Phone books

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Truly an amazing piece of publishing…it’s unfathomable how these things are still being dropped off at our doorsteps, isn’t it?

So, the end of last week brought a dude up the driveway to the front door of the house (this is unusual in and of itself since most years it never makes it past the garage door) and he dropped off a double wrapped (in plastic bags) phone book. A completely useless block of paper. Wait, ok, maybe not completely useless – maybe it could be used to start fires or a booster seat for a toddler, or doorstop or a block under a table leg or something…

At my house, it literally gets unwrapped and dropped straight into the recycle bin.

Anyway, it amazes me that these things are even produced any longer.

Imaging being a phone book ad salesperson. What kind of conversation do they have to have to be successful? “Look, I realize no one is going to open this thing and look at your ad, but if you could just spend a small piece of your advertising budget on this pointless square on page X that would be great and I can then try to feed my family.”

Do these things still get produced just for the “older people” because they can’t handle technology? Someone in my family suggested this when I mentioned we got the phone book brick. Maybe that is truly the case. It only takes seconds to find any of the information in the book when you use the internet and do a search. Perhaps that is just too much for an old person to handle.

Anyone else still get a phone book delived to them every year? Anyone actually use it?

Useless feedback

abandoned antique architecture building

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We have probably all been there at one time or another with our jobs. Those instances where the boss, or someone else, gives you some feedback on your job/project/presentation/training and it is utterly useless.

Thanks, XXXXX. If only your input made any difference to me at all.

I have a Teachers Pay Teachers site where I sell materials I created over my 15 years in the classroom. Some things are simple worksheets and some thing are more involved lessons or units. Side hustle? Yes. Gonna get rich doing it? Definitely not. I know some people are making good money on/from the site, but no me.

One really irritating thing that happens when someone buys an item is that they are supposed to leave feedback. Now, obviously, this isn’t a requirement but it is highly suggested. What I have found more times than not, is that those who leave feedback offer nothing valuable. Wanna know the most common “feedback” left on the site?

Thank you.

Now, how in any way is that valuable feedback? Why even bother? Why not just leave it blank?

TpT needs to have a minimum number of characters for feedback. Do you think maybe people could leave a comment that is say, at least 140 characters? Seems reasonable. Get it together TpT! Let’s find a way to make the comments a little more valuable.

How about you? Do you have an instance where you got utterly useless feedback? Tell me about it in the comments.