a thoughtful web.
Good ideas and conversation. No ads, no tracking.   Login or Take a Tour!
comment by Devac
Devac  ·  2953 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Please consider donating. Please?

That all said, is there any possibility of making a donation via PayPal or something similar? Poland is not even mentioned in any future plans for Stripe expansion and I'm highly suspicious about buying BitCoin and similar currencies. It's not that I'm not willing to donate or don't have any money, but right now the only way for me would be to flash my double citizenship status while on trip to Germany, somehow get a debit card despite living abroad and then use Stripe. :/





kleinbl00  ·  2953 days ago  ·  link  ·  

As someone who has had to research untraceable credit for dramatic purposes, untraceable credit is dramatically simple.

Like, you literally can't plot Bourne Identity shit with any credibility anymore because offshoring your money is so stupendously simple... unless you're talking about risking money so small you shouldn't really be worrying about it.

I'll bet if you said "I want to ship an international money order, gimme a damn address" mk would be psyched for the stamp.

_refugee_  ·  2953 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Got to test literal these for the first time today. They do seem to have kind of large fees attached. Would vary bank to bank, though, fwiw.

Devac  ·  2953 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    As someone who has had to research untraceable credit for dramatic purposes

That sounds in equal parts intriguing and disturbing. Could you expand on it a bit?

    I'll bet if you said "I want to ship an international money order, gimme a damn address" mk would be psyched for the stamp.

If that's a viable option, sure. No problem.

mk - would the money order also be OK? goobster and veen both made good points and offers, but I would like to have a general idea what's actually viable for you. To sweeten the deal, if you are collecting post stamps I can throw in some German, Polish and Czech that I have laying around. ;)

mk  ·  2953 days ago  ·  link  ·  

As mentioned down the thread, I think the easiest way to buy/pay online without a credit card account is using a prepaid card. You can buy them with cash, and then use them like credit.

Unfortunately, valuable stamps would be wasted on me, and I don't think Digital Ocean will take them for server time. But the thought is much appreciated!

kleinbl00  ·  2953 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Hey, I'm a novelist. You get to do all sorts of dumb shit when you're a novelist, assuming the NSA buys it.

The unfortunate thing is that international dark pool finance has gotten so much less interesting since the era of "untraceable numbered Swiss accounts." Much like the drama that evaporated when cell phones became ubiquitous, the fact that any chucklefuck with an internet connection can now splash hundreds of thousands of untraceable dollars around with zero repercussions and zero drama required me to find my drama elsewhere.

Which is fine. Makes it more real. But it's made me a lot less sympathetic to the plea that money can't be transmitted across borders easily.

because there are harder things.

wasoxygen  ·  2953 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I trust the Hubski crew. I sort of trust Stripe. I see the https protocol and the reassuring little padlock icon on the donate page.

But every time I start typing digits into that janky HTML form I get twitchy and close the tab. It's the same credit card I handed to a random camarero in Mexico City. I don't know what's wrong with me. I just can't do it.

I have some PayPal credit. I don't especially like PayPal and there are reasons to mistrust them. But I like to prowl eBay and it's just easier with PayPal. I've donated bitcoin, but bitcoin is a pain to acquire and I'd prefer to hold what I have left.

PayPal makes it look easy.

Convincing them Hubski is nonprofit involves some red tape, but that might be avoidable in the near term: "We make it easy to set up your site to take payments but to withdraw more than $500 a month you will need to verify your account."

They even support recurring donations.

mk  ·  2953 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    But every time I start typing digits into that janky HTML form I get twitchy and close the tab.

What if I round the corners, add a box shadow, and a bit of texture to it? :)

wasoxygen  ·  2952 days ago  ·  link  ·  

A little CSS would go a long way.

I think my reluctance was mostly aesthetic. I would trust you to watch my kid, but my financial brain stem goes fight or flight when it detects a web form with non-aligned textboxes.

thenewgreen  ·  2948 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Lol. One of my favorite comments I've read in a while.

Devac  ·  2953 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Sorry, I didn't know about the possible problems. Shame though. Unless I'll manage to get a card from a 'proper country' around Christmas I'll regretfully say that I simply can't donate. Obtaining BitCoins is not something I want to do for a similar twitch reflex you have with PayPal. Every single way to get them makes (aside of mining, but I know enough about hash strengths to not bother with my so-so GPU) me feel like I'm in an after school special where a shady man gives me a trustworthy offer.

Yeah, I'm salty. That's a Yet Another Service that made me feel like I'm living in the arsehole of the Earth itself. A place where you don't want to bring your business in fear of Bear Cavalry, Witchers, mages and frigid winds.

veen  ·  2953 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Doesn't your bank issue credit cards? I got one for free with my student bank account. You'd be surprised how handy they are when you're in a foreign country for a longer time.

Devac  ·  2953 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    Doesn't your bank issue credit cards?

It does. It also collects ridiculous fees for transaction to a non-EU country. To donate 10 USD I would have to pay 18 USD total. 'Sensible' rates start around 100-150 USD where I would only need to spend about 20 USD in fees. Yeah, I was also surprised. I'll look around for a different bank, but I don't think will look any better.

There's also one fucked-up thing about distinction between debit and credit card. As someone who does not work (and my registered tutor income/business does not count, I've checked) I can only get a debit card. These mean nothing to most internet transfers or stores, being the main reason I'm using PayPal instead.

Anyway, thank you for input. Much appreciated, as it at least got me to go look for a more viable alternative (i.e. different bank, asking someone I know in Germany and paying them back etc). But I feel like my whining, because it's largely that at this point, detracts from a much more important topic that steve put out.

veen  ·  2953 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Woah, that's quite steep. Regular credit cards here are, usually, around 20-40€ per year in fees with little to no transaction fee. Have you looked into prepaid credit cards like Visa? Pretty much all stores and services see it as a regular credit card, but you can just put money on it like with a prepaid sim card.

Also, Paypal can be dodgy af:

(also also, maybe more comments will increase the amount of people seeing the post and thus increase donations? :) )

Devac  ·  2953 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    Have you looked into prepaid credit cards like Visa?

That's… news to me (as in term alone, I only knew about pre-paid in cellphone sense). Thank you, I'll read more about how that looks here.

Regarding fees, I do want to put an emphasis on non-EU countries. My card costs nearly nothing per year, national payments are free of charge (aside of some minutia about ATMs but even that is mostly free), and EU fees are almost negligible. Getting something from USA, or even Norway, was just not worth it. Shipping notwithstanding, as this is about bank fees alone.

    (also also, maybe more comments will increase the amount of people seeing the post and thus increase donations? :) )

Well, in that case I'll go and put my extra wooly sweater that itches even when you look at it to get annoyed proper. :D

_refugee_  ·  2953 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Most people can get prepaid credit cards, also known as "secured" credit cards, because there's honestly no real extension of credit. You've already given the company your money and the only money they let you spend is that.

You want to keep an eye out for fees associated with the cards. This industry is currently fairly unregulated so the fees often aren't readily disclosed. Things like a monthly maintenance charge, atm withdrawals, "over limit" penalties. Be careful, ask a lot of questions, or else you might get hit with unpleasant surprises. Unlike credit cards and banks, the companies aren't required to issue disclosures on these - you'll have to ask.

If you already have a bank account, I find it difficult to think why you'd want one of these unless it would allow you to make US payments and your bank card won't.

Sorry, really just saw an opportunity to nerd out about credit/debit cards and stuff, and took it.