The venerable SDMB tradition of periodically exchanging postcards seems to have been in hiatus for a while.
Methinks that amongst the prevailing angst and brouhaha we could with some expression of goodwill. And if better candidates were not available, I guess a non-merkin doper can co-ordinate the venture.
Here’s how it works, by the numbers, and extensively plagiarised from past editions:
Disclaimer: This exchange is a private thing among Dopers and is not an official function of the SDMB, its owners, or the staff.
Rules of the 2026 SDMB Postcard Exchange:
If you would like to receive three (3) postcards from the wide, varied and eclectic community of Dopers around the world, please post your expression of interest and participation into this thread to give the thread regular bumps for the publicity. Please, don’t sign up unless you intend to participate fully.
Send me a PM with your username, real-life name (optional if you like) and your full current postal address.
To assist the aggregation of the groups of four, any Doper who was festive or merely attention seeking and prepared to double up to even out the numbers, please let me know.
Cut-off for signing up is a PM to be received by myself with a date-stamp on Monday May 25th 2026, to eliminate any implications of time zones. I will post to this thread when acceptances close.
I will treat the list of names and addresses received with all due respect for privacy (USA and Australian variants).
I will collate and arrange the participants into groups of four with as widely dispersed localities as feasible.
Finally, I will then send out return PMs to each participant with the contact names and addresses of the other Dopers to whom your obligation is to send postcards.
Then it’s up to you to select and obtain a postcard for each of the other Dopers in your mailing group. The card’s theme being your prerogative, but please, let’s not send out NSFW postcards. Thank you.
Annotate your cards in an appropriate manner. Acquire requisite postage and consign via your local post office. Snail mail, surface or air as best suits.
The deadline for sending out your postcards will be Sunday 7th June 2026. If real life intervenes and you are unavoidably detained, please post to this thread.
Wait patiently but replete with anticipation. Some postcards may be consigned via the Strait of Hormuz. Please report back any and all arrivals to this thread and share the communal excitement.
OK then folks, the ante has been set, no more bets. Come in spinner.
PS
In your PM, please include your mailing info in this format or the non-USA equivalent:
Username
Firstname Lastname
1234 Any Street
Anytown CA 12345
U.S.A
Kind regards
PT
**Real-life meetings.** STM and its agents, including the administrators and moderators of the SDMB, are not responsible for anything associated with any real life meeting of our members. While we permit SDMB users to post announcements and other discussion of meetings and events on the Straight Dope Message Board, we don’t organize, sponsor, endorse, approve, or have any formal association with such events or any activities that may occur at them. We don’t vouch for any individual or group organizing or participating in an event. Attend at your own risk. SDMB moderators and administrators who attend events do so as private individuals and not as representatives or agents of STM. We encourage all attendees at these events to obey the laws of the jurisdiction in which they are held.
I’d like to participate, but I have absolutely no idea where to get postcards. My location is hardly a vacation wonderland. There is one kinda-sorta an hour and change down the road, in the mountains, but I have no plans to get there anytime soon.
Well then there’s an opportunity … take a couple of photos of the local environs, print 'em, put one in an envelope with a collectable stamp, mail it out and Robert’s your mother’s brother.
Just saying.
There’s also an app out there called Postagram. You can snap a photo with your phone, add it to the app and create a custom postcard, which will then be printed and sent to your recipient. I’ve used it to send postcards to friends when I am overseas. No need to hunt down postcards or postage or a mailbox. They’re $2 for domestic US addresses and $3 for international.
I’ve glued a photo printed on paper onto cardstock using a glue stick. Also ordered postcards from Amazon. The local Walgreens used to have generic scenic postcards.
