Tag: spam

Paperless Yellow Pages

PaperlessPetition.org will expedite an end to this needless environmental waste, educate consumers on free and easy alternatives, and shed light on the growing inaccuracy of readership statistics that drive advertisers to still invest in this antiquated medium

who can deny, the unsolicited distribution of phone books is absolutely absurd? First of all, phone books are terrible for the environment. Just consider the massive amount of energy consumed for their production and distribution. 540 million are doled out every year. And even though many are 40% post-consumer recycled, phone books still require enormous quantities of paper, ink and oil. When we throw them out–usually within 5 seconds of finding them on the doorstep–they steal space in the local landfill. Second, NOBODY EVER USES PHONE BOOKS! Honestly, when’s the last time you opened one? They’re absolutely outmoded dinosaurs. Who needs them when there’s Google 411? Besides, doesn’t everybody know the best escort services are listed in the alt-weekly? Ok, ok. I’m being a bit extreme. Of course, not everyone has internet access and many people use phone books for local listings. Yet, given today’s information age, is it not possible to have a strict solicit-only system for these energy and resource sucking manuscripts? I raise my glass to such a concept. If you agree, here are some simple ways to join the fight against useless phone book distribution.

unclear why this travesty hasn’t been put to sleep yet.
obsolete technologyobsolete technology

walking around here today, i was greeted by these 2 sad views: stacks of unloved yellow pages, delivered unasked to disinterested customers. this is what an industry in transformation looks like. maybe this helps to illustrate my fitness allegory, and why going to the GYM is not the answer for these companies.

one shouldn’t underestimate the “Gore” effect, where there is a consumer backlash against pillaging our forests to produce a product that has limited value and that few people use.

+1 stop wasting that paper already!

You’re asking me to tell my advertisers to invite criticism? You’re asking me to actually create a platform that lets that criticism happen? Are you nuts?

When I answer the phone I usually say “James Governor”. Here is a helpful hint – when someone says their name when they answer the phone, its best to not then say “Could I speak to Mr Governor?”

yp sales droids have some learning to do

online media companies collectively will sell more ads in local markets this year than such individual hometown media as newspapers, broadcasters and yellow pages

excellent.

Attacking Noise in Chat

And then I had an idea — what if you were only allowed to say sentences that had never been said before, ever? A bot with access to the full channel logs could kick you out when you repeated something that had already been said. There would be no “all your base are belong to us”, no “lol”, no “asl”, no “there are no girls on the internet”. No “I know rite”, no “hi everyone”, no “morning sucks.” Just thoughtful, full sentences.

you can never utter the same line twice, ever. works beautifully in a constrained environment like IRC. but would be extremely useful for blogs / comments / mails

Menu Danger

Menu littering is a huge problem in New York City. The increasingly competitive takeout and delivery industry hires their delivery guys during off hours to foist menus under the doors of apartment dwellers. It is now routine to come home to a pile of duplicate menus on my door mat — not only annoying but a total waste of paper. Moreover, buildings routinely get fined by the city’s department of sanitation if the menus are left near the front door of the building.

The etiquette of telecommunications

ON A May evening in 1864, several British politicians were disturbed by a knock at the door and the delivery of a telegram—a most unusual occurrence at such a late hour. Had war broken out? Had the queen been taken ill? They ripped open the envelopes and were surprised to find a message relating not to some national calamity, but to dentistry. Messrs Gabriel, of 27 Harley Street, advised that their dental practice would be open from 10-17 until October. Infuriated, some of the recipients of this unsolicited message wrote to the Times. “I have never had any dealings with Messrs Gabriel,” thundered one of them, “and beg to know by what right do they disturb me by a telegram which is simply the medium of advertisement?” The Times helpfully reprinted the offending telegram, providing its senders with further free publicity. This was, notes Matthew Sweet, a historian, the first example of what is known today as “spam”.

the history of spam, and other communication faux pas. excellent

ProQuo

After registration you are presented with 10 types of mailing lists (coupons, credit cards, catalogs, etc.). You can stop most of them with a single click. Others require printing out a form or going to another website. But at the end of the process, you can kill off a ton of unwanted mail.

i wonder how this works, and what the catch is. also, what is their business model?

Maps Spam

It is important for public confidence that Google not only take care of these listings immediately by removing them but that they implement a better system for preventing these types of entries in the future.

with success comes spam. we are on it though.

Scoble Spam

Why do you want to be connected to people you don’t know and alert them to stuff you’re doing? And then it hit me! He’s building his own broadcast network.

2007-08-10:

I can only guess at why FB has decided to ignore my wishes and fill my news feed with content I’ve explicitly rejected. Perhaps their algorithms think he is my most important “friend” because he has 1000s of people in his network? Perhaps they think his content will generate the most click throughs since they are usually videos? Either way, this is one instance where Facebook has failed to put the user in control.