The Problem
THE PROBLEM:
Paheal is losing money and at the current rate will be closed in July.
We currently make about $700 a month in revenue. The site costs €600 ($850) a month.
Ad revenue has been way down in the past few months. We apparently lost a major advertiser, but Etology (the ad company) won’t tell us who. One of the main problems is that most advertisers are unwilling to work with a site that has content like ours (in other words, loli/shota*). This is one of the reason other sites have removed their loli content (e.g. e-hentai, aerisdies). Furthermore, as most of you know by the massive amounts of Bad Gateway Errors, the site is more popular than ever, but we are making less money than ever.
CONSIDERED SOLUTIONS:
- We have considered trying to find cheaper hosting, but alas the majority of cheap hosting is in the US. The site owner Wiiaboo (aka Bismarck) does not wish to host in the US due to legal issues around loli/shota*. Similarly, Canada and Australia are out of the question.
- We have also considered donations. Again, Wiiaboo is “vehemently opposed” to that idea saying:
“I dont ever want the site to be in a position where it has to ASK for anything. This site is basically run by the users and thats how it will always.”
Agree or disagree with him, I don’t care. He pays the bills and he makes the decisions. Thus donations are not an option.
COMPLICATIONS:
We are in the midst of a “change of guard”. I (Titanium) will be going into a semi-retired status soon due to that strange thing called “real life”. There will be new admins and possibly a new owner soon. While this doesn’t necessarily impact the financial situation, it’s another layer of shit on the manure pile.
SOLUTIONS (CALL FOR HELP):
So, given all of this, we are humbly asking for useful ideas and suggestions from our users. Because the blog site filters out many legit comments, please use our email address (staff *at* paheal.net) with “Sugggestion” in the subject line. Any leads on good advertisers who are known to work with “questionable” sites like ours or good professional hosting** would be appreciated.
*For past conversations on loli/shota and legal issues, see http://rule34.paheal.net/wiki/Notes
**Past hosts have been troublesome in that we have “unlimited” bandwidth, but they shut us down for using too much processor time. Please note that offering your own computer to host Paheal is appreciated but not tenable.
EDIT: I will not say this again. Loli/shota are illegal in the US. Do some research. We are NOT going to be the ones who challenge the law in court.
Bix Nood said,
May 20, 2011 @ 9:13 pm
How about premium mode where you don’t get ads, and shit?
$5 a month.
Fernando said,
May 20, 2011 @ 9:25 pm
Spam ads everywhere.
Omicron Nexus said,
May 20, 2011 @ 10:21 pm
I respect the decision to not accept donations. But, Just to have it said, I am a cheap fucking guy. But this is quite possibly the only site on the internet that I would be willing to pay to use. So if there ever was to be a donation pool, I will donate to the best of my ability. And please consider that rather than closing the site IF it has to come to that.
Nickko said,
May 20, 2011 @ 10:44 pm
Oye. Y porqué no buscas un servidor/host méxicano? según yo son un poco más baratos que uno de USA. / Hey. And why do not you find a mexican server/host? A think they ‘re more accessible than US server/host. Well, that’s ma’ miserable opinion. XD
Ruth said,
May 20, 2011 @ 11:20 pm
You might just have to bite the bullet and take down all of the loli/shota content, so that you can get help from the people who will otherwise not want to aid you. Saddening for many, but it’s better than losing Rule34.paheal altogether… ;__;
News Robot Coalition said,
May 21, 2011 @ 12:50 am
Your money issues trouble me.
But loli/shota is NOT banned in the US.
In fact, the WWOEC and Hentai Foundry and 4chan and not4chan are all US-hosted sites.
The SCOTUS shot down the “virtual depictions” clause of the PROTECT act.
So US hosting is indeed possible.
Looking at not4chan’s advertisers is also possible. If they can find someone to ad, you guys can too.
Ket Ralus said,
May 21, 2011 @ 1:49 am
I use ServInt and they’re fantastic, but they ARE based in the US either LA or DC. Nevertheless, I’ve never known any legal issues arising from loli/shota, only stingy advertisers. I’ve had my porn hosted there for like 5 years and never had any problems.
Otherwise, all I can suggest is donations. I think it’s less fair to the users to shut down the site rather than get the financial help needed from the people who care to keep it running.
I know the site owner is steering clear from these options, but I think the reasons are based too much on speculation.
Gurren913 said,
May 21, 2011 @ 7:27 am
OK. You should make a font buisness! All major corporations have smaller parts that still answer to the big hats, so that smaller communities will trust them while still having TONS of money. so make a painting buisness, a 10 minute painting that is good can fetch around 30 bucks to the people on ebay or clients from your town or in America. So ask some of the good artists on paheal to make NORMAL paintings and sell them then “donate” the money to paheal. Give me an E-mail and tell me if this sounds good
Gurren913 said,
May 21, 2011 @ 7:29 am
OR, alteritivly, make a youtube channel and make many nice videos, because People+internet+funny video= expectations of more funny videos= subscribers=MONEY.
Nick said,
May 21, 2011 @ 9:06 am
PLEASE DON’T CLOSE PAHEAL! WE LOVE IT SO MUCH! It’s the only site where I can find pics of all the characters I love so much!
8o8 said,
May 21, 2011 @ 10:25 am
i wonder what would happen if you host the server in mexico or argentina?
Rat said,
May 21, 2011 @ 11:11 am
…or in North Korea!
I’m helping.
rapture said,
May 21, 2011 @ 11:14 am
Have you considered a hosting in Europe?
Name said,
May 21, 2011 @ 11:26 am
Would it be possible to ask your visitors to click the links? or do you get money from display only?
anon said,
May 21, 2011 @ 12:08 pm
Let it shutdown. because of all of the legal issues anyways and a TON of DNPs, it isnt worth having this site
MrRaider said,
May 21, 2011 @ 1:40 pm
Hi… I know how much sites like paheal may cost to host. I have been client santrex.com and they offer international servers located in France, Germany, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Russia, Ukraine many more…. They have been in business for few years now and they are cheep and offer good servers.
take a look http://www.santrex.net/dedicated-servers.php
ShiraZ said,
May 21, 2011 @ 2:45 pm
Hosting a server in Argentina is pretty cheap, but last I checked (I live there) most hosts don’t allow things like loli/shota, and the ones that do are so shady and overpriced that they’re not worth it.
I feel sad that I have no solutions to offer, besides the obvious “get rid of loli pics so paheal can get more ads”.
Hopefully you’ll find a way, but if not, it was a pleasure meeting you all.
anon said,
May 21, 2011 @ 3:03 pm
Why don’t you at least start accepting donations. I’d donate. And a huge amount of people care for the site.
Gregam said,
May 21, 2011 @ 3:20 pm
Loli/shota is freedom of speech in the US. Hosting here will be fine.
Danielakiiki said,
May 21, 2011 @ 3:29 pm
It might be useful to know the tech specs the current server/paheal has before trying to come up with realistic suggestions (IE Bandwidth needed, etc)
AnOniMouse said,
May 21, 2011 @ 6:04 pm
Oh shiiiii-
No my only solution would be as many banners as you can cram on every page. I may not like it, but I’d rather be a little pissed at dome combersome adds than no lulz and no fapping. I JUST COULD’NT TAKE IT!
Bobert said,
May 21, 2011 @ 6:05 pm
While I should email this idea, I’ll also make it public:
How about making paheal a semi-private site?
Give people a few weeks to make an account then prevent accounts from being made (perhaps allowing new users at a later date via referral if the financial issues settle). After the cutoff date, restrict non-users to only the first few pages of the gallery as well as preventing them from searching, while all users would have full access (i.e. the site like it is now).
Danielakiiki said,
May 21, 2011 @ 7:22 pm
Nice MrRaider. I E-mailed suggesting Japan, if not using windows server software isn’t a issue, then this might be a option….
http://www.jpstream.net/dedicated_business_level.shtml
The first 3 options come in significantly BELOW the $600 per month price.
News Robot Coalition said,
May 21, 2011 @ 8:04 pm
not4chan uses adultadworld.com for ads.
Remember the type of content that site hosts, that it’s US based(arizona), and that it almost never experiences downtime.
Don’t fret the small stuff guys.
Danielakiiki said,
May 21, 2011 @ 8:11 pm
News Robot Coalition, be sure to E-mail that to them to make certian they see it.
WhoamI said,
May 21, 2011 @ 8:26 pm
If “This site is basically run by the users and thats how it will always.” shouldn’t we, the users, have a say whether or not donations should be accepted?
I have no content to contribute, nor do I have access to some of the art other people have in order to post stuff soon after it’s released. I feel like a parasite, but I would definitely feel better if I could donate SOMETHING to help.
Breaker said,
May 21, 2011 @ 10:25 pm
Honestly, if the userbase is willing to donate money, why not let them? Sure, you want to keep the site free, but many of the users of Paheal really don’t care if they have to spend some money to keep the site running.
If nothing else, at least let us users try to support you until an alternate method is found.
PerryJ said,
May 21, 2011 @ 10:27 pm
I agree with the notion of looking into the ads of other sites with questionable content, like not4chan, lolita porn sites and such. If even a few of them are willing to work with you guys, you already win a lot.
Also as much as it might blow for you, but if it comes to either accepting donations or shutting down the site for good, you should seriously go with the former. I know I’d donate.
I’m glad you guys do all of this work here, no matter what happens. Screw the haters, I love this site.
nanu said,
May 21, 2011 @ 10:51 pm
If you accept Donations, the people want a Perfect Server, i mean, no bad gateway, no slows opens, Etc. The idea of a latin or japan, server have my support
aw man, this site will end lake “zer0 chan.org”?
News Robot Coalition said,
May 21, 2011 @ 11:10 pm
Yeah, I like Paheal enough(even with the DNP bullshit) to toss them a few $5 donations as I can spare it.
Anonymous said,
May 21, 2011 @ 11:13 pm
Bite the bullet and loose the damn lolicon. It’s the simplest, fullest and most long-term solution.
You know by now, surely, that it’ll have to happen sooner or later anyway.
Kromede said,
May 21, 2011 @ 11:32 pm
I’m in full agreeance with earlier mentions of $5 or more per month to cover finances. This site is seriously the only one I’d come out of my finances for per month and would do so for quite a while. To loose Paheal would indeed be a serious loss. Swallow that pride bro and charge us if need. Aside from the trolls out there, there are PLENTY of us willing to pay if it’d keep this site up and running.
Anonymous said,
May 22, 2011 @ 12:36 am
Solution: disallow ad blockers.
heh said,
May 22, 2011 @ 1:00 am
$850 a month my arse
Zeshgurr said,
May 22, 2011 @ 1:24 am
You could do what e.hentai did. Get rid of the lolicon on the main site, and create a subsite for content like that. Move that to a much smaller server, hosted where lolicon/shotacon is still legal, and host the larger site on a cheaper server located wherever.
I’m no lawyer, so I’m not sure if that would fly, but if they’re two separate sites part of a network, I can’t imagine it’d be too big of a deal. Maybe it couldn’t be a subdomain of paheal, but maybe it could be an offshoot domain, linked on the main site.
News Robot Coalition said,
May 22, 2011 @ 1:29 am
The problem with “losing the lolicon” is, in order to comply, Kim Possible, ALL of ATLA, Ben 10, Insp.Gadget, Pokemon(Misty, May, Dawn), Digimon, Naruto, Touhou, Madoka, Sonic, Foster’s, K-on, Index/Railgun, Family Guy, Simpsons, Miku, NGE, Harry Potter, Disgaea, etc would all have to go.
“No Exceptions.”
Apparently the key provision of Rule 34 is not being upheld anymore.
If such a rule were to go into place, I’d rather see Paheal shut down. We already have one g.e-hentai(and god does it suck). That’s all paheal would be.
Imaajfpstnfo said,
May 22, 2011 @ 1:59 am
DON’T LOSE LOLICON!
Even if it means to shut down, you have to defend your principles at any cost! Personally, I could do without scat and guro and such, but I wouldn’t even consider banning it if I had the choice. The Freedom of Speech has to be protected at any cost. I was angry enough that toddlerkon was banned, although that was a legal issue, I guess. If lolicon gets banned, tho, you’ll have to put me on DNP ( which is not really that much a loss for paheal, but it’s all I can do xD).
Personally, I’m all in favor of the idea of either donations or some kind of charity art-sale-thingy.
Parrotoga said,
May 22, 2011 @ 1:59 am
If the loli is lost I would rather just take it off entirely, there is no reason to self-censor to such a ridiculous level because of some puritan cocksmokers like the anons in this thread so its better to boycott the law by closing the site, saving the money, lawyering up, and taking it down for future generations to appreciate. Water the tree of freedom with the blood of those tyrannical judges!
also, we have a mascot, why not just put together some crappy mugs and shit then you don’t have to feel like you owe anyone.
Blue said,
May 22, 2011 @ 2:51 am
Why not offer paid accounts, then give them higher priority on the server? I’m sure a lot of people would be willing to pay 5 or 10 bucks a month to avoid 502 errors and mashing the Reload button.
MrAnon said,
May 22, 2011 @ 3:47 am
Well, I wouldn’t say e-hentai doesn’t allow loli/shota somewhere.
(you have to know where to look.)
But here’s a fact, MOST people come BECAUSE it’s free.
That’s just the facts.
Now course you can do a whole premium thing and whatnot.
And other stuff too (Like a hidden page or something.)
But pervs will be pervs.
And if paheal no longer satiates their lust, they shall just move on.
Like to hentaifoundry.
So, good luck in the money thing. Ain’t gonna get any from my broke self.
BlackoutWorm said,
May 22, 2011 @ 5:41 am
I want to buy the website from you guys if you are really forced to shut down.
But there are really things you can do to make more people visit the site, and to make more money.
First of all, the search feature doesn’t work. So either fix it or replace it with google search.
Add a text add above the comments box below the image.
Replace the text where it says “image only” with the actual image name.
Do not allow anonymous commenting, since it will make the page look more serious to people when trolls can’t spam.
The Ad blocker will kill pretty much all your commercial, so use flash ads instead. Or tell people to please disable ad blocker on paheal.
But if you’re forced to shut down, contact me and I will buy it.
RureFirtyFor said,
May 22, 2011 @ 5:48 am
Just allow donations, you fuck.
Or just set up some kind of stupid ‘special’ membership that peeps have to pay for just so it doesn’t feel like a donation.
phlegmington said,
May 22, 2011 @ 7:03 am
I would say take down the loli/shota stuff, because personally I don’t care about that..but if someone else said to take down the stuff I like I would get pissed. But I would rather you took donations than closing. Don’t close…
Jelly said,
May 22, 2011 @ 7:07 am
I don’t think they would throw it out. Not because of any sense of “protecting freedom of speech” but for the simple fact that, like News Robot Coalition said, it could gut a lot of the site’s content, depending on the interpretation of the laws.
A lot of things you don’t really think of as lolicon/shota fall under the category of drawn minors.
If you ever do accept donations I’d be there, definitely. I’m real sorry I can’t think of other ways to help.
loverofperfectfeet said,
May 22, 2011 @ 7:57 am
if I just decided to send you money anyways…would you accept it and put it towards the site?..in another month I can send you a $1000(us currency)getting a settlement and will have plenty of money left over…not leaving my real email because of a loop hole in a contract
Nick said,
May 22, 2011 @ 8:32 am
At the very least, PLEASE don’t remove the loli/shota material. It’s basically the only reason anyone comes to the site. I looked up the Wikipedia article about the issue and your recent comment and am a little confused. As best as I can understand it, loli/shota is pretty much legal, but I could be wrong. All in all, PLEASE don’t shut down the site OR remove the loli/shota material.
The_Bashar said,
May 22, 2011 @ 8:44 am
Have you considered running a store? The green background of the site should be fairly well known, as is the general concept of “Rule 34”. How about opening up one of those tshirt/mug store fronts that so many other sites do, and just keep everything on sale tasteful? Say coffee mugs that are just that shade of green with the Rule 34 logo from the site, and nothing more? Keep the store site on a different server from the main one so that there is no obvious link between the two unless you already know what to look for. With no links back and no URLs on the mugs, the manufacturers wouldn’t be able to track it back, money would come in, and it wouldn’t be charity. People would be buying a useful product from you while still helping to finance the site.
Or perhaps you could go the route of selling DVD ISO’s that contain most/all of the site content with a glossier interface. Selling physical CDs might land you in hot water, but say $25 to get a download of everything on the site in one go may or may not be worth it. Dunno, Palcomix manages to sell CDs of their stuff, might be worth emailing them and see what system they use. If you don’t want to use the entire site library, get a few volunteers to go through the database and prune out the poorly drawn/crappy screencap/etc stuff to make a distilled “Best of Paheal” CD and sell that.
Or a third option, you’ve got a lot of artists that post their stuff to Paheal directly. You could try setting up a “facilitated commissions” page. The local artists sign up to be available to do commissions through paheal. You give them the one stop interface, they give you a cut of every commission they get. Sort of like a Rule 34 eBay where Paheal gets say 10 cents on the dollar for being the middle man to hook people up.
Option 4, have a subscription server and a public server. They would have the exact same content, just the subscription server would naturally have a much smaller userbase that the servers could easily handle for lightning fast service. Don’t wanna pay? Thats fine, use the slower public server that has the timeouts and failed loads that we have now. Nobody would lose anything with this arrangement, while those that wanted to pay for faster downloads would be able to do so. Then use the profits from the pay server to fund the public.
Danielakiiki said,
May 22, 2011 @ 9:28 am
Question, does anyone know who http://rule34.booru.org/'s advertisers are? They have plenty of Lolicon and also toddlerkon.
Matt (NWA) said,
May 22, 2011 @ 10:12 am
Here are your options, and I hate to be so blunt about it. (I am a web dev, so I know the shit that goes into this) your options are: 1. ban all loli asap/ get more ads. 2. run the site from a computer/ get a static IP so you can host a web server for a web site. 3. add a premium that “removes the ads”. 4. find someone that can host and is willing to host on their static IP. 5. make money by advertising yourself and put that into a godaddy.com site (its a cheap site hoster). 6. just accept donations (second to last resort). or 7. last resort, just give up.
News Robot Coalition said,
May 22, 2011 @ 12:10 pm
Apparently they use adbright, feeadvertising.com, juicyads.com, and adjuggler.com.
You can check out who uses what with NoScript.
Anon said,
May 22, 2011 @ 1:14 pm
Make another website that Will pop up randomly and put adds on
it?
Punchi Punchi said,
May 22, 2011 @ 2:12 pm
I recommend an Argentinian server, all the guys I know don’t care/mind what they’re hosting
BlackoutWorm said,
May 22, 2011 @ 3:07 pm
@phlegmington loli is the main reason why I came here, and this site will die without it.
Donation button might work for now, but not in the long run. People doesn’t donate to a website.
You have to make the visitors number grow. And to do that, you gonna have to do a few things to bump up on the search engines. And to do that, you gonna have to advertise more.
BlackoutWorm said,
May 22, 2011 @ 3:21 pm
Also, someone said “put up a store”. That’s a terrible idea. A store is not what this website is all about, which means it would obviously fail. Because people do not come to your website to buy stuff. They go to amazon to buy stuff. And think about all the money you gonna have to put in to that store to keep in running. Not a good idea consider that paheal is already about to die.
Someone mentioned social media, and that’s the direction you should go.
The ability to share the pics on twitter, facebook, myspace and buzz will help a lot. And it’s not that hard to set up a script like that either. And you will also need a forum to keep a stable and “strong” community.
Oh, and upgrade the bandwidth as soon as you get some money.
loverofperfectfeet said,
May 22, 2011 @ 3:22 pm
I agree…people doesn’t donate and doesn’t afraid of anything XD…I miss my toddlerkon….just for the feet XD
Left-hand-Man said,
May 22, 2011 @ 4:14 pm
Just let BlackoutWorm take over if you decide to give up. It looks like your stupid enough to let this site go down thanks to a shit load of pride so why not hand over the responability to someone else? I see no “pride and joy” in losing what you are fighting to keep alive. It’s just moronic even since you are barely giving us users very many choices.
Lori said,
May 22, 2011 @ 4:22 pm
I say restrict loli and shota content of subjects 13 and under to a paid membership service.
Or something.
Dr-Cane said,
May 22, 2011 @ 5:20 pm
omg, i will miss you Titanium =(, and yes, spam goddamn ADS everywhere! whatever it has to take, Paheal R34 is like that broken home i’m happy not living it, but that i love anyway, how about artist doing commissions for paheal, i dunno, that’s not a donative and it’s something made by the users
Buhluzeeguh said,
May 22, 2011 @ 5:22 pm
The_Bashar, Zeshgurr, and Danielakiiki’s ideas all seem like they would work pretty well. Not to mention that between the seven, you can certainly try a bunch at once. Maybe try having the loli/shota server hosted on the Japanese domain Danielakiiki linked to and the rest all hosted in the US (where we’re all waiting for some dumbfuck who either can’t hide porn or lives in a place where people look through eachother’s mail to get arrested and bring the PROTECT Act to the Supreme Court) on a cheaper domain. And hell, an in-site commision service would be a good idea even if the site wasn’t about to go broke.
loverofperfectfeet said,
May 22, 2011 @ 5:39 pm
wow just do donations or paid priority service….like what that user suggested a few paragraphs up….
Shish said,
May 22, 2011 @ 5:58 pm
For those suggesting other hosts, note that paheal is currently overloading this server:
2 x Quad-core 2GHz Xenon
16GB RAM
600GB RAID1
Uncapped 250mbps network (averaging 150mbps, ie 50TB/mo)
For running smoothly, I’d like 2-3 of those…
PerryJ said,
May 22, 2011 @ 6:14 pm
I actually like the idea of a store. It would work like donations, just that people actually receive something in return. Do it like ED – Put the Paheal mascot and injokes related to Rule 34 onto some shirts and mugs and tell people that if they want to donate, they can simply buy something in the store.
RureFirtyFor said,
May 22, 2011 @ 6:32 pm
The ability to share the pics on twitter, facebook, myspace and buzz will help a lot.
>twitter
Ban.
>facebook
Ban.
>myspace
Ban.
>Buzz
…dunno
Did you forget we’re a PORN site, bro?
Anonymous said,
May 22, 2011 @ 7:32 pm
rule of the internet number 34 is about to vanished because of god damn govt fascists.
I’m not a gay or pedophile, nor enjoying their art. but arresting people for piece of fucking porn drawing picture is just stupid and unconstitutional. nowadays, gay porn is legal and hating on gay is prejudice, drawing loli picture is illegal and must banned. wtf is that logic?
mainstream medias are glamorize about gay shit and encouraging youth to become a homosexual. people doesn’t care about political war criminals who started war for their own profit and slayed millions of innocent people but astonishing about worthless sexual criminals on the evening news and moan for punish them, put on GPS on their legs, made a list and publish them. fucking pathetic.
I’m getting sick of those media propagandas and ignorance of public. all these fucking excessive generic attention to sex crime is just a decoy for draw the people’s attention from real serious crimes. it’s so obvious only 7 years old would knew that.
they banning porn drawing not because it’s loli or pedophile, because it threaten their business. porn industry and drug network, arms smuggling is secret source of money for political action and other many conspiratorial operation behinds dirty authority since long time ago. thanks to all those masonic secret societies that deeply infiltrates our community, corrupt our economy, trampling the constitution, manipulate out country and slowly dominating our nations. *cough* ..illu *cough* minati..
You know, actually Disney supplying the teenage prostitute for a small number of pedophile politicians and riches? some of their ‘whores’ are not even turned ten. you don’t have to believe me. i know that most of you probably never will until these things came up on the evening FOX news, which is why the truth is always ugly.
paheal, i want you to keep up on Loli/shota things but that’s just my wish. stick those things if you REALLY have a guts and faith in what you doing. i’m not talking about ‘challenge the law in court’. sooner or later there will be holocaust and genocide for all the free creation porns & mature arts on the internet, like common hand-drawn cartoons and flashes. i can assure that A Big Storm of Censorship would hit within near future. probably in the name of Copyrights & Minor Pornography Law and some media hypocrisy craps. just like when they banned the firearms, progress would be smooth like butters and nobody can’t claim it or even noticed unless we stick together and fight back, and as far as you know, it won’t happen.
there will be no ‘court fight’ or ‘constitutionality of the law’. when they decide to do, YOU will be the prey, YOU will be the witch and YOU will be the filthy pedophile sex criminal. and the people will cry and beg for your punishment and the extension of censorship to ‘protect our children’. if the plan goes as usual, you won’t get a chance from those almighty worldwide holy crusade of the internet censorship.
But don’t be afraid, really. fear is their typical weapon of mass destruction. it’s not matter of Loli/shota. It’s matter of time, and how we act. of course, you can just ban all the ‘illegal’ things from your site and attract advertisements. but when the time comes you will be realize things aren’t that simple as you thought.
I don’t know shit about site hosting, so i don’t have any fresh idea or practical advice. open a donation, change the host, try new way to get some ads, or increase the visitors number by some new fresh shit way.. but what i can tell you is like i said, if you don’y have enough guts, just close the site right now and don’t look back, for you.
i appreciate you to keep this site all this time and show us that rule of the internet number 34 is still alive, i want to give you my respect. but the money is just not even problem compared to upcoming trials of next age of the internet. if you had enough money to host you site and eat some pies, there would be more troubles awaiting upon the way of sacred rule of the interent # 34.
i wish your luck and the fate of the paheal either financial or legal way. i’ll always support you and wouldn’t blame you if you have to close the site. but one thing i want to tell you is that you wrote the part of history of the internet, whether good or bad way. no shit. and ultimately your action would influence the fate of the free speech of the internet, whether good or bad way.
peace and godspeed.
Danielakiiki said,
May 22, 2011 @ 8:19 pm
PerryJ, I like that idea but I don’t think that it’d be a ‘golden bullet’ to solve this problem. It might however, once the issue is solved, provide the site with a cash reserve to cover things like having a major advertiser cut and run. Hopefully our work and suggestions will result in Paheal moving to a new server (in a friendly county) with lower costs and also some new advertisers who don’t object to Loli/Shota.
PerryJ said,
May 22, 2011 @ 8:26 pm
Danielakiiki, I agree. It’s not a golden bullet, but combined with new advertisers that were suggested by others on here, it could make enough money to smoothen things out.
Jake said,
May 22, 2011 @ 9:17 pm
Get two servers. One in the US that handles most of the traffic but will redirect to a different server if loli/shota content is requested.
PBN said,
May 22, 2011 @ 10:38 pm
I feel uncomfortable with the idea of the pictures on the site being lost. How large would a torrent of all the pictures be? I’m guessing prohibitively large, but…
Dahentaiguy said,
May 22, 2011 @ 11:53 pm
I believe you are mistaken about loli/shota being illegal in the US. They are in the UK (this may be what you are thinking of), as well as some other European countries and Canada and Australia.
The history of the law was that twice in the US laws were made that banned it (back during the George W. Bush administration), each time though only a short time later the law was struck down by the court on 1st Ammendment grounds. The second law of this nature when it was struck down, PART of it remained. This is usually what confuses most people I think. The part which DID remain bans material that is so realistic that it could EASILY be mistaken for a real photo (photo realistic material). This would NOT include normal loli/shota or even most 3d computer renderings, as it would be required to be so realistic that it could easily be mistaken for the real thing in order to be illegal.
The only arrests for loli/shota hentai manga which I’ve heard of in the US were in the intervals of time BETWEEN when the laws were passed and when they were struck down (thus they DID violate the law as it was in effect at that time).
There is precedent for shota/loli hentai being ALLOWED in the US. You can find the anime Strike Witches on the AMERICAN Amazon.com website. SW has most of its characters having been naked at one time or other in the show, and PLENTY of panty shots. And yes this includes even the youngest character, 12 year old Francesca Lucchini, who’s nipples you can see when she’s naked in a large Roman-style bath in one episode. In fact the Japanese TV version shows LESS than that, with fog in the bath censoring out ALL character’s nipples.
Sntl_Cmdr said,
May 23, 2011 @ 12:14 am
If it did come down to removing the loli and shota, I sure as hell wouldn’t mind. Especially the shota. Loli can be ok, depending on the character and artist, but I usually don’t care so much for it. Hell, taking down the futa and guro would be even better.
GirlaPH said,
May 23, 2011 @ 12:33 am
The best way to prevent your website from shutting down is to get new ads that doesn’t complain anything about Loli/Shota/Cub. DO NOT SUBSCRIBE TO ALERTPAY!! THEY PREVENT ANYTHING THAT HAS TO DO WITH LOLI/SHOTA/CUB!!
rossignoll said,
May 23, 2011 @ 12:43 am
My two cents:
1. Gelbooru had recently gone through a similar phase, it seems, and managed to keep the site without losing loli/shota (for now, at least). I’m afraid I don’t know exactly what they did, but you can probably try to contact their admins and ask for tips.
2. Restrict searching for non-members (e.g., make them able to browse only 3 pages of any list).
3. Put less pictures on a page (e.g., 25). Less pics on a page -> more times people will load ads while browsing.
4. As someone said above, make a shop for selling Paheal-themed production. But that’s not all! You have that “Friends of Paheal” list, right? Why not try to issue a proclamation to all “FoP” artists to draw an exclusive pic for, e.g., making a t-shirt with it (it would be mild ecchi, of course; but a good artist’s mild ecchi is usually as appealing as his hardcore hentai). It would be voluntary, of course, but maybe some artists respond to it, and you’ll get merchandise that would probably sell quite well among rule 34 afficionados.
5. As a next-to-last measure, consider putting those annoying “ad loads instead of page – click here to continue to the page you wanted” ads, like Deviantart does. Yes, they are annoying, but not as annoying as some other alternatives.
6. If all else fails, wait until July, and then kill loli.
seatrooper said,
May 23, 2011 @ 7:43 am
I have no helpful suggestions to give, except that I agree with the Premium Membership idea. I would gladly pay to help keep the site up, and it would count as a fee, not a donation. The only thing to do is figure out what the Premium Membership would offer to get other people willing to put up the money; Things like no ads, special post options (colored names, avatars and such), access to a member’s only forum, any stupid superficial thing like that will do.
Danielakiiki said,
May 23, 2011 @ 8:29 am
If for some reason Paheal decides to go forward with PerryJ’s idea at some point, and it’s going to be the Safe for work varity of stuff, here’s a excellent outlet for it. http://www.cafepress.com/
MV said,
May 23, 2011 @ 10:43 am
Really the only ideas I have have already been covered; donations, premium accounts, and a store. If you go with any of the three, I’d spend money to try and help keep Paheal afloat. I’m stingy with money. I’ve never actually paid for anything on the net except physical products like from Amazon, but I’d be willing to pay to keep Paheal alive. I really, really don’t think you should eliminate loli/shota from the site, so for the most part those would be your only three options.
garf said,
May 23, 2011 @ 11:42 am
In Europe you get trouble or even jailed if you make propaganda for Nazi stuff and this site ( and the cosplay part ) has a lot of it. That could also be a reason for losing revenues and most likely a reason for closing the site if someone asked for it.
I think the problem is bigger than perhaps removing the loli part for hosting the site.
garf said,
May 23, 2011 @ 11:56 am
In Europe you get trouble or even jailed if you make propaganda for Nazi stuff and this site ( and the cosplay part ) has a lot of it. That could also be a reason for losing revenues and most likely the reason for closing the site if someone asked for it. I think the problem is bigger than perhaps removing the loli part for hosting the site.
Guy said,
May 23, 2011 @ 12:02 pm
Why not court ads with individual companies, or also sell Project Wonderful space?
Anonymous said,
May 23, 2011 @ 12:04 pm
I was just going to offer my help with moving your website to a cheap Russian hosting, but then I took a look at it (after just being to gelbooru) and thought about
>One of the main problems is that most advertisers are unwilling to work with a site that has content like ours
Your website is shit. I will not tolerate moderation. You lost my support long ago, but now it is sealed. I wish paheal dies. People from better places than USSA will build better websites.
Begone, chickenshit. Such admins don’t belong in Anonymous.
jester_23 said,
May 23, 2011 @ 12:25 pm
Okay. Don’t ASK for donations. But at least tell us where we can send our money to if we wanna give you guys something.
Anonymous said,
May 23, 2011 @ 1:19 pm
rule of the internet number 34 is about to vanished because of god damn govt fascists.
I’m not a gay or pedophile, nor enjoying their art. but arresting people for piece of fucking porn drawing picture is just stupid and unconstitutional. nowadays, gay porn is legal and hating on gay is prejudice, drawing loli picture is illegal and must banned. wtf is that logic?
mainstream medias are glamorize about gay shit and encouraging youth to become a homosexual. people doesn’t care about political war criminals who started war for their own profit and slayed millions of innocent people but astonishing about worthless sexual criminals on the evening news and moan for punish them, put on GPS on their legs, made a list and publish them. fucking pathetic.
I’m getting sick of those media propagandas and ignorance of public. all these fucking excessive generic attention to sex crime is just a decoy for draw the people’s attention from real serious crimes. it’s so obvious only 7 years old would knew that.
they banning porn drawing not because it’s loli or pedophile nor they really care about those things, because it threaten their business. porn industry and drug network, arms smuggling is secret source of money for political action and other many conspiratorial operation behinds dirty authority since long time ago. thanks to all those masonic secret societies that deeply infiltrates our community, corrupts our economy, trampling the constitution, take control of the government, manipulates our country and slowly dominating our nations. *cough* ..illu *cough* minati..
You know, actually Disney supplying the teenage prostitutes for a small number of pedophile politicians and riches? some of their ‘whores’ are not even turned ten. yeah, i really mean that corporation ‘Disney’. you don’t have to believe me. i know that most of people probably never will until one day these things came up on the evening FOX news, which is why the truth is always ugly.
paheal, i want you to keep up on Loli/shota things as usual but that’s just my wish. stick those things if you REALLY have a guts and faith in what you doing. i’m not talking about ‘challenge the law in court’. sooner or later there will be holocaust and genocide for all the free creation porns & mature arts on the internet, like common hand-drawn cartoons and flashes. i can assure that A Big Storm of Censorship would hit within near future. probably in the name of Copyrights & Minor Pornography Law and some media hypocrisy, propaganda craps. just like when they banned the firearms, progress would be smooth like butters and nobody can’t claim it or even noticed unless people stick together and fight back. and as far as you know, that won’t be happen.there will be no ‘court fight’ or ‘controversy about constitutionality of the law’. when they decide to do, YOU will be the prey, YOU will be the witch and YOU will be the filthy pedophile sex criminal. and the people will cry and beg for your punishment and the extension of censorship to ‘protect our children’. if the plan goes as usual, you won’t get a chance from those almighty worldwide holy crusade of the internet censorship.
But don’t be afraid, really. fear is their typical weapon of mass destruction. it’s not matter of Loli/shota. It’s matter of time, and how we act. of course, you can just ban all the ‘illegal’ things from your site and attract advertisements. but when the time comes you will be realize things aren’t that simple as you thought.
I don’t know shit about site hosting, so i don’t have any fresh idea or practical advice. accept donations, open a store, change the hosting, try new way to get some ads, or increase the visitors number by some new fresh shit way.. but what i can tell you is like i said, if you don’t have enough guts, just close the site right now and don’t look back, for you.
i appreciate you to keep this site all this time as a free public site and show us that rule of the internet number 34 is still alive. i want to give you my respect. but the money is just not even problem compared to upcoming trials of next age of the internet. if you had enough money to host you site and eat some pies, there would be more troubles awaiting upon the way of da sacred rule of the internet # 34, and road to lulz.
i wish your luck and the fate of the paheal either financial or legal way. i’ll always support you and won’t blame you in case if you have to close the site. but one thing i want to tell you is that you just wrote the part of history of the internet, and became a big part of the internet community, whether good or bad way. no shit. and ultimately your final decision would influence the future direction of the free speech of the internet, whether good or bad way.
peace and godspeed.
ps. sorry for the serious grammatical errors. English isn’t my first language.
DukeOnklett said,
May 23, 2011 @ 2:04 pm
lol look at all the pedophile tears!
Maybe they’re right though, and the only thing keeping the site relevant alongside dA, HF and all the others is cartoon child porn. In that case, you made a kingdom of shit for yourselves, now you have to roll in it.
DBloke said,
May 23, 2011 @ 3:02 pm
How about. Instead of having 20+ pictures that are slightly different have one that has them all in reduced size and have a link to a folder that has them all.
Think of all the bandwidth saved and grown from people that dont want like that pic
gykdu said,
May 23, 2011 @ 3:37 pm
Correct me if I`m wrong, but with ads, people=revenue right? And one thing that brings in people is a nice, well functioning website, right? Some things you can fix include the search bar, the tags page, and the bad gateway errors.
You could also set up premium accounts. Not like Palcomix where you have to pay to get a bulk of the pics, but has faster service, a genre grouping, that includes the above fixes, and bulk download packages.
Look into not4chan, and see who their advertisers are. If you ask, I`m sure they will tell.
If worse comes to worse, open up donations, find a cheaper hosting, merchandise, find a server in a different country (maybe Japan?), or sell it to BlackoutWorm.
In the end, losing the loli/shota is not the solution. That is the same as shutting down, as that is why many people come here, and you will lose all revenue.
calculator said,
May 23, 2011 @ 4:23 pm
the preimum no ad sugestion stated in an eariler post would be a good desicoin quote:How about premium mode where you don’t get ads, and shit?
$5 a month.
if for say 100 people “went premium” 500$ bucks a month would be earned more than half the money you need and with ads would make you gain money while you would need only 30 to get 150$ to pay your monthly cost
the only down side I see to this situation is the ad company might pay less for
your site.
Anon said,
May 23, 2011 @ 4:36 pm
What if you actually go by the E-Hentai approach? They have a separate site where they keep all the loli and shota.
I’m not exactly sure how that works but it makes sense in my head.
Thobias said,
May 23, 2011 @ 4:59 pm
@MV all your ideas would fail. Think about it. Just because you would donate, doesn’t mean everybody would donate all the time. Having a donate button would probably not hurt, but it wouldn’t help much either. A premium membership would kill the site. Noone would use it compaired to now. That would make them lose even more money.
It would work if the website was huge and very popular. Because then people would return to the site anyway. A store would fail because the actually need money, not spend money. Investing in a store would also obviously hurt the website. You need to think about the financel part of things here.
They need money. Which means, spending money on things that has nothing to do with the website (such as a store), is a very drastic and stupid thing to do.
There are a lot of ways to make a few bucks without doing stupid moves such as building a store or making it premium. You do things like that when you know you have money to risk. These people need money.
The cheapest and best way for them to make fast money is to socialize the site with sharing features a forum aand more advertising. It’s been mentioned a few times above, and it really is the only way to make money without spending money on the internet.
anon said,
May 23, 2011 @ 7:24 pm
Fucking shut the site down. the admin is nothing but a fucking moron and that he isnt taking care of the site. besides the amount of pics that are banned from uploading because of this shit. jet let it die and get it over with. if you guys dont like my idea, tough shit. deal with it!
Truesilver said,
May 23, 2011 @ 8:16 pm
I have no idea what I can do myself to help the situation, but the “Premium Status” doesnt sound like that bad of an idea. Or you can put multiple ads up, not just two, you can put three (One on the bottom too).
Truesilver said,
May 23, 2011 @ 8:17 pm
And I really love this site, because it is the largest collection of hentai of obscure characters that I haven’t the slightest where else to find.
Folgrimeo said,
May 23, 2011 @ 9:36 pm
I suggest banning loli/shota outright and promising that you’re making a concerted effort to not allow it. Maybe suspend the people who upload the stuff. There is PLENTY of other porn that is apparently alright (and in my opinion, more nasty). FurAffinity lost a major advertiser for the same reason. It’s just not safe, anywhere, to allow that content. Could have saved yourself some trouble if it were banned from the start.
…but if that also includes stuff that isn’t child porn but looks like it (like Sonic or some anime stuff), then… uh, good luck.
Shawn said,
May 23, 2011 @ 10:09 pm
Cut costs by getting rid of Rule 63 and Cosplay.
teh_lolrus said,
May 23, 2011 @ 10:21 pm
Do what you must, but I’d rather see this site die than cave to the censors. Lolicon and shotacon have been upheld worldwide as NOT CP, but sites are dropping like flies around teh interwebs because advertisers won’t support sites that host loli/shota. This is fail.
Besides which, the whole point of this site is that it’s Rule 34: If it exists, there’s porn of it. No exceptions. Cut the loli/shota, cut anything for that matter, and you’re violating the very concept of the site.
Just my two cents on the matter. You may now commence the hating.
Sntl_Cmdr said,
May 23, 2011 @ 10:53 pm
Anon, clearly you don’t give a shit about the site. So why did you even come here? Just to troll? Otherwise, don’t bother. I don’t think anyone else honestly cares that you don’t give a flying fuck about the site.
Diva said,
May 24, 2011 @ 12:28 am
Hey, Trolls! If you want porn to stay, go troll some innocents and link them here under false pretenses. Link them to the actuall site, not the front page.
The ends justify the means, if you ask me.
Urbane_Guerrilla said,
May 24, 2011 @ 12:47 am
Another one for setting up to take donations. It works for the comix sites. Don’t know why it wouldn’t work for you. When you’re having a crisis is not the time to think inflexibly.
hiigaran said,
May 24, 2011 @ 12:57 am
Make shirts and other merhcandise
HowDoIComputer said,
May 24, 2011 @ 1:24 am
Well, how about this. Instead of “asking” for donations, you let users “buy” “ad space” from the site at whatever price they are willing to spend?
Ken said,
May 24, 2011 @ 2:52 am
This website is a treasure of the web. The concept alone is brilliant, and the amount of contribution to that idea is outstanding. For it to be shut down would be tragic. Let’s see a PayPal donation link suggesting $1.00 USD min. Larger donations (ex. $10.00 USD) could receive a gift, such as a mousepad. That’s how public radio operates. I’d pay it. I would not, however, pay for a subscription.
JUST STOP said,
May 24, 2011 @ 2:58 am
“I will not say this again. Loli/shota are illegal in the US. Do some research. We are NOT going to be the ones who challenge the law in court.”
Are you so fucking stupid you can’t even open your beedy little eyes?
NOT4CHAN IS A US-BASED WEBSITE THAT HOSTS LOLICON/SHOTACON.
The only people convicted of “obscene” virtual child porn in the US are the ones that took a fucking plea deal because they were bullied into it and had a shit legal counsel. WWOEC is also a US-Based website that hosts loli/shota.
I don’t care what your dumb asses think about what you read on news sites. SCOTUS struck down the virtual CP proviso in the PROTECT Act.
If the shit really was illegal, WWOEC, 4chan, not4chan, 7chan, fapchan, Gelbooru, etc, would all have to ban lolicon on legal grounds. Not a single one of these sites does so, and every one of them adheres to the law.
Learn the law dipshits, and maybe, JUST MAYBE, you can have a decent website again. I’m so tired of dipshittery and ignorance about this subject. It’s fucking cut and dry.
“We are NOT going to be the ones who challenge the law in court.”
NO US website has had to challenge this shit in court. You monkeys have this idea that the feds are gonna raid your servers or some bogus bullshit.
Find out who other controversial sites use for hosting and ads, and go with it. Or shut Paheal down. It’s already violating “no exceptions” as it is. Censoring content will put that final nail in the coffin. And rule34.booru.org can take your place.
Anon said,
May 24, 2011 @ 3:20 am
>EDIT: I will not say this again. Loli/shota are illegal in the US. Do some research. We are NOT going to be the ones who challenge the law in court.
Not this shit again.
SuitCase said,
May 24, 2011 @ 4:28 am
Absolutely institute a subscription system. Provide no ads, better speed, more features (more thumbnails per page, for instance) and perhaps make like danbooru and allow access to loli\shota. This will convince people to pay, and won’t deny non-paying users anything they don’t have today.
You could charge $5/mo or $50/yr and receive both a big influx of cash and a recurring income stream that will pay the bills and then some. I don’t know the numbers on paheal or porn sites in general but I can easily imagine a thousand subscribers in the first month, if you provide an incentive.
Also, have you considered doing home-grown ads, where people pay you for ad slots directly? adultfanfiction.net does it, and while I don’t think they make a ton, I bet you could engineer a scheme that’d at least double your current $700 from shitty adultfriendfinder ads.
anonymous said,
May 24, 2011 @ 4:16 pm
Most artists aren’t going to appreciate people paying a fee to browse their reposted (always without permission), uncompensated-for artwork. A lot of artists turn a blind eye to their stuff being reupped to places like Paheal because it’s usually done in good faith that people are doing it so other people can enjoy their stuff and also for the possibility of getting more publicity for their own galleries.
Asking for voluntary donations to keep the servers running is a smarter idea.
Titanium said,
May 24, 2011 @ 4:57 pm
Thank you all for your suggestions and comments. I am still going through them, but as you can probably see, Wiiaboo has heard your call to accept donations.
Again, thank you all for the tips, ideas, and (well deserved) criticism.
bashound said,
July 6, 2011 @ 12:20 am
ok look i i am not a guy who like to spend money on the internet because of the risk of my identity being stolen so if you guys think of a way for us to pay by gift cards similar to nexon cash cards then i would be willing to buy it
Nostalgia said,
July 6, 2011 @ 4:22 am
Is it possible to sell the art like DeviantArt and make a profit? I am damn sure that I do not want RULE34-Paheal to be shut down on the basis of what was just said. You could also ask the users to sell different dimensions of the portraits they make (premium users only). Just an idea for a regular visitor to the site.
A. Nonny Mouse said,
July 6, 2011 @ 11:08 am
I have a couple of possibly helpful ideas for you.
first of all, check into native owned hosting companies in Canada and the US. I do not know about the states, but in Canada, servers hosted on reserve land by native peoples are subject to none of the provincial and almost none of the federal laws that regulate other hosting companies.
Secondly, do the online equivalent of a bake sale. Sell things on online auction sites, either crap you don’t need or merch donated by fans and advertisers, online memberships and other such stuff. An advertiser is more likely to habd over a thousand dollar gift certificate, which after his markups costs him 500, than to hand over 850 dollars in cash.
You could also auction off banners “August 2011 at Paheal was brought to you by [your name here] who made the highest bit in the donation auction. Thanks [your name here]! We fap in your honour!”
Rocky Lincourt said,
July 8, 2011 @ 9:01 pm
Hmmm…. maybe if you guy shut down your Cosplay and Rule63 sites, you might be able to keep Rule34 online. Personally I don’t think that anybody liked those other sites, anyways. I always loved Rule34, and I wish that it would return.
Loller said,
July 10, 2011 @ 4:58 am
850 dollars??? u fucken kiddin me right? its more than my monthly payment lol.
what would cost that much money on a site LOL
Reply from Titanium: 2000 visitors at any given time? Learn to internet.
Anonymous2011 said,
September 24, 2011 @ 6:20 am
What you should do if you don’t want to ask for donations is to
1 find small jobs like fence painting or mowing people lawns
2 make a movie
3 look for alternative hosting
4 make paintings and sell them
5 rob a bank
6 become a hitman
7 get a second life (double the lives double the money)
8 kill the hosting that’s making you pay $850 and steal all their money
9 ask very politely if people want to donate to keep the site up
Other said,
September 24, 2011 @ 8:07 am
Have you ever considered transfering with a differen’t cheaper host with mysql for a host at eukhost.com, they host AdultCartoonsUK.co.uk website, or godaddy.com who hosts WWOEC.com
ANoMouse said,
September 25, 2011 @ 3:08 pm
If the site is going down, its good thing i keep a back up the site on my Hard drive, i kind-of knew this site would go down some time or other, so i kept a backup copy of it safe. (it is amazing the amount of stuff the Internet forgets)
if you look on thepiratebay you can find a few site rips (As of 2009)
please don’t let rule34 die.