How has the new forum changed your forum experience? :D

Postcrossing General Topics
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(Yay my first new thread?!)

So we’ve had the new forum for a few weeks now and I am sure we all have an impression. I hope that those who didn’t like it at first are now getting used to it because it is fabulous in 600 different ways :smiley:

I have noticed however that, due to the new setup, I do things differently here.

Firstly, not something I do, but I am sure we have all noticed a lot of new “faces”, I mean usernames. Hello :wave: members who didn’t use the old forum but are using this one! I am curious, did you basically barely notice that there was a forum before, or did you open it, looked at it, gave up in despair, but found the new one more user-friendly and started posting regularly? :smiley:

I also think there might be more cross-usage. I always hanged out in the same couple of subforums where I saw the same bunch of people posting most of the time - but I think there are numerous people who are very active in things like tags and RRs which I had not noticed before.

The big difference for me is that I browse a lot differently: I browse by “new” and “latest” so I see threads I would never have seen before, when I just went straigt to “general topics”, and occasionally to penpals, and very occasionally elsewhere. I had never really noticed “infinite threads” but now I want to jump into them; I see tags and RRs that I might consider joining; I see threads in other languages that before you only saw if you really tried to, and you couldn’t even see some scripts depending on your settings. It feels more lively for sure, both because there seems to be more people contributing, and because you can see a wider overview.
I think I tried to “mute” tags and RRs are they are the most numerous threads and I prefer the ones wher you chat about things, but I think it didn’t work :sweat_smile: and now I like to see them, thought at first it was overwhelming. I was really wondering about how it would be when it was full of activity (compared to the sandbox, which was also lively but still felt quite unsettled, for obvious reasons).

So what about others’ experiences? Are you a long-term postcrosser but a forum newbie who got inspired by the novelty? Are you an old forum regular and if so, how have your habits changed? :blush:

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I somewhat hesitate to call myself a forum newbie even though I’ve been lurking quite a bit at the old forum. I’m actually part of a different community that also uses this forum software so for me, posting on this forum is not exactly a new experience. However, what I find refreshing is that almost everyone I’ve seen so far on this has been positive about this forum software. Back when I was at the other community and they also switched to this forum software, there was an enormous backlash which resulted in a bunch of people leaving.

(Edit to add: The other community also had a much longer lag time to help people get accustomed to the new forums–a little over a year. But people still hated it.)

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When I signed up in 2015, I never used the forum. Maybe I looked in on it once or twice, but I never interacted with it.

Between then and now, my account was inactive for about four years. :grimacing: (As far as I know, I received and registered all cards that were due to me before going on hiatus.) I happened to reactivate my account just as the new forum was about to be born. Since I am still quarantining at home, and have free time to spare, I admit I am hooked. :sweat_smile: I enjoy talking to you all and learning more about you!

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Oh yes, everything is different now! I was on old forum, but only ever made couple of trade offers and threads, and read some topics. I did want to be more active with the old forum too, but felt like the site was way too clumsy to use and, excuse me for saying this, the member base was closed and impossible to get in to. I just felt like there were some rules I have never heard of that everybody just knows to follow and that made me too uncomfortable to actually join in the conversation, and everything seemed to be so serious and strict, but I still couldn’t find out the exact rules. You know, felt like an old, serious and important club that you get in only if being invited by five members, completing secret ritual and agreeing to wear suit rest of your life. (and really, sorry about saying this. I am sure nobody meant to give that feeling. It is just what I felt about from the old forum. This is not targeted on anybody specifically.) When the new forum came along I literally cheered! Now it feels like a fresh start and we are all new here so it is easier to jump in.

Also I never could figure out how to add photos on old forum, and didn’t have the will to learn after I couldn’t find any guide anywhere.

This new forum is so much better! It is easier to join in to the conversation, all these handy and fancy things to make forum experience funnier and easier, and also the badges like oh boy, am I a badge hunter now. Always been one to try to get all the trophies and achievements in games so I dived right into this. I am even slowly getting to know people which is quite rare for me as I am not online person and usually avoid any forums or social media.

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I think this nicely sums up how I feel about the old forum as well. For me, it had the air of a number of experienced Postcrossers who kept going round and round with the same arguments and complaints. That was one of the reasons why I was mostly lurking and probably only posted once or twice.

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:scream: Oh wow, I really had no idea that some people felt that way. I hope I have not opened a can of worms :sweat_smile: :dizzy_face: From my usage, I could see some people looked like they would send each other things more often (the RRs seem very much like a community, but it took me 3+ years to just understand how a RR works and when I was considering joining, the pandemic came in and mail is too unreliable for me) and sort of knew each other better, but from the general topics I never thought it would seem that way :confused: I am glad the new forum feels like a new start and more inclusive, as I said I do notice a lot more people interacting so it is definitely more mixed up - hopefully it stays that way and it is not just the novelty :slight_smile:

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I lurked in the old forum, only posting a few times related to meetups. I felt the same way as @Kompis-Ninna and @syaffolee, it didn’t feel easy to find places I wanted to jump in.

On this forum, I am thrilled that I can ignore topics, so that looking at new posts doesn’t leave me with a bunch of threads I have zero interest in.

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I really don’t think it was intentional from anybody to make the old forum give out those vibes, more like it just happened over the years. The base users knew what was going on and were accustomed to hang out there so they probably didn’t even notice. Maybe there wasn’t that many new users joining in so the circles got tighter. Anyway, now we got a brand new fresh start :slight_smile:

I can imagine however that joining this new forum might be hard for active users of the old forum. They need to start everything all over again while we new people and lurkers are simply jumping in.

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I read a few topics once in a while on the old forum, but frankly I thought it was a bit intimidating and overwhelming. :face_with_hand_over_mouth: I was anxious about asking or saying things that were discussed a million times already.
So I’m glad there is this “fresh start”.

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I’m using this new one less. I try to join in on occasion, but this is more like social media and I have enough social media in my life.

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I was quite active in the old forum, but here I don’t stick to “my categories” that much. So I read a wider variety of topics which is quite interesting (because I will check latest topics, too)

This topic is a great example, I never entered the General Topics category on the old forum :blush:

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The new forum is easy to explore areas that I seldom visit in the old forum. I find people are more active and engage in conversation more freely without being reserved. Unlike the old forum where I see the same group of people interacting within themself. If someone want to take part in their conversation, it’s seem like outsider is not welcome. I feel that vibes too despite being a long time forum member.

With the new forum, I try to explore more parts of the new forum. Well, new topics are formed daily. It’s nice that people are so active posting pictures and I get to see a glimpse of their lifestyle. It’s nice and refreshing.

I came to this new forum through the old forum every time I log into my account. When I look back to the old forum, man… that forum is so outdated! So out from this era! I’m glad they made a new forum but the HTML codes are a bit hard to remember! Ha ha ! XD XD XD

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For me it’s all the same tbh. It took some days to adjust to the new forum but now that I’m used to it I really like it.

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But that’s what happened all the time - discussing the same things over and over, and it will probably happen here too… People don’t seem to look for the answer to their question, they just ask…
And there are only so many ways you can talk about postcards and Postcrossing - it’s entertaining, but it’s rare that someone comes up with a question or comment that has not been seen before (my point being, it shouldn’t be scary! :D)

That’s exactly what I meant!
And even more… Cassiopheia, it looks like you were a very active member, but I don’t think I had ever… well, noticed you, because we were hanging out in different parts of the forum!

I do think there were rarely new users that became regulars.

YES!

Okay, I must be really blind not to ever notice that :smiley:

I never even bothered thinking of posting a picture on the old forum, way too much hassle. Here it’s easy. And OMG I am quoting different people without copying and pasting and losing the will to do it before I even start, which was the case in the old forum!

I said it before: I used forums that looked exactly like that (and with better smilies/emojis) in 2003 - I kid you not!

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…Another thought about usage of the forum: I love the colour-coding! When I scroll “Latest” and I am not in the mood to be nosey about what happens in the world of Tags or of German speakers, my eyes just search for the orangey colour of the general topics :smiley: Other times, I just look at everything and see what catches me.

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Eh… didn’t Paulo said that the old Postcrossing forum software is 15 years old? The old forum have never changed since 2005. Kinda in the same period when you joined other forum sites.

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As for me, I feel more… connected? Yeah, I guess that is the word. It seems easier here to “get to know” people, to express our opinions and thoughts and to engage in things even if not right away or in a more active manner (I love how we can acknowledge people and feel seen more often with the like button or how we can bookmark something and get back to be part of it later). And for me this is a good feeling, something I haven’t felt in a while. :blush:

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I did read the old forum, basically to learn more about postcrossing, but I never registered. First I thought the forum was mainly for people into games and swaps, and I prefered the official postcrossing. This year I started to think about registering, but kept postponing it. I am not in any other social media, have not attended any forum before and felt like I needed some tutoring in the beginning… Then I clicked the link to the sand-box and Postbot was there greeting me by name and showing me the ropes. Just what I needed! And everyone else was learning too, so even a newbie like me dared to attend. Pretty soon I was hooked… The new forum seems easy to use and I like the friendly atmosphere here, it feels welcoming.

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Postbot is the greatest thing ever! If there is Postbot fan club, I would join right away. Such a nice bot. Now I understand better people who get emotionally attached to their roombas.

That would explain why the old forum reminded me a lot about my teenager years when everybody had a forum and they all looked exactly same but somehow people still hanged around there. It was easy and free to build up one and there was at least ten for every single topic and thing.

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I’m having the same experience. I am glad for Postcrossing, though, that more people are participating. The needs of the many…