PayPal Help

[FlowerChild]

I don't believe anyone with malicious intentions would go as far as make you a donation just to find out who you are.

Oh, that's a given. Like Batto said, it certainly would happen, and probably within minutes of me putting up a donate button.

Of course, that information can and probably will get you eventually in any case after a while, but even then, what's the worse that could happen? Some throwing eggs at your house?... I mean, all these people that hate you are just a bunch of angry kids, venting their own insecurities and depression on anyone they can, anonymously on the internet, because its so easy... Do you really think anyone would have courage or even care enough to do anything worse? Its pretty easy to flame people over the internet. For real, not so much...

That's option B, and one that I've been considering for several days now.

With me thinking of getting into indie development, and wanting to leverage BTW to get me started there, it's becoming increasingly likely that I will need to just go public with my identity anyways.

I've been weighing the pros and cons on that very carefully and trying to determine exactly how much damage I can expect to come from it.

[Calcifire3691]

I really want to know what your distinctive name is now... :P

it's 27 syllables long, and can only be pronounced by the tortured shrieks of a thousand burning demonic skulls.


don't forget FC, if anyone actually DOES do something, you can get the law involved. unlike the internet, real life DOES have rules :P

[morvelaira]

I just got off the phone with a specialist in PayPal's customer service department. She says that a non-profit business account will not reveal any personal information on a donation, and that they do not require anything more than a business name, email address and credit card to begin. I explained the situation in more detail, and the representative (Heather, she said her name was) recommended starting a new business account with a separate email address rather than trying to upgrade your current one.

Of course, this all could be taken with a grain of salt, but that's what I got in terms of information.

[logorouge]

Of course, this all could be taken with a grain of salt, but that's what I got in terms of information.

That's some good info right there. Plus Flowerchild can do test donations with trusted BTW members, just to be sure his personal infos don't get send around.

[FlowerChild]

don't forget FC, if anyone actually DOES do something, you can get the law involved. unlike the internet, real life DOES have rules :P

Absolutely, and that has certainly been part of my decision making process. I've been in the public eye before, and have certainly dealt with it. I'm not particularly concerned with my house being egged or what have you.

What we're really looking at are two things:

-The attacks will most certainly turn personal in nature. Again, my name is distinctive enough that 2 minutes on google will provide you with my work history with some personal information thrown in to boot (and which I can do nothing about). That really isn't a problem for a guy like me to deal with, but I do have to be prepared for "John Smith is such an asshole" as opposed to similar comments about FlowerChild, along with people of course flaming my past accomplishments, etc.

-I'm also wondering about the potential damage from a professional standpoint. Doing this forever ties me to this community, and if at some point I do decide to get back into professional game development, it is possible that a company will not want to be associated with the controversy this mod has generated. Again though, it's a relatively minor concern as I really have no intention of working for the kind of corporate studios that would care about that kind of thing, but it's very possible that the corporate gaming industry would react this way.

While neither of these points are particularly severe, I do try to err on the side of caution where possible, and if there's an easy way to avoid these kind of hassles in the short term, I'd rather delay such a decision until a point where I feel it's really a necessary move (in say starting my own indie studio).

On the other hand though, I do very much like this in terms of it being a ballsy move, and a rather large middle finger to my enemies ;)

[FlowerChild]

I just got off the phone with a specialist in PayPal's customer service department. She says that a non-profit business account will not reveal any personal information on a donation, and that they do not require anything more than a business name, email address and credit card to begin. I explained the situation in more detail, and the representative (Heather, she said her name was) recommended starting a new business account with a separate email address rather than trying to upgrade your current one.

Of course, this all could be taken with a grain of salt, but that's what I got in terms of information.

Wow Morv. Thanks for looking into that.

[Sarudak]

Don't lie... We all know your real worry is you won't know how to deal with all the fanboys/girls/groupies following you around when they find your corporeal form on which to lavish their affections.

[Ulfengaard]

I think you had it right to begin with, FC. It's going to come out at some point if you commit to this move. Really, I think it comes down to a 'when' and also a personal adjustment. It's a spot at which I would also hesitate, but finding anonymity in Paypal will only be a short-term comfort if you really are committed to indie dev.

Give yourself time to settle into it. No need to rush if it feels uncomfortable.

[FlowerChild]

I think you had it right to begin with, FC. It's going to come out at some point if you commit to this move. Really, I think it comes down to a 'when' and also a personal adjustment. It's a spot at which I would also hesitate, but finding anonymity in Paypal will only be a short-term comfort if you really are committed to indie dev.

Give yourself time to settle into it. No need to rush if it feels uncomfortable.

I agree with you there, but as I've mentioned elsewhere, my financial situation is really not good at the moment. I'd prefer to delay revealing my identity to give myself more time to mull it over, but I'd really prefer to start accepting donations if at all possible.

[Ulfengaard]

In that case, perhaps the business account is the way to go. Paypal customer service can probably help you with it. I had a Paypal account under a fictitious name (aka the business name). Unless they've substantially changed how they do business, Paypal should be able to set it up.

[Battosay]

Paypal test donation, that I can do :)

Don't lie... We all know your real worry is you won't know how to deal with all the fanboys/girls/groupies following you around when they find your corporeal form on which to lavish their affections.

Where do you think I'm moving out ? ;)

[Starshifterxen]

I've been messing around with paypal (including accidently upgrading my account to a premier one) and it does look like a business account is the way to go.

However the mandatory fields appear to be:

• -Category.
  -Subcategory.
  -Sales Venue.
  -Business annual revenue.
  -Account Holder Date of Birth.
  -Business Name
  -Customer Service Email
  -Address line
  -Town/City
  -Postcode

I guess the bottom 3 are a bit of an issue.

Also verrified that real name does indeed appear in the email for some other mods by donating a little something to the owner of Millenaire (which I had been meaning to do for a while :))

[FlowerChild]

Also verrified that real name does indeed appear in the email for some other mods by donating a little something to the owner of Millenaire (which I had been meaning to do for a while :))

I wonder if they know that. The only way I found it out was by sending myself a test donation when I first tried this a few months ago. Nowhere else is it specified that this happens, until the person donating gets an email saying "you just donated to John Smith!" :)

[FlowerChild]

Paypal test donation, that I can do :)

Are you available to do this right now Batto? I have a business account all setup and ready to go now.

[Starshifterxen]

Paypal test donation, that I can do :)

Are you available to do this right now Batto? I have a business account all setup and ready to go now.

Happy to help test anything else you need too (once you confirm it is safe)

[magikeh]

I must say that i am looking forward to supporting you, whether you use the money towards a case of beer or a premium account with Fraps (altho i think that dxtory is better) or to your personal financial situation, i am chucking my money at the screen!! ^_^/ Good Luck FC!

[FlowerChild]

I must say that i am looking forward to supporting you, whether you use the money towards a case of beer or a premium account with Fraps (altho i think that dxtory is better) or to your personal financial situation, i am chucking my money at the screen!! ^_^/ Good Luck FC!

Hehe...thanks man. I am determined to get this working and not go back to procrastinating about it, so hopefully I'll have it all sorted sometime today :)

I've got a business account up and running now. Me and Battosay are just trying to figure out how to test it properly given a few technical difficulties we've run into.

[FlowerChild]

Managed a test payment. No longer do my receipts display my name!

Now they just display my phone number.

Le sigh :)

[Sarudak]

Get a google voice number and use that.

You can redirect/screen/ignore all the calls.

[jorgebonafe]

Hire an automatic anwsering service. Though I have no idea what that costs.... Probably not worth it....

[FlowerChild]

Get a google voice number and use that.

You can redirect/screen/ignore all the calls.

Yeah, I've got all kinds of ideas for that one, like getting a "burner" cell phone.

Preferably, I'd like to just get the number off the receipt.

[Sarudak]

Google voice is free. And you can set it to only redirect calls from say paypal to your real phone.

[FlowerChild]

SUCCESS!!!!!

Turns out my last problem was a general issue with receiving credit card payments, due them thinking I was making porno.

Seriously, they had automatically categorized my business as "adult entertainment", and I guess they wouldn't receive credit card payments from people that didn't have PayPal accounts because of the need for age verification.

Only reason I figured that out as I read about a guy online that had similar problems when he was auto-assigned to "gambling".

That was preventing me from sending my own test donations (and also would have blocked anyone else from making credit-card payments). Now that I have, I've verified that no name or phone number appears on the receipt.

WOOT! :)

What a frigging pain in the ass that was ;)

[magikeh]

:D Let The Bronze Courage Flow!! ^_^/

[morvelaira]

SQUEEEE! :)