Help to find ID button on main site

[Robinchen]

Hello,

I was wondering if it was possible to add a help button for cards with no ID. For example there is the send a postcard button, receive a postcard button so why not a find ID button.

The reason why I am suggesting it is, that I often see profiles on which people write in their profile text that a person from xy sent a card with no ID and they should mail it so they could register the card. Or a profile text sais: remember to write your ID clearly or I won’t be able to register your card.

As most of us very active users know we get help from the team if a ID is missing, unreadable or incomplete and we know how to get that help.
Apparently many not so active users don’t and I wonder how many cards don’t get registered for that reason.

So my thought to have this spesific kind of help visible on the page might help these people to still be able to register the card.

[Norway_girl]

Maybe it would help if the information on the register postcard page was moved from the right side to the centre of the page? A box just above the postcard ID area for instance?

[Florallle]

In my phone, it is in the centre of the page (i.e. not off to one side as in your illustration), but it’s under all the other registration information and not very prominent. I think it must be easy to miss.

[Robinchen]

Yes, I think it could also help to make this a bit more dominant. It is right there with the advertisement and many people don’t even look there to see if there is anything else.

Maybe fat print next to the insert ID field?

[anon12838227]

It’s also occurred to me that some people might not even click on register postcard if they can’t make out the ID.

[HalloWelt]

I think it is good the way it is.

This website has a wonderful F.A.Q. section. Most questions including “What do I do if I receive a postcard without or with the wrong Postcard ID?” are answered in it.

I noticed it on other websites too, people are notorious for not reading the F.A.Q. section. I think that is on the people and not the website. The postcrossing website is very well structured and with a bit of searching you’ll be able to find most things very easily. And even if you can’t find it, there’s always the forum to ask with many wonderful people who are willing to help and mostly it is not even much effort to help, because you can just send the link to the specific question in the F.A.Q. section.

[Angelthecat]

@anon12838227

It’s also occurred to me that some people might not even click on register postcard if they can’t make out the ID.

THIS! Is the problem I guess.

Infact I had this some years ago.

After 80 days or something I asked the person and it came out she didn’t register because there was no ID (btw: in the end she detected both IDs which where covered under those stripes of USPS…).
I asked why she didn’t use the search.
She didn’t, because she didn’t know about it (after more than ten years active and around 5,000 cards).

And it was not the only time it has happened.

Edit: maybe it’s possible to send a reminder along with the monthly stats?
Like “Did you know…”?

Edit2: yes @HalloWelt, but in any other cases YOU have the problems (or consequenses) all alone if you refuse to read FAQ (or also any contract rules). Here also the (innocent) sender is involved 🤷

[RalfH]

Maybe many people do not click on “Register a postcard”, when there is no ID on the card, and then they cannot find that link, regardless where it is placed on the registration page.
So having that link on the main page might be helpful.

[Norway_girl]

@RalfH

Maybe many people do not click on “Register a postcard”, when there is no ID on the card

But if they see the link to the missing ID form on that page when they register postcards with an ID, they will know where to find the missing ID form when they need it.

[RalfH]

When they have an ID then they do not need that link and maybe they do not even recognize it then.

[HalloWelt]

@Angelthecat

yes @HalloWelt, but in any other cases YOU have the problems (or consequenses) all alone if you refuse to read FAQ (or also any contract rules). Here also the (innocent) sender is involved

Yeah, that’s true. I didn’t consider that it might be something that also bugs the sender of the card. I’m relatively new and so far I had not have any card expire so it is not as present for me.

If I received a postcard and I wasn’t able to read the id and I didn’t know what to do, I’d use the help menu. There I’d either go to the faqs or to the contact form. Both lead you to form that helps you find an unknown id.

The only thing that I could imagine that might be helpful is to move the button to the form to a more obvious location in the register postcard section which has already been suggested or to add it as a point in the postcard drop down menu.

Maybe a reminder email would be useful that you get send when a postcard is about to expire that is on the way to you. “Did you receive any postcards that were missing an id? Use our form to request help to find an unknown id.” or something similar.

[Purple-Hortensia]

I have been postcrossing for over 6 years now, and I even didn’t know the text was there, I always go to the FAQ. So yes, it would be helpfull if that was more visible I guess

[paulo]

Since the early days of Postcrossing that we have been improving on raising awareness about the Unknown Postcard ID form. Initially it was only a link on the FAQ which was spotted only by some.

These days it is linked directly on the register a postcard page and we have been doing more improvements on that.

For example, if you enter a wrong ID, the error message itself has a link suggesting to request help (with auto-fill of the Postcard ID). Also, the message (background) on the side is highlighted in that case:

We also include the information on the Did ou know…? box:

Also, when using the contact form option for “Missing or incorrect Postcard ID”, it automatically redirects to the right form (it used to be a text with a link, but many people ignored it and submitted the contact form anyway with the details which is much harder for us to look up).

Could we do more? Yes, there’s always more we could do for that — but where to stop? I mean, I’m sure nobody wants a huge text, on a red background, blinking… right?

The thing is that, once you know about it, putting the link in too many places actually starts to get in the way when you only need it it very occasionally. Usually these are notices are not dismissible (as you may need it later), so once added, it’s there, forever taking space, and showing for everyone. And from our experience, some people will not see/remember such notices, no matter how much front and center they are, meaning, reaching 100% awareness about it isn’t realistic (at least without seriously getting on the way of everyone as well).

We also risk getting into a point where if it is in a very prominent place (eg: homepage button), some people will actually use that instead of the register a postcard form — we already see this happening sometimes where people submit the request for help already with the correct Postcard ID in it and with a registration message. This is more common with newbies with limited command of English which might be using the browser translator to use the website.

So, in short, while we also want people to use it when they need it, we are also very aware that there’s a limit from where we might be doing too much which we don’t want to go over. It’s very unlikely we’ll add it to the homepage (too prominent!), but we’ll consider other ideas that may help without getting in the way.