Hey guys, it is that time the year again when I whine about something. Today we have a special guest for our whining session. A website called buymeacoffee.com. I've used it for like 2 years. It is a website that allows people to get donations from their fans. They charged a fee for it, naturally, that's the way the business works. As you know transfering money to and from Russia has become harder recently. Buymeacoffee website states that "We believe everyone is a creator. Our goal is to help a million people earn from their creativity by 2030". A noble goal! Many of you helped me using that website so I want to thank you all once again. But back to the topic. So today I got an e-mail from this website (pic 1) telling me that my account has been terminated because they have "restricted Russian creators from our platform". And actually that's not what I wanted to whine about! I actually believe that any company can and should decide if they want to work with Russians. If they don't - fine. But let's go back to this letter. So, some details. "As you may already be aware, Buy Me a Coffee has restricted Russian creators from our platform to adhere to international regulations and our platform’s specific rules". No, I was not aware. I didn't get any e-mails from you (until now), your website has zero news about that particular change, your help center and F.A.Q. page don't have them either. Even your social media pages have nothing on the topic. But fine, maybe I was already aware of it. Somehow. My last letter from this website (regarding any payment issues) was on November 16th, 2022, when they stated that "Hi Setarko,
We have been informed by our payment provider Payoneer that they’re discontinuing payouts to Russian bank accounts. You will need to provide a non-Russian bank account in order to continue receiving payments.". So, okay, I guess I should just open a non-Russian bank account and I'll be fine? And I was fine for 1.5 years. Now back to our recent letter. "It has recently come to our attention that, although your payouts were directed to another country, our records indicate your actual residence is in Russia." So...I've opened a bank account in another country (as you told me) but somehow you managed to find out that I still reside in Russia! Do I have a tracking device on me? But okay, maybe you saw my IP address and realized it is Russian? Sure, but we will go back to that later.
Anyway, then they tell me that "to facilitate a smooth transition for you" my account needs to be closed in 3 days. And they even kindly asked me by to ensure I withdraw the remaining money in my account before that date. How touching. Obviously, I'm currently in Russia (as buymeacoffee said) and I'm rushing to my buymeacoffee.com and what do I see? I see pic. 2. I cannot access this website because the site owner may have set restrictions that prevent me from accessing the site. Error 1020. Anyone who knows something about such error will tell you that this error indicated a geo block. They block people in Russia from accessing their website. So these guys told me that "hey, we noticed that you are from Russia! That's not allowed, we have sanctions against that! But we care about your smooth transition. Go ahead and please withdraw your funds before we close your account forever... SIKE! We already did that! Buy you are coffee? More like buy you an Iskander missile you dirty sanctioned bastard".
So basically their policy is to deny service to people on the basis of their passport. Because that's what it's all about. I complied with all their rules, I've opened a separate bank account in another country...But hey "our records indicate that you are still a dirty Russian!". Btw, what records? Bank statements? It is a foreign bank. IP address? You can't see which IP address I use to login to my account on your website because I can't even visit your website from Russia! I can visit it only from another country! So which records, huh? Your record that I am Russian? Guilty. I guess this particular stain will always be on my reputation. But once again, that's fine. Morally questionable, but if a private company wants to deny service to someone (on the basis of their nationality) - that's fine. Giving me 3 days to withdraw my money when you are fully aware that you literally blocked me from visiting your website? Totally fine. But what do you mean "potential refund of your account balance to your supporters?" Potential? So maaaaybe you will refund them and maybe not? Fuck off. Anyways, luckily I was able to access my account and I manually issued refunds to everyone who supported me throughout last year using this website. I hope you will get all your money back and BuyMeACoffee doesn't get a single penny. I also hope that this company goes bankrupt and soon. A man can only dream.
As I always said - I am a grown man with a real grownup job. YouTube is just a hobby for me, so I will still have some food on the table even without making videos. But if you want to support me - consider subscribing to my Patreon or donating using cryptowallets that are in the description of any of my videos. Btw, Patreon also complies with the U.S. santions and doesn't allow people to use Russian banks. But it allows people with Russian passports to use their foreign bank accounts. Which should be a controversial thing to do...but somehow it is. Here's a quote from Business Insider article on the issue: "Jack Conte, Patreon's CEO, said he didn't want to punish creators for a political decision they had no say in. "I don't think individual creators should have to pay for the misdeeds of their authoritarian leader. I don't want to put that on creative people," Conte said. "They may disagree with the war, and I don't want to punish them for their geographic location." Conte acknowledged that the decision may be more symbolic than practical. Most US banks, along with financial-services companies such as Visa and Mastercard, no longer offer service in the country, so it's likely that many creators on the platform have still been affected."
Well, what can I say after all that? Thank you, Jack Conte for still seeing Russians as actual people.
Setarko
Hey guys, it is that time the year again when I whine about something. Today we have a special guest for our whining session. A website called buymeacoffee.com. I've used it for like 2 years. It is a website that allows people to get donations from their fans. They charged a fee for it, naturally, that's the way the business works. As you know transfering money to and from Russia has become harder recently. Buymeacoffee website states that "We believe everyone is a creator. Our goal is to help a million people earn from their creativity by 2030". A noble goal! Many of you helped me using that website so I want to thank you all once again. But back to the topic. So today I got an e-mail from this website (pic 1) telling me that my account has been terminated because they have "restricted Russian creators from our platform". And actually that's not what I wanted to whine about! I actually believe that any company can and should decide if they want to work with Russians. If they don't - fine. But let's go back to this letter. So, some details.
"As you may already be aware, Buy Me a Coffee has restricted Russian creators from our platform to adhere to international regulations and our platform’s specific rules".
No, I was not aware. I didn't get any e-mails from you (until now), your website has zero news about that particular change, your help center and F.A.Q. page don't have them either. Even your social media pages have nothing on the topic. But fine, maybe I was already aware of it. Somehow. My last letter from this website (regarding any payment issues) was on November 16th, 2022, when they stated that "Hi Setarko,
We have been informed by our payment provider Payoneer that they’re discontinuing payouts to Russian bank accounts. You will need to provide a non-Russian bank account in order to continue receiving payments.". So, okay, I guess I should just open a non-Russian bank account and I'll be fine? And I was fine for 1.5 years. Now back to our recent letter. "It has recently come to our attention that, although your payouts were directed to another country, our records indicate your actual residence is in Russia." So...I've opened a bank account in another country (as you told me) but somehow you managed to find out that I still reside in Russia! Do I have a tracking device on me? But okay, maybe you saw my IP address and realized it is Russian? Sure, but we will go back to that later.
Anyway, then they tell me that "to facilitate a smooth transition for you" my account needs to be closed in 3 days. And they even kindly asked me by to ensure I withdraw the remaining money in my account before that date. How touching. Obviously, I'm currently in Russia (as buymeacoffee said) and I'm rushing to my buymeacoffee.com and what do I see? I see pic. 2. I cannot access this website because the site owner may have set restrictions that prevent me from accessing the site. Error 1020. Anyone who knows something about such error will tell you that this error indicated a geo block. They block people in Russia from accessing their website. So these guys told me that "hey, we noticed that you are from Russia! That's not allowed, we have sanctions against that! But we care about your smooth transition. Go ahead and please withdraw your funds before we close your account forever... SIKE! We already did that! Buy you are coffee? More like buy you an Iskander missile you dirty sanctioned bastard".
So basically their policy is to deny service to people on the basis of their passport. Because that's what it's all about. I complied with all their rules, I've opened a separate bank account in another country...But hey "our records indicate that you are still a dirty Russian!". Btw, what records? Bank statements? It is a foreign bank. IP address? You can't see which IP address I use to login to my account on your website because I can't even visit your website from Russia! I can visit it only from another country! So which records, huh? Your record that I am Russian? Guilty. I guess this particular stain will always be on my reputation. But once again, that's fine. Morally questionable, but if a private company wants to deny service to someone (on the basis of their nationality) - that's fine. Giving me 3 days to withdraw my money when you are fully aware that you literally blocked me from visiting your website? Totally fine. But what do you mean "potential refund of your account balance to your supporters?" Potential? So maaaaybe you will refund them and maybe not? Fuck off. Anyways, luckily I was able to access my account and I manually issued refunds to everyone who supported me throughout last year using this website. I hope you will get all your money back and BuyMeACoffee doesn't get a single penny. I also hope that this company goes bankrupt and soon. A man can only dream.
As I always said - I am a grown man with a real grownup job. YouTube is just a hobby for me, so I will still have some food on the table even without making videos. But if you want to support me - consider subscribing to my Patreon or donating using cryptowallets that are in the description of any of my videos.
Btw, Patreon also complies with the U.S. santions and doesn't allow people to use Russian banks. But it allows people with Russian passports to use their foreign bank accounts. Which should be a controversial thing to do...but somehow it is. Here's a quote from Business Insider article on the issue:
"Jack Conte, Patreon's CEO, said he didn't want to punish creators for a political decision they had no say in. "I don't think individual creators should have to pay for the misdeeds of their authoritarian leader. I don't want to put that on creative people," Conte said. "They may disagree with the war, and I don't want to punish them for their geographic location." Conte acknowledged that the decision may be more symbolic than practical. Most US banks, along with financial-services companies such as Visa and Mastercard, no longer offer service in the country, so it's likely that many creators on the platform have still been affected."
Well, what can I say after all that? Thank you, Jack Conte for still seeing Russians as actual people.
Thanks for coming to my ted talk.
1 year ago | [YT] | 224