I'm a little puzzled about why people here are getting so worked up about this. Does a 15- or 20-second inconvenience fray your nerves so much that you need to devise anti-calling plots to post on Slashdot? If that's the case, I frankly recommend a deep breath, a pleasant stroll, and a massage. I'm friendly even when commercial telemarketers or Republicans call.
Anyhow, I'd like to make a few points based on ten years' of off-and-on experience calling people from political campaigns (mostly as a volunteer, but some volunteer recruitment as staff):
For starters, the vast majority of the world isn't as reclusive, sensitive, or whiny as the Slashdotters seem to be. Almost all people will remain polite through a quick, friendly, to-the-point conversation. And thank goodness! The world would be a sorry place if everyone threw temper tantrums about such a little thing.
Few calls are done to raise money. Calls may be done to 1) boost name recognition; 2) persuade swingable voters; 3) identify supporters to be turned out to the polls on election day; 4) remind people to vote; 5) recruit volunteers; 6) find people willing to host lawn-signs; 7) identify the issues of greatest importance to voters; 8) miscellaneous other purposes (a campaign once had me phone-bank to get donations to a local flood relief effort, for example). If you think that you're getting a bunch of fundraising calls, you're either hanging up too early or you're an unusual case. I can't tell you the number of conversations I've had that start like this: Me---"Hi, I'm ***, a volunteer calling from ***. How are you?" Person---"I don't give money over the phone." Me---"Oh, I'm not calling for money at all."
Unless you are a party activist or past donor being targeted for volunteer recruitment or fundraising, most calls are part of a comprehensive get-out-the-vote effort that starts several months before the election. A campaign needs to identify its supporters, and then needs to follow up with them at least a couple times before and on election day for the message to sink in. You may also be getting persuasion calls if a campaign has some reason to believe you're persuadable (you registered without a party, you told a previous caller that you were undecided, you live in an area with lots of ticket-splitting, etc.).
So, what are the best ways to avoid calls? If you're actually getting calls for money, you've probably given money at some point before; don't do that.
If you're getting get-out-the-vote calls (calls to identify you as a supporter or calls to remind you to vote), it means you can't be counted on to vote. It may be harsh to say, but if you think you can be counted on to vote, you should probably think again---think back to the last election in your area without vigorous campaigns (maybe a primary election in an odd-numbered year for example), and if you're like 90% of Americans, then you didn't vote. I don't get those calls (maybe one on presidential election days) because I always, always take it upon myself to vote, whether or not there's a major election with some candidate working to turn me out to the polls. If people voted on their own accord, get-out-the-vote efforts wouldn't exist.
Persuasion calls are easy to stop. Tell the caller that you're supporting one or another of the candidates. If you plan on telling the caller that you're supporting the caller's opponent, it's probably a good idea to at least know both the candidate's names. If you always (and, as above, I really mean always) vote, then it's just as effective to say that you support the caller's candidate.
Several Slashdotters' suggestions (hanging up, letting the line go dead, etc.) will accomplish nothing but getting called back a couple weeks later, because the initial contact failed. Telling the caller that you support the other guy will not worry the caller much, because you probably cannot be counted on to vote. (This is especially true if you can't even come up with the other guy's name.)
Your comment is just the sort of thinking that the 9th Amendment was designed to address. "The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people."
I love having a catch-all email account, and not much spam gets through my filter. My friends know I have a catch-all and often email me at frivolous email addresses like iwantmysweaterback@mydomain.com or cyndilauper@mydomain.com. I also like the ability to track which companies give away my email address by supplying each company with an address like spambites_idMicrosoft@mydomain.com. I also can sign my emails a variety of different ways (ben@, schak@, bs@, or b@mydomain.com).
If you've had your used book bought for $40 and resold for $90 when the new price is $120, then you made a bad decision, and should have sold it somewhere like Half.com. If bookstores are making a killing on used books, it's because students are lazy chumps who don't use the plentiful marketplaces available to them.
As for the faculty changing books whenever a new edition comes out, they should really be more thoughtful about their textbook decisions. (I know I've resolved that when I start making textbook decisions, I will.) Sometimes if you just email your professor before the term starts to ask whether an old edition (or even better, a current international paperback edition) is OK, you'll be able to buy the cheap old edition.
You say your bookstore sells the same paper Walmart does for almost triple the price. Put down the Playstation and go to Walmart! If college students are too lazy to go walk, drive, or hitchhike over to the nearest store to buy their supplies, then the demand curve that the campus bookstore faces for those items shifts so that the bookstore can charge higher. If students really cared so damn much, they'd go to the competition, and the campus store's prices would drop in a hurry. (A fair number of students still have mommy and daddy paying for supplies, so this probably won't happen any time soon; until then, the rest of us just have to shop elsewhere to avoid the bookstore's convenience markup.) And if T-shirt prices are too high, don't buy one! (They're really more for the benefit doting relatives in a money-spending mood than for actual students.)
With eBay running Half.com and Amazon running their Marketplace, and a few others out there, I don't see the point of single-school online book exchanges. Sites like Half.com will have a larger selection, and (I suspect) cheaper prices for many items. When I was a student at Swarthmore College, I made a price-comparison website that allows students to search for their courses' texts just as they would at the College Bookstore's site, and lists prices from half a dozen websites. Swarthmore doesn't have nearly enough students to support a book exchange (and many courses are only offered every other year, so a book might only be required on campus once every four to six years), so I think my idea, to use existing online resources, was the right one for it and for other small schools.
And whatever happened to just posting a couple "book wanted" or "book for sale" signs near the campus bookstore?
Slashdot Mirror
No. Do-not-call requests may indeed take up to thirty days. See Title 47 of the Code of Federal Regulations, paragraph 64.1200(d)(3).
Or are you talking about some state or local regulation?
(Score: -1, Trite.)
I'm a little puzzled about why people here are getting so worked up about this. Does a 15- or 20-second inconvenience fray your nerves so much that you need to devise anti-calling plots to post on Slashdot? If that's the case, I frankly recommend a deep breath, a pleasant stroll, and a massage. I'm friendly even when commercial telemarketers or Republicans call.
Anyhow, I'd like to make a few points based on ten years' of off-and-on experience calling people from political campaigns (mostly as a volunteer, but some volunteer recruitment as staff):
For starters, the vast majority of the world isn't as reclusive, sensitive, or whiny as the Slashdotters seem to be. Almost all people will remain polite through a quick, friendly, to-the-point conversation. And thank goodness! The world would be a sorry place if everyone threw temper tantrums about such a little thing.
Few calls are done to raise money. Calls may be done to 1) boost name recognition; 2) persuade swingable voters; 3) identify supporters to be turned out to the polls on election day; 4) remind people to vote; 5) recruit volunteers; 6) find people willing to host lawn-signs; 7) identify the issues of greatest importance to voters; 8) miscellaneous other purposes (a campaign once had me phone-bank to get donations to a local flood relief effort, for example). If you think that you're getting a bunch of fundraising calls, you're either hanging up too early or you're an unusual case. I can't tell you the number of conversations I've had that start like this: Me---"Hi, I'm ***, a volunteer calling from ***. How are you?" Person---"I don't give money over the phone." Me---"Oh, I'm not calling for money at all."
Unless you are a party activist or past donor being targeted for volunteer recruitment or fundraising, most calls are part of a comprehensive get-out-the-vote effort that starts several months before the election. A campaign needs to identify its supporters, and then needs to follow up with them at least a couple times before and on election day for the message to sink in. You may also be getting persuasion calls if a campaign has some reason to believe you're persuadable (you registered without a party, you told a previous caller that you were undecided, you live in an area with lots of ticket-splitting, etc.).
So, what are the best ways to avoid calls? If you're actually getting calls for money, you've probably given money at some point before; don't do that.
If you're getting get-out-the-vote calls (calls to identify you as a supporter or calls to remind you to vote), it means you can't be counted on to vote. It may be harsh to say, but if you think you can be counted on to vote, you should probably think again---think back to the last election in your area without vigorous campaigns (maybe a primary election in an odd-numbered year for example), and if you're like 90% of Americans, then you didn't vote. I don't get those calls (maybe one on presidential election days) because I always, always take it upon myself to vote, whether or not there's a major election with some candidate working to turn me out to the polls. If people voted on their own accord, get-out-the-vote efforts wouldn't exist.
Persuasion calls are easy to stop. Tell the caller that you're supporting one or another of the candidates. If you plan on telling the caller that you're supporting the caller's opponent, it's probably a good idea to at least know both the candidate's names. If you always (and, as above, I really mean always) vote, then it's just as effective to say that you support the caller's candidate.
Several Slashdotters' suggestions (hanging up, letting the line go dead, etc.) will accomplish nothing but getting called back a couple weeks later, because the initial contact failed. Telling the caller that you support the other guy will not worry the caller much, because you probably cannot be counted on to vote. (This is especially true if you can't even come up with the other guy's name.)
I'm also puzzled by what exa
Your comment is just the sort of thinking that the 9th Amendment was designed to address. "The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people."
I love having a catch-all email account, and not much spam gets through my filter. My friends know I have a catch-all and often email me at frivolous email addresses like iwantmysweaterback@mydomain.com or cyndilauper@mydomain.com. I also like the ability to track which companies give away my email address by supplying each company with an address like spambites_idMicrosoft@mydomain.com. I also can sign my emails a variety of different ways (ben@, schak@, bs@, or b@mydomain.com).
"Oh Please" yourself.
If you've had your used book bought for $40 and resold for $90 when the new price is $120, then you made a bad decision, and should have sold it somewhere like Half.com. If bookstores are making a killing on used books, it's because students are lazy chumps who don't use the plentiful marketplaces available to them.
As for the faculty changing books whenever a new edition comes out, they should really be more thoughtful about their textbook decisions. (I know I've resolved that when I start making textbook decisions, I will.) Sometimes if you just email your professor before the term starts to ask whether an old edition (or even better, a current international paperback edition) is OK, you'll be able to buy the cheap old edition.
You say your bookstore sells the same paper Walmart does for almost triple the price. Put down the Playstation and go to Walmart! If college students are too lazy to go walk, drive, or hitchhike over to the nearest store to buy their supplies, then the demand curve that the campus bookstore faces for those items shifts so that the bookstore can charge higher. If students really cared so damn much, they'd go to the competition, and the campus store's prices would drop in a hurry. (A fair number of students still have mommy and daddy paying for supplies, so this probably won't happen any time soon; until then, the rest of us just have to shop elsewhere to avoid the bookstore's convenience markup.) And if T-shirt prices are too high, don't buy one! (They're really more for the benefit doting relatives in a money-spending mood than for actual students.)
With eBay running Half.com and Amazon running their Marketplace, and a few others out there, I don't see the point of single-school online book exchanges. Sites like Half.com will have a larger selection, and (I suspect) cheaper prices for many items. When I was a student at Swarthmore College, I made a price-comparison website that allows students to search for their courses' texts just as they would at the College Bookstore's site, and lists prices from half a dozen websites. Swarthmore doesn't have nearly enough students to support a book exchange (and many courses are only offered every other year, so a book might only be required on campus once every four to six years), so I think my idea, to use existing online resources, was the right one for it and for other small schools.
And whatever happened to just posting a couple "book wanted" or "book for sale" signs near the campus bookstore?