I noticed that few of the people who are very active postcrossers have the Supporter badge. By very active I mean people with thousands of sent postcards so it cannot be a money issue. On both my phone and PC, the homepage doesn’t show the Support section unless I scroll down. So I think people just don’t know or have forgotten about it. Maybe there could be a note when requesting an address. Or it could even be there only once every (couple of) hundred postcards sent. My idea isn’t to make it obtrusive or demanding, just a bit more visible. What do you think?
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No. It is visible enough and I would feel annoyed if that appeared to me as a supporter. So if such a hint comes up, then only to the non supporters.
Maybe it is smarter to send such a reminder by e-mail to long term active users who do not support yet.
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Of course it wouldn’t make sense to show to people who are supporters already. I was thinking only about non-supporters in my post.
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I think we all can remind people… I did so in my profile, so nobody has to feel annoyed who already supports, because they know themselves that they are already doing so, but others might get more aware of this option… So if supporters remind in that way others I hope it is not as demanding as if staff members would do so.
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Yes, I agree, 1000’s and 1000’s of Postcrossers could afford to donate & support Postcrossing to help the project.
Just in the Forum alone, with the members who are most active - that’s 37,516 of us, only 2737 people support Postcrossing - Supporter badge on Postcrossing Community. That’s only 7% of those on the Forum supporting Postcrossing - that’s a very low number.
And I think Postcrossing should ask for more donations regularly.
People get huge enjoyment & satisfaction out of participating in Postcrossing & I think it’s appropriate they make a small donation once a year for such a great project!
Think of all the cool things that could be done if Postcrosing had more financial support! For example, if Postcrossing had more funding, they could afford to advertise on social media in countries where Postcrossing doesn’t have many or any members. That could be a very effective way to grow the membership & get more countries/people involved in Postcrossing.
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Good idea! I added a hint to my profile!
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It is possible not to show the Supporter badge, so I think there are more than it seems.
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They might have been supporters earlier and their money situation changed, which made not possible support now (but maybe more later).
I would be a bit annoyed seeing a reminder, when it was not good for me to support now, but still wanted to write card. I think it would made me feel guilty, and I like how this is made as easy and low cost as possible.
But I agree, it could be more visible, like a “Want to support Postcrossing?” column above “what’s happening now”. (And it would disappear when member is supporter.)
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I like it the way it is. If it was more offensive (like receiving emails, maybe even periodically), I would have never opted in as a supporter. Replacing it to a better location on the website is not too demanding though.
But really, I was aware of this option from the beginning. I don’t think the main reason is that (long term) members are not aware of this option.
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It’s actually fairly visible at the moment, but it’s always a good idea to make it a little more visible given the ratio of total users vs supporters! I didn’t realise it was quite so bad.
Perhaps instead of obtrusive messages or notifications, an occasional blog post or update on finances like running the servers, etc could be done to raise awareness?
Could come from different angles, like one post could be showing the work areas of Postcrossing volunteers and a reminder to donate, another one about 8 months down the road could be about climate change and the servers they are using being carbon neutral and how it’s thanks to donations that Postcrossing can afford to use them, etc.
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