I met a guy at Startup School that was planning to build a universal address book that would insure people and businesses knew where to send your bills, tax forms, and how to call you, etc. He intended it to be a tool for handling permanent moves, but I think there's the same set of problems. Making it worth anything requires huge uptake and getting huge uptake without value is impossible.
Personally, I like that every time I move, my junk mail drops off for many months (the "occupant" garbage still shows up, but it's easier to toss without thinking about it). I think that's the only thing I like about moving, actually. Having a system that allowed junkmailers to know my new address automatically would be a negative value, and I think the same is true of a site that allows constant contact with folks on vacation--I like being out of reach when on vacation.
I'm afraid I'm just not willing to invest that much time in costing them money--because the amount of money it costs the sender is significantly lower than the value I put on my time. Sure, if enough people do it, they will eventually find it unprofitable to send their junk...but the human resources wasted in getting to that point is overwhelming. Maybe I should hire a neighborhood kid to come by weekly, for envelope stuffing. $5 per week might be worth it.
i would like my "address" to move to the location of a massive scanner than can scan and email me all data. then my spam filter can catch, the snail mail spam, and all of my mail gets shredded and recycled.
Comments
I met a guy at Startup School that was planning to build a universal address book that would insure people and businesses knew where to send your bills, tax forms, and how to call you, etc. He intended it to be a tool for handling permanent moves, but I think there's the same set of problems. Making it worth anything requires huge uptake and getting huge uptake without value is impossible.
Personally, I like that every time I move, my junk mail drops off for many months (the "occupant" garbage still shows up, but it's easier to toss without thinking about it). I think that's the only thing I like about moving, actually. Having a system that allowed junkmailers to know my new address automatically would be a negative value, and I think the same is true of a site that allows constant contact with folks on vacation--I like being out of reach when on vacation.
i love snail mail spam, especially the ones with paid envelopes that you can fill with funny things and send back
Fight the good fight, my friend.
I'm afraid I'm just not willing to invest that much time in costing them money--because the amount of money it costs the sender is significantly lower than the value I put on my time. Sure, if enough people do it, they will eventually find it unprofitable to send their junk...but the human resources wasted in getting to that point is overwhelming. Maybe I should hire a neighborhood kid to come by weekly, for envelope stuffing. $5 per week might be worth it.
If you're paying a kid, might as well pay him/her to do this: http://www.dearbulkmailer.com/
A winner is you!
i would like my "address" to move to the location of a massive scanner than can scan and email me all data. then my spam filter can catch, the snail mail spam, and all of my mail gets shredded and recycled.
http://earthclassmail.com
http://paperlessmail.com