I agree. The forum profile is redundant. It should just show a user’s main profile on the forum.
Yes. A user guide exists. I read it when I first joined. However, there is an overwhelming amount of information in there that is presented in a difficult way to navigate. I would prefer a clickable FAQ.
I referred to Manish.
A clickable FAQ could be a good solution.
If you would like to have a clickable FAQ, just ask the admins, tell them why you think it is necessary and ask if you can create one.
There are also other topics that have been opened by users to help.
A good exercise in UX (user experience) development is asking “What problem does this potential solution solve?”
Since we want to increase Forum usage, the question becomes “What problem does the forum solve?” or “What forum benefits do we want people to use?”
I, for one, began using the forum when I wanted to share some of the stamps I was using on my sent cards. It was too cumbersome to load the postcard picture + stamp in the gallery, so I started looking for other options. And voila, the forum solved that problem for me in the Stamps thread.
All that to say, one idea would be to list out how the forum solves “I wish I could do ______” in the main site. And then include prompts to steer people to the forum.
The key thing is to include bite-sized prompts at the moment of friction, at the micro decision point. It’s a smaller way in, rather than this big overwhelming idea of a forum. That solves what other people mentioned earlier in the thread: misunderstanding of what the forum is, or being reluctant to tackle the whole beast.
- User thought: “I wish I could send more postcards than the official site will allow.”
On the Send page, “Sorry, you’re already sending five cards, which is your current limit! Want to send more? Explore the Trades page in the forum.” - User thought: “I wish I could show off my stamps in my sent cards.”
On each postcard details page, “Share what stamps you used in the forum.” - User thought: “Where are people getting great cards like these?”
On the Gallery page, “Need ideas for where to get postcards? Fellow Postcrossers share tips in the forum.”
Etc, etc.
I agree. Starting out with clear requirements is essential!
I agree that it’s a bit annoying to have to click around to get to someone’s profile, but it’s very minor - and anyway, most people who don’t use the forum prefer Facebook, where you don’t see the postcrossing profile at all and it’s 600 times more difficult and cumbersome to navigate. It’s just habit.
I’m also not sure a FAQ that pops up or whatever would help, there is so much information already and people ignore it… If something pops up, it’s very likely people will close it and that’s it (I would - but then I would very much look for information when I want to, or poke around. I can’t tell you off the top of my head where the forum user guide is but I know that I see it every single time I log in, and yet I ignore it because I prefer to poke until I get where I want to. But I thought it was 100% unmissable).
@valdavid 's post is very useful and has great suggestions. But there are similar prompts already, though your examples are more targeted (e.g. addressing a problem, as you explained).
But all in all, to me this is the same as the problem of having not enough users from African countries and things like that: it cannot be solved because there is only so much you can do, and most of it has been done. Oblivious people or those who struggle with English will still ignore the forum.
This is a great question. I’m obsessed with postcrossing, but find the forum difficult to use and navigate. I wish postcrossing had a social media app to help navigate forums, as well as update registered cards. I would love to see new cards in my feed.
I don’t agree with that. My guess is that most people who don’t use the forum do not belong to any postcrossing communities beyond the official site.
While they might ignore something that pops up, they might refer to something later when they have a question if it were in a visible and easy to access spot. They could also be prompted to do so before creating a new post with a question containing key words that has also been asked a thousand times already.
Again, I disagree. I don’t believe everything that could be reasonably done to promote the forum has been done. I think that unless you happen to press the forum button, which you must discover on your own, and then you understand what you are seeing before you, you would never participate in the forum. I think more could be done to promote it and I am glad we are discussing ideas.
I use Postcrossing this way:
I find it much easier than logging on to a browser and surfing over to the website every time. It’s not a full app but, for all intents and purposes, acts as one. For some reason, PC doesn’t promote it and keeps insisting it doesn’t have an app when people ask. But this obviously exists as I use it every day and it makes navigating the forum easier. As well, it sends notifications, etc.
ETA: It says “Forum” in the name but it is also for the official site.
I’m starting to suggest the forum in my hurray-thank you messages.
Something like “I hope to meet you also at the forum for chats and swaps”
That feature is a progressive web app which the Discourse forum software supports, it isn’t built by Postcrossing.
Yes. I realize that it is maintained through Discourse and not Postcrossing. However, I’m not sure that distinction really matters for the average user. If people are looking for an app, I don’t see why this is not suggested.
This is a great idea. The way you worded is like a gentle invitation.
It might differ for sure, but a vast majority of Italian postcrossers are on Facebook groups and recoil in horror when you mention the forum… 
That’s where I get my impression from.
I cannot see how the button can be more obvious unless it comes out flashing at you. On the point of understanding what it is, I agree that people might not, but it is not a secret what a forum is, people can even google it in their language I assume. If they want to. I am an absolute idiot when it comes to Instagram stories but I poked and googled until I at least managed to do a basic one, I didn’t have anyone take me by the hand and pushing my nose in it until I did it. Sure, Instagram is a lot more popular so it’s easy to be aware of what it is, but once you are on Postcrossing it’s kind of the same thing, you can access all the features. It fascinates me to no end how well this website is laid out and explained, and yet people are baffled.
The other massive hurdle is language barriers, I know how I would feel in front of a website entirely in Russian (can deal with it if I am not tired and have time and patience) or Chinese (no clue), but unless we pay for intensive language courses for everybody (which actually can come for free on the internet, if you use free resources and practice) that is a big issue. Or use online translators, of which I am not a fan but better than nothing.
Yes, that is true. But it is still beyond me how someone would post a question before first searching if it was asked before. It feels like people in the modern age want to make themselves visible by asking things before realising that someone must have got there before (or reading the FAQs).
I don’t think it has to do with how easy it is to see the word “Forum”. If people aren’t into that sort of thing, they aren’t looking for it and won’t click on it even if they do see it
I think the forum could be integrated into the main site to make people curious about it. In other words, if you could actually see posts and the forum itself embedded in the main site, people are apt to look at it. This would be similar to how you see the list of recent postcards sent across the site.
I just don’t see why you are so opposed to making any changes to the status quo. Sure YOU and I might be willing to tinker with things until we figure them out but obviously that is not true of most people or they would be here on the forum. I don’t think it hurts to make it more welcoming and less threatening to those who might find such things overwhelming.
Again, you might have trouble understanding why people do things and feel they should act like you do but the fact is people come on here every day and ask the same basic questions over and over again. So, the current system of providing this information could be better.
Will some people still ignore it? Sure. But I believe it would help avoid some of this repetition.
Most important to this conversation, it would help people understand more quickly and thus help them to feel empowered to use the forum and have them stick around.
But that goes back to my point that if they aren’t into it, no matter how much you push it into their face, they won’t care…
Yes I know that you believe that. I don’t. I think that some people, especially in this community, just aren’t tech people. So, it would never be the kind of thing they would look for. But I think if they realized how fun, useful and simple it is, they would stick around.
I guess if you think there is no need for anything to change, there’s not much common ground to use to continue this particular part of the conversation. 
Yep, but one of the reasons I don’t think so is that I see it over and over in Facebook groups: come to the forum, it’s fun, here is how you do it! And nothing happens.
Oh (edit) - one more point is that it is really not only about the tech, but the language. Please do consider that - there are people who manage to use the main site but the idea of expressing themselves in English more than the strict necessary is terrifying. Okay, for swaps you don’t need to write an essay like I am doing, but it can be daunting.
Yep, the more I think about it, the more it feels to me like two other points that can be discussed forever and have never changed and probably never will: why are there so few users from certain countries, and how can we prevent people from disappearing without registering cards. That is something else where a lot has been tried but since you can’t force people to do things, it cannot be changed.
I agree that we agree to disagree but it’s still fun to discuss arguments so please don’t sound so offended! 