Postcrossing

Infobox Website
name = Postcrossing



caption =
url = http://www.postcrossing.com
commercial =
type = Project Website
language = English
registration = Yes
owner = Paulo Magalhães
author = Paulo Magalhães
launch date = 2004
current status =
revenue =

Postcrossing is a project, inspired by Bookcrossing, designed to allow people to receive postcards from all over the world. Participants who send a postcard should receive at least one back, from a postcrosser in another country. Because each postcard received is registered with the website, users are able to generate global-scale maps of destinations which they have sent cards to and received cards from, and review the journey times of mailed items.

As of August 28, 2008, there were 62,933 members from 188 countries. 1,351,491 postcards have been received because of this project and 68,000 are currently traveling. In total, Postcrossing's postcards have travelled 7,387,142,198 km or 184,332 laps around the world. [ [http://postcrossing.com/ Postcrossing Main Page] ] Maps generated of the site's general activity reveal higher concentrations of users in Europe and North America than in other areas, with the United States, Finland and Germany being the only countries to have broken the 100,000 postcards sent barrier. [ [http://www.postcrossing.com/usersMap Postcrossing Maps] ] , [ [http://www.postcrossing.com/stats Postcrossing stats] ]

On Friday the 15th of February 2008, the site launched a new look interface, with added features popularly known among the community as "Version 2".

tatistics

Postcrossing provides a number of statistics as well as various mapping options. According to site statistics [ [http://www.postcrossing.com/stats Postcrossing stats] ] , more than four times more females are registered than males.

Distribution of Members

Tags

Tagging is an alternative way of obtaining specific postcards that you desire from other members on the forum. There are many different tags which all have a specialised theme eg. "Sheep Tag". One member will tag the forum member that has posted above them, ask for their address and sent them a postcard that is related to the tag theme. Then someone will post in the thread and 'tag' them, therefore sending that person a postcard.

Tags are used by many members who collect specific types of postcards, as they can participate in whichever tags they want.

Forum

The website has an official forum which allows members to discuss many aspects of the project with other members, as well as participate in games, tags and postcard swaps. There is also an off topic section for threads not related to Postcrossing.

Bingo

Bingo is a popular game which is played on the forum. The aim of the game is to receive postcards from as many different places as possible, in order to score bingo. Bingos are location specific. For example, when playing a "New Zealand bingo", there are 16 listed regions in New Zealand and once a user has received postcards from all 16 regions, they have achieved bingo. The same can be done for sending postcards.

References

See also

*Postcard
*Deltiology
*Real photo postcard

External links

* [http://www.postcrossing.com Official site]
* [http://forum.postcrossing.com Official forum]
* [http://postcrossing.at Unofficial Forum in English and German]
* [http://www.livejournal.com/community/postcrossing/ LJ Community]
* [http://www.postcrossing.de/ German FAQ & Info Site]
* [http://www.postcrossing.nl/ Dutch FAQ & Info Site]
* [http://fan.at0mica.net/postcrossing/ PostCrossing Fanlisting]
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A10726850 BBC article - Postcrossing - The Postcard Crossing Project]
* [http://www.flickr.com/groups/postcrossing/pool/ Flickr Postcrossing Photo Pool]