I spend alot of time creating mods for the Steam Workshop and I saw someone posting a paypal.me link on his own work and I thought why the hell shouldn't I do this aswel.
However when I followed his paypal.me link I found out his real name etc and i'm not sure if I want my real name etc associated with my Steam game accounts since alot of shit can happen when you piss someone off online.
I am wondering is there any way to make these donations anonymous? Without creating a company or something? I'm not looking into creating big bucks (would obviouisly be nice) but yeah if you spend hundreds of hours of work onto something and someone likes it and wants to give you a donation for it why the hell shouldn't I take that opportunity.
So please let me know how I could best do this. Thanks alot
You can always use a crypto link you know, made for privacy and all that stuff. Usually transferring money is always hard with flat when trying to be anonymous.
Alexander Clark
but I think alot more people use paypal so I doubt I will be seeing anything of crypto money
the thing is I make mods and run servers and sometimes people misbehave so they get banned or sometimes they dont like something and try to talk you, your mods or your servers shit. When you have your real name out in the open this can cause for some google problems.
Joshua Hall
im saying this because i've had this happen in the past, some guy was dedicated in destroying my reputation. I cant imagine how it would be if they use your real name instead of your nickname. But I got alot of subscribers so I could miss out on some serious cash here.
Brody Mitchell
Read this carefully op.
Create a PayPal account with your legal name.
After your account is set up you’ll have the chance to create a PayPal.me link and it can be whatever you want. You can also hide your address from your PayPal.me link and change your avatar so nobody knows it’s actually you.
The first step of this is the most important otherwise you won’t be able to withdraw your money.
Ryan Wood
i tried this but it will still display my real name. You can create paypal.me/whateveryoulike and share that but people will be able to tell your real name still.
William Morgan
Create a secondary PayPal account but instead make sure you create a business account.
Just put whatever you want for the business name, it doesn't actually have to be registered or anything. Cash out by sending the PayPal money from that business account to your legit one (if you want it in your personal bank account) or you can just link another bank account (one different from the one on your personal PayPal) with that new business account.
Connor White
Any way to stop people from disputing?
I've had this shit happening to me aswell. Someone bought a special kit for one of my servers and then after a day refunded it cause he was a retard and lost it all and for some reason I had to pay this back and it had even cost me some money and of course time.
I want it to be clear that they are voluntary donations, one way only.
Caleb Barnes
>I want it to be clear that they are voluntary donations, one way only.
Include that somewhere near your PayPal.Me link and say that “by donating you’re agreeing to these terms”
Luis King
I don't think there's a way to prevent paypal chargebacks/refunds. The business account idea is solid though. That's how i keep my name hidden for my ebay selling business.
Austin Kelly
and is this legally binding then? Cause I dont want a headache. Or is there a way to make this clear anyway that they are gifts and cant be disputed? Cause i've had people giving me like a few bucks but then paypal was holding in some money from this unless they gave it as a friend or whatever.
Im new to all this and am probably asking stupid questions but I appreciate the help.
Bentley Allen
You sure came to the right place for advice!
Robert Reyes
thanks alot, if only I did this sooner. I started creating content like 8 years ago and have since then well over 300k subscribers, some of those people were/are probably more than willing to give me a little thank you fro all the work since I know for a fact they are very widely used mods. I probably cheated myself out of alot of free money by not doing this sooner. But yeah i'm gonna try anyway with new content and add the paypal.me shit to my old content as well, you never know, right? Or what would you guys do in this situation?
Landon Turner
One more question: Are you allowed to ask for donations when using public/free content?
Some of my work has assets that other people make, this has never been a problem when releasing free stuff, I know you can't sell other peoples stuff but how about asking for donations when using some of other peoples stuff?
Nolan Torres
>am i allowed to have people pay me for the effort of others What do you think, moron?
Cooper Murphy
No not really, that's the nature of PayPal. You can immunise yourself to charge-backs slightly by making sure you use donation links/buttons for the business account, which makes it a bit harder for them to dispute since it was a "donation". Make sure if you're 'giving' them anything, its as a 'thank you' for the 'donation' rather than them expressly paying for goods/services because they are fully protected in that case. But if they are really set on charging back with PayPal, they will usually get their way because that's just how that system works. If you start to make a decent amount of money off it don't bother doing the donation loophole thing, just do it legit. Also its a good idea to keep some money in your PayPal account fr a few weeks if you don't need it right away, to cover yourself if anyone decides to be an idiot.
Another option is to make a Patreon and just link that on your content instead, and treat it sort of like a subscription/donation service where people who like your stuff can pay a monthly fee to see your content/download and get upgrades/support and such. (Not sure if this idea is feasible for Steam workshop because I really don't know how that works.)
If you want to get crypto donations easily as well you can use Coinbase Commerce, there is no KYC/real name shit involved with that either and you own all your private keys as well (coinbase can't freeze or with hold your coins).
Alexander Nguyen
Of course you are allowed to; they’re donations. Wouldn’t be any different if someone came up to you outside, handed you a $20 bill and said “take this donation, have a nice day”
Now when you sell an actual item there’s an expectation for both sides to mutually agree on what one another gets. No one expects to get anything from donating besides good karma - unless stated otherwise.
Depends on how their assets are licensed, if at all. Could result in legal consequences, but seriously consult with a lawyer for this kind of question, Jow Forums couldn't tell the difference between a tort and a flattened ball of masa.
Isaac Moore
Technically, it depends what 'licence' / terms that work was released under. Some people release things for free and state you are not allowed to make a profit from it. Some people release things and say you can do whatever you want with them. Honestly if they are freely available officially / elsewhere, but you have contributed stuff or some of your own work to it, I personally don't see an issue with it if you want to charge for your 'portion' of the work (but others/the original creators might disagree). But if you are taking legitimate donations and not selling it as a service, you technically aren't liable because people are giving you money of their own volition. Just make sure you give credit where it's due.
Easton Turner
Nigger do some research next time. You need to set up a PayPal merchant account. It only displays the name of your "business" when someone wants to pay
Asher Flores
You can assosciate multiple emails with different names on your account
Jose Young
PATREON YOU FUCK
Cameron Carter
>wants user payments >no disputes >uses Paypal nope.exe
