Saturday, July 2, 2011

Update on Walltype

Handmade postcard for Walltype

A couple weeks ago I blogged about a new postcard exchange site I'd just discovered, Walltype. I thought I'd follow up and share my experiences of the past couple weeks with you.

I've sent 11 postcards through Walltype since I joined on June 19, and have received 8. I have every reason to believe I'll get a postcard for the last 3 I've sent, since some are inevitably coming from foreign users whose postcards will take longer to travel.

One factor is that it seems to be a very small group of users who participates regularly, nothing like Sendsomething.net or of course Postcrossing and Swap-bot, but to balance that out, I'll note that nearly everyone I've encountered there is dedicated and considerate. They really will read your profile, and most have sent me something really great and interesting. Unlike many Postcrossing users, they're also game to write a fair good bit on the back of the postcard. And it seems a lot of people have joined lately, so the more people that get active there, the more variety there is among senders.

I really only have two complaints:
*The character limit on profiles is severe. It's hard to write much. Most people link to their Postcrossing or Swap-bot profiles, and that's where I find real information about their likes and dislikes. The profiles allowed on Walltype really are super-tiny. But, as I said, you can link elsewhere for more info.
*The "contact us" page says "We try to read all messages same day," and maybe they do, but they don't bother to respond. I sent a couple of questions and comments to the site admin(s), and still haven't heard a word back. So prepare yourself to be in a fairly unmoderated database system. (Or the mods are having email/contact trouble and don't know about it.)

The postcard I used as an image for this post is one I made, for someone who really likes handmade postcards. I don't tend to make my own postcards, but sometimes it's fun when I'm in the mood, and I had fun with this one. (I hope rubber-stamping and a bit of coloring makes it hand-made!) The recipient is someone I'd happened to swap with recently on Swap-bot as well, so it was amusing to encounter her in two different realms like that.

So there's my Walltype wrap-up. My verdict? I enjoy it and will continue to send postcards there from time to time.