Tracking international postal system reliability

Numista already tracks data about swaps... see the swap statistics on the front page.

Numista already knows which two countries those swaps take place in, based on user profile locations.

Numista knows when those swaps are sent (at the point that they are confirmed by both members) and when they are received (at the point when they are rated by both members).

So...

Numista could automatically generate statistics on the reliability of postal service between any two nations.

number of swaps between nations "A" and "B" that are rated two stars or higher by both users

vs.

number of swaps between nations "A" and "B" that are confirmed

For example, if 88 confirmed swaps are made between users from Pottsylvania and Grajashstan, and 61 of those swaps are favorably rated, then we can assume that the remaining 27 swaps were somehow left incomplete due to postal errors, thus earning the Pottsylvania-Grajashstan pairing a 61/88 = 69.3% rating.

Publish such ratings as a function of any two nations. Make this a useful tool for swapping between nations... find out if you can trust the postal systems, before you commit your coins?

I think this can be done with information that Numista already collects, and without publishing personal information from any users.

Bonus points if Numista can also track and publish the median transit time between those two nations, again based on the number of days between "confirmed" status and "rated" status.

While I like the idea in principle, in practice you will get a picture of of which countries have a culture of dishonesty rather than those with unreliable mail. From personal observation it is clear to me that some countries have a far worse ratio of scammers to legitimate swappers. Many, I would even say most, "lost mail" stories are simply thieves using the unlucky mailbox fraud.

During five decades of collecting and thousands of parcels sent and received I can honestly say that the numbers of genuine lost parcels can be counted on one hand, yet there are self described "world renowned numismatists" who seem to be losing mail every other week.

Typically whenever this subject is raised, the race card is played so it would be great to have undeniable, accessible and verifiable statistics to settle the issue beyond doubt rather than a long and often acrimonious exchange of meaningless personal anecdotes.

So, great idea which I wholeheartedly support however the truth is often uncomfortable and takes second place to political correctness so I don't think it will be implemented.