

US majority says ‘Do Not Mail’ - tremblanc
http://www.futurity.org/top-stories/us-majority-says-%E2%80%98do-not-mail%E2%80%99/

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ohwp
In the Netherlands we can get a free mailbox sticker. There are some options:

    
    
      No-No: No advertising and magazines.
      No-Yes: No advertising, magazines excluded.
    

[http://translate.google.nl/translate?sl=nl&tl=en&js=...](http://translate.google.nl/translate?sl=nl&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=nl&ie=UTF-8&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.rijksoverheid.nl%2Fonderwerpen%2Fbescherming-
van-consumenten%2Fvraag-en-antwoord%2Fwat-kan-ik-doen-tegen-ongewenste-
reclame-en-folders-in-mijn-brievenbus.html&act=url)

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notatoad
In Canada we take a marker and write "no junk mail" on our mailboxes. I'm not
sure if it has any law backing it up, but it seems to work.

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RyanMcGreal
Canada Post has a policy of respecting people's wish not to receive junk mail.

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DanBC
In the UK we have the Mail Preference Service which allows people to opt out
of most (but not all) junk mail. We also have another system which allows
people to opt out of the rest. It'd be nice if it was a single page that did
both, but it's better than nothing.

Personally, I'd prefer the Royal Mail to have an expensive stamp for letters
that was almost guaranteed next day delivery, and a regular stamp for letters
that meant "next 3 to 5 business days". I'd like them to deliver business
letters before 9am, but domestic letters could be before 4pm. These steps
would save the UK mail delivery a lot of money, but have been deeply unpopular
when proposed before.

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Turing_Machine
I remember characters in Victorian novels sending dinner invitations out with
the morning mail. Not only would the guests arrive, but there'd actually be a
reply accepting the invitation.

Granted, that was within London, where at that time mail was delivered 12 (!)
times per day.

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Svip
Also known as the good old days!

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expralitemonk
I spend two minutes a day collecting junk mail from my mail box and throwing
it into the recycle bin. That's 624 minutes a year. One government employee
puts trash into my mail box and another government employee takes it away. Any
useful mail I receive can be either delivered by electronic methods or
UPS/FedEx.

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abalashov
Sweeping most of the contents of my mailbox into the trash bin isn't that
hard. My inner ecologist and economist is much more put off by it than my
inner "consumer". When I think about all those trees, and all the net energy
expended on the production and delivery of junk mail, it just makes me want to
cry.

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philwelch
I'm personally insulted that there's a billion dollar industry telling me,
"Hey Phil, YOU throw this away!"

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tdoggette
To kill junk mail would be to kill the US Postal Service, I think. I'm not
sure if it's worth the price.

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rickmb
Shouldn't the US Postal Service have died a long time ago?

It always amazes me how the US as self-proclaimed champions of the free market
and technological progress still holds on to outdated, bureaucratic
nationalized monopolies like the postal service.

In many countries this market has already been privatized a long time ago,
and/or scaled down to the point where relics like post offices no longer
exist.

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aptwebapps
The main reason for the USPS is coverage. The US has a whole lot of sparsely
populated, but not unpopulated, land. Covering these people is part of what
makes the USPS unprofitable.

The same problem exists for telephones but the main approach has been to set
high minimum prices that non-rural carriers have to pay rural carriers for
traffic flowing from the former to the latter. This enables the rural
providers to make a profit but leads to unintended consequences like free
conference call companies set up in rural areas which get a kick back from the
local provider for the incoming traffic they engender.

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kalleboo
I thought the reason the USPS was unprofitable was that they had to fund
employee pensions 75 years in advance

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phinnaeus
In fact, I thought the USPS was profitable before that mandate. In fact, one
of the very few profitable government agencies. But I might be wrong on that.

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tomkinstinch
FYI Here's the FTC advice page listing opt-out information:
[http://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0262-stopping-
unsolicit...](http://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0262-stopping-unsolicited-
mail-phone-calls-and-email)

As part of the Christmas present for my folks I helped them add their names to
the various opt-out lists. The gift of less spam keeps giving.

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don_draper
That helps get banks from sending you junk, and it's worth the time to do, but
you will still get junk mail from others.

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tomkinstinch
I've gotten very little junk mail of any kind since opting out via the DMA
choice link, but maybe they just haven't found me yet.

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borplk
It's the same damn crap here in Australia and it's making me furious.

It's stupid that there's more sensitivity on the online spam issue than the
physical spam.

The mail box is a part of my property, why aren't I entitled to choosing who
can use it and who can't?

It's not legal to just dump a bunch of ads on someone's lawn every day, why is
it legal to dump it in their mailbox?

Just imagine the waste. I get ads that are not even remotely relevant to me.
Really weird specific stuff that you'd think that maybe 1 out of every 500
person would be interested in.

Here's an idea,

Build a customer base of people with their interests, then print a custom
catalog with deals and ads and everything specifically for their interests and
send it to them. So my neighbour gets sweet fishing deals and I get the nerdy
deals and my wife gets the clothing ads. Conversions will be a lot higher.

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joshAg
does australia not have "return to sender"? That seems to work well for the
little amount of junk mail that I get.

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borplk
How does that work?

As in, you return it to the sender, as a request for unsubscribing?

If that's the case I don't think it would work because the postman doesn't
care which box he's dumping the ads in.

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joshAg
you write "Return to Sender" on the outside of the envelope and stick it back
in the mailbox (really). or, if you live in a complex with a separate outgoing
mailbox, then put it there.

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michaelfeathers
I had a friend who enjoyed taking all of the junk mail he received and putting
into mailboxes. I don't think it made a difference.

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DanBC
Some people collect junk mail, and then stuff it all back into the reply-paid
envelopes it sometimes comes with.

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gte910h
Today, the USPS is supported by Direct Mail. Kill it, and you either kill the
USPS, or pay directly in taxes to support it.

