Apparently, there is some rumor going around that linking to GothicSluts.com will get your PayPal account yanked because of their mature audiences policy. The same people passing this rumor around say nothing about BarelyEvil.com or Cam Whores or their own adult sites. There is absolutely nothing in PayPal’s restrictive policies about what you can link to. They are only concerned with what you can charge for. You may find PayPal’s mature audiences policy at the following link: http://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=p/gen/ua/use/index_frame-outside&ed=mature
According to PayPal brass, some people will be denied PayPal service because they have donate buttons on sites with free adult material on them. Generally having both a cam and a PayPal donate button is also grounds for removal if there is any indication that adult images may be being transmitted. By providing free adult material and asking for donations, PayPal feels that someone would essentially be selling digital adult content. This has been a violation of Paypal’s TOS since May 12 for people who registered adult content with PayPal and since earlier than that for people who did not register.
When I say that I talked to PayPal brass, I do not mean that I talked with one person on low level phone support. I mean that I have met PayPal execs in person and talked to multiple executives at PayPal who specifically deal with mature audiences issues. Unless you are trying to get people to give you donations via PayPal for linking to adult material, PayPal does not care what you link to. Personally, I think the PayPal crackdown sucks for camgirls and I hope another standard replaces it. But camgirls give something for what they get and I think camgirls are cool. The people who just beg for donations and don’t offer a show or a product or anything could stop any time. Orphans and medical research and such can get donations. People who own their own houses and luxury cars and designer clothes and eat at fine restaurants . . . well they can stop whining for unneeded support and posting stolen content on their sites and begging for donations to cover their supposed hosting bills. I think it is just fine that PayPal is getting rid of rich beggars and thieves. I think it sucks that it is making it harder for honest people to be compensated for what they do.
I recently got my PayPal account shot down by someone who found an old newsletter (sent when PayPal not only allowed but was actively courting adult business) with info on how to buy a site membership via PayPal. This option has not been on our sites for months because I was aware of the rules and was trying to follow them. Although I had disabled PayPal payments from my sites, this person used an old newsletter to figure out a sneaky way to send PayPal payment to me. I should have just refunded the person’s payment and told them they could not get a membership that way, but I hated to treat a customer that way. Within hours of getting a password to my site, the supposed customer in question used their access to make software attacks on my system and then my PayPal account got knocked out. I think it was a setup by a site which I guess thinks it is competitive with me. I wish I had not fallen for it. I knew better.