Empty Hurray messages

There are lots and lots of people that never check email. I think you are right.

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When I’m new to Postcrossing and waiting for cards to arrive, then I don’t check an email at some point to see, what I’m getting with the subject “Hurray”? I can not believe that!
I find that very superficial, it shows disinterest for PC.

(if I don’t read my emails, because there are too many promotional emails, then I should unsubscribe from the newsletter)

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I think some don’t read their emails because they really have no use for them. Even for work purposes, a lot of companies have moved beyond it and almost nobody uses it for personal correspondence, I would guess. So, if you didn’t know that you had to check email for correspondence related to PC, you just wouldn’t. I don’t think it has to do with a disregard for PC.

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I hope you chose to let Postcrossing admin know about the demanding person with the “.” reply. That’s unacceptable in the policy of Postcrossing.

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Mine are usually lost/buried because my inbox gets flooded with advertisements from every company I’ve ever interacted with. Some businesses send dozens of emails a day :roll_eyes:

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I received an empty Hurray message today for the first time since I started Postcrossing. Unlock achievement.:medal_military:

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That’s a good suggestion – to have the “hurray message area” above the ID number area.

Over the past month or so we have been experimenting a change that has reduced the number of empty registration messages by more than 30% and today we are making the change permanent, so I want to share it here.

First, the issue with empty hurray messages is not new: is it a recurrent complaint for many years now, although the issue itself is a fairly rare one: we are talking in the ~2% range of postcards registered with no message.

The registration message is not meant to be mandatory, but it’s still nice that there’s some communication between the two people involved, so we want to encourage that and over the years we tried a few different things towards that. We also talked to some postcrossers who don’t include messages and the feedback on that has been varied, from not realizing that a message was normally expected/encouraged (this is usually new members), to some not wanting to embarrass themselves because their English skills weren’t great. Some mentioned that they prefer to register first and send a message later after seeing the profile (which is a separate issue).

The latest change we did a few years ago was to display a basic confirmation popup when there is no message. However, we have come to realize that quite a few people just ‘Ok’ on any popup without even reading them.

Hence, a month ago we experimented replacing that popup confirmation with a checkbox that comes up on the registration form itself, but only if there’s no message: only by ticking the checkbox can the postcard be registered.

We have been monitoring things since to make sure this had a positive impact on the goal but also that it didn’t confuse people who wouldn’t register their postcards.

I’m happy to say that, on average, there are 30% less postcards being registered with an empty message. It’s rare that a small change has a sizeable impact, so we are happy that this idea worked well.

I want to be clear that I’m by no means under the perception that everyone that changed to register postcards with a message is now writing long beautiful messages… I’m sure some of those are now just basic thank you’s, but even those are an improvement too. But, I’m equally sure that some are now thinking of something to write before they register a postcard instead of rushing through it.

As with anything in Postcrossing, there’s still room for improvement and we may do other tweaks in the future, but for the moment I just wanted to report about this one as we move towards other things in the queue.

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That is fantastic. So it seems like the number of people who don’t responded is even fewer now because of this change. So that would be a very tiny percentage.

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That’s good news! Thank you!

2 of every 100 Hurray!'s was empty. That is 20 of every 1000.

Now that is reduced by 30%:
1.4 of every 100 Hurray!'s is empty. That is 14 of every 1000.

Improvement of 6 of every 1000 registered!!! The sky is the limit. I guess this is the max Postcrossing can do for us. I’m fine with that.

I hope Postcrossing does keep on accepting Empty Hurrays. And do not make it too difficult to register an ID empty. So cards are at least registered and not staying Travelling Expired before removed from the system.

Maybe it is time for showing gratefullness that at least the card was registered - even with an Empty Hurray.

When someone is not in the mood for whatever reason, Postcrossing is almost forcing to delay registering cards until you are in the mood for a nice Hurray.

It must be clear that if you are under circumstances of writers block that it’s o.k. as well to register Empty!!

All I learned here in the topic is that users seems to prefer cards registered later or much later but with a nice Hurray.

My point is that any Hurray! should be fine.

Edit. I do not know how I got the bold seize.
Check check double check managed to seize down. I leave it as it is.

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Some People are probably sending a lot of Postcards and might not have the time to write messages. Some of the big Profiles sent out 200-300 Postcards per Month and they also receive roughly that number. Which could mean sending ten Postcards daily and registering ten Postcards daily. That alone is a lot to do and just registering the Postcards without Message might just be a way to save time.
However, that is just a Theory.
What I have learned so far is that one should not expect other Postcrossers to have the same Wishes and Interests as oneself. After all, we are a very diverse Group of People who share just ONE Commonality: Our Participation in Postcrossing. Or as the People from Cologne would say it:
Jede Jeck is anders!

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I have just deleted a post because it was easy to find out which person was being reported.
Please make sure that you write your post in such a way that it is not possible to find out who it is.

This is due to the many hyphens you have made under the bold sentence without a blank line in between.

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That might be a reason. However my experiences are quite opposite.
I have received long, friendly and personal Hurray messages from postcrossers, who send and receive hundreds of cards in a month. From the Hurray messages I have noticed that they have read my card carefully and they are writing thoughtfully about it, it´s picture or the text.
I admire their true friendliness, which is not fading away with thousands of cards and messages.

One can point out that a true postcrosser is never bored to receive postcards. :slightly_smiling_face:

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Maybe it was already mentioned here, but when you change your address the postcards traveling to you can be registered automatically. I guess they get registered without a message.

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Thank you for the Information! It is a little counterintuitive though…Well, as long as Folks register the Cards the empty Hurray-Message may be a Nuisance…but a small one.

It is registered by Postcrossing, not by the receiver. The registering message comes from Postcrossing and it doesn´t start with “Hurray”. :slightly_smiling_face:

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I always register the postcard first (without writing anything in the text box), then I check the profile of the Postcrosser and then I send a message.

I always did this my way and will still do it this way.
In the past I couldn’t read the signature of some Postcrossers and when I address someone, than I always use the name written on the postcard and/or the profile. I also like to check the profile for more infos about the sender and when we have something in common, I write about this topic.
If not, I refer to something written/draw/stick on the postcard.

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I’m relatively new to postcrossing and I’m very appreciative of every card I receive. When I register a card, I always write a personal, friendly message; I like to comment on the picture, the stamps / stickers and even the message on the back. I also appreciate if someone does the same for me. I feel that it’s another little bit of connection between sender and recipient.

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