When I write a thank you to the sender of my received cards, I like to address them by name, and sometimes I can’t read their handwriting. I’d love to be able to see their name when I enter their postcard # before I write my thank you message.
50 Likes
This has been suggested many times in the old forum. They don’t want to show a person’s profile before the registration is complete for fear that reading the profile would distract from registration. You can choose to register the card without a message, then send a personalized message with the name afterwards. Many users do this.
30 Likes
I remember reading this request and this reason for not showing the sender’s profile before the postcard is registered.
What about displaying only the sender’s name, without a link to their profile? I think this is what @Sweettea1193 asked for.
I would also like to have this implemented. Sometimes I really can’t read the sender’s signature…
I wouldn’t do that. I know the bad feeling when receiving a “Hurray” mail without a word by the recipient on it. I prefer writing a nice message without mentioning the sender’s name. 
20 Likes
If the name of the sender is absolutely unreadable, I write ‘Hello to country x’ or ‘Hello from Germany’ or someting similar.
If I had totally misinterpreted the senders name, I often send a second message afterwards.
In my Hurray Mails I’m often called Mes, but I know my handwriting is not the best (especially when I had to squeeze it). So I don’t take it too serious.
22 Likes
I know that feeling of only simply a thank you in the received mail notifications. so i tried my best with sincerity to say more than a simple thank you, even not knowing and if they include an address on their card, i would just sent a postcard as my thanks to them 
3 Likes
If the sender does not sign readable, then it does not seem to be important to him/her to be named.
Some Addressees also like to see the screen name on the card, so they can take a look at the profile before registering the card. I don’t write my screen name on the card, for I don’t want a hurray-message that refers to anything else than my card.
I would not love if the addressee could see anything else than my card in her/his hand before completing its registration.
10 Likes
I got a few Hurray messages where the recipients wrote that they couldn’t understand anything of what I had written. So, I sometimes add my username after my signature. I also say my name in the beginning of my message.
I like being greeted with my correct name, but I agree that there are people who don’t care. Some senders don’t introduce themselves and don’t sign their postcards… 
4 Likes
I like to see the username on the card, too. But I hardly ever check the profile before registration (only if I cannot read the name, to check if they have it displayed or mentioned there). But it helps a lot when it comes to missing IDs I’ll add my little username rubber stamp to each and every card I sent out for Postcrossing (official + unofficial). No recipient of any of my cards ever wrote about anything else than the card itself.
3 Likes
I don’t introduce myself on a postcard nowadays.
In the beginning it did, but there is never enough space on cards, so if people are interested about me, they can read my profile after registering the card.
But I always sign it
7 Likes
I feel the need to introduce myself and give my name’s translation in another language because many foreign speakers would think I am a woman if they only read my name in the signature. Michele reminds many of Michèle or Michelle (indeed a feminine name in several languages).
If my parents had given me a more clearly masculine name, I may spare a line or two on my postcards for more interesting information. 
2 Likes
Thats true.
There are more names which could cause confusion
e. g. Andrea (in german a female name, in italy more a male name)
3 Likes
This has been a long time suggestion and it makes sense! But, we haven’t found a good way to implement this that doesn’t cause unwanted side effects, being the main one that the person gets distracted and/or somehow think they have already registered since they entered the Postcard ID.
Keep in mind that not all using the website are fluent in English, and if you are struggling to understand what you are doing and/or you are new to Postcrossing, it’s not hard to misunderstand the step for seeing the name for the registration step and that turn it into an expired postcard.
To help with this suggestion, we have considered decoupling the step of registering from the step of sending a message. Meaning, entering the Postcard ID would register the postcard immediately, and the message would be written (and sent) only on the next step, which would allow to see name, profile, etc. This would solve the problem of postcard going unregistered. But, still, one may get distracted and then not write the message which is something we also want to avoid…
Another issue this approach would create is to decide when to email the Hurray email to the sender: on the registration step, there’s no message yet to send… if waiting for the message step to do it, since that may not be filled (by distracted members), there wouldn’t be an email at all. Unless, there would be some timeout that would send the email anyhow if no message was written (just informing about the registration). But then… there could be people who take a long time to write a message… Or the sender could notice that the postcard was already registered (while the person is typing a message) and be confused about not receiving any email about it. I hope you get the point: it cat get complicated and we are not sure it’s all worth it just because of knowing the name of the sender. It’s possible to make a message personal, even without mentioning the name.
I’m afraid since name is not a mandatory field, quite a few don’t enter it.
23 Likes
I appreciate all the input and especially the history of this suggestion. It has more facets that I realized!
1 Like
Same here. In the registration message, I’d like to hear what the sender has to say about the picture, the message, the stamp, or anything else that actually has to do with the postcard. If they have nothing to say, well, it won’t kill me. If they can’t read my name (sometimes it happens that the capital H get’s misinterpreted as two lower case Ts, mostly by users from Asia who I suppose have never heard/seen my name), that’s not a big deal to me. As paulo says, you can make a message personal even without using a name. However, I don’t need to hear what people think about my profile. If someone absolutely wants to comment on something in it or ask a question, they can send me a separate message later. But the registration message is about the postcard, not the profile.
I’m aware it would be different if it became the standard procedure, but it has happend to me a few times that I received an empty Hurray message and then a message to go with it a little later, and it always felt weird. It had me wondering whether if they hadn’t liked my profile or didn’t find anything in there that connected us, would they not have sent me a message? Personally, I think that this isn’t broken so doesn’t need fixing. I agree that if someone feels strongly about their name being written correctly, they will not sign with a big squiggle, and if they have, it probably doesn’t matter to them. You can still send them a nice message regardless.
12 Likes
I agree with you. For me it doesn’t hurt me if somebody misspelled my name in the middle of a nice hurray message, I just try to make it more perceptible next time. And I’m sure I’ve misspelled several times others name, (the H for double T is a challenge to me, and some K for H, and even some Y, …) and I’m sorry if somebody felt hurt. 
When the name is completely unrecognizable I just say Hello there! And make it nice without mention their name… 
7 Likes
As siobhan already said: Nothing is broken, so leave it as it is!
6 Likes
Recently I sent blank messages to members who sent me meetup card where all the writing space was covered with signature. I even can’t identify which one is the sender
3 Likes
I at least write a thank you, even if I cannot identify the sender.
5 Likes
I’m not bothered if people mis-read my name - I know I tend to automatically sign my name a little scrawly. But I feel terrible when I get other people’s name wrong! I need to extend myself the same generosity I give to my recipients.
10 Likes
Nameless or completely blank? Because, in my opinion, one can always write something like ‘Hi to xy, thank you, hope you had good fun, …’
That’s what I did when I could not find out the exact sender among several meeting-signatures
8 Likes