How many letters do you receive from your mail box on a daily or weekly basis? Do I hear two daily? Seventeen weekly? How many of them are deemed essential and how many are unnecessary (otherwise known as spam in email lingo)?In the past, receiving letters bring excitement. Receiving letter from pen pals (I used to have dozens from US, Japan, Peru, Israel, Malaysia and Finland) with photos and handwritten message was a great experience. Or relatives who kept in touch. Those letters arrived several days or even a few weeks after they were mailed. Too slow, eh? But they're worth waiting for.
When the Internet took over and sending messages became very convenient, we were naturally happy. But new problems also emerged. People we don't know send us email messages that mattered very little to us. We first ignored them, but they were persistent. We started to get irritated, then annoyed and asked if there is a way this message mayhem can be stopped.
Alas, the practice spilled out from our email inboxes an into our mailboxes. Opening the lock of our inboxes wasn't as pleasant as before. Pre-enrolled Citibank loan offers and HSBC's dining discount coupons are easily among the most annoying. Peoples, my wife's mobile phone network sends her letters in Indonesian language; she's a Filipina by the way. Or PCCW sends bulky Yellow Pages books that I hardly touch.
Thank goodness Hong Kong Post is trying to take care of this. It will complete within three months a review of an opt-out scheme that makes it easier for people to block junk mail.
Many businesses use circular mail service provided bt Hong Kong Post. Since postmen are seen as legitimate message bearers, they are often the only ones allowed inside residential buildings; others (apart from known companies such as DHL or UPS) may need special arrangements to deliver mails.
There is this Mandatory Opt Out Scheme introduced by Hongkong Post that requires recipients to instruct each and every sender to stop sending circular mails. But the method was found to be impractical and unrealistic.
It's good that there is an existing review of the process. Hopefully, we won't be inundated with nearly worthless trash piled on our inboxes if we can practically unsubscribe -- say no to future deliveries of these nuisance messages/promotions.
Photo credit: ferrous
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