I think the lernu.net website is a valuable resource for learning Esperanto. But when setting up your profile, user help is rather hard to come by. For example, for a long time I could not get a photo or a clip art image to work. The size of the image turned out to be the problem. When I found the website www.shrinkpictures.com, it began to work for me. If you save your desired image to your hard drive, then go to shrinkpictures.com and follow the directions, you will end up with an image small enough that the profile page will accept it. This worked for me. Hope it helps someone else.

Also, I have a question about the "You are a friend of...". Two user names have popped up in my profile. How does this work? I checked out "Topics" in the Lernu Forum and under "About the website", found a thread entitled "Vi estas amiko de...". My command of Esperanto isn't sufficient for me to understand more than about two-thirds of what is written there, so I retreated to the "In English" section. How does this work and what is the website protocol? I have no problem with starting a correspondence, but when I log in, then go to Communications>Users>List>and my user name, there are no links showing on the far right side -- the "show information, add a friend, etc.". My user name is the only one that doesn't include these links so I must be doing something wrong.

Last week I checked my email and found a message from Lernu telling me that I had a postcard from someone and to click on the included link to read it. I did and found a postcard from a Frenchwoman who speaks no English. And I don't speak French. We have exchanged several emails since and I have found it to be quite a thrill to converse with someone that I wouldn't ordinarily be able to talk to. This is what Esperanto was designed to do and it works, ĉu ne?

I am very glad to know that you are experiencing the usefulness of Esperanto.

By the way, I'm here communicating with you in English, though my mother tongue is Spanish. Maybe you speak Spanish also. However, despite the beauty of the languages of Shakespeare and Cervantes (at least when used by writers like them), there is a special pleasure in communicating neither in YOUR language nor in MY language, but in OUR language.

Regards,

Daniel

jawq81:
Last week I checked my email and found a message from Lernu telling me that I had a postcard from someone and to click on the included link to read it. I did and found a postcard from a Frenchwoman who speaks no English. And I don't speak French. We have exchanged several emails since and I have found it to be quite a thrill to converse with someone that I wouldn't ordinarily be able to talk to. This is what Esperanto was designed to do and it works, ĉu ne?

Thank you, Novico Dektri and danielcg, for your kind words. And I think I have stumbled onto the answer to one of my questions. It is listed in the Lernu FAQ as follows:

Q. In all of the lists of users, why are the following links missing next to my name: "Show information", "Add a friend", "Send a message", and "Send a postcard"?

A. Don't worry, they are visible to other users. You can't see them because you don't need to add yourself to your friends list or correspond with yourself.