The future of TTD Donations

[U2Lynne]

After 11 years of accepting PayPal donations for our server costs, PayPal has determined that we have violated their User Agreement and Acceptable Use Policy and they have frozen our account. No matter what I said about the legality of our sharing torrent files with the permission of the bands, they don't seem to care about that at all and have stood by their decision to freeze and then close our account in 180 days. After that point, they will return the money in the account and then terminate our account. (I just wanted to also note that we are not the only torrent site that they have done this to recently.)

What does this mean to the future of The Traders' Den server costs? It means that as of right now, the only way we may accept donations is via check or money order. So, if you wish to donate to our server costs, please PM me and I will send my address.

Just to note, our server costs are $88.99 a month. We have survived for 11 years because we have such awesome users and they have always contributed and made sure our server costs are met. I know that our PayPal account had another three months of costs in it, but I will not have access to that money for another five months.

[MalFrie]

Some of the "Less Honest" sites, have realised that "Bit Coin" is all that`s left to them! So glad of Lynne`s transparency, Thank you!

[zeptrade]

Sorry to hear. PM sent.

[JackDog]

PM sent.....and maybe you should set up a Bitcoin wallet for TTD, just in case anyone wants to donate that way.

[sonofedg]

Saw this coming . . . Debit/credit work way better then Paypal . . . it's the new digital card that shuns the magnetic swipe . . .

[oldfan]

Sorry about that Lynne, I just found out about this from Pat.
I just removed it from metfuk. Didnt matter I havent had a donation in 2 years :(

Should I be safe thats its no longer on my site? I use my account for business too.

[U2Lynne]

I think they are looking at all recent transactions. We used to get a few every month - enough to keep us going - and so I guess they got suspicious about them for some reason. I don't know why all of a sudden. One of the things they 'demanded' of my was to remove any links to PayPal on our site, so you should be fine if you removed it, oldfan.

sonofedg, what do you use to take credit/debit cards? (You can PM me about it if you don't want to post here.)

[zeptrade]

I think they are looking at all recent transactions. We used to get a few every month - enough to keep us going - and so I guess they got suspicious about them for some reason. I don't know why all of a sudden. One of the things they 'demanded' of my was to remove any links to PayPal on our site, so you should be fine if you removed it, oldfan.

sonofedg, what do you use to take credit/debit cards? (You can PM me about it if you don't want to post here.)

Debit card would be the best for me.

[Silver Stallion DVDs]

Pretty much all online banking accounts allow you to transfer money from one account to another account for free. You just need the account # and routing # of the account to which you're sending the funds. Based on what Lynne said about the amount of money coming in, I am confident that these transactions would fly under the radar because collectively they are only at most a few hundred dollars a month.

[U2Lynne]

At someone's suggestion, I have set up a TTD GoFundMe Campaign (https://www.gofundme.com/thetradersden) along with a Skrill account (https://www.skrill.com/) (it works like Paypal - you create a Skrill account and transfer funds to our Skrill account via an email addy). There is more information on our Contributions (/forums/contribute.php) page.

[dcbullet]

GoFundMe is really easy to use, you don't need to set up an account. Just enter your CC info and go!

[zeptrade]

GoFundMe is really easy to use, you don't need to set up an account. Just enter your CC info and go!

Fast & easy

[pmonk]

How about selling TTD shirts?

[spun2u]

PayPal has found U2T. ;) May check out the ones that you're using Lynne. Or might use my Authorize.net merchant account.

[dorrcoq]

How about selling TTD shirts?

Maybe we could find Gray...he did such a good job with the Sharing The Groove shirts.

[thetv]

It's election season so he's probably in need of some money from hippies for an all expenses paid trip to the GOP convention.

[U2Lynne]

Maybe we could find Gray...he did such a good job with the Sharing The Groove shirts.
I sometimes wonder what happened to him and wonder if he knew we started this site after he left.

[dorrcoq]

I'll say one thing for him...he was ahead of everyone else when it came to torrents and music sharing. Certainly the day I discovered Sharing The Groove was monumental in my life. Of course had I actually spent those thousands of hours on something that paid, I might be a rich man today!:lol4:

[rstone5]

GoFundMe was really easy as long as you people get to keep a significant proportion of the donation. Never really liked PayPal myself anyhow.

Best wishes to all. I hope the move of the server is a positive thing. Luck!

[sonofedg]

Genius idea moving the server, to higher ground I hope . . . essentially unplugging it and plugging it back in (advice from a Comcrap Technician)

[U2Lynne]

Genius idea moving the server, to higher ground I hope . . . essentially unplugging it and plugging it back in (advice from a Comcrap Technician)
I don't know their reason for moving the server. It wasn't just us, but their whole slew of servers. I guess since we are back up, then the move must have gone just fine (at least for us).

[Unidecker]

And this is why most people including myself have told PayPal and eBay to eat dust
when all their customers use alternatives with none of that garbage involved then they will be begging for customers to come crawling back me I have used and will use alternatives and never use those services again.

Thanks u2Lynne for all your hard work and keeping us updated
<3
uni-

[glens]

I don't know their reason for moving the server. It wasn't just us, but their whole slew of servers. I guess since we are back up, then the move must have gone just fine (at least for us).

TJ's Yeeshkul! servers also got moved this weekend - so far so good, I guess.....

[oldfan]

We are also on the same server as TTD, our move took longer but we made it :)

[glens]

A Quickpacket thing, then.......

[plaz]

How about selling TTD shirts?

Hey kingrue, you won't believe this.

I may have sold my shrink-wrap machine but I just refurbished two large-format printers (one for photos, and one for fabrics, like T-shirts) which were being tossed by a shop only because there are no printer drivers for it on their new OS. I saw it on the curb and went in and asked about it and left with the two printers, extra inks, 5K worth of large-format photo paper, but no T-shirts.

The printers work at my house -- I just used a 32-bit to 64-bit printer driver bridge (which I downloaded) and the old driver runs (with a few bugs still). I have yet to figure out how cost-effective it would be making my own shirts vs. ordering a stack of the same shirts from a shop. I was thinking to use the machine for low-volume and even one-off T-shirt printing. For large-runs a high-volume shop like the one that dumped these machines is very little effort and likely cheaper.

If someone gives me the design I am happy to cost it. Based on that if there's interest, one could take pre-orders, like half up front, which at least covers the costs if people then change their minds, disappear, or whatever.

RE; PAYPAL
PyPal is nothing like a Bank -- they are regulated by rules they make up and change at will -- and are more a money transfer service. Unlike a cheque, PayPal takes your money and holds it (gathering interest) until the other party retrieves it. If the other party (receiver) never retrieves it, the sender is not notified and PayPal is happy to keep the money. I chased PayPal for over 2 years when a $100 donation never arrived. PayPal tried to tell me the transaction never took place, but I have a CC statement that shows the transaction. Basically though, due to nobody knowing in which jurisdiction the transaction took place, there's no recourse ad PayPal kept the money. I wonder how many other such transactions get ghosted without people at either end ever knowing...

RE: PayPay and Torrent Sites -- This is a result of RIAA and law-enforcement lobby group pressure -- charity organizations are a major source of funding for terrorist and criminal organizations and still is, and PayPal channels tons of money everywhere, so some of it was criminal activity, but that is also true of the major banks, stock exchanges and just about every facet of life these days. The RIAA's attitude/position is that all torrent sites are pirate sites. Period.

[Walt Whitman]

I don't believe in aging. I believe in forever altering one's aspect to the sun.

[Unidecker]

share some bitcoins with u2lynne for all her hard work and deadication :)

[Unidecker]

i would totally rock a TTD shirt if you put a


"SHUT UP AND DANCE "

i'm recording this show for you and your friends

you can get it at : thetradersden.org
100% lossless free music for life.


:D ya digg lets vote it in =) and get some people to donate if need be
i can put it together i know a few t shirt guys/gals just dying for work atm :)

i would make the design look somewhat like the flac logo if i designed it
just as a spoof and a way to keep it lossless for life. but that's just me
maybe we can all make a design and post it here and whoever wins gets the design on the shirt :) colabs are often fun in times like this.

[G-Raps]

Hi Lynne and all,

Well, plaz made the argument that Paypal is here to stay, and a few other members mentioned Bitcoin. I would say that mailing you a check or money order is one of the safer methods. I sent a business associate money orders from the post office for my transactions. He appreciated the gesture, and I think I have a friend in the print media (comic book) industry now.

Maybe we should cut you a check, for those of us that are mature enough in financial matters. Or, unload Bitcoin if the feeling is right.

[krokodyle]

Keep us posted as to any updates to the situation, please. :)

[jerryholmes]

Sell NFTs, bro.

[Dan33185]

Dime has a shop that you can buy digital graphics of their logo with different amounts, and you can use your Amazon account to pay. Might be worth looking in to something similar, might be easier for some people.