[utterly pointless phonebook rant] arrgh [/utterly pointless phonebook rant]

[serious-noir.livejournal.com]

I assume that many of you, like myself, have been gifted with little 1/2 lb bundles of dead-tree joy. Fortunately they seem smaller and less numerous than in previous years but as always, it seems an exercise in urban pointlessness and corporate fiddledee-dee.

It does make me wonder though: why am I being gifted like this? I don't have a landline so it is not "the phone company" who are doing this. Also, I wonder about what law or city regulation makes it legal for some company to deposit unrequested (and in my case, unwanted) materials on my porch. (further, as an indication of what a complete crank I am, I also wonder what city regulation makes it legal for all those horridly ugly and typically neglected newspaper/ad paper boxes to be plunked down in the public space but I digress). Can anyone get a truck and haul around stuff to leave on people's porches or stoops?

But seriously, is there any way to opt out of being part of this distribution count scam?

Comments

[ron_newman]

They're probably from "Yellow Book" rather than Verizon. At least, the ones dumped in my apartment building entryway are.

[thesoxgap]

I enjoy how every year, without fail, phonebooks arrive almost simultaneously with the first snow.

[ron_newman]

And how, every January, someone posts this rant to davis_square. Two years ago, it was me:

I Am Furious (Yellow)

[avjudge]

Actually today's was from Verizon, at least on my street. Yellowbook appeared some weeks ago.

[perspicuity.livejournal.com]

find someone with a wood stove?

or dump them at town hall :D

#

[42itous.livejournal.com]

There is a way to opt out, but it requires registering your name and address on a website, which I decided is worse than getting spammed with dead trees once a year. Sorry I don't remember the details of the website and can't vouch for its effectiveness.

[ron_newman]

It's also not going to work when the yellow-page company just dumps 30 or 60 books in an apartment building, without addressing them to any particular apartment or resident.

According to this post from November 2011, the website is http://CatalogChoice.org . I haven't tried it, for the reason I gave above.

[miss-chance.livejournal.com]

hmmm... what would happen if all 30,000 somerville households dumped our unwanted phonebooks on the steps of city hall?

[serious-noir.livejournal.com]

I would love to do this - but not at city hall (unless perhaps there is an angle of responsibility/enabling that I am not seeing, aside from the lack of an ordinance against phonebook spam).

But a flash mob dumping them in the doorway of a Verizon store? Building a phonebook spam fortress or a monument to stupidity? I'm in!

[blacktigr.livejournal.com]

I'm all for the "find someone with a stove who can use this" idea. I'd rather make someone warm than make a political statement.

[ron_newman]

Verizon's local landline facility is on Central Street, just south of the railroad bridge, between Spring and Winter hills.

(But I don't think it's fair to blame them for Yellow Book.)

[pekmez.livejournal.com]

There is a Yellow-pages specific website here: https://www.yellowpagesoptout.com/
I heard about it and signed up earlier this week just in case it would work. Of course, the day I was signing up was the day before the dead trees landed on my porch, so I don't think I really have any data (though part of me wants to imagine that typing in my address got me a delivery of books as punishment the next day..)

[taerowyn.livejournal.com]

And sadly, the city is limited in what they can do to control it. See what happened in Seattle when they tried to setup a system requiring Yellow Page producers to obtain permits and pay fees in order to deliver, in an attempt to pay for an opt-out program. (http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/10/phone-books-the-hefty-tomes-of-telephone-numbers-that-invited-consumers-to-let-your-fingers-do-the-walking-are-pr.html) The ordinance was ruled unconstitutional as "phone books, like newspapers, are protected by free-speech guarantees, the court said. 'The 1st Amendment does not make protection contingent on the perceived value of certain speech,' the court said."

[serious-noir.livejournal.com]

Thanks for that link. I'm surprised to see that the arbitrary distribution of phonebooks is protected under the 1st Amendment. I guess that means I can spam my street with my unwanted detritus so long as I scribble some ravings on them?

[ron_newman]

In my neighborhood, people often drop restaurant take-out menus door-to-door. Those may also be protected by the First Amendment?

[koshmom.livejournal.com]

Over the years I had accrued a sizable stack of these monstrosities, and found a great place to bring them. The zoo has plenty of bored animals who love to rip a thick book with many pages to smithereenes. Entertainment ideas abound for birds (parrots) to monkeys to lions/tigers/bears to smaller mammals, any critter with a brain larger than a walnut who can peel, rip, shred, grip, gnaw, etc. Call the zoo first to see if they are accepting telephone books, and ask what their restrictions are (some phone books come with magnets or advertisement sections that aren't edible).

[witchdogtor.livejournal.com]

This! I actually called a pizza joint once and kindly asked them to remove my address from their distribution. The guy who answered was so confused as to how to handle it, the poor thing. I don't know what deeply rooted psychological issues I'm harboring, but unsolicited mail (electronic or paper) causes me to do irrational things. I once saved all of the mail delivered to "resident" and, once the box was full, (very nicely) brought it back to the PO. The woman looked at me like I forgot to take my medication.

I'm usually a fairly normal person. Just drives me crazy. So, the idea of a flash mob creating a monument of unsolicited mail / menus / phone books... [evil grin]

[rikchik.livejournal.com]

No, but I have a recent delivery of phonebooks from Verizon and am sorely tempted to go drop them off.

[squirrelitude]

I think Seattle's mistake was in targeting the Yellow Pages too directly. Banning all unsolicited commercial drop-offs on private property might have fared better. If they were concerned about the effect on small businesses, they could add a clause about drop-offs that are more substantial than a thin packet.

[enhf94.livejournal.com]

This won't work for "current resident" or menus, but I was recently shocked to find there's an iphone/android/winphone app called "PaperKarma" that will allow you to take a picture of your unsolicited mail, and they'll track down the sender and ask them to stop. I can't figure out the business model, and only have their word on the privacy policy (though they said the "right things" for me), but I tried it this week after the Brattle Theater has, for the fifth year in a row, failed to remove me and my ex from their list.

https://www.paperkarma.com

[havnik.livejournal.com]

You can call this number to opt-out of getting phone books: 1-800-888-8448. I don't know whether this is just some phone books, or all, or what. I only called it recently. So I'll see what happens next year.

[alphacygni]

This is one of the reasons why I kept one of the old, small blue bins. I keep it on my porch, and toss phone books and junk mail directly into it without even having them enter the house. Sad but marginally satisfying.

[dibalh.livejournal.com]

'm with you. Unsolicited unwanted mail left on my stoop is LITTERING. Free speech!? Say what you want, but not on my property.

Relatedly, I've had this insight with [some-but-not-all] smokers: Apparently littering is OK, as long as you light it on fire first...

[boblothrope.livejournal.com]

It's still free speech. It's up to you to put up a "no fliers" sign -- otherwise they have the right to do it.

[teele-sq.livejournal.com]

Sadly if you were to successfully ban all unsolicited commercial mail, you'd be putting the nail in the coffin for the US Postal Service. It's their bread and butter at this point.

[squirrelitude]

Not the mail. I'm talking about porchspam, the stuff that legally can't be left in the mailbox because the distributor has not paid postage.

[teele-sq.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah good point. Porchspam isn't much better than littering.

[wkathym.livejournal.com]

My husband actually LIKES these phone books. Well, only the Verizon one. We're just from a different generation, I guess.