Postcrossing Blog

As promised, the first post on our behind-the-scenes series is about address validation. This is the process through which we check that all addresses in Postcrossing are (to the best of our knowledge) correct and complete.

“Red alert! Red alert! I think that one over there is missing the postal code!”

Addresses are one of the most important things in Postcrossing. Wrong or incomplete addresses would result in postcards being delayed or not delivered, and general unhappiness – which we would like to avoid.

There is specialized software to process addresses of course, but it’s either dodgy, specific to a country or just crazy expensive for our size. So, we chose to do this task ourselves, splitting the job between Paulo, Vicki and I. Each one of us picked a set of countries according to our strengths and learnt the UPU address format of those countries by heart. Most countries have their own format – and some are much simpler than others. We use this knowledge to go over thousands of addresses per week, spotting invalid ones, or just rearranging the order of the elements on the address. Most of the time, addresses will be read by automated sorting machines, which expect them to be written in a certain way. So if every address is formatted as UPU recommends, everything will go faster!

What makes an address invalid? Lots of things:

• Parts might be missing: name, postal code, country name, etc.
• The address might be written exclusively in the local script (Chinese, Thai, Cyrillic), making it hard to write for people who don’t understand that alphabet or those without a printer.
• The address might be completely translated into English – which is usually a bad idea. For non-Latin scripts, transliteration works better and faster in our experience.
• The address might not match the account’s location/country.

Technology helps with the last item on that list, because we can usually match your IP address to the location you’re signing up from. For instance, if a member with an IP address in Canada is opening an account in Fiji … something might be wrong, and we have to look into that. :)

A few postal operators also provide a list of all valid postal codes for their country, giving us the ability to automatically detect typos or invalid postal codes.

“Let’s just add the country name here at the bottom… I think it’ll help!”

The whole process of validating addresses has been streamlined over the years, but it still takes quite a bit of time, since every single new address needs to be checked and validated. We’ve been doing it for so long that by now we can tell at a glance whether an address is valid, incomplete or just in a strange order. We might not find all the problems – but we do spot lots of them!

Plus, we’ve learnt many nice things in the process too! For instance, did you know that an address in China should be written from the biggest component (province) to the smallest one (adressee) if written in Chinese characters, but the other way around if written in Latin characters? Or that there are no street names in Japan? Or that every house and building has its unique postal code in Singapore? It’s amazing!

I think that’s it for addresses, so I’ll leave you with one last tip: make sure that you write the address on your postcard exactly as it is shown – it’s already optimized for that country!

I hope you liked this first post on our behind-the-scenes series – we’ll get cracking on the next one! :)

“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?

Hurray! The Guernsey Postcrossing stamp has just launched today and is now making its way around the world to many happy mailboxes!

In order to celebrate the event, postcrossers from the island and abroad got together today to send their first cards with the shiny new stamp. Guernsey Post kindly prepared a room for the eager postcrossers, who wrote and stamped to their heart’s content…

… and ate the delicious cake a talented baker at the post office did for us! Isn’t it gorgeous?

The local newspaper and TV channel were also in attendance, and so we hope that a few islanders will find out about the project in the media tomorrow and decide to join!

And here’s Michael (aka GIBSONMS) with the stamp! Michael was the enthusiastic postcrosser who approached Guernsey Post with the idea for a stamp.

Our big thank you to him for his initiative and to Dawn Gallienne at Guernsey Post, for deeming Postcrossing worthy of this honor. We really appreciate it!

It was a great day! Happy Postcrossing, everyone! :)

PS – If you’re interested, the stamp, postcard, and postcard+stamp+cancellation mark combos can be purchased online at the Guernsey Stamps website.

Yes, you read that right! With the Queen’s royal approval, the tiny island of Guernsey will be the fourth country (or in this case, special territory) to launch its own Postcrossing stamp!

Why Guernsey, you might ask? Well, it’s all thanks to Michael (aka GIBSONMS)! One day, Michael decided to get in touch with a few postal services and make the case for a Postcrossing stamp as a way to spread the word about the project. He was really enthusiastic and persistent, and what do you know… it worked! :)

So ladies and gentlemen, we’re proud to announce that on May 28th, a new Postcrossing stamp will be born! Here’s what it will look like:

Fun, right? It was designed by Guernsey Post’s marketing team, and it depicts an outline of the island of Guernsey with a smiley face, giving the thumbs up to Postcrossing! It will be available online on the Guernsey Stamps page from May 28th onwards, and also on the local post offices.

No matter how many Postcrossing stamps are born, it’s still a great honor for us to see them come to life. How many websites do you know that can boast this? :) So we’d like to give our heartfelt thank you to Dawn Gallienne at Guernsey Post for believing in the project – and especially to Michael, for his dedication!

By the way, we’re preparing a Postcrossing meeting in St. Peter Port, on the launch day, so that all postcrossers can come together and send postcards with the new stamp. It’ll take place on the main Post Office (Envoy House, La Vrangue) at 2pm – do get in touch on the forum, if you’re planning to attend. Everyone is welcome and we look forward to seeing you there! :)

Dear postcrossers,

This is Ana, your community manager speaking. I’m usually the writer behind the posts that you read on this blog… but today I’m writing this one as myself, to personally ask for your assistance.

You see, in about a month, I will be in Portugal, standing in front of an audience of several hundred people from various backgrounds, to tell them about Postcrossing and the simple pleasures of receiving mail. The problem is… I’m willing to bet that 99% of them have probably never received a postcard, or don’t remember the last time that they did. How can you empathize with something you’ve never experienced? While brainstorming a plan for making this work, I reached the inevitable conclusion: I have to show them!

So, inspired by Oprah, my idea is to surprise many of the conference attendees with an unexpected postcard written just for them, which they would receive during the talk!

I could write all the postcards myself… but I think it would be much more interesting if the postcards came from different people all around the world, with their own stories and details.
So I wanted to ask… would you mind writing a postcard, and giving me a hand? I would be really grateful, and you’d be helping all these people re-discover the magic of postcards! :)

Interested? Got a neat card that you don’t mind sharing? Then mail it to:

We’ve received sooooo many cards in just a week, that I’ve decided to remove the address, as I think they’ll be more than enough. Thank you so much! :)

What should you write on it? Whatever you like, really, but here are some ideas to get you started:

• How do you feel when you find a postcard on your mailbox at the end of the day?
• What does Postcrossing mean to you?
• What have you learnt or discovered through postcards? What would you teach this person?
• What was the most inspirational talk you’ve ever attended or listened to?
• What is special about your city or country?

Or you could just describe what you did today and what the weather is like where you are… anything goes, really! :)

That’s it! Those who know me, know that I’m a bit shy and not particularly comfortable with the spotlight… I’d like to think that, by carrying your postcards with me, I’ll have a little bit of your support on that stage.

Thank you so much in advance! :)

PS:

I thought I’d add a couple notes to clear up some of the questions that have come up in the comments:
- Please don’t put my name on the postcard – the cards are not for me, they’ll all be delivered to the attendees. The address is a PO box, it works fine without a name.
- If you want to write a salutation on the message, keep it simple and flexible with an “Hello” or “Dear attendee”
- The event takes place on March 8th… so please send your cards soon! :)