pouët.net

A good sideeffect this revision showed to me:
Ppl get back to their computers to "scene around",
old farts installing new tools - new souls that install old tools.

And while talking to other sceners, i see much "kick off" feeling that i hope that will last.
A spirit which feels familiar.

This containment feels a bit like back in the days, when we all were stuck at home...
And I think about doing mailswapping again.

I still know the feeling, when the postman came and brought letters with tagged floppy disks and stuff.

Maybe iam just nostalgic, but when looking at "Got Papers" and the Revision Seminar "Demoscene preservation society - Copy that floppy!"

I would love to get in touch again, physicially. And maybe we can test if "Stamps back" still works.

So if anyone is interessted - drop me a Mail to exchange Adresses*:
jan@deinetickets.de

*im not concerned about gdpr

Mate, have you been living on Mars during the last few weeks?
This is probably the worst period of our existence to start mailswapping.

Jailbird: No need to be so offensive.
You meant because of Smearinfections?

The Virus dries out on paper within hours.
Just let the letter laying on the desk for another 2 days...

sorry for a sentimental idea...

I think it's an excellent idea, especially in these times. I've already started mailswapping Swiss chocolate and USB drives with friends abroad.

And do not eat the stamp :D

i don't have a working floppy drive anymore but i can send a postcard to anyone who sends mail to:
jakkulantie 186
31470 somerniemi
finland

no way post works fast enough to transmit viruses alive. :D

That´s not an option anyway due to "STAMPS BACK!".

i'm to young to have know the swapping era and all this stuff but i already 'swapped' fews hdds full of warez to some guys and scene archivists.

nosfe, will send smth out tomorrow, let me know if and when it arrives, as international post acts very strangely these days.

it is a really cool idea _docd. 10 years ago i would have instantly grabbed an envelope, a pen, paper and a disk to put a stamp on it! :) it is not a sentimental idea for sure.

so far i still wrote letters and sent postcards by mail occasionally. why not do some more of this.

No it is actually a good idea. In this age where stuff gets duplicated in an instant, sending physical disks I think is perfect example lofi counterculture. One could argue it fits nicely into the trend of slowfood for example.

I'll send you a mail.

I've been mailing out demoscene stickers. :) Though not as a mutual "free" swap thing. I figured it's the one thing I can continue doing in this pandemic that isn't digital.

slowfood, numtek? against "fast reply" aka "slowswap", maybe? thanks for the offer!! ;D
just kidding. good comparison. =)
it justa is a different genre to send food supplies for the meal via mail, or to send real stuff via mail.

docd: there's quite a lot of folks who enjoy participating in postcard exchange clubs so your idea is not a very strange thought i would say. but the main attraction of mailswapping from my perspective was always that you got to see the (hopefully new or at least previously unseen) software on those disks that arrived in your mailbox. that, and of course the excitement of finding and trying ways to avoid having to buy stamps, that was almost more important to me than the software itself, certainly towards the end of the mailswapping era.

now the "problem" these days is that you find all releases much faster on the internet than you could via mail. so for me, spreading software via the mail is not really an attractive idea tbh. but i could totally see myself enjoying some form of return to that other side of mailswapping that excited me back in the days. so it's much more likely that i would revisit old tricks to send you a postcard free of charge, or a party flyer or some other small swag that i happen to have lying around too much of ;)

If you send USB-drives there should be graffiti made with sticky permanent markers on it.

havoc:
you are aret totally right.
noe we have to find other creative ways to excite the receiver of our packages.
That could be stickers or even just for this purpose coded intros.
or like dipswitch does: chocolate.

Everyone is happy receiving and sending out can be fun aswell.
I got some response in my inbox :-)

glue a cheap microSD behind the stamp full with obscure donkey porn! :P

microSD, that will be a challenge to draw graffiti on...

But what if what you receive is software exclusively distributed that way via its author? And you respect this distribution method, at least for its first 6 months of existence?

Or like, if I send you a disk filled with music, that I have not uploaded anywhere, wouldn't that be appealing?

You just need to find a way to make it work. A "snailmail-first exclusive" network of software and art releases sounds pretty appealing to me to be honest.

yeah, i'll notify you! mail indeed has been strange lately, some stuff gets through ok and then some things i've ordered have been stuck in limbo for quite some time now

We work on a swaptro database, were a "swapro" distributed only via snailmail can be entered with Name and screenshot and receivers can enter Handle/group - that they got it. And we started working on such swaptro (amiga).

Its maybe a bit cheesy, but hey lets see what happens.
And tbh...who needs a deeper thought in this case, its just for fun.
Receiving a floppy disk with a tag and some stickers would make me for example awesomly happy.

dipswitch, i got mail today!

wow, this took long - but yaay!

mail is indeed slow now, things inside Europe seems to move in weeks instead of days.