This may be naive or old fashioned, but could they take checks? Can banks refuse to cash checks based on "morals"?
Yes, but how much business would they lose?
FetLife Announcement
61–70 of 110 posts
Re: FetLife Announcement
#62Earlier quoted context omitted.
Can't they just pay boringCorp Ltd. in Bitcoin for use of their "bussiness solution" (that is managing your infrastructure or providing the bitcoin transaction platform). The boringCorp Ltd can cash out for ActualMoney(tm) and I'm sure there is some way of accounting to get that money back to where it needs to go.
Why commit a crime (money laundering) to hide a non crime?
Of course, attempting to do so would likely get you investigated, because it looks illegal.
Re: FetLife Announcement
#63This may be naive or old fashioned, but could they take checks? Can banks refuse to cash checks based on "morals"?
Yes, but how much business would they lose?
Edit: FetLife is based in Canada. Are checks a thing there? (honest question from a European who has never even seen a check)
Re: FetLife Announcement
#64Two or three big players in the credit card market can effectively shutdown a business. Honest question: do we need better enforcement for the First Amendment rights in the current digital era? Shop owners cannot decide who enters in their shop, should digital service providers be allowed to discriminate? The same happens when someone is banned from Facebook and Twitter: of course there are other options, but he won'…
No. What we need is a bill of rights to protect us from corporations that would censor us and otherwise work with the government to oppress our rights.
Plain and simple, all big business needs to be regulated at this point. They've proven themselves unworthy of being given free-roam.
Re: FetLife Announcement
#65Re: FetLife Announcement
#66Earlier quoted context omitted.
I live in Indiana, and I've been living under a Pence government with a Republican supermajority for the last 4 years. It's better than Trump. Yeah, Pence picks ridiculous fights that cost the state a lot of money and he's a socially regressive person who wants to impose his views on everyone, but he's not an unhinged, unstable narcissist. He doesn't make all of his policy within minutes of it being shown on a cable…
Trump isn't that unstable, I believe. He's just blindly following the call of profit (except the pussy-grabbing and sexual assault stuff). Most of the decisions of him and his team up to now can be classified as "will make Donald Trump or his team money in some weird way". And I believe that this will land him in jail or impeachment more sooner than later.
Re: FetLife Announcement
#67As an aside, it's fun to watch a bunch of old, technically-illiterate and conservative financiers unknowingly sow yet another little seed of their own destruction. I guess being at the top of the heap can make one feel invulnerable...
Re: FetLife Announcement
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
The interface between me receiving cryptocurrency and me paying bills and food with said cryptocurrency is problematic. I get the feeling we are stuck in a credit card world. I cannot imagine a big payment outfit that gets accepted by merchants to not have credit card companies or deal with merchants without bank accounts. This is really one of those issues that cuts across party (in the US 2 party system) lines. We'…
> We've seen the crackdown on gun shops The issue with firearms sales seems to be at the payment processor level, not the credit card issuers. The big names (e.g., Authorize.net) categorize firearms sales as "highly regulated industries" - even though they really aren't. There are payment processors out there that specifically work with FFLs (Federal Firearms Licensees, a/k/a gun stores), but they charge a couple of…
Re: FetLife Announcement
#69It's not a porn site, or at least not primarily a porn site. The UX is a lot closer to that of Facebook but specifically for kinky people. If you go to a kink conference and meet someone, they will likely ask for your FL name to connect with you (incidentally Twitter is the other popular mechanism for communicating with fellow kinksters).
FL has a subscription model, and the main benefit you get out of that is the ability to view other members' posted media better. There is a section of the site called Kinky & Popular which is similar to Reddit's front page. Since people can Love (e.g. like/heart/etc.) their friends' pictures and videos, some become popular and land on this front page. Viewing more than the top 200 or watching the videos requires a subscription of $5/month. This section is dominated by media of pretty, skinny, submissive women, and can be seen as having porn-like content. Note that what ends up here is purely moderated by the community and is not promoted by the FL staff. The people whose media ends up here do not get paid for it.
FL until recently has had a very loose content policy. Things like blood play, consensual non-consent, rape fantasies were all allowed. Illegal things were not: no underage media, no snuff, etc. But people were free to discuss their fantasies, their kinks, etc. without much restriction. Whether you agree or disagree with stuff that gets someone off, you were free to discuss what you want and fantasize about what you want, as long as what you are posting violates no US laws.
FL serves an important purpose to our community: it is a place to share events and local community knowledge, to keep up with people, and importantly to identify abusers. This is the main benefit I see in it and it would be the biggest loss if FL went under.
These latest developments have obviously put a damper on things at FL. They have contacted several groups that are able to advocate for them and give advice, and even the EFL at one point was involved. However, the outlook is bleak. Sadly, the community is not united in supporting FL due to seemingly arbitrary content restrictions, and FL is unable to provide a reasonable level of service without those. If someone knows a way to help this community, please post it here and I'll do my best to point it out to the powers that be there. I am not affiliated with the FL staff, just a user, but they do talk to the community freely and frequently.
Re: FetLife Announcement
#70Two or three big players in the credit card market can effectively shutdown a business. Honest question: do we need better enforcement for the First Amendment rights in the current digital era? Shop owners cannot decide who enters in their shop, should digital service providers be allowed to discriminate? The same happens when someone is banned from Facebook and Twitter: of course there are other options, but he won'…
"Honest question: do we need better enforcement for the First Amendment rights in the current digital era?" No. What we need is a bill of rights to protect us from corporations that would censor us and otherwise work with the government to oppress our rights. Plain and simple, all big business needs to be regulated at this point. They've proven themselves unworthy of being given free-roam.