Tracking Slips - My little Experiment

[Type40]

First let me say, Thank you all for your help and cooperation.
Second, unless you are already writing me a letter, wait a couple of weeks to see what shakes out of the postal system before sending them to me. I don't want you to pay more postage than you have to.

It will take a while for them to finish there traveling and get tabulated. I will post updates in this thread.

What I can say is that I wrote 117 slips (105 words per slip X 117 = 12,285 words).
3 slips found there way back to me before the end of the month and could be passed on again.

[Dreck]

I received one Monday or Tuesday, and sent it to bonnie Scotland the very next day.

[Mags]

I received two and passed them along! Looking forward to the official results.

Mags sent from my blackberry playbook using tapatalks

[caribbean_skye]

I received 2 and pased them on also. Eagerly awaiting the results. Would be curious to see where say 20 of them went through the course of a year.

[inlovewithjournals]

I also received two; have passed one along and will enclose one in a reply I am writing today. Such a great idea Type40.

[Morgaine]

One came my way and I sent it on (although I can't remember to whom I had sent it)... This reminded me of Friendship Books (and their single page cousins, friendship sheets). http://www.lettersets.com/what-is-a-friendship-book.php

[lukefalk]

I ended up with three, all passed along.

[VertOlive]

Somehow these remind me of the Roaming Gnome in Amelie....

I have one straggler that I'll send home soon.

[ndw76]

on the 27th I got two. they are waiting for my next opportunity to sit down and do some writing.

[Type40]

Somehow these remind me of the Roaming Gnome in Amelie....

A very good movie, and I really liked what they did with the Gnome.

[Steph]

I received one and sent it on to Sweden.

[Toulouse]

Two traveled through our hands. What a neat idea! Tracking those that make it home will be such fun.

[ceramic_pizza]

I got one of those pretty early in the month. I sent it out to a friend the next state over.
It'll be cool to see where all these slips went.

[Lady Onogaro]

Sent one back your way today from Cajun country.

[Type40]

I had been wishing for a way to see who was writing to who, which people were the most connected to everyone, and see if there were people who wrote to the same group but not each other. Things like that for a while but I had two issues. First was peoples personal privacy (which I respect) and a better than average chance that enough people would be willing to participate.

As InCoWriMo approached I realized that for the month of February, there was going to be a highly active nearly self-contained group of people. Solving the participation issue. By specifying only sending to other people in the InCoWriMo group I could keep it to people who are on the Forum and have a Username. This solves the personal privacy part. The last idea I had was to help with circulation, I didn't want them to hold on to the slip till they could work up a reply to me, so as you saw I had you all drop it in the next one as long as they were in the group. Increasing the turnaround times and give much more interesting data.

My original plan was to send them out to everyone I wrote to, for the first week. That way they had the most time to travel. As people started posting address I thought it would be better if I pre wrote a bunch and released them on the first. Then it turned into, if I write to everyone that I haven't had contact with before, my intro letter would introduce me to them and whoever they send it off to, would either have received an intro or already know me. That again would help with the 'What is this thing and who is it from' reactions. I also specifically didn’t mention the slip in my letters. I wanted to make sure that everyone receiving it wouldn’t need to alter their letters to accommodate it.

Before I started thinking about all this, I had checked all my supplies for February. I had a new box of stationery, a bunch of stamps, and a new package of sealing wax. I was set. Come January 31. I had run out of stamps (8 or 9 short), most of the way through my stationery, and only nubs left of my sealing wax. Oops.

Here are a couple of photos I took of my outgoing on February 1.





I used rubber bands and attached a note to each for the mail carrier. Two are labeled Domestic and one is International. I believe this is why all of my letters out on this day got postmarked in Portland Oregon, some 2 hours away, but haven't checked with anyone yet. I also added a Thank you and appreciate you note, for my mail lady.

My plan for the actual month was to take it easy and write some postcards to people outside the group, when I wasn't writing to new arrivals to the group. Here is where my plan went a bit sideways (but in a good way). Being that I mailed some 76 people on the first day. A very high percentage of them arrived as the first letter for them. This meant they didn't have anything already waiting and could reply right away. I realized this just before the flood started. A very happy flood.

[VertOlive]

Sending two home tomorrow.

[Potter]

Got my first one directly and quickly, got another and sent it off another mid way through and got one in from USA today, which is in the envelope with a letter to go off back tomorrow, looking forward to hearing the results

[Type40]

Thank you all and I will be posting everything I learn here, so that everyone can see.

[mtnbiker62]

Got one over the weekend and sent it home today.

[Type40]

You all can wait a bit and save postage, in case there are some still in transit. I can wait. (standing by the mail box, listening for the mail lady....)