• I’ve made a decision

    September 8, 2022 /

    For weeks now I’ve been dealing with Stripe closing one of my accounts simply because I have nudity on my website.

    Here’s my 1st post about this

    Here’s my 2nd post about this

    I originally created this website in late 2018 because I was getting tired of Patreon continuing to sanitize itself like everywhere else on the internet post-FOSTA/SESTA. I created a space on the internet where I didn’t have to censor myself. It was wonderful and I felt at least safer than I did before, in a space I had full control of even though I didn’t really know what I was doing.

    I took a risk when I set up my website using Stripe. I knew that they had already fucked people over because their work included nudity. I hoped I would be able to go unnoticed. Obviously that didn’t work because I’m in this situation now. Stripe was the best I could do because of how ubiquitous it is and how inaccessible other options were. I really wanted to create my own home on the internet, and I did.

    I’ve continued to have no luck with finding a place to create a “high risk” merchant account that I can afford. I will continue to look for options that better suit my members/supporters/friends, myself, and this website. I still want to work toward an internet where nudity is normalized.

    I still have things to share, events and workshops to plan, and bills to pay, so I’m doing what is accessible to me, the most convenient for members, and available to us now.
    I’m going to be active on patreon again and memberships will be available there starting now.

    Benefits to having memberships on patreon again:

    • there’s already a ton of content on there from when I regularly posted between March 2016 and November 2019
    • it’s a well known platform that has built trust with creators and their patrons over time
    • there is IT and support available if any of us need it
    • I can still offer sliding scale memberships
    • their fees are more affordable than me getting my own “high risk” merchant account
    • they’re continuously upgrading and adding new features which is much harder to do on your own (which I would be doing)
    • I can continue as normal here on bunnyluna.com for members that aren’t impacted by the Stripe closure
    • there are more membership options available for folks whether or not I get my own merchant account

    Important message for current members:

    I appreciate you so much for your understanding and patience while I’ve been figuring this out! I apologize for the inconvenience this has caused many of you (I’m still figuring out which of you are impacted!) and I hope to be able to make it up to you.

    If you’ve already received an email about a failed payment or are having trouble accessing member content here on my website, please let me know at bunnyluna@pm.me and we can figure out next steps together.

    Whether you email me now or not, I will be personally emailing those of you I believe are impacted by the Stripe closure by the end of October. The reason I’m not emailing sooner is because I have to wait a full billing period before I know who all is impacted.

    I’m here to help if you need assistance or have questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out!
    Email me at bunnyluna@pm.me

    If you already know you want to move over to patreon, you can do so here!

    I have a special offer right now, anyone who joins the 2nd tier or higher between now and the end of the month gets a free sticker and print sent to them!

    TLDR:

    🔞 Stripe hates nudity so they closed one of my accounts which is fucking up my website store.
    💌 Not all members are impacted, I will be personally reaching out to those impacted by the end of October.
    ✨ Memberships are now available via patreon!
    🖼️ Check out my special offer for a free sticker and print if you sign up by the end of the month!

    show your support for free:
    show your support financially (sliding scale!):

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  • The Stripe saga continues…

    September 7, 2022 /

    If you missed my previous post about Stripe (my payment processor) closing my account, you can read it here.

    Members, thank you so much for your attention, patience, and support.

    As of August 17th 2022 Stripe closed one of my accounts.

    I had 3: Bunny Luna, WC, Bookshop
    The Bunny Luna and WC account are both connected to my website and your memberships, some of you are connected to one and some of you are connected to the other.
    The WC account is the one that has been closed.
    The only way I will be able to know who is attached to the closed WC Stripe account is by which payments fail over the next month or so.

    If you get an email saying your payment has failed, that most likely means that your membership is attached to the closed account. You have done nothing wrong! I will be emailing you soon.

    Sometime in October once a full billing cycle has gone through, I will email those of you whose payments are failing with next steps. I haven’t figured out what those are yet, but it’s my top priority and I am working on it!

    The payment processors that I was hoping would work for me because they accept “high risk” merchants (I’m considered high risk because my website has nudity on it) are too expensive. Like $1000/year + $100/month + transaction fees expensive.

    I’m considering other options because it’s important to me to be able to share nude art.
    I also have to be able to pay my rent and buy groceries.

    It has gotten more and more difficult over the years to be an artist that includes nudity in my work, but I am not willing to give up. This is a rocky time right now but we will continue to move forward together. Puritanical corporations can’t stop us from being naked on the internet! We will find a way.

    If any of you know of a payment processor that integrates with wordpress and woocommerce and allows nudity, PLEASE let me know! You can comment below or email me at bunnyluna@pm.me
    Thank you ♥

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  • I don’t know what’s next

    August 15, 2022 /

    The bad news:

    I hoped this day would never come, but it has. Stripe is closing one of my accounts because I am a “high risk” client (aka I have nudity on my website).

    This means that between 2/3 and 95% of my income will disappear when my account is closed. They’re closing my account tomorrow after emailing me initially about it last week.

    They haven’t answered any of my questions about what is going to happen to you, members of my website. I am so frustrated that I’ve been shuffled around Stripe’s customer service for a week with no resolution. I don’t know what will happen when they close my account.

    I have more than one Stripe account: one that’s being closed, another with no issues. This makes no sense to me since they’re both connected to my website. This may impact some or all of you, but I don’t really have a way to know for sure.

    Because of all this I’ll be postponing my weekly vlog posts (starting in September) until I get payment processors figured out.

    The good news:

    I’m in communication with 2 alternative payment processors that are totally cool with nudity and will know about it from the start. (If you’re curious what they are – PaymentCloud and Authorize.net)

    They both say they can transfer the information from Stripe.

    It might take a bit of time to get everything figured out and switched over to a new payment processor, but in the meantime I’m still able to use Square for one on one peer support and mentoring, and I am still able to use Cashapp and Venmo.

    Once I have a new payment processor I won’t have to worry about this happening again while being able to openly share nude stuff!

    I’m not going to let a puritanical corporation stop me from making and sharing nude art!!!

    Call to action (optional):

    If you know anyone who works at Stripe or feel so inclined to contact them about this, raise some hell!

    Book a one on one peer support or mentoring session with me – more info here!

    Help supply me with vegan food via donations to my Cashapp or Venmo

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