6 ms·

When are we going to see a Medium or Substack for pornographic content? Even better an opensource LAMP or MEAN stack to host your own adult entertainment site?

rattray 5y ago
The hard part is the banking and payments side of things. That's where a new entrant would be useful (but unfortunately also ~impossible in the US).
- rootsudo 5y ago
  Just a better argument to force crypto, get a few exclusivity models and even if you have one or a few porn sex worker influences as a loss leader, you gain leverage - then it's worth it.
  - janetacarr 5y ago
    I wish this were true, but it's not that simple. For businesses, there is a lot of 'unknowns' with Crypto. It's regulated differently across jurisdictions, and Crypto in the USA is subject to things like anti-money-laundering and different taxable events when it's exchanged.
  - kamarg 5y ago
    Many of the adult sites that have tried using crypto for payments have reported that less than two percent of their users are willing to pay with crypto. Until it becomes as easy as using a credit card or PayPal, crypto isn't going to be the savior of adult content.
- psychometry 5y ago
  I'm sure these puritanical payment gateways and processors have no problem taking fees for sales of guns, cigarettes, and all varieties of snake oil. But porn? No that's simply too much!
  - throwawaylinux 5y ago
    "Well they're private companies." The pro-censorship puritans and meddlers love farming their oppression out to monopoly corporations.
  - rcstank 5y ago
    Many vendors do block sales of firearms (or anything resembling 2A) due to similar risk factors. It's extremely difficult to find a gateway and processor that's 2A friendly. The small number of vendors that are 2A friendly usually require an FFL to further mitigate risk. If you can find a gateway and processor that has an underwriting team that will not require an FFL, that would be a sight to behold.
  - rattray 5y ago
    It's often the banks who block the processors. (If the processors block it of their own accord, it's due to fraud/chargebacks). I am not sure why the banks are so puritanical.
  - randomdata 5y ago
    I suspect the fraud rate for porn is much higher than for most other categories and the cost doesn’t make business sense.
- asdff 5y ago
  Why not paypal? I remember in the early 2000s even the most dusty geocities sites having paypal buttons.
  - rattray 5y ago
    Their policy prohibits "certain sexually oriented materials or services". https://www.paypal.com/en/webapps/mpp/ua/acceptableuse-full https://www.paypal.com/en/webapps/mpp/ua/acceptableuse-full
    - asdff 5y ago
      I feel like you could just sell an access code that allows you to download content rather than the content itself and be perfectly within paypals acceptable use policies.
      - rattray 5y ago
        You _might_ get away with that for a short while, but a fairly trivial account review would result in a funds freeze at the minimum.
  - egoisticalgoat 5y ago
    Paypals policy bans using it for payment of any digital adult content [0]. Many artists still use it for nsfw commissions, but every payment is a risk of getting your entire account banned simply due to a bad comment in the note field. [0] https://www.paypal.com/us/smarthelp/article/what-is-paypal%E2%80%99s-policy-on-transactions-that-involve-sexually-oriented-goods-and-services-faq569 https://www.paypal.com/us/smarthelp/article/what-is-paypal%E...
WJW 5y ago
Surely both LAMP and MEAN stacks are already perfectly capable of hosting pornography? It's not as if the bits are different from other types of image.
whymauri 5y ago
Like written erotica? I think you can still get away with it on Patreon.
dyeje 5y ago
OnlyFans is Substack for porn.
slightwinder 5y ago
Tumblr is getting a subscription feature, and as I heard their porn-content came back to old strength after they weed out some years ago. Maybe there is a platform for this over there.
nonameiguess 5y ago
Not been to a porn site recently, or any media hosting site really? They all look exactly the same and offer the same features, so presumably they're already using some commodity off-the-shelf hosting platform for video, images, and live streams with sign-up and payment. The actual barrier is very few performers are popular enough on their own to be able to afford hiring people who can run servers with this software for them, but the few who are often do have "club{NAME}.com" sites for their own exclusive content.
- thomastjeffery 5y ago
  Most of the popular tube sites are owned/operated by the same company, MindGeek.
lovegoblin 5y ago
> When are we going to see a Medium or Substack for pornographic content? That's...what OnlyFans is?

rattray 5y ago

The hard part is the banking and payments side of things. That's where a new entrant would be useful (but unfortunately also ~impossible in the US).

rootsudo 5y ago
Just a better argument to force crypto, get a few exclusivity models and even if you have one or a few porn sex worker influences as a loss leader, you gain leverage - then it's worth it.
- janetacarr 5y ago
  I wish this were true, but it's not that simple. For businesses, there is a lot of 'unknowns' with Crypto. It's regulated differently across jurisdictions, and Crypto in the USA is subject to things like anti-money-laundering and different taxable events when it's exchanged.
- kamarg 5y ago
  Many of the adult sites that have tried using crypto for payments have reported that less than two percent of their users are willing to pay with crypto. Until it becomes as easy as using a credit card or PayPal, crypto isn't going to be the savior of adult content.
psychometry 5y ago
I'm sure these puritanical payment gateways and processors have no problem taking fees for sales of guns, cigarettes, and all varieties of snake oil. But porn? No that's simply too much!
- throwawaylinux 5y ago
  "Well they're private companies." The pro-censorship puritans and meddlers love farming their oppression out to monopoly corporations.
- rcstank 5y ago
  Many vendors do block sales of firearms (or anything resembling 2A) due to similar risk factors. It's extremely difficult to find a gateway and processor that's 2A friendly. The small number of vendors that are 2A friendly usually require an FFL to further mitigate risk. If you can find a gateway and processor that has an underwriting team that will not require an FFL, that would be a sight to behold.
- rattray 5y ago
  It's often the banks who block the processors. (If the processors block it of their own accord, it's due to fraud/chargebacks). I am not sure why the banks are so puritanical.
- randomdata 5y ago
  I suspect the fraud rate for porn is much higher than for most other categories and the cost doesn’t make business sense.
asdff 5y ago
Why not paypal? I remember in the early 2000s even the most dusty geocities sites having paypal buttons.
- rattray 5y ago
  Their policy prohibits "certain sexually oriented materials or services". https://www.paypal.com/en/webapps/mpp/ua/acceptableuse-full https://www.paypal.com/en/webapps/mpp/ua/acceptableuse-full
  - asdff 5y ago
    I feel like you could just sell an access code that allows you to download content rather than the content itself and be perfectly within paypals acceptable use policies.
    - rattray 5y ago
      You _might_ get away with that for a short while, but a fairly trivial account review would result in a funds freeze at the minimum.
- egoisticalgoat 5y ago
  Paypals policy bans using it for payment of any digital adult content [0]. Many artists still use it for nsfw commissions, but every payment is a risk of getting your entire account banned simply due to a bad comment in the note field. [0] https://www.paypal.com/us/smarthelp/article/what-is-paypal%E2%80%99s-policy-on-transactions-that-involve-sexually-oriented-goods-and-services-faq569 https://www.paypal.com/us/smarthelp/article/what-is-paypal%E...

WJW 5y ago

Surely both LAMP and MEAN stacks are already perfectly capable of hosting pornography? It's not as if the bits are different from other types of image.

whymauri 5y ago

Like written erotica? I think you can still get away with it on Patreon.

dyeje 5y ago

OnlyFans is Substack for porn.

slightwinder 5y ago

Tumblr is getting a subscription feature, and as I heard their porn-content came back to old strength after they weed out some years ago. Maybe there is a platform for this over there.

nonameiguess 5y ago

Not been to a porn site recently, or any media hosting site really? They all look exactly the same and offer the same features, so presumably they're already using some commodity off-the-shelf hosting platform for video, images, and live streams with sign-up and payment. The actual barrier is very few performers are popular enough on their own to be able to afford hiring people who can run servers with this software for them, but the few who are often do have "club{NAME}.com" sites for their own exclusive content.

thomastjeffery 5y ago
Most of the popular tube sites are owned/operated by the same company, MindGeek.

lovegoblin 5y ago

> When are we going to see a Medium or Substack for pornographic content? That's...what OnlyFans is?