In short: the objective of Postcrossing is to allow people to exchange postcards via mail (real mail, not email) with random Postcrossers from around the world. Oh, and it is absolutely free, meaning, if you send a postcard, you will receive one back from another random member.

It goes like this:

1. Register on the website. You will need to provide your postal address so that you can receive postcards.
2. Request to send a postcard. An address is displayed along with the member's profile. This address is accompanied by a Postcard ID - a unique code that identifies your postcard.
3. Choose a postcard, write something nice on it along with the assigned Postcard ID, and mail it to the address you were given.
4. Wait, wait, wait. :-)
5. Hoorray! The card arrives to its destination and is registered by the user! Now you too will receive a postcard!

For more details, please check the About section. If you still have questions, check out the FAQ.

The Postcrossing website is absolutely free! You will not receive any postcards if you do not send any; that is what makes the system work. The more postcards you send, the more you will receive. It is simple, but you still have to send postcards to make it work.

Note that you will need to spend money on postage to send the postcards and to buy postcards if you do not have any.

A Postcrossing Ambassador is a member who has made remarkable contributions to the project. Members have received this title by doing things like:

• Writing an article about Postcrossing for a newspaper or magazine;
• Teaching a class about Postcrossing and inviting the students to join;
• Spreading posters in their neighbourhood.

The idea is to spread the word about Postcrossing, so if you want to become an Ambassador use your imagination!

If you have done any of these (or other) good deeds, let us know and we will update your profile.

We receive many requests of ambassador badges for writing about Postcrossing in blogs or homepages. Currently we are not considering these eligible unless proof is provided of having a very large audience.

Tip: Put your mouse over the words "Postcrossing Ambassador" on the user's profile to learn about that member's contribution!

Not any time soon. For the project to work, there needs to be a common language; in this case we chose English.

If the website is translated to other languages, a user can register without understanding a single word of English. This member would only be able to send postcards to other members who share a common language. This goes against the objective of the Postcrossing project. Hence, for the moment, it is a requirement to be able to read and write basic English.

No, it's Paulo! For some reason a lot of people call him 'Paolo' but that is Italian and he is Portuguese. :-)

For a postcard you sent to be registered, the receiver must be able to read the Postcard ID. Here are some dos and don'ts for writing the Postcard ID.

DO:

• do write it on the left side of the postcard (direction of text is unimportant)
• do write it more than once on the postcard
• do double check that you wrote it correctly

DON'T:

• do not write it under or to the right of the address
• do not write it next to the postage

It depends. If the postcard has a picture of your city, you may want to write something about the city. You can also talk about yourself, talk about something funny, or just say hi! It is really up to you to decide what you would like to write; there are no constraints but please be conscious that you may be writing to a child. If you are stuck, here are some ideas about what to write:

• your place of residence
• yourself
• your personal homepage or weblog
• your country
• questions about the person or place or country you are writing to
• information about how the other member can contact you

Always remember to clearly write the Postcard ID that is provided to you. The Postcard ID is the only way the receiver can register your postcard on the website.

Well, no. The main idea is postcards, so you have to send at least that. If you are more into letters or just find a postcard too short, send a letter too. If you are into Bookcrossing, you can also send a book if you want to. What you send with the postcard is up to you. No constraints are made about that, but try to use common sense on that one.

A Postcard ID is a little code that uniquely identifies a postcard in the system. It is composed of two parts: two letters (the country code) and a number. The Postcard ID is used by the recipient to register the received postcard in Postcrossing.

For each address you request to send a postcard to, a Postcard ID will be given to you. This means only official cards have Postcards IDs (postcards that you have privately swapped with other users cannot be registered).

Probably the safest option is English. When you receive the address to send the postcard to, you will also receive a list of languages that the recipient understands. Try to stick to those.

The limits have increased recently - read our blog post to learn more.

Initially you can send 5 postcards. As you exchange more postcards with other members of the site, the number of postcards that you can send (that is, have simultaneously traveling) will increase. This system encourages new users to try out the project while allowing more avid members to send more postcards.

Your limit will start to increase (from 5 to 6) immediately after you have your first 5 postcards registered by their receivers. From then onwards, for every 10 postcards that you have sent, the number of postcards that you can send will increase by 1 up to 35 postcards. After that, for every multiple of 50 postcards (sent), you will be allowed to send one more.

In other words:

• If you have sent between 0 and 4 postcards, you can send 5 postcards.
• If you have sent between 5 and 14 postcards, you can send 6 postcards.
• If you have sent between 15 and 24 postcards, you can send 7 postcards.
• If you have sent between 25 and 34 postcards, you can send 8 postcards.
• If you have sent between 35 and 49 postcards, you can send 9 postcards.
• If you have sent between 50 and 99 postcards, you can send 10 postcards.
• If you have sent between 100 and 149 postcards, you can send 11 postcards.
• If you have sent between 150 and 199 postcards, you can send 12 postcards.
• ... and so on, in increments of 1 postcard for each 50 you send.

This means that if, for example, you have sent 21 postcards, you can have at most 7 postcards traveling simultaneously to other members.

Once you have reached your limit, the only way to free up a slot to send another postcard is to either have a postcard you have sent be registered or have a postcard you have sent time out (expire) in transit. Postcards expire after traveling 60 days although they can still be (and often are) registered after that time frame.

The limit of postcards traveling at the same time stops growing at 100 postcards.

Note: Adjustments to these limits may occur in the future.

Don't worry, the receiver can still ask for help when they receive your postcard.

If you would like to make the receiver's life a little easier, just write them a private message to explain that they will be receiving a postcard without a Postcard ID. Include the Postcard ID in the message.

Yes, absolutely!

We understand that sometimes life gets in the way and postcards do not get sent out in a timely fashion. That is okay, you can still send the postcard late. Just make sure that you send the postcard to arrive within a year of the date you requested the address. Also make sure that the member whose address you were given is still an active member of Postcrossing. Once the member gets the postcard and registers it, the postcard will be registered as a normal postcard.

Postcards that have been traveling more than 60 days are set to status Expired in the Postcrossing system. This status allows you to request another address to send a postcard to.

Most sent postcards will arrive before 60 days have passed; however, some postcards do take longer to reach their destination. Postcards that have expired can still be registered up to one year after you requested the address.

You can see which of your sent postcards have expired by looking at your Sent postcards list. After a period of one year from the sent date, the Postcrossing system deletes the postcard entry from the system. As such, your sent postcards list will not show any postcard that has a travel time greater than 365 days and the postcard cannot be registered by the receiver any longer.

The system does not record the date of mailing. Instead, sent date reflects the date that the address was requested. This simplifies the Postcrossing process. The postcard must be received and registered for your Postcards Sent total to increase.

Wait! :-) There are several things that can make a postcard take a long time to be registered. Here are a few:

• slow postal services
• the member is on holiday or temporarily away
• the member does not have a home Internet connection
• the member did not understand your handwriting and is trying to figure out the ID
• the member is not able to check (or does not receive) their mail daily

Traveling time depends on the postal system of the respective countries so while some postcards may arrive in 5 days, it is as common that postcards take over 30 days to arrive. If it has been well over 30 days, we advise you to contact the recipient of your postcard through private message and ask whether the postcard has arrived (the ID might be blurred, illegible, etc.). After 60 days, the postcard will be set to Expired status and you will be able to request another address.

Be patient, experienced Postcrossers will quickly advise you to do the same - it works!

If you are having trouble receiving emails from Postcrossing.com, see the FAQ on email problems. Otherwise, you can always retrieve addresses for your traveling or expired postcards on Postcrossing.com.

• Go to your Sent postcards
• Click the Postcard ID for the postcard you are missing an address for.

The address is viewable below the map. Once a postcard has been received and registered, you will not be able to view the address in this manner.

First, congratulations if this is your first Postcrossing postcard - hopefully many more will follow!

When you receive a postcard from another Postcrossing user, you must register it on Postcrossing as received. To do that, you need to go to the register a postcard page and enter the Postcard ID written on it. Just look in the text written on the postcard and you should find an alphanumeric code starting with two letters (the country code) followed by a number - this is the code that uniquely identifies that postcard in the system.

Once you register that postcard, it will make the sender be the next person to receive a postcard from someone else in the system. That's it! Simple, right?

If you have problems reading the Postcard ID written on the Postcard, don't give up! Feel free to try as many combinations as possible - only the right combination will be accepted. However, if you still are unable to register it (or if the sender forgot to write the ID!), you can request help to find the Postcard ID by going here.

Probably because that country has many more active users (sending many more postcards) than other countries.

For a more balanced distribution of members and postcard origins, try inviting some international friends to the project. In this manner more balance can be achieved without being unfair to countries where Postcrossing is popular.

The algorithm for selecting addresses is complicated. There are instances when your address will be selected more often than you expect. Count it as an early bonus - your sent/received numbers will even out soon.

Generally, 60 days is enough time for a member to send a postcard and it be registered by the recipient after reaching its destination.

If your postcard is not registered after 60 days of traveling, it is set to Expired in our system. But do not worry, the postcard can still be registered by the receiver within a year of the date it was sent. Every time one of your sent postcards expires, you can request a new address.

We can help you find the Postcrossing ID for your postcard. First, please consider the following.

1. Make sure that the postcard is an official Postcrossing postcard and not a thank you postcard or a private swap.
2. You can try to enter the correct Postcard ID many times without consequence. So, why not try a different combination? For instance, sometimes 1's can look like 7's, 3's and 5's can look like 8's, etc. Don't worry, the Postcrossing system will not let you register a postcard that does not belong to you.
3. If the postcard has information about the sender, you can use those hints to search for the user in our search users page and then contact him/her by private message.
4. Note that postcards with postcard IDs over one year old cannot be registered. Postcrossing.com does not keep track of which member was assigned a specific Postcrossing ID so submitting an Unknown ID request is not helpful.

If you are still unable to register the postcard, you can submit a Unknown ID request (the link is also on the bottom of the register a postcard page). Fill in as much information as possible even if you are not sure. Sometimes if there is very little information, a description of the postcard can help. Note that the postal cancellation mark often displays the date and postal code/city. The Postcrossing team will try to find it for you using the information you provide, so the more details you submit, the more likely it will be found.

You only need to fill out the Unknown ID request once for each postcard. If you make a mistake, delete the request and enter a new one. It can take several days for a match to be found. Please be patient.

Additionally, if you find the Postcard ID and register the postcard before you receive a response, please delete the request. You can delete any request by clicking the delete button for the request on your "Received postcards" list.

Do not worry, we value your privacy (and ours too!). The map on your profile shows the city you live in, not your home address. All the users in the same city will be mapped to the same coordinates which usually point to the city center.

Yes! Please be aware of the following:

• Your address will only be used for the purposes of postcard exchange. Your address will only be made accessible to those members which have been selected to send you a postcard. No one else will have access to your address from the Postcrossing system.
• Addresses will not be given, sold, traded, or have any other use other than for the Postcrossing functionality described above.
• A user can request no more than a small number of addresses at a time from the website. This is so that no one can get all the addresses from the system. Other safety measures have also been implemented to prevent this.

You should, however, understand that this website is free and will not be held responsible for anything that may occur as a result of its use or misuse. The system is very safe to use and designed to be secure, but if you run into problems as a result of using the service, we might not be able to help you.

If you have any questions regarding this subject, feel free to contact us.

Some countries in Postcrossing are not actual countries: they may be dependent territories or regions of special interest, which enjoy a certain degree of autonomy, as detailed on the ISO 3166 norm. Taiwan, Macau, Hong Kong, Wallis and Futuna, the Cayman Islands, the Christmas Island etc. all fall into this category.

Not all countries require the name of the recipient on the address. The postcard will still arrive at its destination. Please trust the member - he or she knows their address best.

It is really up to you. If you wish to be contacted back, it might be a good idea to write your address on the postcard. However, not all postcrossers will write you back.

Members frequently ask why their address is not sent automatically to the person who registers the received postcard. The reason is that some members are not comfortable with this. It is their choice if they would like to send an address on the postcard; we will not do any different.

Note that when you register a postcard, you can leave a message. At this point, you can request the address of the member that sent you a postcard if you would like to send a return postcard.

Simply update the address in your profile including the My location area. Please note that you can only change your country every 60 days.

If you uploaded an image of a postcard that you sent and now it is gone, the most likely reason is that the image was deleted by the receiver. Control over the image displayed mimics real life - whoever has the physical postcard can choose if they want to display it online. So, once a member has received their postcard, they have control of adding/modifying/deleting the image corresponding to that Postcard ID.

If the image that is missing is of a postcard that you received, then there may be a technical problem. Make sure that you are able to view other postcard images on the Postcrossing.com site. Try to upload the image again and see if the upload completes successfully. Lastly, Postcrossing administration may remove images that they deem to be unacceptable.

You can send messages to other Postcrossing members through a link provided on the member's profile page. First, access the member's profile page. Next, find and select the Send *member* a message! link directly under the member statistics area and above the About *member* ... area.

Once you select this link, a form appears where you can type in a Subject: and Message:. You can also choose to receive a copy of the message you write by checking the Check this to receive a copy of the message option. When you are ready to send the message, click the Send message button.

The message is immediately delivered to the private email address provided by that member. To reply to your message, the member must access your profile page and follow the steps outlined above. In this manner, email addresses are kept private.

Guidelines

• Be polite and use common sense.
• Do not send private swap or trade requests to people who have indicated that they do not want to engage in such activities. You will see a helpful reminder to the right of the message box when the member has chosen NOT to partake in private swaps.
• The number of messages you can send in one day are limited. This is to discourage spammers.

Not receiving messages from other members, a copy of your sent message, or emails from Postcrossing.com? Check out the FAQ for email problems.

There is no mail box on Postcrossing. Messages sent from other members are forwarded to the email address listed in your account.

Not receiving messages from other members, a copy of your sent message, or emails from Postcrossing.com? Check out the FAQ for email problems.

Postcrossing does not welcome multiple accounts per person. The project is designed with safety and fairness in mind and for that, certain limitations have been applied so that the system as a whole remains balanced. But by having more than one account, those limits no longer apply, which means you would be going around Postcrossing's and limits, creating several problems for other members and for us as well.

For example, we can no longer make sure that any two persons do an exchange only once; it is harder for a receiver to know which account they should register a postcard with, etc. It also creates unbalances on the address selection system which is unfair to other members.

We do understand that Postcrossers are very enthusiastic about participating in Postcrossing (and we love that!) and that sometimes they would like to send and receive more postcards than what their account allows them to. And that is why the limit of postcards each account can send at the same time increases over time.

For any Postcrosser wishing to exchange more postcards than the account allows, we recommend to:

• Organize direct swaps with other members. Or, do other types of postcard exchanges on the forum where many other members would be happy to exchange with you.
• Be a little bit more patient! The amount you can send at the same time will increase, and soon enough you will find that you can send more than you can possibly handle or afford.

We occasionally tolerate that one person holds more than one account if within a reasonable amount, and only if we see strong evidence of proper usage. But, we still do not welcome such practices and we strongly discourage anyone from doing it. We do monitor for multiple accounts and Postcrossing reserves the right to delete (without any warning), all existing accounts belonging to the same owner, when we see fit. So please, don't open more than one account.

Not at the moment. For now, addresses are chosen randomly from another country (including your own, if you choose that option).

First, make sure that you own the copyright to the image that you are going to upload. Pictures that you take make perfect avatars. Images must be in either the jpg or png file format and be larger than 140x140 px. Square images work best on Postcrossing. Ready?

1. Verify that you are logged in to Postcrossing.com.
2. Select Edit > Avatar from menu.
3. Select Browse... and choose your avatar image from your computer.
4. Select the Upload file button. Wait. It may take a few minutes for your image to upload.
5. Crop your image. You can change the size of the crop area by dragging any one of the eight handles (small squares on the corners and sides). A preview of what your image will look like cropped appears to the right.
6. Once you are happy with the preview, select the Crop button.

Your new avatar is now uploaded. You can change your current avatar using these same steps.

Simply! Select Edit > Avatar from the menu and choose the delete link.

When your account is set to Inactive Postcrossing will not select your account to receive postcards. However, when you set it back to Active you will receive all postcards that your account should had received during that time.

If you know you are going to be away for some time (for example: on holiday, a business trip, etc), you can set your account to Inactive. You can do that at any time in your edit account section and also you can restore it to Active whenever you want.

It is a good idea to use this option whenever you are going to be away from your address for more than a week so that other members do not send you postcards that you are unable to register. It is also advisable to set your account to inactive in advance of your departure so that you can register all postcards that are still traveling to you.

If you plan to return after a short period of time (example: holidays) and you wish to continue sending postcards while on Inactive status, you can. Note however, that if the period of inactivity is too long, the Postcrossing system might temporary block you from sending more postcards if the difference between sent and received postcards is too large for your account. However, this block will automatically go away once you reduce the difference between sent and received postcards.

We are really sorry to hear that! If you are sure that you want to remove your account, please log in with your username and password and go to the removal page (it's not possible to revert this).

If you would just like to take a break from Postcrossing, that is ok. Just edit your profile, and select the option 'Inactive'. When you are ready to come back, just edit your profile again, and voilá!

No. However, you may say what your preferences are in your profile. What you write will indicate to other members what type of postcards you like to receive; however, it does not necessarily guarantee that they can or will fulfil your preferences.

You must still register all postcards you receive regardless of whether they match your preferences or not. Therefore, stating in your profile that you will not register X or Y type of postcards is against the rules.

Remember that Postcrossing is not a collector's website - it is a postcard exchange website.

Yes, you can! You can change your username in your edit account section. Note that you are limited to only 2 changes, so choose wisely! Changes of case do not count as a change, or in other words, changing from 'paulo' to 'Paulo' will not count as a change.

Once you change your username, all the links where your previous username was being shown will be updated to the new one - this includes the 'Sent postcards' of anyone who would have to send you postcards.

In Postcrossing, those who send, receive. But, because of such, very active countries need to receive postcards back in the same quantity that they send. And, consequently, countries with less activity have to send postcards to the most active countries more often than to others.

The Postcrossing system is aware of this fact and aims, when possible, to maximize the number of different countries a user is exchanging postcards with. When this ideal scenario is not possible, it allows some repetitions to occur so that users who send always receive postcards back in the same amount and don't become unbalanced.

There are a few actions that can help Postcrossing reduce this problem such as inviting friends from less active countries to join Postcrossing. By increasing the number of Postcrossing users in other countries, it decreases the weight of the most active countries making the system more balanced globally.

Another way to help is by activating the option in your edit profile that allows for country repetitions when you're sending postcards. With this option, when you request a new address, Postcrossing will not try to select a country that you are not currently exchanging postcards with yet. This way, you will start to send more postcards to the most active countries, thus helping Postcrossing to balance the different weights of each country. Note that this option is currently experimental.

Not all users are equal and you might prefer to send postcards to as many different countries as possible, and that's ok! You don't need to select this option at all if you don't want to. Or you can select it only temporarily to experiment with until you decide. Either way, it's up to you. And note that this only changes the destination of your postcards - it does not change in any way where the postcards you receive will come from.

If you have any question about this, feel free to contact us.

No, the postcard walls are optional. It is up to you to decide if it's important for you to have a wall of the postcards you have received.

It is quite simple! The first step is to get the postcard into an image file. For that you must have access to a computer scanner or a use a digital photo camera. Once you have the postcard in an image file, follow these steps:

1. If you are not logged in to Postcrossing, log in.
2. Go to your Received postcards section
3. Find the row that has the postcrossing ID for the image you would like to upload. Click on the green '+' icon found in the last column of the row.
4. Click the browse button and find and select your file. You can also enter an optional description about the postcard.
5. Click Upload and that is it!

Currently, the senders can upload postcards images while the postcard is still traveling. Once the postcard is registered, this responsibility transfers to the receiver since he is the one who has the physical postcard.

Moreover, we only allow the front (the part that does not have writing or your address) of the postcard to be uploaded. Please do not upload images of the backside of the postcards you receive.

You can delete any postcards that you received and uploaded to your wall. To delete it, go to the Received Postcards section and click on the ID of the postcard you wish to delete. Right above the postcard image there is a button to delete that postcard.

If you find a postcard image that should be removed, the first thing to do is to contact that person and ask to remove it. Please wait a few days for a reply since not every user accesses the site on a daily basis. If you don't obtain a reply, please contact us specifying the reason why that image should be removed from the site. We will do our best to help.

It is quite simple! Just go to the postcard page (by clicking on its Postcard ID) and right above the postcard image there is a small heart-shaped icon. Clicking it adds the postcard as a favourite. By the way, to remove it from your favourites, it is the same process.

If you have a twitter.com account, you can integrate it with Postcrossing. When you send or receive a postcard, Postcrossing will automatically publish that to your twitter.

Here are some samples:

• Writing a #postcrossing postcard to Brazil
• Received a #postcrossing postcard from Russia - http://tinyurl.com/6huxtl
• Received my first postcard from www.postcrossing.com - http://tinyurl.com/67xpej

To activate this, you just need to edit your account and connect it with your Twitter account - you will be taken to twitter.com to approve the connection between the two accounts. You can at any moment disable this functionality.

If you don't have a twitter account and want to learn more about this service, visit twitter.com website.

If you have a Facebook account, you can integrate it with Postcrossing so that some events are automatically published to your wall. If you connect the two accounts, Postcrossing will publish short stories to your Facebook feed when you send or receive a postcard in the Postcrossing website.

To activate this, just follow these steps:

First you need to go to your Edit Account page and click on the blue Facebook connect button. You will be asked to login with your Facebook account (if aren't logged in yet) and you will need to accept to connect your Facebook account with Postcrossing. You need to do this step only once. See screenshoot.

If you do not logout from your Facebook account, then when you send or register a postcard a window will appear asking you to confirm if you wish to publish that event to your Facebook wall. Note that this window appears only when page is fully loaded (after requesting an address or after registering a postcard). On this window you also have the option to allow Postcrossing to do this automatically for you so that you do not need to approve (this window) every time. See screenshoot.

We are currently testing and improving this integration so if you find any problems or have any suggestions, please let us know.

The connection between Postcrossing and Facebook must be disabled on your Facebook privacy settings. The location of this settings might depend on your Facebook setup, but generally these are the steps to reach it:

• Login in Facebook
• On the 'Account' menu, go to 'Application settings'
• In the 'Show' dropdown, select 'Authorized'
• Scroll down to the 'External websites'
• In the Postcrossing item, click the 'X' to cancel the integration

Do not panic!

Having a valid email address is important to participate in Postcrossing. It allows you to receive emails from us as well as use the private message feature. For this reason, you may be requested by us to confirm your email address. This confirmation is sent through email with an activation link.

Note: You can always retrieve addresses for your traveling or expired postcards on Postcrossing.com by following the FAQ instructions on lost addresses.

Some email servers wrongly consider email sent from Postcrossing.com to be spam and discard our emails. This is beyond our control, but there are several things you can do to resolve the problem:

1. check your email account Junk/Spam folder for expected email
2. make sure your email account has enough free space to receive email
3. make sure that the domain @postcrossing.com is in your list of safe senders (white list)
4. add postcrossing@postcrossing.com to your list of contacts
5. change your email address in your profile to another account with a different provider (Gmail is known to work and the accounts are free)
6. check your anti-spam filter -- if you are using an anti-spam filter that requires senders to manually confirm that they want to send you a message (for instance, by clicking a link), you might want to disable that for emails sent from the postcrossing.com domain.
7. in the unlikely event that none of these resolve your problem, please contact the webmaster for help.

In a previous version of Postcrossing, if a member failed to log in periodically, their account was removed and the member profile deleted.

If this happened to your account, to join Postcrossing again, you will have to re-register with a new username and a different email address. There is no way to recover your account.

The good news is that, under the new version of Postcrossing, your new account will not be deleted if you do not login for a long period. Since 2007, Postcrossing no longer deletes accounts automatically. Instead, we will simply mark the account as inactive until you log in again.

The Postcrossing Forum is separate system from Postcrossing.com. As such, you must complete a separate registration process to access the forum. Read and agree to the forum rules then register using the same username that you have on Postcrossing.com.

Once you have completed the registration, an email with a temporary password is sent to you. Use this password to log in initially but we suggest that you immediately change the temporary password using the User Control Panel.

Remember that the two systems are separate so if you change your password on Postcrossing.com it is not changed on the forum and vice versa.

Postcards can be purchased at many different places. Following is a small list of places where our members have found success.

• post office
• airport
• Chamber of Commerce
• museum store
• tourist spot
• book store
• convenience stores (drug stores, supermarkets, department stores, truck stops)
• stationery store
• newspaper or magazine store

You may also find them at the online presence of the above listed retailers.

Many Postcrossing users exchange postcards between them besides exchanging the official Postcrossing ones. We call these direct swaps. They are exchanges organized by the Postcrossing members themselves and are not tracked by the system and hence do not have Postcard IDs.

To help users know if another member is available for private swaps or not, we allow users to configure that on their profile. This way, users who are interested in doing direct swaps are easier to find and users who do not wish to participate can clearly state that too.

Use the search users interested in direct swaps feature to find other members that want to participate in direct swaps. Make sure that you select the option for direct swaps and then use the other fields to narrow down the list.

Do not contact members that have indicated they are not interested in direct swaps.

The easiest way to find swap partners is to use the Postcrossing Forum. The forum has a very active swapping community. On the forum, swaps are also referred to as trades. Find the appropriate trade section and read through the message threads or create your own.

Currently the best way to donate to Postcrossing is through PayPal.com. The PayPal.com service is free and safe to use. Signing up with Paypal is free and quick. You don't even need a credit card if you are in one of these countries: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxemburg, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Singapore, Sweden, and Switzerland.

If you can't open a Paypal account, there are two other alternatives: International bank transfer or sending a check by mail. Please keep in mind that an International bank transfer may have associated fees depending on the bank. If you wish to use one of these alternatives, please contact us for the required details.

Actually, we don't. The field is totally optional and you are free to leave that information out. Currently we use it to estimate the average member's age and we also like to email our members on their special day. You also have the option to show it in your profile if you want.

We cannot, but you can! It is impossible for us to translate the about page into every possible language. But our members can help by translating into their own language. Just translate the text in the about page and send it to us. It helps if you keep the text in the same format, that is, with all the paragraphs and titles that the text has so that it is easier for us to add it to the page. When it is ready, contact us so that we can give you instructions on how to email it to us. We will then make sure it appears on the page with a reference to you.

You can ask anyone in the forum (this is typically the fastest method) or use the contact form to reach us.