One of my cards was taking an unusually long time to reach its destination, so I checked how long it usually takes for cards from my country to reach this person. That’s when I noticed this person probably registers in bulk, and hasn’t been doing even that since September. My card was not sent in September, but later than that.
Strange is though that the person seems to log in every day. Now I’m wondering if I should send a message to ask if they may have received my card already, but are either unable to register it, or just have forgotten to set their account to inactive or something? But I’m afraid that might be rude? What do you think I should do? Just wait a little longer?
(I wouldn’t mind waiting, I’m usually patient, it just seems a bit strange that this person hasn’t been registering cards since September, and the profile doesn’t seem to be set to inactive, since I sent my card a few months later than September.)
Hi. I’m in the same boat. I have a card that’s been travelling 57 days to Germany, a country that normally is pretty quick. The user doesn’t seem to have registered anything since September. I’ve decided to wait it out. There could be any number of reasons that she hasn’t registered my card, and more than anything, I hope that she is ok.
This is an enjoyable hobby and if someone doesn’t register a card for a few weeks nobody dies. We just all do this in our own way. Maybe I’m being too nonchalant but I have more important things to worry about than someone not registering a card the minute they get it.
I’ve found that a significant proportion of my expired cards are to people who register in bulk. I can only imagine that they received the cards, but misplaced them before they got round to registering them. It’s frustrating, but the one time I did message someone, they just ignored me, so I don’t bother now.
There are all kinds of legitimate reasons for cards to be registered late. Perhaps the recipient travels a lot so is not home often. Or they have to go to their local post office to pick up their mail. Maybe their town only gets mail from the outside world in some parts of the year. And, of course, it could just be that the post office is having a bad hair day.
Yes, I think/worry about people being sick from time to time too. If someone had COVID-19, or some other serious illness, registering postcards wouldn’t be in their top 100 things to do in a week, assuming they had a mild enough version to be at home, never mind someone ill enough to be in the hospital.
I love people to receive what I send them, but I realize I have no control over the card once I mail it and the 60 day expiry process is there for a reason, so I don’t worry about these cards too much anymore.
There are many reasons for someone hadn’t register your card yet. 1st one is the obvious - it’s still travelling - this year all the mail seems to take longer times to reach nearer countries and everything is much more slow (and in December is usually slower due to Christmas and increase of mail due to packages/Christmas cards).
More, if this person does register their mail in bulk can be several reasons: they have a post box and can only check it x times per month, their mail person only delivers mail each x days, they’re busy with their work and can only register mail at Sunday (or other day). Well the point is, we don’t know!
You can always send a message to this person, asking. You can see in other topics what’s the general opinion on such messages - if you’re nice you have more hypotheses to be answered, but many people that are active just ignore those messages because they register cards as they can/receive.
When I come across somebody who registers in bulk and has long periods in between registering cards, I notify Postcrossing staff. They can ask the member to register more swiftly or judge the excuse given. I do not message them myself.
We can do this? I usually send a message and then a throwaway card but I never thought we could get the big guns involved. Currently I have a card out to someone who hasn’t logged in in months, do you think I can report them to postcrossing for this?
You can contact the Postcrossing team for whatever reason you need their help. But keep in mind in which way they could help you.
If there’s a user who registers in bulks only every now and then, it might be a reason to report them.
It might be pointless to report a user who didn’t login in Postcrossing for ages - the only thing the admins could do is sent that person an email. (That’s what you can also do yourself. Send an email and ask what happened to your postcard. You can do that by sending a message to that user on the main site.)
If you draw an address, the user whose address you receive has logged in within a reasonable time span - so no need to report a user when pulling an address straight away.
I’m not contacting staff for ‘just a late registered postcard’, only if I see that someone is always registering in bulk and my card should have arrived weeks ago.
If the interludes are just a week, I’ll wait that out. I have seen postcrossers who only register once a month or even less, that is not in the spirit of Postcrossing. Then I do ask staff to help.
For inactive useers, I do not ask staff, cards will get registerd when the account is closed, or when they expire, or I’ll send a message myself.
Learning this lesson (not just in postcrossing) has been one of the most important things I have learned as an adult. What is out of my control is out of my control. Let it go.
If someone registers in bulk and at long intervals (say, more than a month), I’d let the admins involved, yes. People rely on their cards to be registered and it’s kind of rude to only register in bulk. If it’s an emergency, illness, sudden trip, that would be a one-off so not to worry. If someone receives at an address where they only return every few months, then sorry but they need to find another solution (e.g. people living at that address to send them the postcard IDs so they can at least register).
Also having a PO box shouldn’t mean you visit it less frequently than a month, unless of course there is a lockdown… Okay, there might be people with special circumstances but Postcrossing requires active participation both for sending and receiving (though as I said a small delay or a one-off big delay is understandable, especially this year).
For those who disappear without registering, there is no solution in the world, staff cannot do anything about it.
If my computer broke, there will be no another possibility for me to register cards. Library is closed because of covid restrictions, any another public internet using places too.
@SiLV yes, that is an emergency, not a habit. And in a normal time the library would be open. And if you have a mobile phone you can do it from there. Or if you have a friend or relative that can let you use a computer. But even if you have none of this option, it’s still something out of your control that happened without notice.
People who “register in bulk” probably have a reason to do so many people (my inlaws, for instance) do not get their mail delivered to their home, but rather need to drive to the nearest town to get it. Lockdowns, snowstorms, COVID-19 symptoms or illness, and the holidays would make it harder to get their mail more than once a week. Their home internet connection fails often because of their location + snowstorms, and like @SiLV they do not have smartphones or data on their phones.
many people (my inlaws, for instance) do not get their mail delivered to their home, but rather need to drive to the nearest town to get it. Lockdowns, snowstorms, COVID-19 symptoms or illness, and the holidays would make it harder to get their mail more than once a week. Their home internet connection fails often because of their location + snowstorms, and like