The advent of e-mail threatened ordinary letters and postcards with complete disappearance. However, contrary to all forecasts, the paper correspondence has not disappeared. On the contrary, millions of people have found a new hobby - postcrossing. Beginning postcrossers need to know the rules of correspondence with strangers in order for the hobby to bring pleasure to everyone, without exception.
The fact that postcrossing is a very popular hobby is evidenced by the statistics of the most popular international site Postcrossing.com. For 10 years of its existence, 529 thousand people from 213 countries of the world have registered on the resource, who have received 27.6 million postcards and about half a million are on the way. The popularity of this phenomenon in Russia is evidenced by the fact that every ninth user of this site is from our country. This is why more and more people are interested in postcrossing rules.
How to register at postcrossing.com
On the main page, find the blue bar and click on the Sign up link. Enter your country, city, nickname, password, address in English. If you wish, you can additionally write it in your native language, because you will also correspond with your compatriots. Confirm your registration by clicking on the Sign me up button. A confirmation letter will be sent to the specified mail, only after that you will be able to receive the first address for sending the postcard.
How to send a postcard
After confirming the registration, return to the main page and click on the Send a postcard tab, confirm your intention and agreement with the site rules by ticking the box in front of the Request address button. The system will take you to a page with the home address of a random user, a unique ID-number of the postcard. Also on this page you can read the wishes of the postcrosser. It may not be necessary, but it is highly desirable to choose exactly the theme that he collects. If you accidentally close the page, you can find unsent postcards in the Traveling postcard section.
Postcrossing Ethics Rules
1. Do not send advertising and free (so-called "freebies") postcards, as well as printed on a printer.
2. If the user notes that he does not like hand-made cards, do not send him homemade ones, even if you have succeeded in scrapbooking or papercrafting.
3. Do not put the postcard in an envelope. Many users prefer to see stamps and stamps of post offices on postcards.
4. Be sure to write the ID-number when sending and register the IDs of the cards you received in a timely manner. Remember that the sender cannot receive a postcard from another user until you mark the receipt.
5. Try to choose interesting art stamps, because there are also a lot of philatelists among postcrossers.
6. Don't write a return address. This is a little annoying for the recipient, because it is assumed that you are waiting for a response. And postcrossing is all about sending and receiving postcards from strangers. But if a user in his profile notes that he would like to find penpals (penpal), you can make an exception. Also, if you are worried that the postcards may not find the addressee or the cost of the stamps will not be enough, write "Only for postmen" under your return address in brackets.
7. In your profile, do not write confidential data, including links to accounts on social networks, by which you can be identified.
Observing these simple rules of correspondence, you will receive only joy from your new hobby, and each postcard will be desired.
