Posted at Ted Nugents Talkback forum, Thank you

Aw, but do they have to use PayPal?

:-)

I am an academic, and I will donate.

I'm torn between a desire to support AFSA and a desire to refrain from supporting EBay. It's as if the NRA-ILA required donors to route donations through the Brady Campaign's website.

And not only do they use PayPal exclusively, but they require that you obtain a Google account to make comments on their website. Yes, that's Google, the company that won't accept advertising for guns, gun parts, or knives on their websites.

Does AfSA also employ Rosie O'Donnell as their celebrity spokesperson?

Yes.
Because
(1) everyone who sent an e-mail to A2A asked about PayPal (none requested another company)
and
(2) the other payment sites don't provide the same level of customer service. For example, "GearPay.Com is currently working to provide debit and credit card services."

It may be a little uncommon to comment on one's own blog, but might as well keep all the issues in one place. I have a LOT of mostly painful experience here, in trying to distribute my documentary.

1. Paypal, for all their Ebay connections, has a simple interface you can set up in a day or less. Almost all bloggers use it. In fact, I can't remember one that doesn't.

2. I spent several days trying to find a rival. Best I could do was PaySimple. That took about a week to set up, after they assured me they could do what I needed, then discovered they couldn't, then finally worked out a suitable compromise. Basically, they were set up to sell X items at Y price, but selling the first item at standard price and additional ones at a lower price was quite beyond them.

3. As far as anyone else, the task is horribly complex. You have to find a firm to handle taking the contributions or orders, find a gateway firm, and link to a commercial account at a bank. And hope that all three interface. Wait a week or two for all to be set up, and then if something isn't right, each of the three insists it's one of the other two. Or says they just provide the avenue, you need an experienced sales webpage designer to make the idea work.

If you don't want to patronize PayPal, mail a check to:

Academics for the Second Amendment

Post Office Box 131254

St. Paul, Minn. 55113

Is this one of those little things the Aholes at paypal can freeze an account over? It seems they have absolute authority to do that for a certain amount of time.

Perhaps two accounts, one to take in the money and transfer to another account ASAP. Not sure if that's kosher or not, but might be worth looking into so time isn't lost if paypal and the other forces of evil freeze the account for some BS reason.