Postcrossing Blog

A week ago, Paulo and I were in Prague for a special Postcrossing meetup, and we took the Little Mail Carriers with us, so they could tell you all about it! Here they are:

Ahoj from Prague! It’s sunny and lovely – perfect for adventures!

Ever since we saw a picture of Prague’s main post office on this post from February, we’ve been demanding to be taken there, so that we could see it for ourselves. And what do you know – six months later, the perfect opportunity presented itself: we were invited to attend the yearly Sběratel/Collector’s fair! :)

The fair, which takes place in Prague, welcomes collectors from all over Europe, who come to peruse the stands and enrich their collections. But this year, the fair had a special event taking place: a Postcrossing meetup!

The organizers invited us to come and meet the local postcrossers – we were honored and very happy to do so! Lots of people turned up and we got to meet many new postcrossers, shake their hands, answer many questions and sign a ton of postcards too. A computer and volunteers were at hand to explain Postcrossing to newcomers, and guide them through the signup process. There was even a special postcard and cancellation mark, designed just for the occasion!

We oversaw the stamping process and made sure everything was shipshape!

Meanwhile, the exhibition hall was buzzing with excitement. There were many people walking between the stands, perusing and scanning boxes and folders — it felt like a huge treasure hunt!

Afterwards, we came back to the city center, to finally visit Prague’s gorgeous post office! Ladies and gentlemen, look at that:

The walls are exquisitely painted with themes related to communications and post: in a corner, a young lady seems to be reading a love letter, on another, people call each other on the telephone, while postmen do their rounds. It’s just stunning!

Mr. Kostka from the Czech Post told us the building used to be an old monastery — the central hall is now where the old inner courtyard used to be. This is why there are so many vines and natural elements surrounding the figures on the walls.

Just before leaving, we still had time to meet some very old Czech postmen and peek at the overflowing philatelic counter.

It might well be one of the nicest post offices we’ve ever seen! Plus, it’s open every single day, from 2am to midnight! Wow… can you believe that?!

We really enjoyed our short stay in Prague, but soon it was time to go back to our envelopes and start the journey towards another exciting location… Goodbye Prague and see you soon everyone! :)

Hi everyone!

As you may know, World Post Day happens every year on October 9th — it’s kind of a big deal for all of us, post-lovers worldwide!

Many post offices and postal museums around the world use this opportunity to organize all kinds of events. Last year, we put together a list of all the events we could find, and this year we’d like to enlist your help in collecting them. This way, we can update our special World Post Day page in advance, and let everyone know.

So your mission, if you wish to accept it, is to find out what your postal service and/or local museums are doing for World Post Day this year. Are they launching new stamps or a special cancellation mark on that day? Do they have any special exhibitions or events taking place? Or will they perhaps offer something to their customers, like free museums’ entries? Check their websites for announcements or get in touch with them!

We would love to help spread the word and make this day a success – so if you hear from them, just let us know on the comments below! :)

Thank you!

On the last behind-the scenes post, many of you asked how do we find missing Postcard IDs. Well… I’m afraid the answer is pretty straightforward: for every help request you submit, we compare the information you provide us about the postcard you’ve just received with all the information we have about the postcards currently traveling to you until we find a match.

There aren’t any magic tricks for this one – it’s just a matter of patience and sharp Sherlock-skills!

Let’s see how it works in practice. Imagine it’s 2005 and someone named “Ana” has just received a cute postcard from Portugal with some lighthouses… but sadly, the Postcard ID is wrong, and she cannot register it. She knows what to do though, and promptly submits a request for help with her unknown Postcard ID!

On Postcrossing’s back office, a page is created for her help request. It looks a bit like this:

This page is only seen by us, the members of the Postcrossing team, and contains all the information we might need to find the right postcard ID.

On the top of the page, you see all the information Ana just submitted about the postcard: it features 3 lighthouses, was sent around July 6th, from someone named “Paolo” from Braga, Portugal, who mentions he’s an IT student.

Then, below that, a neat little table is displayed with all the postcards traveling to Ana. For instance, you can see she has quite a few postcards traveling to her at the moment: a few from Portugal (shown first, since they are most likely to match), one from Germany and one from the Netherlands.

Can you guess the right postcard ID for the card Ana received? Given all this data… it’s not that complicated, right? You just need to compare the information available to spot the correct postcard ID!

So it looks like PT-1 is the postcard ID she was looking for: the ID is very close to the right one, the name and location match, the picture the sender uploaded seems to fit… now all is left is to let the recipient know this information, which we do by clicking a button.

If enough information is provided, Postcrossing can sometimes automatically find the right postcard ID, but most of the time, things aren’t so simple — that’s where Vicki steps in. She goes over nearly 1000 requests every week, going after the really tricky cases and doing some remarkable detective work to make sure all postcards are registered. It’s a very time-consuming process, but a very important one as well, which minimizes frustration all-around.

So… what are the most common problems she has to deal with?

Most of the time, simple stuff: digits are out of order, a 7 looks like a 1, a number might be missing, someone wrote the ID of the next card they requested or there might be some confusion regarding country codes (CN≈CH, AU≈AT). Sometimes, in the excitement of sending off a postcard, someone will just forget to write down the postcard ID. Given enough information, the answer is usually straightforward.

But there are trickier cases — like when you receive a card from a private swap which you completely forgot about! Or when members don’t realize that the postcard they received was actually sent to a roommate or family member living in the same address… in which case, every family member should submit a request.

A few postcards do arrive after traveling for over 1 year… in which case they cannot be registered.

What helps? Here are some tips on how you can help make a search for a Postcard ID more efficient:

• Describe the image on the front of the postcard you’ve received in as much detail as possible! If your description matches an image the sender has pre-uploaded, the search for the right Postcard ID will definitely be easier.
• Can’t make out the exact name of the sender? Have a guess from the signature. Even if you write it incorrectly, we’ll probably be able to figure it out.
• Look closely to the stamp and cancellation mark. Where and when was this card posted?
• Does the postcard describe the sender, eg. what they do for a living, where they live, whether this is the first postcard they send? If so, include these on your help request!
• Submit just one request per postcard received. If you want to add more information to it, just delete the request (you can do this on your Received postcards page) and re-submit it with all the information.

To prevent this situation, here are some tips of things you should do, which will definitely help your cards get registered in case something goes wrong:

• Try to write the Postcard ID with a pen with water-resistant ink, so that it cannot be washed away if the card gets wet.
• Write the Postcard ID on the left side of the card, and at least in two different places.
• If this is a card for a private swap, or a thank you card – mention this on the postcard, so that the recipient does not confuse it with a Postcrossing card!

Every time a help request is submitted, the status of the search will show on your Received Postcards page. If it says “Searching”, then it is still in the queue and will be answered as soon as possible. If you manage to find out the right postcard ID before we gave it to you – congratulations, you must be a smart cookie! :) Just don’t forget to delete your request for help on the Received Postcards page.

Finally, it seems many people are still unaware that they can ask for help searching a Postcard ID… so if you see any pleas for help on members’ profiles, just pass on the knowledge and share the link to our special form, deal?

Julia (aka mad_madchen) hails from Moscow. She has several drawers full of postcards ready to be sent, and really enjoys choosing the perfect card that she knows will make someone happy! We asked her a few questions:

How did you come across Postcrossing? What got you hooked?

About 5 years ago my friend Olga told me about Postcrossing. I’ve decided to join as I like postcards since my childhood. And here I am! :)

Do you have any other interesting hobbies?

I love Blythe dolls. I have 12 dolls in my collection:

Also I collect Alice in Wonderland books in different language and Starbucks gift-cards. And I love cross-stitching.

Show us your mailbox, your mailman/mailwoman, your postoffice or the place where you post or keep your postcards!

This is my P.O.Box 1:

Over the years, I’ve received a lot of questions about it: please confirm your address, it’s too short, are you sure, how do you get it…? I really don’t know how it has happened that I got P.O.Box 1. I think it was a miracle, or luck, or position of the stars, something like that! :)

I have lots of postcards. It was always hard to say the numbers and once I’ve decided to weigh them. I discovered that I have 12 kg of postcards to be sent… yeah, I am mad, I know that! I store most of them in the drawers of my desk:

Show and tell us about your favorite received postcard to date, and what makes it special.

In fact it’s a difficult question because I’ve received a lot of beautiful postcards… I like Atelier Nouvelles Images, Nicoletta Сeccoli, Absolut Vodka, and many others. But my most favourite postcard ever… It’s hard to pick. I think perhaps this one:

In it, I see hope, loneliness, dream, search, aspirations, incompleteness, past and future. Absolutely great!

What is it your favorite part of the Postcrossing process?

All parts are great for me. Most of all I like to receive a new addresses and try to find the perfect postcard for the receiver — especially for “difficult” wishes. And I like to receive nice postcards, with interesting messages and beautiful stamps. I also like to read senders profiles after I register their postcards.

Have you been surprised by any place that you have received a postcard from or sent a postcard to?

I’ve been surprised over travel days. Just amazing example: this postcard from Russia to Greece (1,779 km) was traveling for 346 days! And that was the real traveling period!

Have you inspired anyone else to join Postcrossing, or met any other postcrossers?

Yes! My friend Eugene saw a post on my Livejournal and signed up to Postcrossing, and my son is a postcrosser as well. Sometimes we both go to meetups here in Moscow.

Here are the Little Mail Carriers again, to tell you all about the second part of their adventures in Belgium (here’s part one in Dinant, in case you missed it). This time, they went to Brussels – Europe’s comic art capital! Here is their report of the exciting trip:

Hi everyone! We were invited by Ghislaine and Sylvie (aka Sylor) to visit Brussels, the capital of Belgium… how could we pass the opportunity?!

We started the day with meeting the local mail carrier, or as they say around here, “Le facteur”. He’s really nice and brings Sylvie and Ghislaine lots of postcards.

Our first stop in Brussels was the Atomium, which we had only seen in photos and in stamps. It was built in 1958 for the World’s Fair (Expo 58) and has the shape of the cell of an iron crystal… only 165 billion times bigger! :D

On our way to the city, we noticed this statue of a policeman, whose leg is being held by a boy climbing out of the sewer, causing him to trip! What a fun sculpture to put in the middle of the square! Ghislaine told us it is called “the Vaartkapoen”, and it is inspired in “l’Agent 15” from comic strip “Quick & Flupke”. The boy holding his leg represents the rebel spirit which shakes the authority.

The city is filled with this kind of funny sculptures from Tom Frantzen, who describes them as “zwanze”: “a unique form of humour which he thinks is characterized by the absurdity and surrealism that stem from the mixture of languages so typical of Brussels”. Oh, look, there’s another one:

It’s the “Zinneke”, peeing on a street post! Zinneke means someone of mixed origins in Brussels dialect, and it symbolizes the mixture of people living in Brussels. Doesn’t he look cute?

Well, enough of culture! It’s time to have a break and try some local specialties! The chocolate and waffles were fantastic, but our favorite were the belgian frites! Yummy!

Aaaaah… so good! We noticed there were many brands of beer available – they really take it seriously here!

And some shopping, we arrived at the Grand Place, a Unesco World Heritage site. It’s very imposing and features the Brussel’s Town Hall, the Maison du Roi and several buildings from the Middle Ages named guildhalls.

Once a year, they make a huge flower carpet here in the Grand Place – we’ve seen it in photos, the whole square gets filled with colorful flowers… it’s really impressive!

Brussels lace is also very special… and expensive!

Belgian people have a great relation with la bande dessinée (comic art), so we had to meet some of their famous characters. Tintin, is probably the most popular of them all, so it was a big honor to shake his hand! Created by Hergé in 1929, he’s a reporter who goes on risky adventures around the world with his dog Snowy (or Milou, in French). Together, they always manage to save the day!

Another of our favorite BD heroes are the The Smurfs (les Schtroumpfs) by Peyo. Their language was a bit hard to learn, but I think we’ve smurfed it! :D

Oh look there… isn’t that the Manneken-Pis? They say the statue of the little man peeing is a must-see in Brussels, and represents the legend of the young boy who was awoken by a fire and proceeded to stamp it out by peeing on it! Now it’s just a funny fountain.

He was naked on the day we visited, but we were told he has a really nice wardrobe, with hundreds of costumes! On special days, they dress him up to celebrate a certain date or occasion.

That was a great visit! Sadly it was time to wave bye-bye to Sylvie and Ghislaine as they gently dropped us on the postbox… who knows where we’ll go next? :)

That was great! Thank you so much Ghislaine and Sylvie for this lovely report! Safe trips, little ones, see you soon!