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One Million AOL discs to be returned to AOL

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the you've-got-crap dept.

nicedream writes "Two guys from California are trying to give AOL a taste of its own medicine. They're asking people to send them AOL discs, and they're going to drop them off at the company's doorstep once they collect 1 million discs. My favorite quote: "We're going to AOL and say, 'You've got mail"." seems like a better taste would be to dial out and use all 1000 free hours. A million people do *that* and I bet they'd stop filling our mailboxes with the landfill of tomorrow.

13 of 654 comments (clear)

  1. AOL's ad campaigns save you money by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    They pay a lot of money to the post office, and this money helps keep the cost of regular mail, that you and I send, cheaper. If AOL stops, and other companies stop, we'll all end up paying more for our mail. So, I say, keep sending the discs!

    1. Re:AOL's ad campaigns save you money by AngryPuppy · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I can't say definitively that you are wrong, but I don't think the postal service is a greatly profitable industry. I don't think there is a considerable profit margin for waht they mail. AOL ships these things bulk rate which is a reduction from standard mailing. The labor cost to process all these has to eat up a large portion of what they charge. i don't know... I'm not confident is helps the rest of the US population with postal costs. It does keep more postal workers in jobs, however.

  2. How about just sending them back? by Junks+Jerzey · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Drop off a million discs in a truckload, and they'll just have someone on the maintenance staff cart them off. End of problem. But if you just mail each disc *back* to AOL, then they'll have to continually weed out all of the discs they get, possibly for years.

    1. Re:How about just sending them back? by akb · · Score: 4, Interesting

      In general this is a good strategy for dealing with junk mail. Individual returns usually get you taken off the mailing list. It costs the post office more to send it back, if a large enough percentage of junk mail gets returned they'll raise the bulk rate for the junkers. And dealing with the returned mail costs the junkers as well. Just throwing junk out keeps their costs down.

    2. Re:How about just sending them back? by Sylver+Dragon · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I've been doing this for awhile myself. Every time I get some sort of junk mail, I rip it up and put it in the pre-paid return envelope. It may not do much, but its still a few cents more in costs for these companies. Now if I could just get enough people to follow suit...
      Unfortunatly, it seems to be too much of a hassle for most people. Come on, people, its a minute or two of your life, and if there are enough of us doing it, it might actually make a dent.

      --
      Necessity is the mother of invention.
      Laziness is the father.
  3. Re:I called them by mgessner · · Score: 5, Interesting

    On a somewhat related note, my Dad simply writes on the outside of the AOL disk mailer:

    "REFUSED DELIVERY - PLEASE REMOVE FROM MAILING LIST"

    AFAIK he has yet to receive another disk from AOL (he was getting several a *month* at one time).

    He's also dramatically cut down on the number of amount of other junk mail he gets.

    --
    "Sometimes the truth is stupid." - Lawrence, creator of Prime Intellect
  4. Re:RTS them by RaboKrabekian · · Score: 5, Interesting

    AOl sends their CDs 4th class bulk, meaning that if you try to return to sender the post office just throws them away. AOL won't pay a dime.

    --
    "Moderate drinking can help prevent amputated limbs" -- Abigail Zuger, NYTimes, 12/31/02
  5. Re:Humanitarian aid by dirtkilla · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I find that CD's really don't make good coasters. That little hole in the middle allows moisture to reach the surface of whatever it's sitting on. Let's rename them from "Coasters" to "Wow put it in the microwave for 5 seconds".

  6. put it on CD-RWs and win the hearts of millions by mbourgon · · Score: 5, Interesting

    ...of geeks. I really wish AOL had put these on CD-Rs or CD-RWs... I think that if you make a buttload of them, it's probably doable. If, everytime you got an AOL disk, you knew you could put another 650 meg on it, would you throw it away? (Maybe). But you'd probably keep them around as spares.

    --
    "Sometimes a woman is a kind of religion, she can save your soul & set you free from all your sins" - Bad Examples
  7. Million Modem march by bubblegoose · · Score: 5, Interesting

    "seems like a better taste would be to dial out and use all 1000 free hours. A million people do *that* and I bet they'd stop filling our mailboxes with the landfill of tomorrow."

    How about we follow through on that idea? How about Monday October 28th at 8PM we dial in using the free hours and start downloading huge files, for as long as you can stand tying up your phone line. We can continue every night at 8 PM for the next 2 weeks.

    Do that for two weeks...what do you think that will do to the already floundering AOL?

    I know you must provide a CC # to sign up, we'll just have to ensure that we all cancel service within the first month. Anyone had experience cancelling AOL service? Is it hard?

    I'm sure most of us could find an old machine to do this on.

    --
    I hope that someday we will be able to put away our fears and prejudices and just laugh at people. - Jack Handey
  8. AOL SPAM IS by _ph1ux_ · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Supported by the USPO. My friend just changed his address, and in changing his address the Post Office sends you a "Welcome to your new Address" package thing. Inside of it was an AOL 1000 free hours disk - with "welcome to your new address" or some such slogan printed on it.

    Lame. I dont need the post office advertising my new address to companies (dont knwo if it actually does that though)

    But what if you changed email addresses or ISPs and the new ISP or email provider would then send you a welcome email, and you would also receive a bunch of other spam emails from spammers saying "Welcome to your new Email account. Get a bigger penis free by clicking here"

    I hope AOL eats it.

  9. But will it matter? by wls · · Score: 5, Interesting

    As a dumpster diver, let me say that when AOL used to send out floppy diskettes, that when they did a software update they just threw the old labeled and unlabeled media out by the thousands. I have boxes and boxes of rescued AOL floppies that I reformat when I need to pass out a small file over old media.

    Given that they treated reusable media with such discontempt, it only makes sense that they are already accustomed to disposing large quantities of non-reusable media.

    Will this action even be a blip on their radar? Probablly not, unless environmentalists and the media are dragged into the lot.

  10. Seriously, AOL CDs/Disks are sometimes useful by phorm · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The CD's make decent coasters. If you have some acrylic paint you can paint 'em and they actually look quite cool. Getting a whole crapload of these in a month is annoying though. However, on to use #2

    My last AOL CD came with a rather nice thick plastic black case. This case is similar to the ones used with most DVD's. I wish they'd send me more CD's with these cases, as I tend to have a case shortage (buy my CD-R's in 50-packs) quite often. Take off the logo'ed AOL paper and these are great for putting discs in when I lend them to friends etc.

    AOL disks. The most useful things that AOL used to send. While I rarely use disks anymore, I used to have a small stack of post-AOL formatted diskettes.

    Can anyone tell me where I sign up for more free coasters/cases/disks, I'm running low again?

    p.s. AOL CD-holders were also nice for storing disks that you don't want people to pick up, few people open an AOL CD-case.