Hello Donna
You have a really exciting profile 
I registered here to improve my almost non-existent English. I donāt know exactly how the portal works here ā¦ but I will hopefully find out.
By the way, my name is Anke, I am 49 years old, I live in Hanover (Germany), I am married and self-employed with my husband.
I would like to exchange ideas with you. Also about your voluntary work in LGBTQ. My youngest child told me six months ago that it was non binary. The whole subject is not that easy for me.
If you are interested in an exchange and if my English is not too bad for you then I would be very happy to receive an answer from you.
Greetings ANKe
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Iām off-topic, but: Ankeā¦I donāt believe for a second that your English is ānon-existent.ā 
Also, lots of love and support to your non-binary baby! Thatās a very challenging thing to express to oneās parents. You must be a loving mama for your kiddo to share their true heart with you. 
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Those are some great ideas! Thanks so much!
Just some observations to share. I would avoid doing any direct swaps on the Official side of Postcrossing. Ideally, you may do better with the Forum. In the Forum you can post a swap offer. Or, you can join a Traveling Envelope; we have a great one for North America. Also, there are quite a few in-envelope swaps that are moderated. Have received loads of useful cards this way. Enjoy!
Hi!! Private message sent 
Hi there. Iāve also recently started postcrossing. Why would you avoid doing them on the official side?
When I first started Postcrossing many years ago (I have a different profile for the Official side), I was quite naive. A few people requested swaps. Innocently, I sent them cards; I got zero cards back. Lesson learned. Now, if someone I donāt know requests a swap, they have to mail first. Nearly all who I responded to this way, I never heard from again. Bubye cheatsā¦
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I see. Thanks for responding!
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Many postcrossers have marked favourites in their official profile (on the wall). If you like to get new cards by swapping them, it would be useful to mark postcards into your favourites. No the received ones! You can find the gallery of all sent cards of other postcrossers (the official home page of Postcrossing > Explore > Gallery). You can pick there the cards you like most and add them to your favourites. So you will have your own gallery of cards you are liking and waiting but not have got yet.
For example I have my wishes here
https://www.postcrossing.com/user/kotona/gallery/favourites
Is it the norm to notify the person youāre doing a direct swap with that you have received their card? (Since there is no registration number)
Yes, one should send a PM to the person one swaps with when the postcard has arrived.
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Hello Iām new here and I have a question on direct-swaps. I wonder if it is polite and appropriate to find someone who marked āinterested in direct-swapsā through āexplore-searchā and send a PM to request for swaps? Or should I only look for users who provided an offer in the forums.
Yes, itās fine to do this. Not everyone use the forum, but might want to do swaps anyway.
My impression is that the main site swaps are more random, so if you prefer knowing exactly what you will receive, swapping on the forum can be better.
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Not all the people is in the forum. I think that, 8f theyāve marked theyāre interested in private swaps, it would be ok to address them through PC webā¦
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I am having no luck finding the swaps forum. Can someone point me to it? I donāt see a category for it.
Itās here I think @littlesthobo https://community.postcrossing.com/c/trades-requests-offers/13
Just open a topic with your offers or enter a topic with cards you are interested in. And ask for swap
Thanks. I bookmarked it. Seems every thread is locked or closed. I will keep my eye on it.
Thank you for this advice. I had assumed favourites were the ones you received that you liked the most. Iām a newbie. Now that I know I can mark anyoneās cards my favs, Iām going to go do that while I kill time waiting for my first postcards to arrive.
Anytime. Locked? Like you canāt access it?
Iām not sure if Iām right but I think the forum works with trust level system. The more you active and participate in threads the more trust level you can gain and you can access more part of the forum
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Most of them have (CLOSED) written in the thread title. The locked one might be because Iām new.