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PayPal has permanently banned The Hacker News and hold funds for 180 days

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Re: PayPal has permanently banned The Hacker News and hold funds for 180 days

#41

They also reportedly shutdown Subscribe Star recently, when people started to use it instead of Patreon, in the wake of the Patreon banning of some prominent You Tuber. This isn't working. The free market doesn't seem to work well in the tech world, where we have all powerfull monopolies controlling what we say, what we know and what we buy. We need new laws.

Can you expand on this line of reasoning a bit? Specifically, what's stopping a competitor from eating Paypal's lunch right now? They have a majority market share now, but disruption still seems a possibility. Often it seems would-be disruptors get bought by the goliaths, but that's on the owners of the disruptors making their company purchasable such as through accepting investor money.

On the flip side, if we did get new laws, why would the goliaths not use their country-size budgets to lobby for the laws to just ensconce them as the government-approved monopoly (maybe not directly, but for example by throwing up legislative barriers to entry against would-be competitors)?

Re: PayPal has permanently banned The Hacker News and hold funds for 180 days

#42
post #31

PayPal is a disgrace. Years ago they blocked my account and freezed my money until I sent them a copy of my passport, my birth certificate, and a proof of address. But sending them wasn't enough, as this dragged on for months and months with no feedback from them. Eventually (after over a year) they cleared my account, but just a month later it was frozen again, and they asked for the exact same documents yet again.…

This applies to most centralized external services, but especially those that handle money. If your application or business relies 100% on one of these services that could be shut down or have your account suspended or removed, make sure to have a backup plan in place to switch it over to a self hosted option or another offering from another company.

Re: PayPal has permanently banned The Hacker News and hold funds for 180 days

#43
post #42
post #31

PayPal is a disgrace. Years ago they blocked my account and freezed my money until I sent them a copy of my passport, my birth certificate, and a proof of address. But sending them wasn't enough, as this dragged on for months and months with no feedback from them. Eventually (after over a year) they cleared my account, but just a month later it was frozen again, and they asked for the exact same documents yet again.…

This applies to most centralized external services, but especially those that handle money. If your application or business relies 100% on one of these services that could be shut down or have your account suspended or removed, make sure to have a backup plan in place to switch it over to a self hosted option or another offering from another company.

Business? I'm a private individual buying stuff on Ebay. The only time I received money on PayPal was from friends who paid back small loans, like taxi trips or restaurant bills.

Re: PayPal has permanently banned The Hacker News and hold funds for 180 days

#44
post #7

Banning without explanation seems too common for Paypal?

It’s common for any money transmitter service. Every time i look into the stories I’ve found the ban actually makes sense.

People who get upset generally are running a business that violates their payment processor’s terms of service, or user agreement.

Paypal is the most accessible, largest payment processor so we see the most stories about them.

Re: PayPal has permanently banned The Hacker News and hold funds for 180 days

#46
post #20

Paypal has done this multiple times, here are some incidents. https://www.paypal-community.com/t5/My-Account/Permanent-BAN... https://medium.com/@puntofisso/paypal-closed-my-account-with... https://www.elliott.org/blog/banned-from-palpal-account-limi... https://www.success.grownupgeek.com/index.php/2008/04/05/pay... Completely relying on any third party is a bad idea. We should consider the risks when we signup to an…

> Completely relying on any third party is a bad idea. We should consider the risks when we signup to any service.

I agree somewhat but I will note my different viewpoint: completely relying on only one third party is bad. Its usually smarter at least in the case of payments to accept more than one method of payment other than just PayPal.

I know theres even third parties that will accept PayPal on your behalf. Now how that might or might not shield your paypal from being banned I am not certain. One I remember is 2checkout but I havent looked at them in years, so I am not sure if they still work with PayPal.

Re: PayPal has permanently banned The Hacker News and hold funds for 180 days

#47
post #20

Paypal has done this multiple times, here are some incidents. https://www.paypal-community.com/t5/My-Account/Permanent-BAN... https://medium.com/@puntofisso/paypal-closed-my-account-with... https://www.elliott.org/blog/banned-from-palpal-account-limi... https://www.success.grownupgeek.com/index.php/2008/04/05/pay... Completely relying on any third party is a bad idea. We should consider the risks when we signup to an…

> Completely relying on any third party

What other options are there that exist where a regular person could still make a payment?

Re: PayPal has permanently banned The Hacker News and hold funds for 180 days

#48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This site, with the name "Hacker News", was already popular and predates the other site by several years. If I launched a new site called "TheFacebook.com" tomorrow, what proof would you need that I was, at a minimum, knowingly causing confusion?

I think that's not a great comparison. Hacker News is still essentially a niche site known to people who care about a specific set of fields relevant to startups. If you asked a random person on the street they probably wouldn't know about Y Combinator, much less Hacker News. I'm not sure how to measure the actual level of recognition of a brand name, but I feel that Hacker News falls into the second or third tier of…

In the "The International Watch Company" case, I'd expect a trademark search prior to naming the company. In the "The Hacker News" case, I'd expect at least a Google search to check for confusing/conflicting names in the same space.

In either of the above cases, a Google search turns up the conflicting name as the #1 organic hit, precluding my judgment of an honest coincidence, but I understand your position.

Re: PayPal has permanently banned The Hacker News and hold funds for 180 days

#49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, THN is actually about hacking. So if the name is confusing on anyones part, I would more likely be HN.

Define hacking

Hacking: cut with rough or heavy blows. "I watched them hack the branches"

First definition given by google. That was easy.

Re: PayPal has permanently banned The Hacker News and hold funds for 180 days

#50
post #20

Paypal has done this multiple times, here are some incidents. https://www.paypal-community.com/t5/My-Account/Permanent-BAN... https://medium.com/@puntofisso/paypal-closed-my-account-with... https://www.elliott.org/blog/banned-from-palpal-account-limi... https://www.success.grownupgeek.com/index.php/2008/04/05/pay... Completely relying on any third party is a bad idea. We should consider the risks when we signup to an…

Well everyone who wants to accept payments on the internet ultimately relies on VisaMasterCard. They will shut you off and get other payment processors to shut you off like happened to SubscribeStar when they set up as a Patreon competitor.

https://twitter.com/nickmon1112/status/1076886857445711872?s... Long twitter thread on the relation between MasterCard, Visa and Patreon and how the credit card cartel is attempting to minimise political risk.

Transcript of a call with the head of Patreon’s Censorship department where they as much as say MasterCard made them do it.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1U0mQjUA0T5INc_GDkwPJ2mfh...

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