Comment by macksd | Hacker News Reader

Comment by macksd | Hacker News Reader

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It bothered from the other angle when POTUS started pushing Twitter as an important channel to keep up on what was going on because it's hardly ideal for that. My local government has similarly been making Nextdoor a de facto requirement if you want to know what's happening or want to give feedback (especially in an era of frequent town office closures).

I tend to favor minimal government but I think the USPS was an important outcome of the Constitution to fill the need for a universal and "official" communication channel. But their budget has been butchered, I get misdelivered mail all the time and the DMV tells me I'm not the only one in my town who never seems to get their mail, but there's no shortage of wasteful junk mail. If only I was confident we could nail the execution, I would love to see the Internet embraced as basic, universal infrastructure and an official government communication channel that's more reliable and less abused.

But I dream.

For what it’s worth, you can sign-up through DMAChoice to stop receiving junk mail [1]. It takes a few months after you sign up to really take effect, but it has easily eliminated 90% of the mail I used to receive. Well worth it IMO for the $2 fee every 10 years.

https://www.dmachoice.org/register.php

I'll take your word for it that it works, but I would have been skeptical. Am I correct in understanding that they essentially function is a communication medium with the companies maintaining these unsolicited mailing lists, and those companies voluntarily remove people that pay DMAchoice?

There are a number of other options.

You can mark mail "rejected" and return it to the delivery box or any post box.

https://refuseyourmail.cooperjr.name/how-to

https://faq.usps.com/s/article/Refuse-unwanted-mail-and-remo...

First-class mail can be returned to sender:

https://faq.usps.com/s/article/Return-to-Sender-Mail

Title 39, United States Code, Section 3008 authorizes the Postal Service™ to issue a prohibitory order against a mailer who sends you an advertisement offering to sell any matter that you, in your own discretion, believe to be “erotically arousing or sexually provocative.” You can request the order by completing the relevant portion of PS Form 1500, Application for Listing and/or Prohibitory Order, and submitting it to any Post Office™. The form is available at your local Post Office. Thirty days after receiving the order, the mailer is prohibited from sending you any further mail. Violating this prohibition makes the mailer subject to court enforcement action by the United States Government.

https://about.usps.com/publications/pub307/welcome.htm

I think of the issue a different way. The problem isn't having an official communications channel, but rather, being able to communicate somewhere where the average person will actually be exposed to it. POTUS puts out memos and briefings all the time on the official whitehouse.gov site, but who actually reads those? I see the fundamental problem as attention based, rather than infrastructure based.

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