• fibojoly@sh.itjust.works
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    3 months ago

    In France you just put a sticker or something on your box saying “no ads” and that’s it, no more ads posted. It really is quite a bunch of paper every week, too!

    • brbposting@sh.itjust.works
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      3 months ago

      Obviously the Internet should remain as public and free as it is/as possible but you just made me want to sell it to France

    • Emily (she/her)
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      3 months ago

      Same in Australia. Doesn’t stop the pious “holier than thou” shits from illegally filling my letterbox with crap advertising their church

  • VeganCheesecake
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    3 months ago

    In Germany, you can just put a little sign on your letterbox that tells the post person to not give you any free newspapers or mail.

    Only ads I’ve gotten in years where the ones directly addressed to me, and that’s like every few months from one of two slightly old fashioned firms, and tends to include a voucher, so that’s something.

    • faercol
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      3 months ago

      Same in France, and some cities are even experimenting the opposite: ads are opt-in, and you need to put a “I want ads” sign to get them instead.

    • cheddar@programming.dev
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      3 months ago

      Same in Estonia, I check my mailbox maybe 2-3 times per year, and that is just because I have nothing else to do while waiting for the lift to come. Also, now I want a cheesecake.

    • ikidd@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Canada too. My wife was a letter carrier for a few years, she would make a note of non-admail boxes if someone put a notification on the box or sent in a form to opt-out, and put a red sticker on their sort slot at the depot. Then when she delivered it would only be addressed mail that went to that box.

    • Don_alForno@feddit.org
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      3 months ago

      Sadly too many asshats ignore the stickers. I could now sue the shitty “free” newspaper ad delivery device, but that’s somehow more work and money than I’m willing to invest.

    • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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      3 months ago

      I’d love that. My current routine is to just toss the ads and whatnot in the recycling bin on my way in. I look at it just long enough to determine whether it’s important, I don’t even look at what their deals are.

      • JovialMicrobial@lemm.ee
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        3 months ago

        I don’t know know if you’re in the US, but the junk mail senders here have been making their ads look like official mail.

        I had one the other day that said IMPORTANT stamped across an otherwise nondescript, but official looking enevelope. So opened it just in case. It was an ad for some douchbag company stating that it wanted to buy our house for cash.

        I always worry that one day I’m gonna toss a piece of mail that I actually needed because of this bullshit.

        • TachyonTele@lemm.ee
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          3 months ago

          I got one from T-Mobile that looked like a business envelope and didn’t have a return address. Nothing but an ad inside.

        • edric@lemm.ee
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          3 months ago

          I got that same exact mail as well. lol. I hate that when you buy a house, your information is basically exposed for all these 3rd parties and scummy companies to spam you with mail that’s made to look official and urgent.

        • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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          3 months ago

          Yup, am in the Us and have that issue. I generally hold my “important” mail up to the sun while walking back in, and can usually spot an ad within seconds. I have learned to recognize a few return addresses, so I know where the junk in my area tends to come from, as well as the official stuff from my banks and whatnot.

          It’s super sleazy though, and I hate it.

    • Klear@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Same here in Czech Republic. Except some idiot neighbours of mine put up labels they took from magazines that have ads on them.

  • RedC@sh.itjust.works
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    3 months ago

    A tip if you’re in the USA, look at the top right of envelope. If it says “presorted standard” it’s garbage.

    • BigDaddySlim@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Only works on first and second class mail, and just be unopened. I’ve been doing this for years and I get maybe 1 credit card offer a month. It’s now at the point where most of my mail is actually stuff I want/need and only get mail like twice a week.

    • psud@aussie.zone
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      3 months ago

      I wonder if the online services that intend on reducing your email spam would also reduce paper spam.

      They work by formally asking all the personal data sharing companies to remove your data

  • deltreed@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    I wish they would get rid of all mail except for person to person written letter, checks made out to me, and packages I’ve ordered. Everything else is garbage.

  • Eiri@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Come to think of it, that’s pretty much email, too.

    75% automated notifications or stuff that isn’t quite spam but you don’t care about

    23% spam

    2% stuff that you better not miss

  • jjagaimo@lemmy.ca
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    3 months ago

    Just finished my jury duty and it was a wild ride

    Other jurors shocked me with how antaganostic they were to the plaintiff for asking for compensation and punishment for a nursing home’s negligence. We ended up awarding money for clear negligence- specifically for injuries (physical and financial) and pain, but it was a struggle to find agreement from them for clear facts that neither side disputed (and verbally acknowledged this nondispute). When it came time to answer if the doctor was negligent in not consulting a wound physician, they didnt agree because the nursing home policy said “do it if wound doesnt improve in 2-4 weeks”. Wound got worse over the 5-6 weeks they waited and by the time they did, she was so bad from not participating in therapy (due to being laid on the wound constantly and the ensuing pain) that she had had to be put on hospice and died from a lack of dialysis.

    Because they didnt find the violation of her rights (violations were agreed to) to be reckless or willful (such as by understaffing or poor care), we could not award additional damages to punish the nursing home

    I take solace in the fact that it gave the family closure for a 6 year lawsuit

    • The Picard Maneuver@lemmy.worldOP
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      3 months ago

      That second part is surprising to me. “Facility policy” and/or signed paperwork don’t allow a provider to be negligent to someone under their care.

      Hell, it wouldn’t even protect individual nurses’ licenses. Any licensed individual who provides care is responsible for following the law, even if “policy” contradicts it.

      • jjagaimo@lemmy.ca
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        3 months ago

        Thats what I was trying to argue but the other jurors were more concerned with not having to come back on Monday and a “that’s what it says” with no critical thinking. Esp when the plaintiff expert witnesses (an excellent nurse who has a practice investigating nursing homes for compliance with the federal regulations and an excellent doctor who worked for CMS writing the very regulations) outlined what care the law requires

        • orphiebaby@lemm.ee
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          2 months ago

          I don’t know anything about this stuff, but if there’s bad judgement because people didn’t want to have to come back, then something is seriously rotten about the system and it doesn’t work. What the hell.

  • LockheedTheDragon@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    I was taught as a child to open plain envelopes first. Checks, credit cards, and other important stuff are put in boring envelopes.

    I worked for a CC company and when we mailed checks to customers we told them “This check will come in a plain white envelope.” And the amount of people who thank me for letting them know because they might have thrown it away.

    • orphiebaby@lemm.ee
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      2 months ago

      Who the hell just throws mail away without knowing what it is first? And if it’s not clear from the outside, then without opening it first?

  • SamXavia@southampton.social
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    3 months ago

    @The_Picard_Maneuver Here in the UK, sure we get Spam mail but there’s red labels and stuff for really important mail from the government and things and most of the time it’s just telling you to pay for a TV licence that you wouldn’t use as you don’t pay for live TV and just watch YouTube.

    • Semi-Hemi-Lemmygod@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      If there was a way to highlight official government mail, spam mailers would use it to fool people into thinking it’s something important. I get tons of spam that looks like something official.

      • Obi@sopuli.xyz
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        3 months ago

        We have specially coloured envelopes for government mail in the Netherlands, I’ve never gotten any spam trying to imitate them (and we do accept spam mail, we could also put a sticker on the mailbox to reject it, but my partner likes them).

      • orphiebaby@lemm.ee
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        2 months ago

        Sounds like it would be really easy to put those people in jail for federal offense, yeah? Also if we can print unique, hard-to-duplicate cash, we could do the same for envelope accents, right?

        • Semi-Hemi-Lemmygod@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          Sorry, I meant that if such a policy were implemented in the USA it would be abused by spammers. There would be a Supreme Court case where the spammers win because they used a slightly different color and it would suck.

          We’re a young democracy and not very good at it.

          • LowtierComputer@lemmy.world
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            3 months ago

            It already is. Spammers use the tear-off style envelopes used for your checks or tax returns and many other ‘secure’ mail. The Republican party near me sent out mailers that looked like traffic bills saying how you may have to turn in your firearms (they were pretending it was from the local Democratic party). It’s already fucked here.

    • philipp_@discuss.tchncs.de
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      3 months ago

      Similar in Germany. The “we are done playing, ignore this and go to jail” mail will be sent in a special yellow envelope most of the time.

  • meowMix2525@lemm.ee
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    3 months ago

    As someone who rents so much of my mail is from past residents which I have told them do not live here, or local ads (literally several magazines per month) which I can’t opt out of cause it’s EDDM, that I straight up just stopped collecting it. Any small packages that would have gone in the box go on top of the cluster and any letters I received are stuffed into the box and I pick them out if I happen to notice I’m missing something.

    Anyone that really needs my attention would call me or email me shrug

    • Semi-Hemi-Lemmygod@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      My mailbox is near where I leave my garbage, so I only check it once a week. I immediately throw anything that’s clearly an ad directly into the garbage and never look at it.

    • psud@aussie.zone
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      3 months ago

      When I was renting I had a stamp “Return to sender. Addressee not known at this address”

      • Mike D.@lemm.ee
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        3 months ago

        I do similar. Cross the name out with a Sharpie and write “MOVED”.

        After owning the place for two years now I just throw it out.

        • psud@aussie.zone
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          Yeah I work in a government department which among other things has to handle mail returned to it, and I know we mark addresses unreliable when mail comes back

          I guess I just hope the electricity company and local government is as diligent

          I’d wait until I had a few before making an effort to post the returns (Australia doesn’t have mail pickup from your home mailbox; we have post boxes at local shops)

      • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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        3 months ago

        I did that for a couple years, and now I still get junk from the previous owner. I’ve been here 10 years…

        Then again, now I get invitations to retirement stuff, so I guess that’s cool (I’m nowhere near retirement, but the previous owner was about that age).

        • psud@aussie.zone
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          3 months ago

          Yeah it took some 15 years for the letters for the people who lived in my house before me to stop

          • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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            3 months ago

            Yeah, I mostly just toss them now, but if I get a bunch all at once, I’ll take a couple minutes to annoy the mail carrier with some “Not at this address” markings.

    • pete_the_cat@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Same here. Like 90% of my mail is for previous residents. One guy apparently never updated his address so he keeps getting sent checks and I just throw them away. I’ve been living here for 9 months 🤷‍♂️

      I check my mail like once every few weeks. I checked it a few days ago and most of it wasn’t for me. Three out of the 5 things that were for me were from TicketMaster, Rite-Aid, and Choice Healthcare and they were all “Sorry, we’ve been hacked and your personal info was probably leaked.”

  • Sharkwellington@lemmy.one
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    3 months ago

    Since we’re talking about mail:

    What do I do with my old bills/insurance statements/etc? I have executive dysfunction and I just can’t find a simple method that works for me. It all ends up in a pile and every few months I pitch the whole thing and promise myself to do better next time. Perhaps there’s an app, website, or program I should just digitize them into?

    • hungprocess@lemmy.sdf.org
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      3 months ago

      I was in the same boat and wound up buying a scanner and installing Paperless. Scanner sends the files to my network drop box, Paperless picks them up from the drop box and digitizes them. I finally got rid of like an entire garbage bag of old pay stubs and stuff that I had been hoarding.

    • Mike D.@lemm.ee
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      3 months ago

      I have a filing cabinet with one drawer for hanging folders. Everything gets sorted and put in there. When a folder gets too fluffy I will pull it out and shred old stuff.

      I could probably get rid of a lot but this method does come in handy occasionally. Most recently were my 2023 taxes which I filed in July (I had an extension). I yanked the 2023 file and immediately had 90% of my donations and medical expenses.

    • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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      3 months ago

      If you need it, put it in a folder and store it somewhere safe. But you really don’t need 99% of it.

      I have a safe with some cash and two folders:

      • important, official documents - birth certificate, passport, etc
      • potentially important financial stuff - tax returns, mortgage papers, etc

      I definitely need the first, I will probably never need the second.

  • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    For me it’s 99 spam things and one Manila folder. It’s always the VA noticing I exist again and deciding I haven’t been fucked with enough recently.