Postcrossing Blog

June is just around the corner and around here it feels like summer already! 😍 This is the start of the holiday season in the northern hemisphere and many postcrossers and their families are probably planning or getting ready for their vacations. So it’s time for our yearly reminder that the Inactive State and the Travel Mode are here to help!

If you’re going to be away from your address for a while or simply need a break from Postcrossing, we recommend that you switch your account to inactive a few weeks in advance. You can still send postcards if you’d like, but you won’t be sent any until you’re ready to receive them.

In addition to using the Inactive State, if you’re going on holidays somewhere and would like to send postcards from that location, then the Travel Mode is for you! When you get to your travel destination, connect to a local internet connection to set your account to Travel Mode, grab some local postcards and stamps, and enjoy sending them with the right Postcard IDs, maps and statistics.

While you’re using either of these modes (which you can easily switch on and off on your Account Settings), Postcrossing will not give your address to other members. Don’t worry though — we’ll still keep track of all your due postcards, and will send them all to you when you’re home again and your account is back to active.

If you have any questions, feel free to reach out through the forum. Enjoy your holidays!

Aaaaaaah… June is here at last! 😍 This is the start of the holiday season in the northern hemisphere, when school is out for the summer and many families are packing for their yearly vacations. So it’s time for our regularly scheduled post to remind everyone that the Inactive Status and the new Travel Mode are here to help!

If you know you’re going to be away from your address for a while or simply need a break from Postcrossing, we recommend that you switch your account to inactive a few weeks in advance. You can still send postcards if you’d like, but you won’t be sent any until you’re ready to receive them.

In addition to using the Inactive state, if you’re going on holidays somewhere and would like to send postcards from that location, then the Travel Mode is for you! Just set it on for your destination, connect to a local internet connection when you get there, grab some local postcards and stamps, and enjoy sending postcards with the right Postcard IDs, maps and statistics.

While you’re using either of these modes (which you can easily switch on and off on your Account Settings), Postcrossing does not to give your address to other members. Don’t worry though — we’ll still keep track of all your due postcards, and send them all to you when you’re home again and your account is back to active.

Got questions? Feel free to reach out on the comments or through the forum — as always, we’re here to help.

Enjoy your holidays!

Ten years ago today, Paulo launched a fresh version of the website, which included cool features such as avatars, maps, the inactive state, the little ticker on the frontpage that shows what’s happening now… aaaaaand this blog too! 🎉

Although the Postcrossing blog is but a small part of the website, it’s something that we’re particularly proud of. Through it, we share news and interesting stories, introduce members and their creative endeavours, talk about mail and stationery, celebrate milestones… and we also hear back from you on the comments, which is the best part!

Ten years of existence is definitely something worth celebrating, so today we’re digging the archives for some of our favourite posts and series.

Looking at tags on the blog’s Archive page, it’s easy to spot that our longest series of posts have featured spotlight interviews, in which we ask a few questions to members of the community. We’ve talked with 113 postcrossers so far, who have showed us their mailboxes, their mail carriers and their favourite postcards. We’ve talked to many other postcrossers too, about the wonderful meetups they’ve organised, their quirky postcard walls and nice friendship stories they’ve experienced because of the project.

We’ve also collaborated with museums, libraries, schools, charities and post offices — all of which we’re quite proud of.

Ten years later, we’re still fond of researching the history of post offices and postcards and finding out about other cool projects that use mail. And one of our favourite parts is coming accross cool new artists and stationery makers.

And last, but not least, the Little Mail Carriers were introduced to the blog back in 2010 and are very dear to our heart. They’ve traveled around the world several times over, reporting their adventures and showing us the beauty and charms of the places where mail travels to. Who knows where will they pop up next?

Here’s to another 10 years of bringing you nice stories from the Postcrossing community and the world of mail! 😊

This is our friend Lynda (aka LyndaC). She’s originally from Canada 🇨🇦 but travels abroad often and loves sending postcards from her trips, both to her friends back home and to others through Postcrossing. Sadly, it can be a bit awkward to send a postcard from somewhere exotic only to notice when it is registered that all the maps, statistics or flags of that postcard are wrong… so she used to refrain from requesting addresses in Postcrossing while traveling.

To make life easier for the many postcrossers that travel every year and want to send Postcrossing postcards from their trips, we’ve introduced a new feature called Travel Mode! With your account in Travel Mode set to your travel destination, you’ll be able to send postcards while in that location with a local Postcard ID (if abroad) and correct maps, statistics and flags that reflect the postcard’s actual origin.

While you’re busy exploring and writing postcards in Travel Mode, your account will be automatically set to inactive (since you’re not home to receive your postcards), but don’t worry — you’ll be sent all your due postcards as soon as you set it back to Active upon your return.

Lynda tested this feature on a recent trip to Portugal and France, and was happy to report that everything worked without a hitch! 👍

So the next time you travel somewhere, just switch your account to Travel Mode, find some local postcards and stamps, and you’ll be ready to share some nice memories from your trip! We’ve added a FAQ item about the new Travel Mode, but if you still have questions, feel free to ask below.

Hi everyone!

June is (finally!) here, which means school is soon going to be out for the summer in the northern hemisphere. Since this is the time when many postcrossers take their yearly holidays, we just wanted to remind everyone that the inactive status is here to help!

If you have holidays coming up, or you know you’re going to be away from your home or school address for a while, we recommend that you switch your account to inactive a few weeks in advance. When you set your account to inactive (which you can easily do by editing your account settings), Postcrossing does not to give your address to any other members while you are away. You can still send postcards if you’d like, but you won’t be sent any until you’re ready to receive them.

When you’re back, all you need to do is to switch your account back to active and you’ll be in business again! Rest assured, all your due postcards will then be sent your way.

Enjoy your holidays, and be sure to stock on nice postcards! :)