Wine in the afternoon

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I mentioned Postcrossing on Things I Love Thursday and #FollowFriday, and I thought it deserved its own article. Postcrossing is an online-based community for postcard lovers. The main point is to exchange postcards with random people from all over the world. After you register, you’re given a random address where you should send your postcard. You can write anything you want on the card, and post it. Once it gets to your destination, you’ll be notified, and you’ll be next in line to receive a postcard from a completely different sender. I find the idea incredible, and I registered about a month ago. So far, I’ve sent 7 postcards (to places like China, the USA and Poland), and received 2: one from Japan and one from Finland.

Here are some tips on how to be a good postcrosser:

• Be creative: People sometimes state their postcard preferences on their profile, and it’s nice to stick to that, since they’ll probably be pleased. If they don’t – and I recommend you don’t, unless you do have a specific preference (my profile says I like hand-made postcards, but that’s all) -, try to do something creative. Buy a vintage and unique card, draw or paint a card, make your own card with collages, take a cute photo, draw on it with a sharpie and use it as a postcard.
• Write a cute note: There’s no specific instructions on what to write on your card, but the point is to write something that will make the reader smile. Write a quote, a poem, a book recommendation, a story about the postcard, something good that happened to you today, anything you want to share. It’s also a good idea to teach the person a couple of words in your language (if you don’t speak the same language, obviously). It could be simple things – such as hello and goodbye – or words with beautiful meanings or that sound funny.
• Don’t be late: Try to mail your postcard as soon as you get the address. I mean, think it over first, find a postcard, write it carefully, and then send it, but don’t leave them hanging around your house because you’re too lazy to go to the post office (I do this a lot, and I always feel guilty).
• Buy stamps: To avoid procrastination, buy a big set of stamps so that you can just send them instantly. It avoids the detour to go to the post office, since you can just put them in a mailbox on your way to work.
• Register: When you receive a postcard, you’re supposed to register it, so that the sender can be next in line to get a card. Make an effort to register them right away.
• Remember: Write the code you’re given, otherwise the person who gets it won’t be able to register your card. Also, put a date on the ones you send.
• Safety: For safety reasons, I don’t accept cards from my own country. I’m just too damn scared that a creepy old dude from another state is gonna knock on my door if I allow people to have my address. But it’s your call – if you’re not as paranoid as I am, do accept cards from your country. Specially if you live in a large country (like me), where you could get cards from cities you’ve never even heard of.

Now go on, register. Maybe someday you’ll get a card from me! Happy postcrossing.

Miss Sofia

This entry was posted on sábado, outubro 24th, 2009 at 10:00 am and is filed under Internet. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.