Used stamps exchanges.

Lipp suggested a skip option:

"... assign a slot, then the user reads the profile.
If the user thinks he's not able to fulfill the requirements, then, the user has the possibility of reject the slot, and "jump", to another user.
For instance, I'm assigned to a collector that dont want cto, definitives, and only wants fauna and flora.
I don't feel comfortable with this, so, I reject the slot, and jump to another.
The following user wants stamps from Australia, or, maybe, accepts anything.
I like this slot, so I send the stamps."

I add this to another subject so we can better concentrate on the idea.

Would you want to skip someone? Do you want someone to skip you?

Maybe it's better to be skipped then to receive something you don't want and you leave a low rating.
You want to send something that the other collector will enjoy because you want the same, so if you fell you cant do that, maybe its better to skip and let some one else send something to that member.

Assigning addressed wont be that random anymore. Now the preferences are optional, but since you can skip or accept a an exchange, probably the preferences will become more mandatory.

An important idea for this project is the surprise element. But you can still have that if you keep a relaxed profile.

What do you think? Will this help the project or will have other effects?

I do not like this idea of a skip option. Think it will be a little chaotic. If you are a member of this club, it means that you have fairly wide interests. A member that only collects Sweden before 1900 will soon find out that this is not the place to get new stamps for his collection. Another thing is that many of us should look again at our profile. Can it be widened a little and make it easier for the other members that are composing a selection. And if I get stamps from countries I do not collect, that is no problem. There will soon be a member that is interested in those stamps. No, let us continue as before, but always try to do a better job for the collectors who receive our letters.

i forgot to say about 3rd mode to obtain stamps in Romania, Romfilatelia sell CTO of current stamps with a quarter of their value!

Hello everyone! i live in Romania! Here we have a problem, today stamps have really large value
few Romanian problems for example:
-in 2017 we issued more than 28 stamps with 15 or 16 lei value, 15 lei is about 4$
-total value of issued stamps in 2017 (without souvenir sheets) was 943,6 Lei (250$)
-is hard to get used stamps because postal system are used rarely, we have printed labels on official envelopes, and some official envelope are sent by private mail (corruption in Romania is huge)
-stamps are not issued by Romanian Post himself, but by another company, Romfilatelia. Romfilatelia in theory is controlled by Romanian Post, but in real is a separate company with a own budget and the only purpose is to make profit, because CEO and Board of Directors take bonuses!
-Romanian Post take stamps for mail use (a few part from all printing run) in and pays a commission for that! It is funny, Romanian Post buy these stamps from one of its subsidiaries
-Romania is one of the most expensive countries in the world on current stamps issues
-we collectors, can obtain stamps in 2 modes: Romfilatelia sell packs of CTO stamps (mostly are unsold stamps from last years), and from domestic market, but here is same, MNH stamps from communist times and '90s are expensive, and used stamps are rare, so we can buy only CTO
final question is, how we can be here without problems? i know repulsion towards CTOs and Eastern European stamps
Thanks!!!

Actually, if I found this member again, I would like to skip him
http://100stamps.club/stamps/ES-906#form

I Would totally agree with skip option

Recently this idea was again discussed in another thread.
I see that this could be helpful in some cases. There have been some complains about ratings based on wish lists. Also some members asked me to cancel some addresses they received.
I'm also afraid that some of those 'unwanted' exchanges will end up expiring and this is also a loss for the intended receiver because that ticked will be consumed. All those problems are exceptions.

The surprise element of this club was very important from the beginning. I don't want to lose this aspect. There are other projects where you can exchange based on wish lists or you can do a direct swap. I don't know how to do a skip option without affecting the surprise element of the exchanges. The skip option will make the wish list more important, probably mandatory.

i would really wellcome the skip option at this point ...i really dont want to send stamps to someone who has clearly sent a lot/lots that are mainly definitives and damaged stamps included :( i rather wait and not send to anyone until i have an address of someone who has sent me/others nice lots :)

You should not be afraid to give a low rating. But if 1 and 2 stars are considered negative and if some one can be banned if it received too many of them, then this low ratings should only be given if necessary.

Calculated a few days ago the average was less then 5% low ratings.
There were 4 members with more then 1 low ratings given in their last 10 exchanges. One of them had 4. This means 40% as opposed to 5% the average. Its a huge difference.

So a limit of 1 low rating in last 10 exchanges means 10%. This is double the average. It should be enough.

if we presume you most often get 100 stamps that are rated 3,4,5 then 1 letter that you surely have to rate with 1 star would hardly get your average rating much down, unless that it would be your first letter. Then you would just have to rate next letter with a generous 5 stars and you are back to 3 star average. It should be very hard to get below 2,5 average if 90% of members follow the rules about 100 good condition stamps.

It is a ridiculous idea that one should be penalized for not liking the stamps sent by someone else. Even if it's not a direct punishment, but an "evil face" on ones profile.

Example: I received 50 stamps instead of 100. I rated this swap a well-deserved 1 (and would rate it zero if it was possible). And I am supposed to be punished for that?

I have calculated 4,25 average rate for the last 712 sendings.
If somebody rates in average 3,7, or 4,8 is more exigent than the rest, or less.
Or he/she is luckier, and receives better sendings, or has bad luck (this latter is not statistically probable)

...Cannot be explained... Sorry for the autocorrector

Nice idea, it is statistically significative to give much lower rates than the average.
As Danubius stated some days ago, the average is something like 4,2 or something like that.
If somebody rates for instance, 3 in average this cannot be ecolaundey in terna of poor quality of the sendings. It isn't possible that a person is sent lower quality in average than the rest. Maybe a fece in the profile could reflect this.

That is a nice idea, it could be done with Smiles, very happy ( :D ) for 4,5-5 smile ( :) ) for 3,5-4,5 neutral for 2,5-3,5 ( :| ) and evil ( :evil: ) for below 2,5

I agree with you Danubius, specially in relation to members that give too many low ratings.

So, something must be implemented to reflect that in the member's rate. The member's rate must be created taking in consideration the stars received, but as well the stars given. How to do this, I still don't know.

The surprise element is more important. So it's better if we skip the skip option. :)

The rules of exchanges are simple. The preferences from the profile are optional.
Receiving low ratings for not having what what your partner wants should be exceptions and should not be taken personally.

Probably we should see low ratings from both ways. Members who receive too many low ratings and members who give too many low ratings.

The skip option aims to avoid that a member rates two stars simply because you don´t follow his/her wishlist.
This is indeed what actually is against the spirit of this club, random swaps, blind swaps, there are lots of direct swaps sites.
Some members try to enforce their wishlist by rating low the sendings of those members that don´t follow their wishlist.
I´ve been rated for the same set of stamps from 2 to 5 (absolutely true, believe me). The reason, is that the beauty is on the eyes of the receiver, not in the stamps itself.
I don´t want to be rated low, specially if I send +100 commemorative european stamps in perfect condition, no definitives, no CTO, simply because the receiver don´t like the stamps.
That's why I think it is neccesary the skip option, as I don't want (nobody wants) to force anybody to accept something he doesn´t want to receive.
Of course, if finally implemented, it would be an exception.

I think too that the skip option is against the spirit of the club. Let's say that because I'm interested in stamps from country A, I only want to swap with members of this country. So I use the skip option to increase my chance of getting my swap with the ones I prefer. On the contrary, let's say that I want to avoid swap with a member of a country B for whatever reasons, and many people choose to do so. So a member B would never get a chance to swap.
My opinion is that the star system alone will help to encourage people who do not stick to the rules - 100 stamps, non-damaged, used, non-duplicated- to learn by themselves since their profile is public and nobody wants their name in disrepute.

There have been some partners I'd loved to skip. But it think that that is not the spirit of this project.
So I am also against the skip option.

I have to be neutral on this, skip option, generally I would be against it, but I can see that it can help in some cases. maybe limit it to 1-3 skips a week/month?

Against skip option!

Sveinn, if you have 1000 members, bring them in! ;)
Although is better for the system if it grows gradually, we can find a solution.
But it can definitely grow faster then it does now.

Danubius said: I aspect that skipping will be more or less an exception. I don't think that someone will skip trough all the members.

Neither do I! Of course, in my own experience, if this option would have been already implemented, I would have accepted 90% of the slots.

What I was thinking Danubius, if there is a limit of members for the club? can you handle 1000 members?
If so we need to go and lure more people in. ;)

I aspect that skipping will be more or less an exception. I don't think that someone will skip trough all the members.

Yes, there is a limited number of members, but that number is constantly growing. This is why there is a maximum limit of 5 simultaneous sent exchanges for a member. So you wont get all the available slots. And that you wont get to that limit too soon.

There is a error that you get if there are no more partners available. I cant tell you now if someone is getting that error. I will check this to see when is happening.

As long as new members are constantly joining, it will be okay. But more members will be even safer.

Lipp and Danubius, now understood mechanism of address giving, thanks!

how may members do you think this circuit can manage? Danubius?
We need to get more members? right?

Yes, the skipped member will be temporary. For 90 days. After that period you again can get that member with the same options Skip/Accept.

There's no need for the address to be seen in the first stage. Only the profile which is public.

Regarding wimber objection, it can be easily solved.
1.- the system assignes you a slot, the you can see the profile, but not the personal data.
2.- if you skip, then you go to another user, you haven't seen the personal data of the skipped.
3.- if you don't skip and accept the swap, then, and only then, you see the adress and personal data.

Anyway, as we are a very reduced number of members, sooner or later you will swap with all the users.

against skip option! At least, there has to be a "Agreed" button, like "Do you agree that your personal data can be seen, but can be rejected by the potential sender (yes/no)?". But, who will be agreed on it? I think, nobody. So, it is deadlock.

If implemented, I'd prefer that you didn't skip a member "forever". It is possible that later on you find yourself with lots of duplicates flora stamps which could be send to the member who requested them.

In my opinion, the core idea of this project is random swaps, blind swaps, this is fine because reduces significantly transaction costs on swapping.
You dont have to check wishlists, simply send 100 stamps as nice as you can and that's all.
It is a powerful and simple idea.
Of course it is necessary to control that nobody sends poor quality, damaged stamps, less than 100....The rating system discussed in other mails goes in that direction.
But, returning to this point, if you don't want to be skipped, you won't narrow too much your profile.
If you want only what your profile says, then keep it, but assume that probably a lot of members will skip you.
Submarkets will appear inmediatly. One for the generallistic collectors, "hi, I accept anything, if possible send me stamps from france", and some speciallised market "no cto, no definitves, no pre 1990, I only collect turtles".
The wider your profile is, the wider your market is, and the possibilities to be accepted are higher, of course.
So, in this approach, profiles should been respected, as I don't particularly enjoy been rated low, simply because I don't have the stamp that the other collector asks for, although the stamps sent are ordinary (more than 100, no damages, no extremely common definitves.....)