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Re: [Asrg] Email Postage (was Re: FeedBack loops)

2008-11-13 18:14:23

On November 13, 2008 at 14:35 pbaker(_at_)verisign(_dot_)com (Hallam-Baker, 
Phillip) wrote:
And in which universe is this type of rhetoric an effective means of 
attracting support?
 
The IETF is not an ideological political movement, nor is it a religious 
cult. The talk radio approach is not so effective here.

Of course it is, just look at the heated dogma thrown back when
someone suggests developing a methodology for charging for bulk
commercial email. You'd think I'd stood up and interrupted the service
to ask if the congregation could please discuss atheism for a bit.

My postal mail is 90% junk and the rest almost invariably shows
evidence of an attempt by a postal worker to open it, presumably in
the hope of finding something worth stealing. I don't think the
postal system will be around for very long.

So therefore postal systems don't work?

This shouldn't even qualify as anecdotal evidence, it's too laden with
polemic.

You...don't...think? Gosh.

In practice the 'telephone system' is being dismantled as we
speak. Most of the actual data transport is VOIP these days. I have
three lines into the house, all VOIP. Over the next few decades the
'telephone system' will continue to reduce in size and scope until
all that is left is the SS7 system as a vestigial appendix on the
Internet.

Look, the assertion being addressed was that it's impossible, simply
impossible, to charge per use.

Whether you find it *attractive* or the wave of the future is
irrelevant.

But clearly it's not *impossible*.

Second, no one was suggesting (necessarily) any such system, certainly
not me.

I was suggesting charging bulk commercial senders.

Even the dumb postal systems have figured this one out.

I realize every one of you knows this but it immediately flies out of
one's head when one wants to ridicule an idea and the image is put
forward that Publisher's Clearing House has Ed McMahon in the basement
licking 100 million first-class stamps one by one...

Nah, zip-sorting, postage meters, pre-printed, pre-paid "envelopes",
ya know, stuff that scales and has been proven to scale. That is, it
has been used in real life on a huge scale, daily, for decades,
regardless of proofs here that bumblebees cannot fly and urgings to
close the matter once and for all.

C'mon, can we exit the realm of cheesy rhetoric and try to speak to
each other like, well, at least to the level of beings sentient enough
to have gotten this far without suffering a fatal keyboard injury?

You don't like the postal system...so therefore it can't
work...sheesh, wouldja listen to yourself?

I'll counter with: Print up 100,000 ads for whatever you do for a
living and try to get the post office to send them for free. Be sure
to either disguise the sender or convince the postmaster-general the
recipients really/really/really want your flyer. Tell us how it works
out.

The...post office...can't...possibly...work...wow.

-- 
        -Barry Shein

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