The reason given was "Under the Acceptable Use Policy, PayPal may not be used to send or receive payments for certain sexually oriented materials or services or for items that could be considered obscene". This is wrong/false on so many levels. We used PayPal only as a means to receive voluntary donations from people who wanted to support further development of Voat and to help pay for our hosting fees. This is beyond crazy.
According to PayPal User Agreement, our funds can be kept by PayPal for 180 days. I requested further clarification from PayPal, but I would like to advise everyone who planned to donate to Voat - to NOT do so via PayPal.
Honestly, I don't know what I expected when I trusted PayPal with our donation money. I apologize to everyone who donated to us through PayPal and I will badge everyone who did so even if the funds are never released by PayPal.
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Guerilla ago
Well, that was expected. Paypal is a fucking terrible corporation and people should REALLY stop trusting these fucking blackmailers. How many people must these fucks screw before the public stops trusting them with their money?
edit: It seems Google Wallet is just as terrible, so the only solution for an easy to pay system is a build in site pay feature which imo should be a priority now if we want voat to survive. Unless there are other suggestions.
edit2: If you don't want to close your paypal account because you might need it in the future, which is understandable given its popularity, I urge everyone to empty their paypal accounts completely and only use it for direct transactions with their CC. Not just because you're boycotting but to protect your money from these thieving fucks (for example...). Also, if you're buying something from another country make sure to change the settings to stop paypal from converting the currency for you (the setting is in tiny fond during the transaction) because paypal's currency exchange rates are obscenely expensive. It's just another way for paypal to rip off their customers and it's actually an opt-out system which is enraging. And DO NOT "upgrade" your account unless you really need that, iirc there are a couple of scams there too.
akuta ago
If they were to build an in-site payment system they'd have to ensure their systems were PCI compliant for taking US credit cards (except for VISA, who apparently removed that requirement). This opens voat up to another method of attack. It's simply a bad idea. That said, there are other merchant services out there that are options that are much more friendly to both parties involved in the transaction and charge the same amount or less for each transaction.