all 26 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] 46 points 5 months ago (11 children)

Lots of really cynical replies in here. I understand why but IMO it's a bit unfair.

There is no question in my mind that places like Kickstarter are beholden to the rules of payment processors. Shit, even the marijuana industry is booming like gangbusters, but they still can't accept credit or debit card payments directly (only ATM-at-POS debit) because marijuana remains illegal federally and the payment processors, who handle interstate financial transactions, flatly refuse to cross that line.

So I do believe that their relationship with Stripe was the primary source of friction and the impetus for the new rules.

And the fact is, companies are going to make mistakes sometimes with these types of things. We need to be loud when the mistakes happen, but accepting when they do the right thing in response to blowback. I'm really not sure what more KS could have done, once the rule change has already happened, to make things right. They rolled back the policies, accepted responsibility, and were transparent about why it happened. Other than "never make a mistake, ever" what more could we ask for?

This is exactly the type of apology and transparency I want to see when mistakes are made.

I don't know what they'll do next - hopefully start working on a different payment processor option - but I won't be surprised if it leads to increased platform costs if Stripe is the cheapest option that meets their needs.

  • source
  • hideshow 11 child comments
  • [+] -7 points 5 months ago (10 children)

    What are talking about? Marijuana isn’t illegal federally.

    https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/cj-jp/cannabis/

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 10 child comments
  • [–] 9 points 5 months ago (5 children)

    Apologies, I saw a post in a community on lemmy.ca and foolishly presumed that its default view wasn’t one of Americentrism. Silly me I guess.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 5 child comments
  • [–] 8 points 5 months ago (2 children)

    it's not Americentric to discuss American law impacting two American companies by making comparisons to other American industries.

    You're stirring the pot for no reason other than to thumb your nose at Americans

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 2 points 5 months ago (1 child)

    Ouch, I guess I’ve triggered you. Apologies. I believe your previous post is in violation of Rule 1, but hey I get it. Life’s busy and it’s easy to get caught up in and forget civility and respect. I’ll block you in a bit and you can continue on your way.

    🤡 1
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 19 points 5 months ago (1 child)

    Working with Stripe sounds like a liability

  • source
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 5 points 5 months ago*

    Sadly not working with a payment processor is a much bigger liability. It's nearly impossible to sell things online without one, and there are only a few choices due to how hard it is to get a new one off the ground (you need experts in financial regulation for every area you serve, and finance laws can vary widely even between neighboring cities, let alone countries). This lack of other options gives payment processors an outsized influence on the businesses they serve.

  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 17 points 5 months ago (1 child)

    And honestly? We botched it.

    I hate that this sounds like an LLM to me, given that a human could totally have written this too.

  • source
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 60 points 5 months ago

    “Oops, we started losing money. NOW we regret our actions.”

  • source
  • [–] 12 points 5 months ago (6 children)
  • [–] 9 points 5 months ago (4 children)

    And honestly? We botched it

    Yeeyup

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 4 child comments
  • [–] 13 points 5 months ago (3 children)

    This is a bad take IMO. I've literally written that phrase myself in emails at work multiple times. 🤷‍♀️

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 3 child comments
  • [–] -3 points 5 months ago (1 child)

    Why don't they just take crypto for mature games as an option?

  • source
  • hideshow 1 child comment