S.F. Yellow Pages ban to be considered

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/01/31/BA761HGSAR.DTL

by jamesjyu • 15 years ago

19 27 15 years ago

shawnee_• 15 years ago

Phone books are like paper spam -- such a waste! Really makes me wonder what exactly goes into their cost:benefit calculation.

adolph• 15 years ago

About $15.3 billion in revenue. [1] I'm not a fan of organized littering and haven't used the yellow pages in years. I can see how it makes sense for all the vendors of a particular service cluster together, in the Steven Johnson _Emergence_ sense [2].

1. http://www.simbainformation.com/pub/2523077.html

2. http://books.google.com/books?id=qAtgKyaLH4MC&pg=PA107&#...

Joakal3• 15 years ago

The customers for yellowpages are advertisers.

The people getting yellowpages are the product.

pedanticfreak• 15 years ago

Let me know when they finally ban the pink plastic shopping bags from Chinatown.

jpancake• 15 years ago

Seriously. Add the Sunset and the Richmond to that, too. Unfortunately the plastic bag ban was only for "large markets" (eg Safeway, Whole Foods).

jjcm• 15 years ago

It's smart. I've lived in college towns before, and yellowpage delivery day results in one of two things - garbage cans filled to the brim, or drinking games centered around towers of yellowpages. Younger demographics simply aren't going to flip through a paper index when they can find the info they want on yelp/google/etc. If SF is at a point where they've embraced a digital distribution of resources and information to the point where the Yellow Pages are no longer necessary, then they'd be foolish not to stop the distribution of them (or to at least make them opt-in instead of opt-out, as described here). That said, I'd love to see some empirical evidence as to what percentage of the SF population still uses them.

stcredzero• 15 years ago

Making the Yellow Pages opt-in makes it easier to gather that data!

simonsarris2• 15 years ago

Yellowpages were great in college for eating off of.

Its basically a giant set of paper plates and/or placemats. Use, rip off the top page or two, throw away!

Joakal3• 15 years ago

The yellowpages papers seem to crumble so easily and the ink can get into things. Why use it with food?

JonnieCache2• 15 years ago

What on earth were you eating? This is the oddest thing I have seen on the internet today.

yesimahuman• 15 years ago

It would even better to never get any mail that wasn't specifically authorized.

tedunangst• 15 years ago

You really want the post office to maintain a list of every friend who might ever send you a wedding invite?

wtn• 15 years ago

A normal person would interpret his intention as blocking bulk rate spam. Personal invitations are sent first class.

tptacek3• 15 years ago

Is there any precedent at all for an enforceable regulation banning a particular form of speech by declaring it "wasteful"? That it clearly is wasteful is besides the point.

skymt• 15 years ago

The form of speech itself isn't banned, merely the method of distribution. The FCC bans broadcasting without a license (wasting bandwidth), and most areas would frown on scattering pamphlets on the ground (littering).

More to the point, at least one form of wasteful marketing speech has been heavily regulated nation-wide: spam, since the CAN-SPAM act.

tptacek3• 15 years ago

That isn't the theory under which CAN-SPAM operates. Spam is banned because the recipient bears most of the cost of its distribution. That simply isn't the case with direct mail.

derleth• 15 years ago

> Is there any precedent at all for an enforceable regulation banning a particular form of speech by declaring it "wasteful"?

It isn't banning a form of speech, but a form of distribution.

Consider this: If I wrote "Obama sucks" on a note and posted it on my own bulletin board, it would be perfectly legal. If I got a can of spray-paint and sprayed it on your house without your consent, that's illegal. The content of my message has no bearing on whether my distribution method is legal.

Joakal3• 15 years ago

I believe if you write "Obama will die" on a note and post it. The SS will visit you. If you live in another country, and send just a simple angry email to White House, they'll ban you from USA[0].

[0] http://mashable.com/2010/09/14/luke-angel-barack-obama-e-mai...

pavel_lishin3• 15 years ago

I can't dump my garbage on your lawn and defend my actions by saying that I'm expressing myself.

tptacek3• 15 years ago

Sure you can. People do it every day. It's called direct mail marketing.

eldenbishop• 15 years ago

About time. I have been getting these for years and never even unwrapped the plastic. It is a massive waste. Four phone books have sat unopened in the lobby of my apartment for weeks now. No-one wants them and no-one wants to throw them away.

lmkg• 15 years ago

How about a comprise: deliver the phone books on one (1) CD. Trees are saved, publishers cut costs, local business still get advertising space surrounded by phone numbers, directories are now grep-able and therefore better, and residents get free AOL-style Frisbees so they can party like it's 1999. I have no idea if a CD is worse in a landfill than a CD, but I would be more likely to make use of a free Frisbee than a free doorstop.

S.F. Yellow Pages ban to be considered

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