Why don’t we use the letter box for outgoing mail?
Every house and every flat has its own letter box — or “inbox” in geek slang — which gets filled (almost) daily by the postman. So the letter box acts as a container for incoming stuff.
But what is with outgoing stuff? We have to bring it to the next post box or post office. Wouldn’t it be much easier to use the letter box also for outgoing mail? When the postman brings the mail, he could also pick up the outgoing mail.
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For a simple reason:
1. It would increase the job of the postman, which would need to look at the content of the letterbox to see if it is outgoing mail or old mail left there.
@Olivier: Yes, that’s true with the current letter boxes. But it could be solved with a special compartment for outgoing mail.
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In the US the postal carrier will pick up mail from the same box that the deliver to: I just stick the flag up to indicate there’s something outgoing and the mailman grabs it.
Netflix would be a nightmare without this, actually.
@paul: Thanks for your comment, something new learned. I just thought the flag is only to indicate that you have got new mail.
Well, what would happen if you don’t have any incoming mail? Wouldn’t this prevent your outgoing mail from being sent? At least until the mailman comes again..which might take a while. True?
@Hannibal Lecter: Yes, you would need a mechanism to signal the postman there is some outgoing mail (see also paul’s comment). But of course this assumes the postman visits you even if there is no incoming mail. In the other case you would need a different solution ;-)
It’s also a problem that the postman (and only the postman) fetches your outgoing mail ;)
@Dodg3r: Yes, that’s true. On the other hand it seems to work in the US (see paul’s comment).