Yes we have no Visa
So you guys know I have been fighting with the credit card processing companies to get Visa working on the ESC Archive.
Well today I got this email from CCBill about my Visa application:
Their main concern involves the “mythical” (aka non-human) characters within the site. VISA regulations are very stringent when it comes to the portrayal of non-human characters on any adult oriented site. Unfortunately, all such characters, such as the mermaid, cat woman, etc. would have to be removed from the site before VISA would be willing to accept the website.
I give up. I just give up.
The fact is that I will not be able to process Visa cards for the time being and that is a problem. Visa controls about 40% of the credit card market and 60% of the debit card market. That probably means a large portion of you out there who want to buy a membership can’t.
So what’s the solution? I don’t know. I am banned for life from paypal. I can use the standard “adult” payment gateway. Most of the other services that I have looked into won’t touch me because I am either not adult enough or too adult.
So here’s what I propose: Donate to charity. Donate, tell me how much, and then I will set you up with an account. If you have a Visa card since I can’t take your money the money might as well go to a good cause.
So here’s the process:
- Donate to a charity of your choice
- Email drowemos@yahoo.com with an email that says:
- How much you donated
- The username you want to use
- The password you want to use
Now what I need from you guys is a good list of charities to post as “suggested Charities”.
That’s my idea.
My kids and I always do the relay for life every year, and we collect donations for them as well. So you might want to think about the American Cancer Society. Also we donate to the Salvation Army and The Red Cross. Those are what we donate/Volunteer to.
Mercy Corps has some of the best controls on their admin costs out there, putting 89% into services.
I support Feed My Starving Children, both in monetary donations and in time and services. 94% of the funds received go to purchasing food to be packed and in shipping the packed food to its intended recipients. I love that so much of my money and all of my time donations go directly to help children worldwide, and that they have locations so close to me to make serving there easy and fun.
Donate directly to the artist. Pretty sure they appreciate the income.
Their is an archaic payment system still in use for most of the continental U.S. While old ( I am pretty sure it pre-dates the 80’s) it works for the most part, and is fairly malware free. Tell them to send you a check. 🙂
Do it via Amazon Payments.
I knew there was a reason I disliked Visa.
Child’s Play is a good one, they collect donations of toys and money for children’s hospitals.
http://www.childsplaycharity.org/
Salvation Army is another good one. They get MY donations. And yes. There is a certain amount of “wait…WHAT?” to the idea of donating to the SALVATION ARMY to get access to a pseudo adult site. *chuckles*
The Red Cross I’ve heard is good but I’ve never donated to them. I don’t know of many others.
Global Giving is an awesome site that lets you contribute to specific causes. This was a lovely idea you came up with in the place of regular payments, I am sorry to hear about all your troubles.
Get a PO box. Please. Put the address here. If for no other reason than to protest the dipwads, people will send you checks. I know I will.
Working on that
The Red Cross is supposed to be quite efficient also. Instead of the Salvation Army though, I recommend Goodwill. The Salvation Army actually destroys some toy donations on religious grounds, such as Harry Potter items. They won’t give them to another organization; they just destroy them.
But they have no problem with toy guns.
Red Cross, Salvation Army, Habitat for Humanity, Mercy Corps, Goodwill – all of these are good.
However, every charity someone donates to should provide them with a receipt, either electronically or paper. It may be wise to require a copy of the receipt in the email (with credit card information blacked out) to verify the donation is legit. Otherwise, people can just say they donated and get access to your members area for no reason.
Drow…um…why couldn’t you just get a partner to open a PayPal account for you? Don’t you have someone in the world you trust enough to ask to set up a PayPal account for you that you can use? I mean, even if you had to provide a little it of money as a payment or something, it would still be set up, right?
Hugz!
Mellissalynn
http://www.costco.com/Browse/Productgroup.aspx?Prodid=11105019&search=credit&Mo=2&cm_re=1_en-_-Top_Left_Nav-_-Top_search&lang=en-US&Nr=P_CatalogName:BC&Sp=S&N=5000043&whse=BC&Dx=mode+matchallpartial&Ntk=Text_Search&Dr=P_CatalogName:BC&Ne=4000000&D=credit&Ntt=credit&No=0&Ntx=mode+matchallpartial&Nty=1&topnav=&s=1
this is the credit card stuff from costco mabie they can do online as well
Have you considered https://flattr.com/?
Give us an address or P.O. Box so we can mail you checks and money orders. 🙂
people have your email address.. if you do internet banking and they do too – why can’t they send it directly to you that way? That’s what I use to send money to family etc. Just a thought.
http://blog.webdistortion.com/2010/07/28/paypal-alternatives-e-commerce/
Tried all of these?
Oh, right. So Visa can only be used for *conventional* porn. Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiight….
What a bunch of prudes.
Kudos for taking the high road with the charity donations. Here’s hoping the karma pays off in the end.
Mr Drowemos, I have thoroughly enjoyed your comic for the past year or two. I find the problems you are having ridiculous, as you are not the only comic out there that shows this sort of material. A couple of ideas that may provide, at least, temporary solutions. Firstly, contact webcomics that have your type of material and see what they have done to get around it. If you want an established company to assist you, I might suggest Heavy Metal, Playboy, or Hustler. Ask their editors, explain your case, see what they can do for you. Another option is to have a trusted associate set up a paypal account, since you are banned for “life.” Perhaps start up a third-page that only people on the “inside” know that if they donate/buy from that it supports your comic. Perhaps finding support to begin producing the comic (hardcopy) annually. Perhaps writing it off as a “private comission” that someone “else” will give away for “free”. There are a lot of wink-wink/nudge-nudge possibilities out there.
Do not give up hope, I am certain there is a way, even if you, Drowemos, are going to be the pathfinder.
Sincerely,
~THG
Drow, I gotta say I admire your tenacity. also, doing charity donations for memberships is an awesome idea. maybe more people will take that approach. could wind up doing some serious good in the world.
Does Mastercard work with ccbill? Even if not, people can still do what I did and use the “online check” feature. I keep one small checking account for just this kind of purpose, isolated from the rest of my vast fortune, LOL. Don’t give up, Drow, we need you!
I second the idea of having a P.O. box, and people mailing you checks or money orders. Seriously, Visa turned you down because of A MERMAID?
United Way covers a bunch of charities I think. I’m not sure how it all works but it’s on the up and up. It’s a shame about Visa, I was waiting to sign up with my Visa card.
Agreed on the PO box. Agreed on setting up direct Paypal for your artist. I mean, if you want to give membership for charity, that’s cool, but you guys deserve something.
Paypal is by far the most popular money transfer program out there, but it is NOT the only one. Have you considered, for instance, moneybookers.com?
Yeah, screw visa. We do not need to bend over backwards to please them, if we ditch them for companies more willing to accept us, they will either be forced to start accepting us too or be left in the dust as online communities and sites like this grow more popular.
Get a partner to set up a paypal account and ebay store. Sell membership credits in one or five dollar amounts. You could also sell some merchandise there to get your name out into the community.
http://www.ccbill.com/
These guys are expensiveYou can expect to pay CCBill at LEAST 10% of your revenue [ccbill.com], and if you want to take Visa, you have to pony up another $750 non-refundable startup fee [ccbill.com], and a $500 annual fee [ccbill.com] CCBill supports only subscription-based services like yours and they are for mostly pornsites, Sorry I would gotten back sooner but this was the best I could find.
Ronald Mcdonald House. They give a place to stay for families who have to travel to get treatment for seriously ill children. That’s huge.
I’ve got to say that I’d rather have a way to donate directly to you and the comic. Even if it’s through a webring of artists or just a bank addresa/PO Box. It’s not that I’d be able to pay much at any given time, but I’d rather my little amounts be yours than anyone else.
Ehm, I am going to have to say something totally different. I think that having an “adult-site” (BS, but that’s what you are labelled) organising donations will lead to more trouble eventually, and charities refusing you to avoid scandal (really now, would you want to be associated with an “adult-site”?) You said yourself in the past that you only made the adult part to make some income, not because you wanted it. Ironically this adult part is what is now KEEPING YOU FROM making income. And as time goes by I’ve seen you quit the idea of making income more and more, and keep the “adult” content. And I think you are heading the wrong direction here.
Instead of giving up “payment” and keeping the “adult”, why not give up the “adult” and see if the “payment” part can come back? Just clean it up, get a new persona and re-apply. And then keep it clean, and focus on what you really want to create rather than try to find plot excuses for fan-service. Or do you think if the artist/a businees partner/your wife/WHOEVER applies for visa they are going to say “ooooh, I remember this, that’s from that other guy, let’s turn them down”? Yes big corporations are impersonal as you said – so take advantage of it! That’s what I’d invest my energy into at this point at least… Good luck to you!
Coupled of reasons.
1) I’ve been banned FOR LIFE from PayPal. Could not go back to back even if I wanted to. Thats the problem with slash and burn tactics you can reach compromise with your enemy.
2) I will not be bullied into producing content based on someones distorted view of what people should be allowed to read. I am sick an tired of explaining to my Chinese artist why we don’t have any free speech in this country. This sort of thing is over the line and I will not bow under to it.
3) The adult side of things still makes good money.
4) There is nothing wrong with what I do. There is nothing wrong with sex and sexuality.
The funny thing is a couple of months ago this is the direction of where I was going. I had burned out on the random cloths falling off thing and I wanted to move on. Then some jerk came in and reported me to PayPal then I was stuck. I could not move forward I had to choose to continue doing the adult thing or shut down the comic. Each time I try to find middle ground the anti pornography forces push me further away from what they are campaigning for.
As for charities rejecting the donations that’s not going to happen since I am not donating to a charity I am telling other people to donate to a charity of their choice. No record tracing back to Exiern just good Karma. And frankly I am really enjoying it. There is a small victory in realizing my “porn” is doing more good in the world than the idiots that decry it.
Recommended charities and/or non-profits: NPR, Southern Poverty Law Center, Americares, Any local Food Bank, Habitat for Humanity (who is finally getting back to work after being nearly destroyed during the Bush era).
Recommended AGAINST: United Way, I have actually watched people’s careers end because they didn’t “voluntarily” give to them at work. And I have never met anyone who actually got assistance from them, and I know more than a few people who get assistance (very high local cost of living with a predominance of under-employment and low wages in the area)
Alternate: You may have enough people here, ever think about starting your own bank. Seriously. Somebody here might have enough knowledge to manage it, and getting a few accounts from the rest of the people here to get it started, it could work.
https://www.ncsfreedom.org/ National Coalition for Sexual Freedom
They’re helpful when someone”s rights are getting trampled due to sexual expression.
Have you looked at AlertPay? https://www.alertpay.com/en/Default.aspx
Dont’ have an opinion one way or the other, just happened to remember that they exist. *shrug*
You can do what I do.
Choose a charity of your choice and sponsor it through JustGiving and/or FirstGiving. You never touch the money and it goes straight to the charity.
It’s perfectly okay that you, as the artist, get to choose the charity.
On the other hand, I’ve gotten only three donations in the past two years, so maybe my advice isn’t so good. ;p
doesn’t your banking system have some sort of direct email cheque?
Baughbe right United Way and SPCA are scams, my wife was told to Donate when she worked the Red Cross as the workers at the United Way and SPCA had to donated to the Red Cross or she would be fired(for other reasons). She was making only 6 dollars a hour after the Required Voluntary Donations. She wound up quitting.
SPCA are scum to. Pure and simple. My one friend John worked there and quit after he found out the SPCA were selling animal to Testing Lab. They get way to good Press.
http://www.ccfoa.info/
Carbon County Friends Of Animals
Are wonderful people and get my cash and are a No Kill Shelter.
Starting your own bank is very hard and requires several million dollars as you need to pony up 10% assets and Visa and master card could still say no on letting you issue there cards.
How ever you do have enough people to start a church and say that it’s the church a Art, and that art is true expression of the Divine in man. file a 1040 tax.
At that point Visa REQUIRED TO let you take donations or they are in civil rite Violation.
We talking 40 million dollars plus legal fees and it’s open and shut.
These could be your Legitimate Mission statement and under law that all you need.
Quote ”
1) I’ve been banned FOR LIFE from PayPal. Could not go back to back even if I wanted to. Thats the problem with slash and burn tactics you can reach compromise with your enemy.
2) I will not be bullied into producing content based on someones distorted view of what people should be allowed to read. I am sick an tired of explaining to my Chinese artist why we don’t have any free speech in this country. This sort of thing is over the line and I will not bow under to it.
3) The adult side of things still makes good money.
4) There is nothing wrong with what I do. There is nothing wrong with sex and sexuality.
” End Quote
And you will be able to get church parking.
Hey I am Wiccan Priest I know this crap,
http://www.themonastery.org/
there your link it is legimate and no you do not forfeit your original faith by joining or making anther.
sorry I meant legitimate and yes I got dyslexia to.
I remember you being tired of the “random cloths falling off thing”, which is why I said what I said. I didn’t understand how the adult side still makes money if you don’t have a way of payment though, I thought all money-making was lost at this point. What I also fail to understand (as the other people here) is, ok, you’ve been banned from paypal for life, but you could have someone else being paid via them through another site not visibly related to this one (that’s what I meant by persona). But if you don’t think these things could work try to combine your shop with your subscriptions – have people download an mp3 for example for the price of the membership.
I suggest you do a web search on “ACH payment” and see if one of the service providers fits your needs. This is an “electronic check”.
charity: Electronic Frontier Foundation
Why not donate to the fine folks who are trying to keep your internet free?
Heifer International, Red Cross, and Salvation Army are some of the highest donation passthru (lowest overhead). I’d avoid SPLC as it’s supposed to be high overhead and its more political than not these days. I tend to not use United Way because they just redistribute funding so you double the overhead. Habit for Humanity seems good but I don’t know the ratio as I’ve normally donated time rather than cash to them. I do really like Heifer as it buys livestock for folks in the third world so it helps them longer term too.
I don’t know what their like internationally, but here in New Zealand the Salvation Army have a history of self service and corruption. My dad told me how they threw a building full of pensioners out of a building they ran so they could demolish it to build a bigger headquarters. Most of those outcast pensioners had nowhere to go, and the community helped them find new homes with no help from the Sellies. Also the materials of that same building could have been salvaged, people offered to strip it down, but no the Sellies were in a rush and insisted it get bulldozed. My Dad gave me a bunch of other reasons why he felt the Salvation Army are rat bastards, but it was some time ago that he told me, so I’m vague on those reasons.
Northshore Animal League http://www.animalleague.org/ I’ve been donating to them off and on since 1982. http://www.animalleague.org/
Drowemos, your troubles combined with your unwillingness to compromise what you’re doing for the sake of a credit card company have finally overcome my apathy. I just purchased a 365 day membership.
I’m just glad I’m a Mastercard customer.
I would suggest Doctors without borders. They’re the only one who I know of who has gone into North Korea, and giving help there. There are probably others, but They are also the only one i know of who refuse to earmark funds for Japan, since The disaster in Japan didn’t stop the floods in Australia, the AIDS epidemic in Africa, and the land mine Infestation worldwide.
@drowemos I found a way for you to do visa!!!!!
Use digital publishing from http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?docId=1000234621 and members will get a nice uncensored Kindle version and you get visa cash !!!!
SQUARE! Think about it. All you need is the CC or DC number and an existing bank account. AND, of course, email. Makes buying an iPhone a business expense.
Did Amazon Payments make a fuss too?
Drowemos, what is the status of this issue for you now? Have you been able to figure out a successful way to receive payments through Visa or at least a way to accept payments like you deserve?
Have you considered accepting Bitcoins?
If you did, I’d donate something just to spite Visa.
Just accept bitcoins and be done with the whole CC rip.