What's an aspect of life that's currently done privately that you think should be communalized? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 2 days ago by CraigOhMyEggo@lemmy.ml to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

128 comments fedilink hide all child comments

A lot of the things we do on a daily or weekly basis have ways of doing them that can either be private or communal, some of these which we do not think to consider as having that characteristic.

For example, bathing in the Roman Empire used to be communal, but then Rome fell and citizens in the splinter countries began taking baths privately.

Receiving mail is another example. There are countries which don’t have mailboxes and everyone gets their mail at the post office in the PO boxes. It was the United States which pioneered the idea of the modern mail system, which is why we associate it as a private act.

There are activities as well which don’t have any history as jumping between one or the other that might benefit from it, for example I think towns might benefit if internet was free and freely accessible but only at the local library.

What’s a non-communal aspect of life you think should be communal?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[-] MicrowavedTea@infosec.pub 11 points 2 days ago

This is very close to your mail example but can we please move on from delivering items directly to houses? Just give me a destribution center or box at a 10-15 min walking distance and I'll gladly pick up everything from there when it's actually convenient. We can still keep the other model for special cases.

[-] catbum@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

What if we work backwards on this?

Introduce community boxes at junction points where USPS already delivers, and/or next to a parks so you can say hi to your neighbors and stuff. Ensure any box is within a tolerable walking distance for the average community member served. (Best figure five minutes here folks.)
Allow residents with mail being delivered to their physical addresses to opt in to delivery at their associated neighborhood box.
Market the boxes as happy medium between visiting a staffed post office at the center of a city and risky doorstep delivery. Locked boxes large enough to accommodate everyday parcels basically nix those pesky pilfering porch pirates.
Continue regularly scheduled deliveries to individual addresses because the route will continue to exist at some level of specificity anyway no matter how many or how few community boxes materialize. Carriers essentially keep the same routes but get to drop mad loads of ~~male~~ mail into a bunch of ready and willing local slots near you, driving efficiency up and logistics strategists wild.
Promoting additional box patronage by offering a slight discount whenever postage/shipping is purchased for a specific physical address utilizing delivery to a community box. Immediate and total coverage of community boxes across America is neither expected nor necessary, but hell, reward those who lighten that load for others.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk!

sincerely, louise dajoy

Edit: got high while writing and it took a turn for the weird

[-] Lux18@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago

But doesn't this already exist? For most packages I get, I can choose to either have them delivered to my door or to a package station, where I put my delivery number in and it unlocks the compartment my package is in. Same for sending packages.

Here's an example:
.

I'm in Europe though, not sure if it's a thing in the US.

[-] Nasan@sopuli.xyz 1 points 1 day ago

We're seeing mixed use of it in the US. Amazon has these in certain places, like at 7-11 locations. Newer apartment complexes also have lockers near the mailboxes but they're only for tenants.

I got used to using the latter when I did deliveries for Amazon and they're great when the complex owner has them set up properly with every tenant listed and enough lockers to accommodate how much people are ordering online nowadays.

[-] MicrowavedTea@infosec.pub 3 points 1 day ago

That's pretty much the idea, you put it in much better words than me. Let's make community boxes the default and if you want home delivery you can have that.

Side comment, I don't get how the US deals with porch pirates. Here someone needs to be at home and sign to receive the delivery because literally leave a brick outside and it will have been picked up by someone within the next couple of hours.

[-] Worx@lemmynsfw.com 10 points 2 days ago

"special cases" being everyone who doesn't live in a town? I'm lucky in that my village post office hasn't been shut down, but I'd still have to drive to collect my post every day. It's much more efficient that a single vehicle delivers post to hundreds of houses.

Maybe it makes sense in urban areas for able-bodied people. Still a drag to have to walk there every day when you don't even know if you've got post because something important might have arrived.

Sorry, I didn't mean to poop on your idea so much, it is a genuinely interesting idea, I just don't think it works with the way society is currently set up in my country

[-] Drusas@fedia.io 3 points 1 day ago

Or disabled.

[-] MicrowavedTea@infosec.pub 2 points 2 days ago

Sorry yes this assumes you live in a place where you can walk to something like a post office or a supermarket. Rural US may not have this but that's already kind of a problem. You don't have to go every day though. You can just get a notification when your delivery is actually there. This is already done in some places by companies but in a smaller scale where the available boxes are very limited and only for smaller items. With special cases I meant people who have trouble leaving the house for whatever reason.

[-] tiredofsametab@fedia.io 3 points 1 day ago

Rural Japan here. It would take me more than an hour each way to get to the post office (75-80mins). Ain't no way when I generally get time-sensitive documents at least a few weeks each year. Also, especially rural but even suburban and urban Japan is generally elderly and has less mobility.

We do have to go to a post box to drop our outgoing mail, though, and I think that's much easier (that's a 10-15 minute walk) especially since that's generally a rarer action.

[-] MicrowavedTea@infosec.pub 1 points 1 day ago

So why not have an ingoing box next to the outgoing box? My initial comment was for packages but it works for mail too.

[-] Fosheze@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago

Honestly If I could just get the part when they notify me when there's something to pick up and make junk mail illegal that would be great. As it is I hate checking my mail box every day just to dump literally all of it directly into the trash. I would love to just be notified when there is actually something I need to pay attention to.

[-] evasive_chimpanzee@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

Usps has "informed delivery ", where they send you pictures of all of your mail before you get it, so you do know if you are getting something important.

[-] Preflight_Tomato@lemm.ee 1 points 1 day ago

FYI for those reading this, it is just an image of the unopened mail. They don't open it for you. You see who it's from and when it is supposed to arrive.

[-] LainTrain@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 day ago

So they just need to build a post office closer to you

[-] technomad@slrpnk.net 3 points 2 days ago

I could see delivery drivers really appreciating this. They deserve a break.

this post was submitted on 17 Oct 2024

90 points (88.8% liked)

Ask Lemmy

26527 readers

1149 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions

Rules: (interactive)

1) Be nice and; have fun

Doxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them

2) All posts must end with a '?'

This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?

3) No spam

Please do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.

4) NSFW is okay, within reason

Just remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].

5) This is not a support community.

It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.

Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.