mystampworld 1.39

mystampworld, otherwise known as msw, is a philatelic social networking site with a rich feature set and a familiar look. Started in May 2013, it's now a flourishing community for stamp enthusiasts with over 1,500 members from 98 countries.

The site has been developed by Rod Tilyard, an Australian with 40 years experience in both stamp collecting and information technology.

When asked what was the motivation for providing it for free to the philatelic community, Rod replied, "Not many people would have enjoyed both philately and programming for their whole working life as I have. This is my way of giving something back to the world's greatest hobby".

Just by joining up you immediately have access to a very current philatelic news feed from all major online news sources and all articles are added to the database for referencing at any time.

Other major features include the site activity wall, forums, philatelic interest groups, chat, blogs, polls, e-mail, a philatelic events calendar, your own albums of stamps and exhibits, plus comprehensive site statistics.

As a member you can maintain your own philatelic profile that can also be personalised by changing the background, colours, fonts and adding your favourite program widgets.

There's member classified 'for sale', 'wanted' or 'exchange' ads.

Each member can also have their own store with powerful searching, saved searches, want lists, prices in buyer and seller currencies, payment with paypal or receive an invoice, sales inventory valuation including totals per country, sales history, purchase history and spreadsheet import, with no store fees.

If you have your own philatelic site or store(s) elsewhere, you can put up promotional pages which link to them.

There's all the usual social networking stuff too, like making friends with other members. Adding as much detail about your collecting interests as you want to your own profile helps members with similar interests to find you when searching. Rich text comments that include bold, italic, underline, colour, images and links can be posted throughout.

The site displays equally well on tablets, notebooks and PCs by dynamically adjusting the layout to suit whatever device you're using to access it. You can even download apps for viewing mystampworld on apple or android devices.

The default 'look and feel' which will appeal to facebook users can be easily changed with a mouse click to one of several alternate templates at any time.

35 different languages are supported. With one click you can display the entire site in another language.

mystampworld also has sponsor donated gifts which are allocated a number of points according to value. By engaging in mystampworld you get points for each activity. You can then claim free gifts by using the points you've accumulated, or donate points to helpful members. Stores can also offer a discount where members can use some of their points to receive the discount.

mystampworld does not accept any paid advertising. Anyone wanting to 'advertise' is encouraged to become a sponsor instead. All sponsors are highlighted on the home page.

The site is secure, slick and the best of all, everyone is friendly and helpful.