I am sorry but I think you missed my point in this message.
I was only asking in general. There is a reason why I never complained before exept this one time and I still think that giving an address to whoever is wrong. I don’t think a postcoffice registeres my address somewhere on a computer or a server while sorting it.
However you often read people writing about certain things and others recommend to report this. I simply was trying to find out what is OK to report and what not. I do speak German fluently so I really don’t care if a profile is written in German or not - however others might find it rude to have a profile in a language that is not understood by all on this page. The rule for English as the official postcrossing laguage is there for a reason. Question is: Do I really need to complain about it?
Ana of the Postcrossing team already answered that a litte further up by saying that I can easily write to these people and kindly make them aware of the rule.
However only because you do not care about all this others might as well. I just recently read a post here where someone wrote the team a message asking not to send a card to a certain person because this person asked for postcards about a urinal. This person was highly offended by that. Just think that there are many people from different countries here and depending on where you are from things might be considered rued or insulting that others do not.
I menat my question simply as some kind of guideline not just for me but also for others.
And by the way: You and me are both German. Our people are well known for complaining about everything
Okay, I understand In my opinion you do not need to complain about these things.
I would suggest:
Profile not in English -> kindly ask the person herself/himself to change it in a nice message and suggest google translate.
Person not online -> just wait because a person who is not online on postcrossing will also not read his/her private messages
Third party address -> complain if it is to anyone except local postoffice (yes if the address is given to the local postoffice they might save it on the computer for a short time (until the address has been put on the card) but then they delete it. They won’t do anything bad with the address).
If person have covid or flu, or hepatitis, is just normal to send a card not properly from herself but to write an e-mail to post office and use that service - send the postcard remotely. That’s nothing what to complain about.
i wouldn’t say this. some people only come online to send or register a card. epecially if you’re new that can take some time. doesn’t mean they won’t read their messages in their email (or register your card).
a while ago i got a profile all written in german. i said on the card that it’s better to write it in english so more people will understand who he is and what he wants. he didn’t mention it in his hurray message (which was in english) and i’m pretty sure his profile is still in german.
i didn’t report this profile though. i put the whole text in google translate, sent a nice card and moved on to the next one.
maybe i’m a bit too easy sometimes as i’ve registered folded cards and pieces of packages and such, but oh well.
Yes I agree. They only come online to send or register. So there is no use in reporting them. When they receive the card they will register it. And if they lost interest in postcrossing they probably won’t react to the email.
Okay, but you tried and in the end it doesn’t matter and they probably wouldn’t have changed it even if an admin had told them to change it.
I would register folded cards too and I register postcards made from packaging (e.g. cereal carton) as long as I see the person tried to make a proper card out of it but I wouldn’t register trash (e.g. napkin or thin piece of paper that doesn’t resemble a postcard at all).
The problem with a different language than English is, they might not understand English. Even if how kindly I write them a message to add English to their, they don’t understand it. Yes, they could Google translate it, but if they know how to use it, why is the profile not in English? They haven’t understood the rules, so they are also a “risk member”, who think they can choose who to send the card to, or not to register perfectly good card, just because they don’t have time, or think cards get registered automatically, or they don’t like the card, don’t know what the id is and don’t know how to ask help.
And if the owner of different language profile is old or something, can’t use the translate etc, what if the sender is too?
Personally, I hate “use Google translate”. It is very teenage-style reaction, like “it’s not my problem, so why should I help”. What if the language is not there? Translation also gives wrong translations.
I report/complain when I feel something is not right
A bit off topic, but that is incorrect. A card is only registered automatically if the profile is closed (by the member or by the admin) or, I think, when someone changes address and asks the admin to register old cards.
If someone abandons the profile, your card will just be lost forever.
However, it never occurred to me to report people who no longer log in. What can anyone do about it?
On the old forum, there was a post explaining that it is pointless to contact the admins about that, people get a lot of automated reminders but it’s not like that makes them return if they really don’t care, or if they are ill/other really bad things happened.
I once reported a profile that asks for stamps instead of postcards (they said they love stamps, and send me nice stamps and oh, while you’re at it, instead of a postcard just send stamps). That irritated me a lot, as stamp collecting is not the point of postcrossing, though it can be a nice side effect.
As for other language, I’m very ambivalent about it. The rule is that English is the common language of postcrossing, but I am very interested in other languages so I enjoy the diversity. However, Google translate is certainly useful when you’re stuck looking at a language you have no clue about, but it is an imperfect tool and not to be taken so lightly. I would never use it to write a message in a language I don’t know, it could end up very wrong (but I use it to help me with doubts with languages I’m not so good at, which means I also have an idea of when not to trust it. Of course it’s great to get the main idea of a message you don’t understand at all, but you’ll notice you need a lot of imagination to fully understand…)
I strongly disagree with this. I have received cards from many people who did not speak English, cards written in Russian for example. And they were always lovely cards that matched my profile. Saying that someone won’t send cards because they have their profile in their language is, in my opinion, wrong and also not very nice and inclusive.
Yes, you are right, sorry! I just realized the person I was referring to had indeed closed her profile. I still don’t really see how a complaint would change anything. If they have abandoned their profile, why should an email make them come back? Also, you could just write the person yourself.
Curiously, recently I received a card with a very short message. Eh, one of those, I thought. Then I read the profile, which was in English, saying the sender spoke very little English. That felt so nice, that this person was making such an effort to write a profile and a short message on a postcard in English.
Interestingly, it was a German member and my profile says I can get by in German (and I get cards fully in German relatively often, which can also be difficult when the handwriting is hard to read - hard to guess words in a language you don’t master )
Not sure what was the point of this story:joy: just sharing
I have never seen a profile like that but MANY in which they ask for extra stuff as in “I would really love for you to send the card in an envelope and include coins, stickers, stamps, keychain etc etc”. I find this to be quite rude but just ignore it and send a postcard.
I think in this case it doesn’t help much, unless a member has too many expired cards and can’t send anymore. If many expired cards are to members who are not active anymore, perhaps the team can understand it and open the possibilty to send again.
It only happened to me once (and the person deleted their profile so in the end my card was registered automatically) and I have sent over 70 cards. So I think it is rare that this happens but of course some people can be unlucky.
I don’t know for sure, but would guess, that postcards sent via such print & mail services offered by postal providers are not printed by the postal provider itself but by some third party print shop. So the sender gives the adress to the postal provider and agrees in the terms and conditions that the adress will be forwarded to the print shop.
oh same. but i guess you can always try, right? those people probably received a lot of free stuff.
also, speaking about stamps. i got a profile today that uploaded a lot of stamps instead of the front of the card. so i put one of my boring stamps on the cards because i want the front of the card on my wall and not the back. some even were with the whole message. now i think about it, i guess that’s worth reporting?
I always think they mean, if it’s no extra bother.
I keep old scratch cards, tickets, stamps etc, but I have no use for them, so I wait for a profile who likes to have them, and send it to them. And sometimes I send coin, but a small value, but only because it is no extra trouble, as it doesn’t cost more and I would never ask money from those items. And if it happens to cost more, I think it’s only 0,80 € more than a card (which for me doesn’t matter).
In my opinion you do not need to complain about these things.
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