Adult payment processing, a thread:

If you're panicked and concerned about the current situation with Visa/MasterCard and what this could mean for you:

Take a deep breath.
This isn't anything new and we find solutions as we go, but you should stay informed.

First, some history. Payment processors have long been the gatekeepers of what we could sell, because these gateways and their backing banks have always been at the mercy of Visa/MasterCard. Visa's control meant that sites had less flexibility than their mainstream peers and it

forced a dependence on these companies, who in turn had to work together to keep Visa happy. In the mid 90s, the major players were Web800, iBill, and Epoch, and the industry learned how quickly things could turn when Visa ended GloBill in 2003, iBill in 2004 and Web800 in 2010.

US Obscenity Protection Task Force (OPTF) was formed in 2005 in the war on porn, processors cleaned house in response and thus began the era of constantly changing acceptable use policies, keywords, and banned materials that were inconsistently enforced. It was shuttered in 2011

but the damage continued. The war on porn flared up when the body politic was compromised or stressed, not only in the US (see the 2016 legislation to declare porn a national health crisis) but also in the UK (2013) and Canada (2018). Let's also not forget Operation Choke Point!

Now, 20 years later, there are dozens of payment processors, many of which are home grown solutions (such as MindGeek's MBI-Probiller), and individual sites/firms often use more than one in a billing cascade. You don't see them for the most part, except on your billing statement.

Every 6 months or so, in response to whatever political pressure is being exerted on Visa, the banks hand down new lists of banned words, content, and topics. Not all processors have the same lists, either, but producers jump through these hoops each and every time to comply.

So, what does this mean for us? Well, for a massive conglomerate like MindGeek, they got a bit too big and got caught in the cross hairs, and didn't have (or didn't implement) backup solutions. Other sites (like C4S, IWC, etc) will likely have other processing options to sustain

billing while they enact the necessary changes doled out from the Gods of Obscenity above.

But make no mistake: things have never been "safe" in the adult industry. We play a constantly moving shell game of adaption and improvisation. If you're new here, it's easy to forget.

So what can you do? Diversify.

Don't use only one platform for your content and income reliance. What may be acceptable on one may be banned on another, and you risk losing that channel altogether when the winds change.

Stay up to date on the acceptable use policies and if

possible, keep meticulous records of the changes so you can stay ahead of them. Keep copies of the TOS for every site.

Keeping a detailed inventory of your content is the best way to maintain your titles and descriptions and make notes about them when new policies affect them.

Buyers, you can do your part by supporting independent creators and buying directly. Customs are always the best route! If your favorite categories go away, it's likely they've been relabeled as something else. Don't panic, just go looking for them under new wording and don't

blame us, as we're at the bottom of a long chain of nonsense trying to get that content to you. And tip us, seriously, because you have no idea how much work is involved when we have to change hundreds of descriptions in a matter of days or risk our accounts altogether.

Lastly, you can do your part by supporting independent creators by NOT using tube sites and consuming pirated, unethical content, because as you're seeing, these are places where abuses happen most often. The more money these sites make, the more we become unnecessary targets.

Lastly, don't panic. The sky isn't falling, the censorship machine is always coming for us in one way or another, either to "save us" or shame us, and we're not backing down either way. Just put your big kid (wait I can't say that, right?) pants on & settle in for the bumpy ride.