Postcrossing Blog

“So… what do you do for a living?”

We get this question a lot, Paulo and I, especially at Postcrossing meetups. When we explain that we both run Postcrossing full-time, people often seem surprised to find out that the website doesn’t work automatically by itself. :)

Of course, static pages can almost run on auto-pilot, but Postcrossing is not static and it is constantly growing. Every minute that goes by, the website is being used and changed simultaneously by thousands of you, with hundreds of new members joining every day! At this scale, even some of the simplest tasks can be greatly amplified. Take for example, answering emails, finding postcard IDs, validating all the addresses or moderating the forum – these are some tasks which gradually became time-consuming for our small team.

But there are other, less visible things that we do, that are no less important. For instance: servers are maintained to keep the website running snappy and safe, code is developed, updated or fixed and we regularly improve our address selection algorithm so everyone can have a better experience. On the less technical side of our days, we keep in touch with postal operators, answer media queries and create content for this blog, among other things. So, overall, there are many small (and some not so small) tasks that keep us busy running the site.

Since so many people are surprised when we mention our job descriptions, we thought it might be interesting to show you what it’s like to run Postcrossing – and what it looks like “behind the scenes”. The first post on the series will be about address validation, and it will be posted in a few days.

Meanwhile, we’re collecting ideas for future posts, so this is your chance to chime in! Is there any part of what we do at Postcrossing that you’d like to know more about?

About a month ago, a group of students in Kampar, Malaysia hosted a really nice event in their university, to spread the word about Postcrossing. It was quite successful, and everyone had a great time – so we wanted to share their story, in order to inspire you! :) Here they are:

If you are a postcrosser, you can probably relate to that indescribable feeling in finding a happy postcard sitting in your mailbox to welcome you home after a long, tiring day. A postcard is simply magical; each can only contain so few words yet enough to give you a glimpse of the life of someone living across the globe. To receive postcards personalized for you, knowing that each was handwritten by a thoughtful heart, it reminds us that the world is a hopeful and wonderful place.

Wanting to share what makes us so blissfully happy, we decided to start small in our university. One booth, 18 hours, 37 new members (not including those who preferred to register in the comfort of their own home) pretty much summed up our whole campaign. The idea of Postcrossing was very well received; many are excited and eager to restore the once forgotten postcards tradition together. To follow up, we created a small Facebook community, which is still growing each day. Hopefully if we can inspire every postcrosser to reach out and do something small, together we can achieve more.

Well, since a picture is worth a thousand words, here they come…

Our twin #1, Catherine (on the left) sharing her Postcrossing experience with enthusiasm.

Our twin #2, Angela (on the right) is equally passionate when it comes to Postcrossing.

Meng An (on the right) with potential new members. She also contributed to most of our eye-catching and colourful decorations!

Ming Zhe (on the right) – our photographer #1 and the reason why we are now obsessed with postcards. He introduced Postcrossing to the rest of us!

Yee Hong (on the left) attracting a potential member with her postcards collection.

Stewart in action! He is also the man in charge of producing our flyers and photographer #2.

Sandrene posting the first batch of postcards written by our new members.

Fantastic work! Please give a big round of applause for the enthusiastic members who organized this event:

From left to right: Angela (aka Hebe92), Stewart (aka stewartooi), Yee Hong (aka yeehongsia), Sandrene (aka sandrene), Meng An (aka mengan0716), Catherine (aka catgoh92) and Ming Zhe (aka ming_zhe0423).

What about YOU? Got any plans to spread the word about the project in your local school or university? :) Let us know how it goes!

Anna-Maria (aka Nzqu) is a young mother from Finland. She studied organic gardening & horticulture, and works at a biodynamic farm – so ecology is a theme that is near to her heart!

Here is what she had to say:

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

I saw a short article about Postcrossing in a magazine many years ago. I didn’t join then, but I thought about it occasionally during a couple of years. Then my son was born, and I didn’t have that much time for my penpals anymore. I missed getting mail, though, so after seeing Postcrossing mentioned somewhere again, I decided to join. It was so great to write and receive mail, to read about the lives of different people and to see places I’ll never be able to visit myself.

Do you have any other interesting hobbies?

I’m a handicraft addict. I knit, crochet and make macrame, among many other crafts. I have penfriends all over the world – now I have more time to write letters again! I’m an active member of the local CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) group, and try to take part to some activities of Finland’s Nature Conservation Association. I have always been a bookworm, and I have several full bookcases at home. After meeting other postcrossers, I have also got into Bookcrossing and Geocaching.

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

My son mailing some postcards. I use that mailbox quite often, even though it’s not the nearest one. It’s because there is a small service point of Finland’s Post, so I can buy stamps also.

And this is the world map I have over my desk. I have placed some of the beautiful cards I’ve received around it.

What is your favorite part of the Postcrossing process?

Hearing the slam of my letterbox! :) I also enjoy selecting cards to the recipients, especially if I can find a card that’s on their favorites.

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

This is the first postcard I received via Postcrossing, that makes it special. I also like those ancient stone circles, they are so fascinating!

Have you met any other members in real life?

Yes I have, and meeting them makes this hobby even more fun! We have meetings quite regularly here in my hometown Järvenpää. There are only few of us, but we have a great time writing postcards at the local yarn store/café about once a month. I also like to travel to other towns and cities, if possible, to meet fellow Postcrossers.

The biggest meeting so far was the International Meet-up in Helsinki last August (2013), and there I met Katja from Germany. We kept in touch, and last January I traveled to Germany and took part to a meeting in Aachen. That was so great! I warmly recommend the Postcrossing meetings to everyone, it’s great to get to know different people – and to talk about postcards! :)

Is there anything that you are passionate about?

I try my best to be 'green’. I have studied organic gardening, and like to support organic agriculture whenever it’s possible. I am a bit of an idealistic, but I do want to believe that there are other better, possible ways to live. Buying tons of postcards doesn’t really help, but I think there are more harmful hobbies in this world. :)

Remember when we celebrated 20 million postcards last October? Well, 9 months have passed, and we’ve already sent five million postcards more! So it’s time to start the traditional guessing contest once again! :)

For those not familiar with the game, it goes like this:

Every member has a chance to submit a bet for the day and time on which they think the postcard number 25 million will be registered. The bets need to be submitted on the contest page.

And of course, there are prizes for the best guesses, sponsored by MOO!

The member who guesses the exact minute when postcard number 25 million is registered will win a pack of 40 MOO postcards (20 classic, 20 luxe) + a surprise set of 100 postcards.

But there’s more! If you’re not the lucky one, you could still win something: each of the 4 next best guesses (before or after the registering time) will also win a pack of 20 postcards from MOO!

Some rules: each time slot can only be chosen by one person, so the first person to pick that slot gets to keep it. You can change it at a later stage, if you want, but only from the available time slots left. We will close the bets when there are 1,500 postcards left to postcard 25,000,000. Check the contest page for more details.

So… what are you waiting for? Ask your lucky stars or open a spreadsheet to make your calculations… but be fast! Slots tend to run out quickly!

PS – MOO is having a 25% off sale until July 21st! If you follow the link to the special page for postcrossers, a small percentage of every purchase you make reverts towards Postcrossing – so with each pack of postcards you buy, you’re also helping the project. Win-win! :)

Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday dear Postcrossing,
Happy birthday to you!

Hurray! It’s Postcrossing’s 9th birthday today! That’s quite a lot for an internet project, isn’t it? :)

A few exciting things happened in this past year. Here are some of the highlights:

• New Postcrossing-themed stamps were launched in Finland, Belarus and Guernsey and also a Postcrossing postmark in Czech Republic.
• Postcrossers and Deutsche Post raised €7845 on the “Postcards for a good cause” campaign.
• We reached 20 million postcards, bringing us closer to a postcard received every 5 seconds.
• You organized dozens of meetups all over the world, and flooded us with your lovely stories.
• And many more exciting things happened!

What a great year! :D

And since it’s a special day, we wanted to share something special with you…

Remember back in March, when we asked you to send us postcards for an event – and you responded in a spectacular fashion, sending us over 1000 postcards in a week? Well, the postcards were all delivered at TEDxOporto, and we thought we’d share the talk I gave that day, as it has just been translated into English! Here it goes:

I was so nervous that when I stepped off the stage that I couldn’t remember a single word I had said… but it was truly an honor to be able to spread the message and play “mail carrier” to all your nice postcards! The people loved them and were thrilled to take them home. Some joined the project immediately, others signed up their classes… and a few were already postcrossers and came to say Hi! in the end!

So, our heartfelt thank you to all of you, for making Postcrossing what it is today. Enjoy the day… and send a postcard… or nine! ;-)