News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Floyd Martin retires after nearly 35 years as a mailman t... by ken on Friday May 24, 2019 @11:05AM (#20002273)
Even though I cancel and unsubscribe from everything I can, 95% of what I receive in the mail is paper spam. If I didn't still receive paper paychecks, it'd be even higher.

I recognize there's value in having a postal system, but in practice almost everything I receive goes straight in the shredder. It's been taken over by spammers. It's another system that provides real value to a lot of people, but seems to only be financially sustainable because of advertising.

Where's the Plan for this Spam?

Re:Floyd Martin retires after nearly 35 years as a mailman t... by mythrwy on Friday May 24, 2019 @11:20AM (#20002429)
(US resident). I haven't gotten one piece of junk mail in nearly 15 years (except for a few generics addressed to "resident", but even they are uncommon). Before that it was weekly shiny newspaper type ads and letter spam by the pound with a tiny bit of real mail.

It was an accident but here is how I did it.

I had a temporary job back in early 2000's so I got a short term lease in a different city and opened a PO box at post office. Then I unexpectedly got called back and was slated to return but didn't and neglected to close the PO box and forward mail. I was a road warrior for next 5 or 6 years and seldom at permanent address, so I didn't bother putting in address change back to permanent residence. Instead I got an online mail service (I don't know if was this, but something like this https://www.postscanmail.com/) that opened and scanned mail and I'd read it in browser, download scans, and have important stuff physically forwarded to wherever I was at the time.

Finally that all ended and I got a real address and stopped the online mail receiving. For whatever reason something in that process completely stopped the junk mail to this day and it's wonderful.

Re:Floyd Martin retires after nearly 35 years as a mailman t... by mixmastamyk on Friday May 24, 2019 @11:45AM (#20002719)
So is the solution going off-grid for several years, or using the scanning service?
Re:Floyd Martin retires after nearly 35 years as a mailman t... by phkahler on Friday May 24, 2019 @11:11AM (#20002347)
IMHO regular mail is subsidizing all the junk mail. They offer bulk rates based on the assumption that delivery is already paid for.
Re:Floyd Martin retires after nearly 35 years as a mailman t... by sxates on Friday May 24, 2019 @12:00PM (#20002873)
It's actually the other way around. The junk mail is paying for your mailman to come by every day. The $.50 for a stamp doesn't cover the cost of delivering a letter.
Re:Floyd Martin retires after nearly 35 years as a mailman t... by dawnerd on Friday May 24, 2019 @05:06PM (#20005284)
Also people paying retail rate for packages help offset as well. I've been shipping a lot recently and it's crazy the price difference.
Re:Floyd Martin retires after nearly 35 years as a mailman t... by skinnymuch on Friday May 24, 2019 @01:12PM (#20003486)
It’s common to say junk mail subsidizes normal mail. I don’t know if it’s true, but it makes sense.
Re:Floyd Martin retires after nearly 35 years as a mailman t... by dominotw on Friday May 24, 2019 @11:17AM (#20002411)
And a large portion of those spam are malicious scams. Mail that say "confidential" , "open immediately" in red ink, fake credit cards, fake checks ect.
Re:Floyd Martin retires after nearly 35 years as a mailman t... by danso on Friday May 24, 2019 @11:51AM (#20002770)
When I was a residence hall advisor in college, one of my roles was sorting the mail, which has been useful experience years later: basically, you can ignore anything sent as “PRESORTED STANDARD”: https://www.thebalancecareers.com/how-to-spot-junk-mail-with...
Re:Floyd Martin retires after nearly 35 years as a mailman t... by xirdstl on Friday May 24, 2019 @10:43PM (#20006793)
The importance of a piece of mail is inversely proportional to its claimed importance.
Re:Floyd Martin retires after nearly 35 years as a mailman t... by fsaintjacques on Friday May 24, 2019 @12:33PM (#20003178)
I received my first paper nigerian scam last month!