[[Image:Postcrossing100k.jpg|thumb|right|250px|At least 250,000 cards have been received through postcrossing.]]
'''Postcrossing''' is a [[project]], inspired by [[bookcrossing]], designed to allow people to receive [[postcard]]s 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. 

There are now (October 2006) 16,478 members from 128 countries. More than 279,472 postcards have been received because of this project and about 29,203 are currently travelling. Maps generated of the site's general activity reveal higher concentrations of users in [[Europe]] and [[North America]] than in other areas, with [[Finland]] being the only country to have broken the 60,000 postcards sent barrier.<ref>http://www.postcrossing.com/usersMap</ref>, <ref>http://www.postcrossing.com/stats</ref>

==Statistics==
[[Image:Postcrossing travellingPostcardsMap.png|thumb|right|The most recent 500 travelling postcards, 14 July 2006]]
Postcrossing provides a number of statistics as well as various mapping options.  According to site statistics <ref>http://www.postcrossing.com/stats</ref>, more than four times more females are registered than males.

==Distribution of Members (updated monthly) ==
<div style="float:right">
</div>
{| rules="all" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" style="margin: 1em 1em 1em 1em; border: 1px solid #999; font-size: 80%; background-color: white;"
|- style="background:#ccccff" align="center" |
! !! Country !! Number of members (1 November 2006)
|-
|1.|| [[Finland]] || 4,396 {{loss}}16 
|-
|2.|| [[United States]] || 2,616 {{loss}}54
|-
|3.|| [[Germany]] || 1,511 {{profit}}21
|-
|4.|| [[Netherlands]] || 981 {{loss}}14
|-
|5.|| [[Brazil]] || 899 {{steady}}
|-
|6.|| [[Portugal]] || 707 {{profit}}14
|-
|7.|| [[United Kingdom]] || 509 {{loss}}1
|-
|8.|| [[France]] || 480 {{profit}}3
|-
|9.|| [[New Zealand]] || 452 {{loss}}8
|-
|10.|| [[Canada]] || 413 {{profit}}9
|-
|11.|| [[Singapore]] || 324 {{profit}}43
|-
|12. || [[Russia]] || 314 {{loss}}5
|-
|13. || [[Australia]] || 276 {{profit}}4
|-
|14.|| [[Spain]] || 260 {{steady}}
|-
|15. || [[Japan]] || 226 {{profit}}4
|-
|16. || [[Hungary]] || 171 {{steady}}
|}

== Tags ==
[[Image:ee337.JPG|thumb|right|350px|Postcard with the ID 'EE-337']]
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 [[Internet forum|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==

<references />

== See also ==

*[[Postcard]]
*[[Template:Postcrossing|Userbox Postcrossing]]
*[[Deltiology]]
*[[Real photo postcard]]

== External links ==

*[http://www.postcrossing.com Official site]
*[http://forum.postcrossing.com Official forum]
*[http://flickr.com/groups/postcrossing Flickr gallery]
*[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://fan.at0mica.net/postcrossing/ PostCrossing Fanlisting]
*[http://www.museum.com.ua/project/club/otkritki/europe_en_01.html Worldwide postcards]
*[http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A10726850 BBC article - Postcrossing - The Postcard Crossing Project]


[[Category:Internet object tracking]]
[[Category:Postal system]]

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