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OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in October

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Re: OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in October

#991

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If crypto was actually a viable alternative they wouldn't be doing this. I'm not against the promises of crypto - but the tech so far has failed to deliver anything but a platform to streamline illegal activity, asset speculation bubbles and a whole bunch of wasted energy/hardware along with reliving the problems people had historically with bank fraud in free banking and the likes (banks printing their own notes wit…

There are many cryptos that would be perfectly viable for payments here. XLM, USDC, Polygon for example. I think the investors told them that it’s too niche and they’d rather have credit card payments for whatever remains after the policy change.

All of these are literally senseless for buying porn. Are you seriously telling me you want your family and friends to know when you buy something from OF?

Monero is really the only thing that makes sense here.

Re: OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in October

#992

Wow, you spend years thinking crypto is convoluted nonsense…and then something comes along that impacts a lot of your friends, and you start to change your mind. I have a fair number† of friends and acquaintances who have OnlyFans. Some for side income, some for a substantial portion of their livelihood. And to see that get taken away because the payment processors want them to fall in line…I guess I’m on the crypto…

The fact that OnlyFans isn't even trying to move to crypto to keep their business alive is a stunning indictment of the state of crypto as a viable payment method.

It's really just an indictment of OnlyFans lacking any imagination, or, well, balls. They are going to crash and burn anyways - they could have at least tried something like this. Instead they will just pathetically fizzle out, desperately clutching to the few pennies they will have left after this, unwilling to take a risk that might reap great reward and actual change.

Re: OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in October

#993

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly I don't see what the problem is with a 17 year old getting some money for posting pics... That's a lot of money they can earn. Claims about this "damaging" them seem about as speculative as 1960s claims that homosexual behaviour is damaging.

OK, let's say that 17 is fine. What about just a year younger? Maybe only 6 months? As a society(well, mostly), it was decided to draw it at 18. Where do YOU draw the line?

Well really, I think it's the responsibility of the parents. In an ideal world, a parent can decide when their child is mentally ready to engage in an industry like that, and can also decide where the line is safe (teases? partial nudity? full softcore? hardcore? intense BDSM?)

The reality of course though is that not every child has a responsible parent, and many children have parents who would happily exploit their children to make a couple thousand extra dollars (which really sucks, but it's also just how the world is). So as a general legal policy, putting the burden on parents may lead to substantially more harm of children.

Re: OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in October

#994
The thing I never understood:

The argument seems to be that "our payment partners don't like explicit content". I think the same excuse was thrown around for Tumblr's porn ban too.

* If this was a single (or small number of) player(s) objecting, why aren't they being competed around? Any payment platform that refuses to service the porn industry is, by its very nature, leaving money on the table.

* Again, if we're dealing with a centralized point of objection, I could see "name and shame" pushback being very effective. Imagine the backlash from both porn enthusiasts and libertarians closing their accounts if they said "It's XYZ Bank, they don't want you buying pornography."

* The worst-case scenario I could imagine is that it's at the card-brand level, driven by non-US/EU regulations. They can switch from (for example) Stripe to Braintree to Auth.net, but they can't escape Visa and Mastercard so easily. They might feel the need to regulate because it's required as a condition of market entry in, say, China or the Middle East.

But that still opens the door for domestic-focused alternatives (ACH? The old ATM-centric debit card networks?) In fact, in today's politically charged environment, I could see momentum to explicitly develop a payment product designed for "Western Sensibilites and Values" with an explicit "Hell no, it doesn't work in Beijing/Moscow/Baghdad" message. Suddenly, supporting pornography is a patriotic endeavour that you can use to demand special treatment and subsidy.

* Why now, when they're trying to go public? It's not like people suddenly woke up and said "OnlyFans had PORN?" If they maintained their relationships with their payment processors until now, it's not like there's a sudden, earth shattering revelation here.

I'm wondering if maybe the truth is less dramatic and grand. The angle I could see is that a hypothetical "OnlyFans - Porn" is a lower merchant risk profile than "OF as it stands". The high merchant fees for that industry are a well-established cost centre. If they could say "we slashed our merchant fees nn%" it looks good while preening the balance sheet for the IPO. However, I'm skeptical if that's the case-- any sort of "digital video delivery" and "subscription service" are still pretty high risk merchant types. I'd also think it's still less of a revenue risk to just split the business: a high-fee porn-only site and a cheaper-to-operate non-porn site, using shared technology.

Re: OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in October

#995
post #793

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Clearly you don’t use onlyfans lmao. It’s just porn dude.

It's clearly not "just porn" or it would have no value at all since there is unlimited free content. It seems like the entire value the platform provides is some kind of social interaction with the content creators.

I know a few onlyfans girls and I can tell you it is not just porn. A friend even had one subscriber texting her about how he's trying to stop using it because he knows he's getting unhealthily attached

Re: OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in October

#996

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is going to be corporate suicide on a greater scale than Tumblr's policy. Just a note that Tumblr's anti-porn policy has been fairly leaky and users basically adapted to it. After a decline, the site now hosts nearly as much porn as previously. The problem is that onlyfans has a much bigger spotlight on it. So yeah, one wonders how people justify just killing their product.

How did they adapt to it? Asking as someone who didn't know Tumblr was still around.

I did not even know they had slipped!

Re: OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in October

#997

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With all due respect, the fact that anyone is forced into porn to get housing be safe from abusive partners is the indictment of a society. I get that it's a de facto situation for some, but let's not drop the onus on "morality police", payment processors, and OnlyFans for a massive societal failure to help vulnerable people. You could take that argument as far as you want (prostitution, drug sales, etc). There is so…

> With all due respect, the fact that anyone is forced into porn to get housing be safe from abusive partners is the indictment of a society. I absolutely agree. A society where people have to resort to prostitution in order to keep a roof on their heads FAILED, politically, morally and culturally. In fact, that's exactly how things go in third world countries...

I'd like to agree in some way - but I wonder, is there any countries in the world where a woman can leave her husband, take her kids and have a safe place to live the next day?

I know there are 'shelters' in various cities (and the one in my town has been over 110% capacity for like 20 years (every time I've checked) afaik) - but I mean they can move into a place and start working a minimum wage job and not worry about paying the bills for the roof / utilities / child car / rice and beans?

I'd love to know about such places, I don't think this is possible in the US, and never heard of such options elsewhere, but could exist.

Re: OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in October

#998

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I gained respect for OnlyFans as a platform because it enabled people to move from dangerous, risky work to relatively safe work What about not getting into this and, thus, not being exposed to any risks? Sex-work nowadays is the matter of choice, it's not how it used to be in pre-internet era.

> What about not getting into this and, thus, not being exposed to any risks? Sex-work nowadays is the matter of choice, it's not how it used to be in pre-internet era. Unfortunately it's often the only choice, If not we wouldn't be still finding women from poor countries dead in locked shipping containers in the harbors of developed countries.

I meet many women who could easily move into sex-work, but they don't, they have tiring job which pays pennies, but they know that in the end this hard working is much better choice. Let's stop playing on victim note, almost everybody has a choice and in case of OF it is always a choice.

Re: OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in October

#999
post #356

So uhh... time to raise some funds and launch a crypto-payments version of OF?

Thinking I might build a version or two of this. If someone's raising money, maybe we should partner on it. I'd need help with ads / marketing for this kind of scale.. the other parts shouldn't be a problem.

Re: OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in October

#1000

Wow, you spend years thinking crypto is convoluted nonsense…and then something comes along that impacts a lot of your friends, and you start to change your mind. I have a fair number† of friends and acquaintances who have OnlyFans. Some for side income, some for a substantial portion of their livelihood. And to see that get taken away because the payment processors want them to fall in line…I guess I’m on the crypto…

So i don't necessarily like OnlyFans and I think it's a dangerous game to play for contributors. That said, why are payment processors deciding which businesses get to exist? I understand that the fraud rate is higher than normal, but how high is it? Could it not be handled by a higher than normal transaction fee?

It bothers me that they have the power to shut businesses based on what appears to be their own subjective moral code. If a website is shutdown for any reason it should be due them breaking some law, not the payment processors feelings.

Regulation should passed to stop this from happening. While a lot of people may agree with their actions so far, it shouldn't be their decision to do this.

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