Re: [9fans] spam (was "pathetic")

[Axel Belinfante <Axel.Belinfante@cs.utwente.nl>]

Doug replied:
> Geoff Collyer wrote:
> > One reason you get so much paper spam (junk mail) is that the post
> > office (at least in the US and I believe Canada) *subsidises* the
> > spammers: they get lower postal rates for bulk spamming.
> 
> But by presorting they lower processing cost.  Last time
> I heard a Postmaster explain this, he said that actually
> the bulk-rate mail paid its way while first-class did not.
> That was before several increases in first-class postal
> rates, however, so perhaps now they both do.

Here in the netherlands we also have a reduced price
for 'bulk' (> 250 items?) postings, which also have to
be offered in a presorted way -- and at the time (10 years ago?)
I was involved in sending out some post this way, you were given
a nice small booklet with the sorting rules, and you could
buy from the post a program that would help you to get the 'bundle'
info for easier sorting on your address labels. The program was
pretty expensive, something like euro 350 or so.
When I made a remark about that when handing in my presorted
bundles, like 'presorting makes your job easier, giving us the
program makes it easier for us to comply to the presorting rules'
the post man told me that basically they (he?) did not care too
much about the (my) presorting anyway because their automatic
sorters could do that job just as easily anyway...
(ok, we were a very small client, some 250 items every two months) 

With respect to paper spam avoidance: here in the netherlands
we have two kind of official labels you can put on your mailbox:
Ja - Nee (yes to unscubscribed house-to-house ditributed newspapers,
          no to non-addressed advertisements), and
Nee - Nee (No to both of them)
They work well - only occasionally something unwanted slips though.

Axel.