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Yep https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33425319 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33425319 The story was posted before we closed, and we had put up a not

Yep https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33425319 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33425319 The story was posted before we closed, and we had put up a notice to our visitors explaining that we were trying to find alternate banking arrangements and would have to shut down if we couldn't. If you visit the site today, there is still some NFSW content, so beware. But it also has all of the details of the history of the site as well as what led to us having to shut it down if anyone is interested.

dageshi 4y ago
So I use 4g net connection here in the UK and just tried to load what I assume is the site? coedcherry.com? I got a vodaphone (uk mobile phone co whose network I'm apparently connected via) nag page asking me to confirm me age, we protect young mobile users blah blah blah. Which... I have never seen before in the six months I've been using this connection. Any other porn site even massive ones like xvideos works fine, but coedcherry does not? Which is very odd. I'm really rather perplexed as to why your site would be blocked but the biggest porn site on the net is not if the purpose here is to block childrens access to porn.
- proactivesvcs 4y ago
  I had this when trying to look up nmap docs on insecure.org.
- iudqnolq 4y ago
  Try archive.org. Many UK mobile providers block it outright, without even an age bypass, because it can be used as a proxy to arbitrary sites.
  - dageshi 4y ago
    Figured it out, browser defaulted to http not https. Looks like the filters don't work on https.
- mst 4y ago
  Their blocker is weird. I discovered it existed trying to check when the local gay bar called last orders.
- jhugo 4y ago
  I used to hit this all the time when I lived in the UK. One of the first things you have to do when you get a SIM card there is ask the provider to turn off their "block randomly selected websites" function. At one point mine was blocking Wikipedia.
NikolaNovak 4y ago
Ah; I bet if title was "Legal Canadian adult site forced shut down due to billing processor" or something that provided context, it might have gotten more traction. Otherwise "Random site you've never heard of shutting down" does not entice interest necessarily :-/ ( edit: Also, in your "Fuck Banks" page, I'm assuming " pay for offense expenses" is meant to be "pay for office expenses", in which case you may want to change it as "offense expenses" would go against much of the rest of the message of your post :-> )
NikolaNovak 4y ago
would you be open to chat via email? I'm also in Ontario Canada. Every time I breach this type of thing to a non-IT person, they say "oh, porn sites are all sex trafficking and exploitative work", which doesn't feel mathematically true. I'm not a journalist or anything, but would as personal curiosity love to hear an (ex-)operator's perspective :)
- nothereoften 4y ago
  > I'm also in Ontario Canada. Every time I breach this type of thing to a non-IT person, they say "oh, porn sites are all sex trafficking and exploitative work", which doesn't feel mathematically true. Yeah. Another (Canadian) voice in this space worth listening to: https://twitter.com/MsKateSinclaire/ https://twitter.com/MsKateSinclaire/ Unfortunately this thread is definitely not the only example of perfectly-legal, but adult-industry[-adjacent] people being cut off from banking. Credit card processing is even worse.
  - jhugo 4y ago
    It's not only adult. A huge range of legitimate industries are effectively cut off from easy banking & payment processing. This doesn't prevent those industries from existing, it just protects the monopoly of the large players in those industries, who can afford to have their legal team sit down with the bank / payment processor's legal team.
breck 4y ago
Very interesting. Also a bit scary how the government can basically shut down any business under the broad guise of “anti-money-laundering”. The level of detail that they wanted from you is basically like “Provide step-by-step instructions for someone at this bank to copy your business and capture your profits”.
tester457 4y ago
> we will be ending our banking relationship with Amber-Lace Entertainment Ltd.[0] > We found out, after connecting with industry colleagues, was that they all thought we were pretty dumb having the business name we do and were surprised this didn't happen way sooner. The name isn't what killed the business in my opinion because it is quite tame. Your risk was probably evaluated by some automatic process and no innocuous name could have saved it. [0] https://www.coedcherry.com/fuck-banks.html https://www.coedcherry.com/fuck-banks.html [NSFW]

dageshi 4y ago

So I use 4g net connection here in the UK and just tried to load what I assume is the site? coedcherry.com? I got a vodaphone (uk mobile phone co whose network I'm apparently connected via) nag page asking me to confirm me age, we protect young mobile users blah blah blah. Which... I have never seen before in the six months I've been using this connection. Any other porn site even massive ones like xvideos works fine, but coedcherry does not? Which is very odd. I'm really rather perplexed as to why your site would be blocked but the biggest porn site on the net is not if the purpose here is to block childrens access to porn.

proactivesvcs 4y ago
I had this when trying to look up nmap docs on insecure.org.
iudqnolq 4y ago
Try archive.org. Many UK mobile providers block it outright, without even an age bypass, because it can be used as a proxy to arbitrary sites.
- dageshi 4y ago
  Figured it out, browser defaulted to http not https. Looks like the filters don't work on https.
mst 4y ago
Their blocker is weird. I discovered it existed trying to check when the local gay bar called last orders.
jhugo 4y ago
I used to hit this all the time when I lived in the UK. One of the first things you have to do when you get a SIM card there is ask the provider to turn off their "block randomly selected websites" function. At one point mine was blocking Wikipedia.

NikolaNovak 4y ago

Ah; I bet if title was "Legal Canadian adult site forced shut down due to billing processor" or something that provided context, it might have gotten more traction. Otherwise "Random site you've never heard of shutting down" does not entice interest necessarily :-/ ( edit: Also, in your "Fuck Banks" page, I'm assuming " pay for offense expenses" is meant to be "pay for office expenses", in which case you may want to change it as "offense expenses" would go against much of the rest of the message of your post :-> )

NikolaNovak 4y ago

would you be open to chat via email? I'm also in Ontario Canada. Every time I breach this type of thing to a non-IT person, they say "oh, porn sites are all sex trafficking and exploitative work", which doesn't feel mathematically true. I'm not a journalist or anything, but would as personal curiosity love to hear an (ex-)operator's perspective :)

nothereoften 4y ago
> I'm also in Ontario Canada. Every time I breach this type of thing to a non-IT person, they say "oh, porn sites are all sex trafficking and exploitative work", which doesn't feel mathematically true. Yeah. Another (Canadian) voice in this space worth listening to: https://twitter.com/MsKateSinclaire/ https://twitter.com/MsKateSinclaire/ Unfortunately this thread is definitely not the only example of perfectly-legal, but adult-industry[-adjacent] people being cut off from banking. Credit card processing is even worse.
- jhugo 4y ago
  It's not only adult. A huge range of legitimate industries are effectively cut off from easy banking & payment processing. This doesn't prevent those industries from existing, it just protects the monopoly of the large players in those industries, who can afford to have their legal team sit down with the bank / payment processor's legal team.

breck 4y ago

Very interesting. Also a bit scary how the government can basically shut down any business under the broad guise of “anti-money-laundering”. The level of detail that they wanted from you is basically like “Provide step-by-step instructions for someone at this bank to copy your business and capture your profits”.

tester457 4y ago

> we will be ending our banking relationship with Amber-Lace Entertainment Ltd.[0] > We found out, after connecting with industry colleagues, was that they all thought we were pretty dumb having the business name we do and were surprised this didn't happen way sooner. The name isn't what killed the business in my opinion because it is quite tame. Your risk was probably evaluated by some automatic process and no innocuous name could have saved it. [0] https://www.coedcherry.com/fuck-banks.html https://www.coedcherry.com/fuck-banks.html [NSFW]