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March 04, 2004
Operation: Aaron Hawkins is a Weirdo, etc., etc.
If you're utterly confused about how a male-run site with a disproportionately high female/male ratio in readers -- or at least people who post comments -- can openly discuss pornography/erotica without anyone (publicly) raising a stink. . . yes, well, thank you for visiting us here in the 21st century, and we do hope you enjoy your stay.
Tristan Risk has opened her member's section, and naturally the first thing I noticed is that she's using PayPal for processing payments, rather than Verotel, as she did for the individual galleries, and sent her an e-mail about how Paypal Flip[ed] the Switch:
The word spread quickly among adult webmasters. As of May 12, 2003, PayPal will no longer support transactions for adult content or products.Afrekete from EroticaCash informed the board at Cozy Campus (Click Here for thread) the day she received her PayPal email notice. Other boards showed similar postings from other webmasters who got the same news from PayPal. The announcement has been the cause of much concern and dismay and with good reason. The loss of PayPal as a transaction/payment service is going to hurt a great many in our industry.
[. . .] PayPal has always been unclear as to where it stands on policies concerning adult content. The public company line was oft stated: "PayPal doesn't deal in porn". But PayPal has hosted a booth at more than one adult trade show. Their old acceptable use policy forbade "obscene" content but left the determination of obscenity up to individual community standards. PayPal has always been in 'don't ask, don't tell' mode with the adult Internet. Adult webmasters were warned all along their footing was shaky if they trusted their finances to PayPal. When Ebay bought PayPal, adult webmasters were warned again. Ebay had an existing policy that relegated adult content to their Mature Audience's section. Even though PayPal has been processing transactions for adult webmasters/providers/paysites for all this time, the end was inevitable.
More details -- or maybe they're the same details, I'm still pre-caffeinated -- at PayPal turns off the red light:
With the new policy, sexually themed materials join a long list of items whose sale by PayPal members is either forbidden or highly restricted. These include bootleg recordings, counterfeit currency and stamps, water pipes and wired cigarette papers, illegal drugs, firearms made after 1898, humans, corpses and human body parts.PayPal has carved out numerous exceptions to its ban on sexually themed materials, including what it terms "fine art"--singling out Michelangelo's David as an example, should it come up for sale--and issues of the magazines "Playboy," "Playgirl" and "Penthouse" printed before 1980.
This is because Aaron Hawkins is a Weirdo, and Thinks Too Much. Normal human beings will just notice lovely photos of a very attractive young woman. Go give her lots of money. But save around $25 for Abigail's book.
Ran out of the Trader Joe's Double Dark coffee and the enriched chocolate soy milk. This is a Very Bad Thing Indeed, especially since none of the local coffee shops are open at 4 in the morning. Hell, even the closest Jewel's isn't open, meaning I'll have to schlepp about half a mile to get some beans. I may not survive the trip. If not, farewell, farewell.
Posted by Aaron at March 4, 2004 03:47 AM
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