4 ms·

>where Stripe suggested we alter the colors available What? Like flesh colored was ok but definitely not green ones or something?

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
discardable_dan 6y ago
I'd guess the opposite, from the story.
disillusioned 6y ago
The inverse of this. Here's their exact, hilarious wording: >Our banking partners recently notified us that they are no longer willing to support the sales of realistic sex toys. I understand that your products were designed to depict the body parts of mythological and fantastical creatures, and we have indicated this to our banking partners in an effort to advocate for continuing to support your business here on Stripe. As a result of these discussions, our banking partners have agreed that they are willing to continue supporting your business as long as you are not selling products that are colored such that they might be mistaken for human flesh.
- koolba 6y ago
  You should tell them to judge mythological sex toys not by the color of their skin, but by the context of their character.
- toxik 6y ago
  Wow, this is hysterical! A bank saying no to honest money because it’s sex toys, not even that, because it’s sex toys looking like human genitalia, — no not even that, because the toys are skin colored! I wonder if this would ever happen in Europe. I somehow feel that we’re more... open to these things. Do you know about Klarna?
  - nolok 6y ago
    I don't know about Europe in general, but my brick and mortar bank (one of the major banking chain in France with an agency in pretty much any city of over 5000 people) was perfectly fine with adult things being sold using one their group's online platform as long as I was ok with their elevated rates. I've seen lately that they're also responsible for payment processing on dorcel.com (the french porn group, adult content and toys). Dalenys ( https://www.dalenys.com/ https://www.dalenys.com/ ) -> natixis belgium -> natixis -> bpce group ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groupe_BPCE https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groupe_BPCE ) I've had awkward talk with them (mostly around the fact that I should not point out their parent group brand much near the adult content), but never in a million years would they tell me what color a dildo should be.
  - capableweb 6y ago
    Interesting question. I checked out Klarna and Adyen which seems to be the most popular in Europe right now. Adyen lists "Adult entertainment, websites & content (such as)" as not allowed. https://www.adyen.com/dam/jcr:47f292a9-c9e2-4a69-8592-2e15ffdc7e61/List-of-prohibited-and-restricted-products-and-services-June-2017.pdf https://www.adyen.com/dam/jcr:47f292a9-c9e2-4a69-8592-2e15ff... Klarna lists "Adult, sexual or pornographic products and services, including live web cam" as not allowed. https://cdn.klarna.com/1.0/shared/content/policy/ethic/en_gb/merchant.pdf https://cdn.klarna.com/1.0/shared/content/policy/ethic/en_gb... Both of them expand it more to cover everything possible around adult content and the like.
    - tehbeard 6y ago
      ... And yet ... https://www.lovehoney.co.uk/help/about-klarna/ https://www.lovehoney.co.uk/help/about-klarna/ ... Whether they fly under "novelty items" or not, idk.
      - 7952 6y ago
        My guess is that the list of restricted things just means that you should talk to them first.
    - 6y ago
- atarian 6y ago
  Or maybe Stripe changed their minds about having you guys as customers and made up a reason for you to leave.
- Trias11 6y ago
  Offer toys in all black perhaps? :)
- zamfi 6y ago
  I have no skin in this game, but I have to wonder who is making these decisions and what their thought process is. What is the threat model, exactly? What eventuality is the bank seeking to avoid? Are there edge-case regulatory issues at play? Are there moral-consumer groups out there that run public pressure campaigns against banks that transact on adult toys that look too realistic? Is a corporate lawyer somewhere worried about photos of a realistic-looking appendage used explicitly being tied back to the bank -- but if it's painted green they can plausibly argue "hey it's definitely not real, look it's green!"? This just feels like such a spectacularly arbitrary line that I'm fascinated by the thought process.
  - dotBen 6y ago
    "I have no skin in this game" <golf clap>
  - CarbyAu 6y ago
    What I find weird is the thought process of: - pretend to fuck a human? No. Don't want to encourage that. - Fuck a unicorn/dragon/Dionysus? Sure, why not... Who is conservative enough to want to discourage the one thing literally required for humanity to survive; and yet is OK with mythical creatures?!?
    - volkl48 6y ago
      Usually there's overlap in those "designs" with the....appendages of common animals (even if not explicitly labeled as such). Someone on a moralizing crusade would probably label the company as supporting bestiality.
  - behringer 6y ago
    I know exactly how this happens because I have to deal with this all the time. Here's my guess: The boss ten years ago now dead said if it looks like a penis and is the right color of a penis then we can't sell it. Therefore, you gotta change the color. - Wells Fargo, probably.
  - goatinaboat 6y ago
- outworlder 6y ago
  > I understand that your products were designed to depict the body parts of mythological and fantastical creatures, and we have indicated this to our banking partners in an effort to advocate for continuing to support your business here on Stripe. I'm crying. This is so ridiculous it crossed the line from appalling into hilarious. You haven't sued over this which is a shame. Think of the comical email threads that would've been unearthed during the discovery process!
- pyuser583 6y ago
  So dragon and unicorn dildos are OK, but human ones aren’t? WTF?
  - asya999 6y ago
    That actually makes sense (in a bizarre way) - fantasy vs. reality I guess...
    - pyuser583 6y ago
      I kind of get it. A similar rule applies to violence: killing a dragon is OK for kids, killing another human isn’t. But when I think of people pretending to have sex with dragons ... that’s kinda messed up. I guess “acceptability” is like pornography... you known it when you see it.
- bsder 6y ago
  Wells-Fargo deserve to go bankrupt, but I believe the problem is the non-uniform nature of the law around sex toys. Texas, for example, still has an idiotic law on the books that possession of more than 6 dildoes is illegal. Because of that, many online sex toy shops simply will not ship anything to Texas. The law has been struck down in US Federal court, but there have been convictions in state courts despite that. Talking about the raid on Forbidden Fruit in Austin, TX (Caution: NSFW): https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1536504219830682 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/15365042198306...
  - rkagerer 6y ago
    Thanks for sharing, that article is well worth the read. ...the confiscated items were paraded in front of a Grand Jury tasked with determining whether they were obscene...
UI_at_80x24 6y ago
I'm going to suggest that it's `whose flesh` colouring that they are most likely offended by.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

discardable_dan 6y ago

I'd guess the opposite, from the story.

disillusioned 6y ago

The inverse of this. Here's their exact, hilarious wording: >Our banking partners recently notified us that they are no longer willing to support the sales of realistic sex toys. I understand that your products were designed to depict the body parts of mythological and fantastical creatures, and we have indicated this to our banking partners in an effort to advocate for continuing to support your business here on Stripe. As a result of these discussions, our banking partners have agreed that they are willing to continue supporting your business as long as you are not selling products that are colored such that they might be mistaken for human flesh.

koolba 6y ago
You should tell them to judge mythological sex toys not by the color of their skin, but by the context of their character.
toxik 6y ago
Wow, this is hysterical! A bank saying no to honest money because it’s sex toys, not even that, because it’s sex toys looking like human genitalia, — no not even that, because the toys are skin colored! I wonder if this would ever happen in Europe. I somehow feel that we’re more... open to these things. Do you know about Klarna?
- nolok 6y ago
  I don't know about Europe in general, but my brick and mortar bank (one of the major banking chain in France with an agency in pretty much any city of over 5000 people) was perfectly fine with adult things being sold using one their group's online platform as long as I was ok with their elevated rates. I've seen lately that they're also responsible for payment processing on dorcel.com (the french porn group, adult content and toys). Dalenys ( https://www.dalenys.com/ https://www.dalenys.com/ ) -> natixis belgium -> natixis -> bpce group ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groupe_BPCE https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groupe_BPCE ) I've had awkward talk with them (mostly around the fact that I should not point out their parent group brand much near the adult content), but never in a million years would they tell me what color a dildo should be.
- capableweb 6y ago
  Interesting question. I checked out Klarna and Adyen which seems to be the most popular in Europe right now. Adyen lists "Adult entertainment, websites & content (such as)" as not allowed. https://www.adyen.com/dam/jcr:47f292a9-c9e2-4a69-8592-2e15ffdc7e61/List-of-prohibited-and-restricted-products-and-services-June-2017.pdf https://www.adyen.com/dam/jcr:47f292a9-c9e2-4a69-8592-2e15ff... Klarna lists "Adult, sexual or pornographic products and services, including live web cam" as not allowed. https://cdn.klarna.com/1.0/shared/content/policy/ethic/en_gb/merchant.pdf https://cdn.klarna.com/1.0/shared/content/policy/ethic/en_gb... Both of them expand it more to cover everything possible around adult content and the like.
  - tehbeard 6y ago
    ... And yet ... https://www.lovehoney.co.uk/help/about-klarna/ https://www.lovehoney.co.uk/help/about-klarna/ ... Whether they fly under "novelty items" or not, idk.
    - 7952 6y ago
      My guess is that the list of restricted things just means that you should talk to them first.
  - 6y ago
atarian 6y ago
Or maybe Stripe changed their minds about having you guys as customers and made up a reason for you to leave.
Trias11 6y ago
Offer toys in all black perhaps? :)
zamfi 6y ago
I have no skin in this game, but I have to wonder who is making these decisions and what their thought process is. What is the threat model, exactly? What eventuality is the bank seeking to avoid? Are there edge-case regulatory issues at play? Are there moral-consumer groups out there that run public pressure campaigns against banks that transact on adult toys that look too realistic? Is a corporate lawyer somewhere worried about photos of a realistic-looking appendage used explicitly being tied back to the bank -- but if it's painted green they can plausibly argue "hey it's definitely not real, look it's green!"? This just feels like such a spectacularly arbitrary line that I'm fascinated by the thought process.
- dotBen 6y ago
  "I have no skin in this game" <golf clap>
- CarbyAu 6y ago
  What I find weird is the thought process of: - pretend to fuck a human? No. Don't want to encourage that. - Fuck a unicorn/dragon/Dionysus? Sure, why not... Who is conservative enough to want to discourage the one thing literally required for humanity to survive; and yet is OK with mythical creatures?!?
  - volkl48 6y ago
    Usually there's overlap in those "designs" with the....appendages of common animals (even if not explicitly labeled as such). Someone on a moralizing crusade would probably label the company as supporting bestiality.
- behringer 6y ago
  I know exactly how this happens because I have to deal with this all the time. Here's my guess: The boss ten years ago now dead said if it looks like a penis and is the right color of a penis then we can't sell it. Therefore, you gotta change the color. - Wells Fargo, probably.
- goatinaboat 6y ago
outworlder 6y ago
> I understand that your products were designed to depict the body parts of mythological and fantastical creatures, and we have indicated this to our banking partners in an effort to advocate for continuing to support your business here on Stripe. I'm crying. This is so ridiculous it crossed the line from appalling into hilarious. You haven't sued over this which is a shame. Think of the comical email threads that would've been unearthed during the discovery process!
pyuser583 6y ago
So dragon and unicorn dildos are OK, but human ones aren’t? WTF?
- asya999 6y ago
  That actually makes sense (in a bizarre way) - fantasy vs. reality I guess...
  - pyuser583 6y ago
    I kind of get it. A similar rule applies to violence: killing a dragon is OK for kids, killing another human isn’t. But when I think of people pretending to have sex with dragons ... that’s kinda messed up. I guess “acceptability” is like pornography... you known it when you see it.
bsder 6y ago
Wells-Fargo deserve to go bankrupt, but I believe the problem is the non-uniform nature of the law around sex toys. Texas, for example, still has an idiotic law on the books that possession of more than 6 dildoes is illegal. Because of that, many online sex toy shops simply will not ship anything to Texas. The law has been struck down in US Federal court, but there have been convictions in state courts despite that. Talking about the raid on Forbidden Fruit in Austin, TX (Caution: NSFW): https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1536504219830682 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/15365042198306...
- rkagerer 6y ago
  Thanks for sharing, that article is well worth the read. ...the confiscated items were paraded in front of a Grand Jury tasked with determining whether they were obscene...

UI_at_80x24 6y ago

I'm going to suggest that it's `whose flesh` colouring that they are most likely offended by.