On the latest episode of The Talk Show, John Gruber made a comment during a conversation about the prevelance of email spam that made me chuckle:
There’s no possibility in the real-world [for] a spam filter.
I had to chuckle because here in Canada, we’ve had real-world spam filtering for over two decades 😆
Starting in 1998, Canada Post has allowed residents to request that unaddressed advertising mail no longer be delivered. When the policy was first introduced, residents had to send a letter to Canada Post and then a red dot sticker would be placed in your mailbox, letting carriers know to stop delivering unaddressed advertising mail to your address.
Most Canadians were unaware of this ironically unadvertised policy until 2008, when Vancouver-based marketer Beth Ringdahl created the Red Dot Campaign to encourage Canadians to make this request of Canada Post in an effort to reduce paper waste.
Canada Post has since updated their policy to remove the requirement of making the request to stop unaddressed advertisting by sending a letter. Now, all that is required is a note inside your mailbox. Or, at least here in Vancouver, a little red dot.
