Safety of putting snail mail address on profile?

[Mark]

Hi there. I'm brand new to the IUOMA and I'm trying to figure out how to set up my profile so that I don't have my snail mail address posted on a website for anyone to access. Currently I have my profile set to private, but I would like to be more open with the IUOMA members.

Can anyone help me feel comfortable about publishing my address here? Or tell me what you all find to be best practice?

Thanks!

[Ruud Janssen]

The complete website IUOMA is visible for the Internet. So if you publish an address on the profile with public settings, it will be visible. Some choose for a P.O. Box, some don't mind having their postal address on the website. A different way is to let people ask for your address and don't make it public. There are no other ways as I know of.

[Ruud Janssen]

You can also turn the setting to 'only friends' and then the normal public won't see your profile....

[Mark]

Thanks Ruud! I'm going with setting my profile to Member-visibility with a message that says "Email me for my address." 

[Ashazart]

For whatever it is worth, I've had my address posted on various mail art sites for years and I have never had any reason to regret it. Sometimes I get surprised by unexpected mail art gifts, which can be quite fun.

[Mark]

Thanks guys. I'll give it a shot :)

[Valentine Mark Herman]

Welcome!

Below is a Blog I posted earlier.

My position is very clear, I hope: if you want to receive any Mail Art from me, I need to know your postal address. If I can't find it here then I won't send you anything.

Regards, and however difficult you make life for yourself (but not for me, cos otherwise I'm out of it) I hope that you get LOTS of Mail Art.

Val

****

Grrrrrrrrrr! How can I be expected to send Mail Art to people who DON'T....

...provide a postal address in their Profile Information?

Not being psychic, I can't.

Grrrrrrrr! It's a drag having to ask people for their snail mail address. And/or dig around in their web-site to (try and) find it.

If y'all want some Mail Art then surely you're going to give your postal address?

My New Return-Mail-Art Policy from now on is that if you don't provide me with your address on what you send me and/or in your Profile Information, then I won't be sending anything back to you -- not because I don't want to, but because you make it just that little bit more difficult for me to do so, and thus..... Grrrrrr!

[Toni Antonetti]

Totally agree! Some people may be (rightfully so) worried about privacy, but for most people, I'm wondering why it would be an issue. Afraid that you will receive mail art in your mailbox? That would be a good problem to have!

[Heleen de Vaan]

Welcome to IUOMA, Marko, and I totally understand your hesitation to publish your address on the public internet.
I think it a good property to be cautious in sharing personal information on the world wide web.
And as there are more people living in my house, I didn't want to bother them by such a 'public access' (and maybe I feared Big Brother? :-) ). So I started to hire a P.O.box - which in the Netherlands alas is more expensive than it is in the U.S. - however I think it worth it, and fun. And also fun for the P.O.Box-office workers, who from then on started to see mail different from the dreary routine office mail.

Concerning my opinion and situation, I still prefer a P.O.Box. But I think a personal address is o.k., too, regarding the experience of several mail artists you can find here in the network.
Just there are some common advices (e.g. to not share on social media when there's nobody at your home for a long time, or so).

Anyway, no worries: I saw your address on your member's page, but when I signed out of the IUOMA site I noticed that it had disappeared. So I think your profile is only 'public' to all IUOMA members who have signed in to this website.

 

The only thing is, as Angie &  Snooky already wrote, that there isn't a guarantee that your address will be only known by the IUOMA ning network members. It can appear on other people's blogs to whom you are sending mail art to.
And I learned that my address must be have been placed on some international mail art lists, too (not only the Brain Cell address lists, but also some others), by which I got spam.
Snail mail spam, yes, it exists! :-)  (that was funny, too, however I was happy that two of these were delivered in the P.O.Box and not at my home, as one was a dating advertising magazine, probably sent to me by a handsome man (which could have made one of my household members jealous), and the other was accompanied by a real photo of a handsome lady (which would have been caught immediately by one of my household members and would have been making me jealous :-)

 

In contrary to Valentine's opinion, I don't mind when people choose to not publish their address. On the contrary: I think it a nice challenge to send snail mail to someone whose postal address isn't public. Recently I received a very beautiful piece of mail art, but the sender hadn't written her address on it, and it wasn't available here at IUOMA either. And by some research, googling and watching her mail pictured on other people's websites I solved this 'puzzle', and I am enjoying the idea of surprising her by my snail mail reply in her mailbox. 

[Valentine Mark Herman]

Hellen, I own up, as I am 'The Handsome Man'.

[Mim Golub Scalin]

My address has been on my page since I joined. No problem. I don't email people to get their postal addresses. They can send me mail and I'll send mail to them in return. It's simple. My choice. People need to do what they're comfortable with.

[Kayenderes]

Hello Mark

Do you do Add & Pass   or   make   Post Cards   to swap?

I would love to swap you.

Kayenderes

PO Box 1077

Hogansburg,  N.Y.   13655   USA   

thankyou