Getting Started
Welcome to Fun Swap!
Here's everything you need to know as a new member.
1. Sign up and complete your profile
You can sign up with an email and password or with one of the social-account options (Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, X). At signup you'll see an "I'm not a robot" check — that's just a one-click anti-bot gate, no puzzles to solve.
Then add a username, bio, avatar, and your mailing address. Fun Swap verifies the address against a real-world address service and will flag typos or country-mismatches before you can save. Your address is only ever shared with the specific swap partner who's sending to you in a given swap — never published, never shown on your profile.
2. Your first swap is a tutorial
Right after you finish your profile, Fun Swap creates a tiny practice swap just for you, hosted by a friendly bot. There's no real package to mail — you'll click I have sent my swap and I have received my swap to learn the flow. The whole thing usually takes five minutes.
While you're in this onboarding mode you can't browse other swaps yet — every page brings you back to the bot swap so you can finish the tutorial. The bot leaves you a positive rating when you're done, which counts as your first step toward eventual coordinator eligibility (see step 9).
If life pulls you away and you don't finish within 30 days, your account goes inactive automatically. That's not a problem — log back in any time and you'll be reactivated and offered a fresh tutorial.
3. Pick a subscription tier (or stay on Free)
Fun Swap has three tiers. Each one gates how much you can do on the site:
Free — browse everything (including other members' galleries), join up to 2 active swaps at a time, and join up to 5 groups. Free members cannot host their own swaps or groups, and cannot upload images to a personal gallery — the Gallery button doesn't appear on a free member's profile.
Essential ($5/month or $50/year) — join up to 25 active swaps, host up to 25 of your own, create up to 25 groups, and upload up to 50 images to your personal gallery. The typical-member tier.
Unlimited ($10/month or $100/year) — no limits. For power members who run multiple swaps and groups at once. You can join as many swaps or groups as you want and upload as many images as you want.
You can pick a tier at signup (the wizard's third step) or skip it ("I'll do this later") and join Fun Swap for Free. Upgrading later is one click from your profile settings.
4. Browse available swaps
Visit the Swaps page to see what's open. You can filter by category, location, type, and a few more options. Two notes:
Some swaps are region-restricted (e.g. "USA only", "Europe only", "United Kingdom only") because shipping costs and customs make international exchanges harder. If a swap is for a region your verified address isn't in, the join button will tell you so. Note that since Brexit, the United Kingdom is treated as its own region — separate from the rest of Europe.
You can also watch a swap without joining. Watching puts it on your dashboard so you can decide later.
5. Join a swap
Found something you like? Click Join This Swap in the swap-actions card on the swap detail page. Free members can join up to 2 swaps that haven't reached their mail deadline yet; Essential up to 25; Unlimited has no cap. A swap rolls off your active count when its mail deadline passes or it's marked completed/closed.
6. Wait for partner assignment
After the host closes signups they assign partners. You'll receive an email with your partner's mailing address, and the swap detail page's Send to / Receive from actions become available.
7. Send your item, then mark it sent
Create something wonderful and mail it before the mail deadline shown on the swap. Once it's actually in the post, click I have sent my swap from the swap-actions card and stamp the date you mailed it. Doing this on time feeds your Reliable and Timely metrics (visible as coloured pills on your profile).
When a partner's package arrives at your address, click I have received my swap on the same card. That unlocks rating for that partner.
8. Rate your partner (and your host)
Fun Swap uses a 0–5 star rating with a few optional positive flags:
Rating a partner — stars 0 through 5, plus checkboxes for Accurate (their swap matched what was promised) and Communicative (they included your username and the swap name on a note). A Comment is required when you give 0 or 1 stars (so the host can act on it) or 5 stars (a rave that tells the partner what they did well).
Rating your host — same idea, with Helpful, Organized, and Creative flags instead. (The tutorial swap doesn't ask for a host rating — it's one-sided practice only.)
Your profile shows a strip of grade-coloured pills summarising how you do as a partner (Reliable, Tenacity, Timely, Responsive, Accurate, Communicative) and — if you've hosted — as a host (Helpful, Organized, Creative).
Heads up about low ratings. If you accumulate three or more low-star ratings (1 star or below) inside a six-month window, your account flips to restricted. Restricted members can still join and participate in swaps, but they can't create or publish their own. Most people never come close to this; we mention it so the rule isn't a surprise.
9. Become a host
Once you have 5 completed swaps and 5 five-star ratings AND an Essential or Unlimited subscription, you can host your own swap.
You can plan ahead even before you qualify: anyone on a paid tier can go to Create\ Swap and fill in everything except the signup and mail deadlines — your swap is saved as a draft only you can see, on your Dashboard under Hosting. When you're eligible, open the draft, set the two deadlines, and click Publish. Drafts not published within 90 days are automatically deleted, so save the description somewhere safe if you're cutting it close.
10. Stay in touch — don't let messages pile up
Other members will sometimes message you about a swap or a comment. Fun Swap keeps an eye on your unread inbox so you don't go quiet on the community by accident:
After 30 days with old unread messages, you'll get a friendly reminder email with a link to your inbox.
After 60 days, a stronger nudge — your community is waiting on you.
After 90 days, the third email offers a one-click link to mark your account inactive. Inactive accounts can't be messaged or invited to new swaps, so coordinators and members aren't left wondering.
Inactive isn't goodbye. Logging back in automatically reactivates your account — you'll land on a "welcome back" page and pick up exactly where you left off. Swaps you were already mid-flight in keep going, and any history (ratings, gallery, groups) is untouched.