Hacker News: Scaled

New comment by Scaled in "Age verification tech could put children at greater risk, says think tank"

Scaled — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 10:40:00 +0000

FYI for adult content, there's a standard called RTA-Label that already integrates with all parental controls and is already deployed on all major adult sites.

New comment by Scaled in "Motorola effectively bricked its entire line of WiFi routers without explanation"

Scaled — Sun, 07 Jun 2026 18:06:54 +0000

Same but in my parents case it was even worse -- there is a web portal but it's locked unless you use the app to unlock it. Tried contacting support and they could do nothing. Completely arbitrary requirement. Ended up buying a replacement on Amazon.

New comment by Scaled in "Learn from my lesson, don't take your pre seed through stripe = Account Closure"

Scaled — Sun, 07 Jun 2026 10:15:21 +0000

Transaction fee is going to be what... $3,000+? Instead of a $30~$50 wire fee.

That said, I'm sorry you lost the account. As a heads up they often hold the money six months so if you're in a cash crunch you might want them to chargeback and pay via wire.

New comment by Scaled in "Gov.uk has replaced Stripe with Dutch provider Adyen"

Scaled — Sat, 06 Jun 2026 01:50:52 +0000

Common misconception - it's the merchant who pays for fraud and the 3% is pure bank profit. If there's a fraud transaction, the merchant has to pay the whole amount back and ends up negative the transaction fee and the chargeback fee. The banks just want you to think they're earning the 3% but actually it's pure profit.

New comment by Scaled in "Gov.uk has replaced Stripe with Dutch provider Adyen"

Scaled — Sat, 06 Jun 2026 01:43:50 +0000

FYI there was a lawsuit about this a while back and part of the settlement was merchants can pass on fees now.

New comment by Scaled in "GTA 6 Developers Unionize"

Scaled — Fri, 29 May 2026 19:42:12 +0000

Not true. Regularly had FAANG want to double/triple my salary to leave games.

New comment by Scaled in "GTA 6 Developers Unionize"

Scaled — Fri, 29 May 2026 19:34:22 +0000

While I fundamentally agree with the concern about unions raising costs in a market where most titles cannot absorb them, GTA/Rockstar definitely can. Especially since the union is fighting for basic quality of life like no crunch instead of (for now at least) increased pay. I am generally not prounion but crunch -- especially at studios that are guaranteed to be profitable (GTA) -- needs to be curbed.

New comment by Scaled in "GTA 6 Developers Unionize"

Scaled — Fri, 29 May 2026 19:25:01 +0000

My first AAA game industry boss said to me only 10% of people make it 10 years in games. This has been, if anything, optimistic, with there being a sharp drop-off at 2~5 years.

(And in indie it's way worse, it's more like 1% making it one year)

New comment by Scaled in "Incident Report: May 19, 2026 – GCP Account Suspension"

Scaled — Wed, 20 May 2026 18:24:16 +0000

It's really surprising how much cheaper colo becomes if you have an even vaguely predictable workload. And you don't have to be a major customer, either -- the data centers will happily sell you single U's or a couple U's, even on a monthly basis if you ask, making it perfectly viable for startups or advanced personal projects.

New comment by Scaled in "Incident Report: May 19, 2026 – GCP Account Suspension"

Scaled — Wed, 20 May 2026 18:18:09 +0000

And if they do, you can walk over there too and ask a human why in person. (Or just call the NOC)

New comment by Scaled in "Security researcher says Microsoft built a Bitlocker backdoor, releases exploit"

Scaled — Sun, 17 May 2026 19:24:02 +0000

One of the greatest cyber security mysteries of our time. Regardless of what actually happened, I hope the author is okay. (The story implied to me that the author was forced to post that, or was disappeared and the website was changed by someone else)

New comment by Scaled in "Adult game industry complaint to FTC regarding Visa/Mastercard (2025) [pdf]"

Scaled — Wed, 13 May 2026 20:33:22 +0000

Filed last year, but I don't think previously shared.

Adult game industry complaint to FTC regarding Visa/Mastercard (2025) [pdf]

Scaled — Wed, 13 May 2026 20:33:22 +0000

Article URL: https://avvn.org/ftc.pdf

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48127125

Points: 4

# Comments: 1

New comment by Scaled in "Kickstarter is forced to ban adult content by payment processors"

Scaled — Wed, 13 May 2026 20:19:48 +0000

I have spoken to others in my field and we all have good chargeback rates.

The problem is the VIRP/BRAM requirements push adult content into using only a handful of acquiring banks, and thus there is insufficient competition to get them to lower rates since where else you gonna go?

New comment by Scaled in "Kickstarter is forced to ban adult content by payment processors"

Scaled — Wed, 13 May 2026 18:18:48 +0000

I applied to stripe recentlyish as an adult game project with excellent processing history and very low chargeback rate and got denied.

New comment by Scaled in "Kickstarter is forced to ban adult content by payment processors"

Scaled — Wed, 13 May 2026 18:12:06 +0000

I've seen the chargeback rates, they are low. Consider that most adult consumers are repeat purchasers (subscribing to their favorite artist/dev/performer). They do not want to get banned for a chargeback and lose out on content! Most adult content creators also have friendly voluntary refund policy when requested. So chargeback rates are very low in adult.

Meanwhile other industries like travel have crazy high chargeback rates. This is because it is notorious for a no refund policy / locking customers into purchases months in advance... and then people just chargeback instead of accepting a consumer hostile no refund policy. So travel ends up having high chargebacks... and yet has minimal trouble getting processing.

New comment by Scaled in "Kickstarter is forced to ban adult content by payment processors"

Scaled — Wed, 13 May 2026 18:04:02 +0000

They're also attacking games and artwork -- gotta make sure those pixels consent, too. Sigh...

New comment by Scaled in "Kickstarter is forced to ban adult content by payment processors"

Scaled — Wed, 13 May 2026 17:58:48 +0000

Just FYI, the high rate of fraud is FUD. I am in the field, have a very good chargeback rate, and still cannot secure card processing at fair terms. The processors I have spoken to know chargeback rates are low, but it's a rigged system designed to extract maximal revenue by middlemen.

New comment by Scaled in "Distributing Mac software is increasing my cortisol levels"

Scaled — Sun, 10 May 2026 11:10:37 +0000

Never upload your ID. If that means not developing for a platform, don't develop for that platform.

New comment by Scaled in "Google broke reCAPTCHA for de-googled Android users"

Scaled — Sat, 09 May 2026 10:21:32 +0000

Parental controls on device are a better solution that work today and don't carry a risk of data breach.