Posted on: 09/20/14 07:11PM
I really can't fault Danbooru for that. It was either put loli and shota behind a paywall, or stop being able to make any money, even on images that aren't loli or shota. Websites can't run themselves, and they had server bills to pay (to Lozer).
Before you suggest donations, that doesn't really work. PayPal doesn't permit adult websites to use their services, an actual credit processing service is a headache to deal with, and this was before bitcoin became a commonly traded currency.
They could have gone our route and went for adult ads, but Danbooru's j-list ads are far less obtrusive, more reliable, and not nearly as prone to run into malware issues. Every time we have to pull an ad because of something like that, we've effectively lost any money it would have made us. We've also had to bounce between networks the past couple years due to various reasons. And it's a one time payment, and not that expensive at that, to unlock loli and shota. I have not just a gold, but a platinum Danbooru account simply to support the site that gives us 70% of our images.