No way around it, but because of this, I ask people in my profile to add their online name when they send me a card so I can write a more meaningful thank you - since I’ve added that I’d say about 1/2 of them do it which is helpful.
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@LC-Canada can I ask how you write your online name on your cards? I had been writing mine on my cards for exactly this reason…but I was writing it with an @ at the front of it (as we would if we wanted to tag someone in the forums) but this has apparently made people think that I wanted to be Insta friends…and I don’t use my Insta account…so now I’m in a pickle!
@Travelling_Slim I have also wished that I could look at the profile of my sender prior to registering the card so that I could thank them more personally.
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I write it without the @ symbol, although I’d say most people who send me theirs write it with the @ symbol so I’ve been thinking of using it now.
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Wait for the Insta friend requests then! 
On my last card I wrote PC - Tinkatutu
We’ll see how that goes! I should ask politely on my profile too, as you suggested!
Thanks.
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Has anyone else been frustrated by the fact that-- as far as I can tell --you don’t get the identify of the sender until after you’ve registered the card? This, on one hand, makes perfect sense. But it’s only after I’ve registered the card that I can learn more about this person, which may spark me to want to reach out to them, which I then have to do in a separate message. It would be great if, somehow, you can see their profile before registering the card so you can add something more than just “Thanks for the card”.
Am I missing something?
No, you aren’t missing anything 
Check a topic more or less about the same here: 
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@Travelling_Slim
Please look to the Topic that @bom_dia mentioned - there you can find your post from yesterday and our discussion.
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Maybe you should consider this, when you are writing the next postcard. The recipient, will not know your profile until he already have registered it. It might be a reason to tell something more on the postcard.
Some older people (am I such old?) could write the book of her/his life and we will end up as a book exchange club. And you can only write a thank you message until you have finished the book. Would this be enough information for you?
Oh damn, and I always thought this is about to send postcards (hopefully beautiful) and a message not to short but still saying something and maybe some beautiful stamps. Not to forget the decoration. Of course there are those people who write “send me your ugliest postcard you have”, should we consider them or think something we don’t want to tell here.
Oh damn I’m thriving away.
Or to say in in other words:
If you meet a unkown person, do you want to have read the profile before you talk to him? I wish not, because I may never start to talk to him.
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I don’t think it’s really a problem. Of course I like to address the sender by name – it feels more gracious! But if they signed with a squiggle, my Hurrah message simply begins, “Dear friend…” That works too 
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I don’t think it’s the “right” or “wrong” thing. I think it’s a cultural thing. In USA it might be polite to address someone with their name, but in Scandinavia people don’t really care if you say “Hi Adam” or just “Hi.” I believe that we Scandinavians might be a bit less formal than many others, so a short “hi” or “hello” is more than good enough. Also, I always sign postcards with my first name (and never share my profile name), and I really don’t expect people to mention my name in the Hooray-message.
I think for many people the @ in front of a username, gives associations to Instagram first and foremost. As they are a much larger platform, and not all Postcrossing users are familiar with using the forum and tagging here. If I received a card with @username I would also think that it was a suggestion to check their instagram profile. If I wanted someone to take a look at my PC profile, I would sign off my card with “Greetings, Elisabeth/postboo” but that’s just one way of doing it
Anyway, for the topic. I would say that the registration works fine as it is today. As someone else also mentioned, “it’s working, so no need to fix it.” Also, a lot of people mentioned they want to comment on things they have in common. What if you send an empty Hooray-message, and then see that you meet an empty profile or someone that you have nothing in common with. Would you still take the time to send them an additional message to say “thank you for the postcard”? I’m afraid many people would not. Leaving the sender with an empty Hooray-message.
It takes you less than a minute to write a short and polite “thank you for the postcard” if you really have nothing else to say.
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I have the problem with my double name. When I sign with my both first names, some people think, Maria is my first name, because in some countries the family name is used first and the first name last.
So I get many “Hello Maria” messages. Which is ok. But I often thought it would be much easier, if people could see, what my real name looks like.
There is also the problem that you could not register with a double name here without a hyphen. But there is none in my names.
Without a hypen it is two single names. Usually only one of them is what we call Rufname in German.
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Could be. But for me it’s different. And I am not the only one, I am sure.
Sometimes, I have difficulty in reading the names (specially cursive). So it feels weird to not address a thank you with their name since they put it there for me (even though I can’t read it). It would be nice to have this option for this case.
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The name is not necessarily for you, it might be just “this was written by”. I don’t expect anyone to use it to greet me. (But it’s ok I don’t much care if I’m told “Hello” or “Hello Name”)
If the name is too unclear, maybe they don’t want anyone to know it.
I’ve noticed in few American cards, the card is signed with one letter, it’s kind of cute, like we were closer and I knew who they are, but I think it’s a habit, just signing their card.
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How do I see the profile of a person I am thanking for a card before I register it? I could say so much more if I had seen the profile, not just their card.
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Hi! That isn’t possible, and that’s intentional on the part of the Postcrossing team. That’s because, if you click to check their profile, you might forget to go back and register the card (e.g. you might click on a link to their website, or get interested in looking at the cards they’ve received, etc)… and in some cases, there might be awkward situations where a member finds they fundamentally disagree with the sender about something, and then refuse to register the card.
You could always send a quick note about the card, and then you’ll be able to see the profile and send the member a longer message if you want!
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Luckily there is no way to do so. After the registration you can see a link to the sender’s profile, then you can read it and send a personal message if you like.
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Oh, this is a really good point. I am Canadian and was raised to address people by name. But at one point I lived in England. One time I saw a Kiwi friend walking my way, and said, “Hello, Elaine.” Unexpectedly she burst out, “Oh, thank you for calling me by my name! Back home in New Zealand, people always do; but people here almost always greet me without it, and it feels so impersonal. I really miss it!”
I thought about it and realized she was right; the custom locally seemed to be to omit the name when greeting someone. I consulted an English friend who confirmed this was usually the case in his experience. He added, “If someone greets me by name, I think they must want something from me!” 
(In the sense that if someone says, “Oh hi, doryfera, I was just thinking about you…” might make me wonder the same thing 
)
Now this is quite a few years ago, and things may be different now, in other areas of the UK, etc. But all this is to illustrate that honestly neither approach is wrong or right, it’s just what people are used to.
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I ask people in my profile to add their Postcrossing name to their card so I can write a more meaningful thank you - more people have done it since I’ve posted that request.
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