Joe the Plumber may have been the rage three weeks ago, but there’s a new folk hero in town: Steve the Mailman. When faced with an expanding route and debilitating health problems, mailman Steve Padgett needed to think creatively in order to promptly deliver the mail that mattered to people. So instead of delivering junk mail, he saved everyone some time and hassle by burning it or burying it in his backyard.

Unfortunately, this turned out to be one of those things that is both awesome and illegal; last week, Steve got stuck with 500 hours of community service and a $3,000 fine.

When we heard, we thought people might like a way to show support for Steve by helping him with that $3,000, so we started a campaign to spread the wealth and recoup Steve’s loss. Donations started trickling in, and then awesome email marketing provider MailChimp (we use them for Groupon) stepped in with a donation to tip the campaign.

Now that Steve the Mailman is back in the black, all that remains to be seen is whether he will leverage his national celebrity as shrewdly as his plumbing counterpart. A Steve the Mailman book deal? A run for congress? A website where you can pay to read musings on his blog?

-Filed in Case Studies

Background: An extremely anticipated computer game called Spore shipped this week, albeit with a copy protection scheme (called “DRM”) that ideologically chafed many techies.

Now that Spore is released, how are gamers fighting back? By obliterating Spore’s all-important Amazon rating with an onslaught of 1-star reviews.

This is an wonderful case study in online collective action (I don’t know how it emerged, let me know if you do). I’m fascinated to see where it goes. If 1,000 consumers can influence a seemingly inevitable smash like Spore, imagine what they could do to a product preceded by a more fragile reputation?

Most companies would rather please their customers than endure a beating like this, and The Point is the perfect way to provide that option. For example, this could have been an ultimatum campaign on The Point: “Spore should loosen their DRM restrictions or else we will leave 1-star reviews on Amazon if 1,000 people join.” Few products can afford to choose the thousand 1-stars.

While one can imagine this tactic being repeated to address other consumer grievances, I fear popularity could reduce its efficacy. Reviews are still fundamentally a PR tactic, not a direct economic incentive to change. And so, as the novelty of the approach fades, so may its potency. Additionally, businesses could adapt to block this tactic, perhaps by pressuring Amazon to regulate reviews.

Don’t get me wrong - I think this is great and can’t wait to see what happens. But sustainable, predictable, repeatable tactics for influencing change must create a rational economic incentive by leveraging the consumer’s power to buy (or not to buy).

-Filed in Case Studies, Ideas, The Point