4 ms·

I would be careful using PayPal. Another bounty site - microPledge - recently shut down because using PayPal to hold money in Escrow is against their TOS. I w

by catone 18y ago

I would be careful using PayPal. Another bounty site - microPledge - recently shut down because using PayPal to hold money in Escrow is against their TOS. I wrote about it here: http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2008/10/09/open-source-funding-site-micropledge-calls-for-help/ http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2008/10/09/open-source-fundin... I'm sure there are a lot of project owners from microPledge looking for a new home, but using PayPal might just lead your down the same path.

brandon272 18y ago
Yeah. Referring to PayPal as your "secret vault" is probably misleading, too.
drewcrawford 18y ago
This is top on our list. We decided it was better to launch and start responding to market feedback immediately than delay launch while we integrated with a (more-reliable) payment provider. It's good to see this getting such attention here, because it's something we discussed at some length internally as a potentially really big problem, and it validates that we're spending time talking about the right things.
- benhoyt 18y ago
  Hi, Ben from microPledge here. Hmmm ... it's not that PayPal is an "unreliable" payment provider. We found them to be pretty reliable. It's that we (and you, by the looks) are contradicting their ToS in quite an up-front way. We didn't know this at first (i.e., we didn't read the fine print carefully enough.) It's partly holding money in escrow, and partly collecting money on behalf of other "traders" (the developers). As soon as they catch a whiff of that, they'll shut your account down, and lock your money in for 6 months. It's not very pleasant, to put it mildly, and if I were you I'd switch to AlertPay or some other provider ASAP. Sorry to be negative about this ... but I'm commenting so you hopefully don't have to go through what we at microPledge did. :-) (Edit: Oh, just curious, how much did you know about microPledge before you launched? I wouldn't be surprised either way, and certainly good on you for trying ... but your descriptions of the site on Bitloot sound awfully familiar. :-)

by catone 18y ago

brandon272 18y ago

Yeah. Referring to PayPal as your "secret vault" is probably misleading, too.

drewcrawford 18y ago

This is top on our list. We decided it was better to launch and start responding to market feedback immediately than delay launch while we integrated with a (more-reliable) payment provider. It's good to see this getting such attention here, because it's something we discussed at some length internally as a potentially really big problem, and it validates that we're spending time talking about the right things.

benhoyt 18y ago
Hi, Ben from microPledge here. Hmmm ... it's not that PayPal is an "unreliable" payment provider. We found them to be pretty reliable. It's that we (and you, by the looks) are contradicting their ToS in quite an up-front way. We didn't know this at first (i.e., we didn't read the fine print carefully enough.) It's partly holding money in escrow, and partly collecting money on behalf of other "traders" (the developers). As soon as they catch a whiff of that, they'll shut your account down, and lock your money in for 6 months. It's not very pleasant, to put it mildly, and if I were you I'd switch to AlertPay or some other provider ASAP. Sorry to be negative about this ... but I'm commenting so you hopefully don't have to go through what we at microPledge did. :-) (Edit: Oh, just curious, how much did you know about microPledge before you launched? I wouldn't be surprised either way, and certainly good on you for trying ... but your descriptions of the site on Bitloot sound awfully familiar. :-)