. One can simply attend a meetup to spend some hours among folks who care about postcards (unlike other friends and family who maybe don’t).
(I’ve also seen users securing some space to write a message via post-it or washi, so combinations of (small) message and stamps are not unheard of; and some ‘meeters’ debate/propose limits of cards-to-be-signed, so maybe such cards with many stamps will become very exclusive on their own very soon 
)
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I mean that could also be a language barrier. Or simply not the knowledge how to use the word.
And I lived in Japan and moved several times. And compared to German flats, Japanese flats are really really small in the cities, but not in the countryside. But in London or New York the flats tend to be even smaller … 
so I guess it always depends on the perspective.
Sometimes I get very religious messages, that is a bit unpleasent. Even missionary stuff … 
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I don’t have particular feelings about getting meetup postcards with signatures.
Would I like a message on it? Sure.
If there isn’t a message, would I be upset? Nope
To me, these things are like
On date X, these people (Y) were at this meetup
It’s a little like how a photograph helps you remember, oh I had pancakes for breakfast on 16 May (for example)
If I get such a postcard, it kind of makes me feel like I was there too, in a small way.
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Once I got a lovely card with a political mesage written by the sender. This person thought it would be a nice idea to praise the guy that ruined my country and tried to convince me how good have done him in my homeland, a place I flew away 15 years ago due social and political circumstances.
Of course I registered the card and answered with a “Thanks”, because I could be mad at that moment, but I’m always educated 
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Today I received a postcard from Russia with a stamp of the Crimea. It never ceases to amaze me how blissfully insensitive some people can be
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Should a paid stamp not be used just because someone might be offended by it? Maybe s/he didn’t have any other stamps.
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Did the senders from Russia with such stamps write something you did not prefer to read, like the opposite belief than yours about the war, etc., on the cards sent to you ?
You are talking about stamps themselves that you did not like in this thread where I, as an original thread creator, am asking people if they have received cards with something written on that they did not enjoy.
For example, I may receive a military related stamped card from China, while I am in Japan, which I may not enjoy much myself. But if what is written on the card itself is pretty normal, there is nothing I can say about it. It is not breaking any Postcrossing rules.
What would you say on this ?
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What I do in such occasions is do a direct swap with someone on the site or the forum who would be okay with receiving a potentially offensive stamp
Did the senders from Russia with such stamps write something you did not prefer to read, like the opposite belief than yours about the war, etc., on the cards sent to you ?
No, they did not. The cards were really innocent. I think it shows how these people had no ill intent. This was the stamp on the card I received today:
I think the sender just wanted to send a nice stamp from a series of Russian lighthouses, not seeing it as a political statement that the lighthouse was from Crimea.
You are talking about stamps themselves that you did not like in this thread where I, as an original thread creator, am asking people if they have received cards with something written on that they did not enjoy.
I’m sorry, I didn’t want to hijack your topic. I thought unenjoyable stamps related enough to unenjoyable text to talk about it here, but if you prefer to keep it more on-topic, I will stop talking about it.
For example, I may receive a military related stamped card from China, while I am in Japan, which I may not enjoy much myself. But if what is written on the card itself is pretty normal, there is nothing I can say about it. It is not breaking any Postcrossing rules.
What would you say on this ?
I do not know about tensions between Japan and China but I believe you if you say you could be offended by such a stamp. In my hurray message to the sender of the Crimean lighthouse stamp card, I said that I really liked the card and the stamp but that she should be aware that such a stamp could be considered offensive to others. So you could do something like that too; tell the other person that you appreciate the card but that the stamp was of a theme that offended you and ask that person to be more considerate in the future. It is indeed not against Postcrossing rules to send such a stamp, but people can always try to be considerate of other’s feelings, right?
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Or maybe it’s just you and the few people who find these stamps offensive. For others, they are just stamps. You never know what will offend someone! I have noticed that only mainstream opinions are accepted and anything outside of that is “offensive”. They are just differences of opinion, not insults.
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Hmm that is an interesting view as well. Food for thought!
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I actually have once received an official card from China with a military themed stamp on it. It was from a male and I thought there would be many males in China who would like such stamps.
What was written on the card was pretty normal as well as the card itself, so I believe there was no ill intension when he sent the card to me.
I actully mentioned a bit about the military stamp he affixed on the card in a Hurray message to him, like, I did not quite enjoy it. But it was rather difficult for me and I felt kind of hesitant to do so more or less because I thought such stamps could have been something that he very much felt proud of as a Chinese person throughout the history. Who knows, I may have offended him more or less by mentioning that I did not enjoy the military themed stamp that he likes. So, I even felt a little bit guilty myself when I sent him such a Hurray message.
Anyway, if you prefer not to receive certain stamps on Postcrossing, I think you could mention it on your profile with a reason why, which I think you can politely.
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You can of course mention what you would not want to get as far as postcards or stamps but of course the sender is not obligated to follow your wishes.
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True, but if something was sent with ill intention on Postcrossing, that can be against Postcrossing rules and guidelines.
There are times we, as the receivers, cannot tell what some people / senders do with postcards and stamps on Postcrossing.
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@clubpostcards Unless the sender tells you they mean ill will I think you have to give them the benefit of the doubt.
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But how can you prove this with a stamp which is valid for mail in the sender’s country? Postcards are one thing. Thanks to online shops most people have the possibility to choose from a wide selection.
But stamps? Some countries have only a limited selection of stamps and maybe only two or three different of each value. What if, for example, these three different themes show exactly that what one strongly exclude?
I remember that profile I got in my early Postcrossing days. Germany had those flower stamps. That profile strongly exclude that flower stamps because they “get sick to see that crap over and over again!”
In these days I didn’t know about the wide variety Deutsche Post has. I was very insecure and chose a stamp from the vending machine - which was wrong, too, of course 
Nowadays I would report such things (and the very rude Hurray I got only because of the stamp) and don’t care any longer but back then it was a bit discouraging to get treated like that just because of a dxxx stamp 
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