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 to, when possible, 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.