Unfortunately: computers, or should I say “modern technology” and me don’t really go together! 
So, after all this time, I have still no idea, how to use most features and how to find my way around this forum. 
What I do is: look at the blue 
and green 
next to my avatar and respond to private messages, if need be. In which case I am often worried it shows up somewhere on the forum, because I can still NOT figure out, how to look into my mailbox. Sad, I know. Also, I often get the message, that I have a draft of a message (when I try to send someone a message) and when I click “discard” it doesn’t discard the draft 
and keeps asking me, until, eventually, I send the message via the main Postcrossing page. 
Then I look at “new”, sometimes “lotteries” and “meetups”. Other than that I have a hard time finding the topics I sometimes post in, but if I look at what people have favourited, I find those topics eventually.
Sometimes I just browse.
I am just so old-school, much better with postcards, than with technology! 
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Your comment resonated with me. So much of what people have written above is gobbledegook to me. I have no idea what people are talking about. I think if a new user manual is ever written, this old user here - me - will benefit greatly from it.
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In the beginning I disabled all e-mail notifications. I muted, muted and muted, first threads and then whole categories, until I had mainly discussion threads left. It was easier to get acquainted with the forum with limited amount of topics, otherwise it might have felt a bit overwhelming. Back then I used to start with “latest”.
I also changed Finnish as my interface language as I noticed it was “real Finnish” and not any clumsy computer-translation. I am pretty fluent in English, but it is comfortable to have some texts in my own language. I don’t like using automatic translation because computer translation is never perfect, most languages do not translate well in Finnish and I understand many languages, so I rather read the original text.
I am curious and interested in many things, so gradually I started unmuting categories and exploring what other things the forum has to offer. I have attended a few games, hosted a few lotteries and noticed that I can understand more languages than I originally thought.
Nowadays I check the notifications first, then new topics, then my unread (tracked) topics. I don’t have many “watched” topics as I don’t like receiving notifications for every post. Sometimes it can be a very useful feature, but definitely not for every interesting topic.
Sometimes I have wished there would be a fifth option, in addition to watched, tracked, normal and muted. Maybe “favourites”? Obviously some people use bookmarks for that purpose, which I hadn’t even thought of. I have mostly bookmarked some posts that have had good tips, for example how to change the size of uploaded photos or use colour with text or things like that.
When I have time, I may read more and then I prefer to go to categories. It has been interesting learning more about the forum and its activities.
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I visit the forum daily, mainly on my smartphone.
I don’t read my notifications or private messagey at once because I’ve already seen them in my emails. That’s why my first step is looking what’s “New”. I scroll through the new topics and read & answer some of them.
Then I work at my private messages and bookmarks. And when I’ve got still time, I open the menu “Latest” to see what’s new in some topics I visit regularly.
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