Postcrossing Stats for October 2022
It's November now, so my Postcrossing stats for October made its way into my box yesterday evening. I thought I would attempt to be more timely this month than last. I moved into the top 40,000 for postcards sent and the top 35,000 for postcards received by distance. Neither of those milestones are significant, but I'll take improvement anywhere as it comes. Last month, in both categories, I was in the top 50,000.
Something to note, that is significant to me is the amount of postcards received versus the amount I sent. I sent 7 and received, literally, twice as many. My total count is now: 14 sent and 17 received. I'm not sure how that happens. I've always had a higher total in the "sent" category than the "received". I'm not sure how it is possible for that to even happen. From what I know of the Postcrossing system, a user's address is put into the "can receive" pile upon them registering a postcard (they received). I was down 4 in the received category last month; I had sent 7 and received 4. So, even if you add those 4 from last month, the total should be 11 received. I don't understand how this happened. Perhaps there is a glitch in the system. If you can explain how this happens, please explain it to me in the comments section.
I sent 7 postcards to 6 different countries. I would like to note that about mid-way through the month I checked the preference to have several postcards traveling to the same country at the same time. I was going to turn this on eventually. I don't mind postcards going to the same country. I enjoy a variety, but I think it becomes a moot point when you are able to send a lot of postcards at once and the fact that certain countries are way more active than others. I think, it's like Germany, Russia, USA, and the Netherlands send significantly more postcards than other countries, so the addresses tend to be from 1 of those countries.
The postcards I received came from all over the world and that was a nice touch! I haven't received a postcard from Belarus or Romania in a long time. I also had never received a postcard from Luxembourg before! The majority my postcards are from the Netherlands and USA; 2 of the most active countries on Postcrossing.
I continue to receive a majority of postcards that I can tell people put a lot of effort and thought into what I would like, and that's nice to see. I have 7 favorites out of 17 received, although that is only a 41% rating, that does not include the postcards that I received and have yet to upload the images of. Once I do that, the favorites will go up. (My favorites list are postcards I have received that I like.)
I know I had my downer moment last month with the lack of people liking my sent postcards, but this month I had a surge in people favoriting what I have sent, which is nice to see. I'm currently at a 50% favorite rate with what I have sent.
I want to add a little info, because I think this contributed a lot as to why all of a sudden my postcards were being liked by others. -In the last week of October, I donated money to the Postcrossing project. It's a program I have used on-and-off now for over a year and I felt like I should support a service I use a lot for entertainment.
Well, once you donate money and become a "Supporter" you get a special badge on your profile and you get featured on the bottom right corner of the website. I believe being featured directed a lot more traffic to my profile and thus people took more notice of what I had sent. I received an increase in likes, comments, and messages from people wanting to direct swap with me.
I'm still keeping on! I will update my stats next month. My account continues to grow and my connections are increasing, and that makes me happy!
Here are some October facts that Postcrossing sent with my stats, just in case you missed them.
October 1 was World Postcard Day. Over 90,000 postcards were sent (that Postcrossing recorded.) This number does not include the total number sent world-wide that was not sent through the Postcrossing website. That's 7x's the daily average on Postcrossing.
There were over 100 meet-ups around the world on World Postcard Day.
Germany released their own Postcrossing Stamp on October 7.