Maximaphily, traditional and non-traditional

I believe the ask was to include an image in the post, rather than a link to an external source.

Thank you. One of my favourite animals.

Good question (or "funny you should ask").
I DID frank the additional postage on the address side of that bobcat postcard, but the postmarking postal associate just skipped it from postmarking.
So George Constantourakis (Canada), then-Chairman of the FIP Commission for Maximaphily asked me to rectify, so it can enter the world competition.

So, I called that Postmaster to "explainify" [bushism].
Then, I re-sent it to that Milwaukee, WI post office and I got the postmark on the back, too.
hosting.photobucket.com/albums/ll201/dorincard/World%20collections/United%20States/.highres/Bobcat%209%20back.jpg

Then, my card obtained the 7th place in the world, I think.
Not awesome, but not too shabby either, all things considered.
That's the only time I officially represented a country in a world competition, no matter how niche was the competition.

However, I had cooler maxicards with the same or similar postcard and postmark, but with the bobcat personalized stamp that I designed at Zazzle.
hosting.photobucket.com/albums/ll201/dorincard/World%20collections/United%20States/.highres/Bobcat6.jpg

But I was told to stick with a regular stamp, not to rattle the cage of the narrow minds of some philatelic judges.
[Later, personalized stamps were officially accepted for maxicards. I was protochronist, ahead of my time...]
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Moreover, I WAS able to persuade, over time, a handful of postmasters and other postal associates of USPS to postmark as a hand-back some maxicards.
I told them that the purpose is a COURTESY philatelic cancel, not one for real POSTAL use.
Rightfully so, even if the USPS does not officially agree.
I give up and accept to have SOME stamps canceled/postmarked, without ANY obligation for the Post to render actual postal delivery service to my mailbox.

Why didn't it work out?
See my group in the signature, for interacting with 2,000+ members [not all, actually].

So the window clerk refused?
You can have an USPS executive inform the postmaster of that clerk that philatelic handback is still your right.
I had such problems, but I prevailed, eventually.
I even enlisted Postmaster General's specific intervention, so the local postmaster folded, like a lawn chair.

I can't speak with any authority on formal maximum card definitions, but this seems like it fits to me. It's a nice, unusual cover, in any case!

OK Linda....I would love a reminder re: maxicards - I do not do them but easier for my neurons to grab (again) the "real" definition

Merci-Thanks

René

Linda, your "thing" that you described can be called philatelic souvenir.
That is the most all-encompassing term, and nobody can...(biatch) about it. Some love to do it for good reason, for bad reason, or for no reason.

That dance block card is a not a traditional maxicard, although some se-tenant stamps are "permitted" by traditional maximaphily. That maximaphily usually lacks the open-mindedness that would tolerate or accept such a block of 4 stamps.

Traditional maximaphily wants VISUAL concordance of subject, to make it easy for judges at exhibitions.
They should not have to scratch their heads and stretch their synapses if they have to judge a tricky ABSTRACT concordance of subject.

My non-traditional maximaphily includes the traditional rules as optional. But it goes well beyond.

Specifically, I would say that the non-traditional maximaphily, as I coined it, could interpret the block of 4 different stamps as representing the abstract concept of DANCE, so an illustration of dance on the card could be concordant, as an idea.

Also, my non-traditional maximaphily does not "go into a hissy fit" if the card support is a greeting card/folded card.
Why?
Simple.

1. The "maxicard" is probably created ONLY for philatelic use, not postal. So "it don't matter".
2. Online, the front of the folded card can look just like a regular picture postcard.
3. If you are so pissed off that the support is a folded card (usually much more expensive than a regular postcard), then...cut it in half, "gosh darn it"!
"Whoop, there it is!..." you just postcardized it.
You can even mail it as simple postcard, to convince yourself and any other naysayer.

Thanks for this.  It will be useful to my education of 5his subject.

David

FIP Commission for Maximaphily.

Nice, but...
Traditional maximaphily wants a visual, non-abstract, concordance of subject.
Some hardcore, ultra-purist maximaphilists will find a perverse pleasure in criticizing this, decreeing "not a maxicard"!

I could say that a visual concordance is represented by:
1- fragments of elliptical lines [representing electron orbits, but that is an abstract concept], as visible graphic art elements.
2- the word "the", as visible graphic art element.
Still, the naysayers would say no.

My non-traditional maximaphily encourages abstract concordance, because it is intellectually superior to just a visual concordance.
Think about it.

That stamp is highly allegoric, with a map of "smashed" Planet Earth acting as "atom smashed [so to speak] by a cyclotron" referenced by the postcard.

Hey, I like this "philatelic souvenir", because I GET the idea, the message.

In a related story, a cyclotron was part of a workplace of mine, back when I was working in a nuclear pharmacy to prepare radiopharmaceuticals.
Yes, radioactive.
But I digress. 😉

I like your philatelic souvenir (or should I call it non-traditional maxicard?).
The concordance of subject (Beacon NY Hudson River cleanup project) is non-visual here, but conceptual, abstract, implicit.

Some traditional maximaphilists would take great (misguided) joy and (despicable) pride in "mopping the floor" with you and your "carton" item, then trash it as garbage.
"IT'S NOT A MAXICARD!
IT'S NOT A MAXICARD!!" [fuming and foaming...]

But we learned from you its backstory, and the intellectual meaning of your philatelic creation.
Write it on the backside.
😉