pitman

I have to give some props to my city of Denver. Colorado has long been considered the fittest state in the country.  Men are really active here. We got a lot of bearded, lean mean that spend all their time rock climbing, biking, running, skiing, etc.
Every time I go on a run (often even the winter), I see dozens of incredibly sexy men often with their shirt off. Probably most are straight but still. 🥵

I agree that a high fiber diet is very helpful in cleaning out.  It's also important to understand the difference between soluble and insoluble fiber.  Soluble actually may slow down your digestion but will ultimately produce a good clean result.  Insoluble will move through you more quickly.  I think it's best to have a balance between them. 
https://www.healthline.com/health/soluble-vs-insoluble-fiber#insoluble-fibersources

Director Joao Pedro Rodriguez' latest film, O Ornitoligo (The Ornithologist), has been traveling the film festival circuit for the past several months. I'm looking forward to seeing it at SFMOMA as part of the SF Int'l Film Fest on 4-16.
 
http://www.sffilm.org/festival/lineup/the-ornithologist#.WN_mZza_3qQ

To build off what both @KensingtonHomo and @arnemgreeves stated, as a client some of the commentary on here is frustrating, and entirely unwarranted.  

When a query is posted looking for info/feedback on Provider X, posts by members who have no first hand knowledge, and no intention of engaging the provider, just to make disparaging comments on their looks, how unattractive they are, how they’re not the member’s type, etc. offers no value. I’ve posted previously about how it baffles me that these members think their post is in any way contributing to the thread.
I know I have many, many times opened a thread about a provider, clicked their RM link, viewed the profile, and thought “oh not for me!”, and I moved on. I don’t see why anyone has the need in the same scenario to instead of moving on, come back, and leave insulting commentary about the provider’s looks, style, writing ability, etc.. 
It’s beyond childish, and while there is a significant number trapped in their own little “femme bad, masc good” version of reality, the insults can, and do, cover everything - tattoos, piercings, hair colour, body hair, penis size, body fat/musculature, clothes they wear, ad infinitum. I agree with KH - the commentary says much more about the member, and his own fears, insecurities, internal self homophobia, than they do about any provider.  
There is, however, as noted a difference between these insulting comments (with NO first hand experience), and genuine criticism that comes from actual first hand experience. Whether that criticism is about provider looks (pics not the person or pics severely outdated or photoshopped), inability to preform (couldn’t get it up, not clean), rude personality, late or no show, cutting time short, asking for more than agreed fee OR skipping out with fee without providing services, etc., all of this is useful info to potential clients. That the client may be heated when making the post may result in a bit more of an editorialised critical post, but it’s still warranted. And I think it’s a two street - what’s fair game for a client to criticise, is fair game for a provider to as well. 
Ignore the Bitter Betties on here, as many of us do - or view them for the bit of comic relief they supply knowing how sad, and empty their lives must be. 
 
BBD 

Adam, 
As a client, this is my biggest frustration at being on here. I'm a feminine f@g, who has dealt with this femme hatred my whole life. I try to see these guys as being sad. They're so invested in a toxic form of masculinity that prevents them from enjoying variety ("I only fuck masculine muscle bottoms") and probably their own bodies. 
But I'm sure you see as a provider, and I see as a client, and in my life, the joke is on them because I have never wanted for lovers. And I'm happily married to a *gasp* masculine, baritone-voiced gorgeous man I've been with for over two decades. 
That they need to bash and disparage providers they deem unattractive says more about them then they want to admit. 

This chain is not about "reviews!"  A review occurs after a client meets a provider and then comments if the provider does or doesn't meet expectations, and yes those reviews can indeed be negative.
On the other hand, people making gratuitous comments revealing their opinion about the provider's body and how the provider looks based solely on the photos in and ad is not a "review." That is just an opinionated comment, that was not requested, and that is not at all necessary.
If I am on here asking about a provider, I want to know if someone met them, that they lived up to expectations,  that they matched what they said they would do, and they matched their photos.  That is a review. I do NOT want to know that some random person says "ooooh, they are too hairy, they are too old, they are too fat, their ears are funny, i doooon't like thaaaat" based solely on the photos.
If the original poster creates a chain on Company of Men they are clearly seeing the photos of the provider they ask about, and they know what they like -- and it's really hard to understand why some very insecure opinionated commenters need to broadcast their own personal bigotry, feel a need to "yuck someone else's yum", and clearly love to have an opportunity to body shame others.

One of Carter's less heralded but most significant achievements...
https://www.juancole.com/2023/02/carters-greatest-extinction.html

One of Carter's less heralded but most significant achievements...
https://www.juancole.com/2023/02/carters-greatest-extinction.html

I don’t get what’s the point of bringing this provider up every few months just to bash him “thing” or “bizarre” 

One of Carter's less heralded but most significant achievements...
https://www.juancole.com/2023/02/carters-greatest-extinction.html

One of Carter's less heralded but most significant achievements...
https://www.juancole.com/2023/02/carters-greatest-extinction.html

One of Carter's less heralded but most significant achievements...
https://www.juancole.com/2023/02/carters-greatest-extinction.html

One of Carter's less heralded but most significant achievements...
https://www.juancole.com/2023/02/carters-greatest-extinction.html

This clip is mislabelled.  Diana Ring did not join the series until 1966.  In any case it was a great show and an unforgettable theme song.
 

The members that like this shutdown are the ones who have been complaining because they were losing the argument.  
"Everyone is in favor of free speech. Hardly a day passes without its being extolled, but some people's idea of it is that they are free to say what they like, but if anyone else says anything back, that is an outrage"  Winston Churchill 
 

Which means that STDs are likely spreading in the bisexual community as well. 

The people I know who are positive and undetectable would never, ever go off their meds. 
That's insane as fuck.
Give your body a break?  It's the meds that are suppressing the disease.  Makes zero sense.
Fact: When you stop taking your meds, HIV begins to replicate as soon as 48-72 hours.
What's even more stupid is risking building an immunity to the meds that once worked when you go off your regime.  HIV is an incredibly smart disease.  It fills in the blanks beautifully when given the opportunity.  It's one of many things that continues to make this a very difficult disease to pin down and eradicate.
Sorry if any of this came off as angry...  Not mad at you @EZEtoGRU.  Just mad at the idiots who are given a chance to live a relatively normal life thanks to medical science and they still find a way to try to fuck it up.

I'm sorry to see it go.  It was one of the few places where I could always find a variety of viewpoints.  But there were some divisive posters who somehow never got weeded out.
Very grateful to the mods for trying to make it work.  Daddy once asked me if I'd like to be a moderator, but I wouldn't have been very tolerant: Pin the rules, one-month block for the first violation, six months for the second and permanent for the third.  Low threshold and no discussion, just as children learn boundaries and socialization skills.  Or not.
If the mods ever feel like giving a streamlined, less stressful, approach a try, I'll hope the Forum may come out of retirement one day.
In the meantime, it's been a real pleasure to interact with so many fine folks over the years!  Thanks for the great discussions!  🤗

Love ya @Lookin.  💗💗💗  And you are so right.  It has been a real pleasure.  And thanks for all the years of great discussions.  Although I imagine I'll see some of you over at gayguides.
Thank you @RadioRob first and foremost for everything you did to keep this entire website alive.  But also for the forum.  You have been a godsend.
I know you referenced the last few years, since that's your shelf life as someone running this place.  But I would like to add a few things from a historical perspective.  I've been active here about 20 years. For most of that I was intentionally quiet about potentially divisive political issues.  Since it's not good for escort business.  So it's not like the past two years is really anything new.
I knew Bill personally for most of that time, and got to know him pretty well when I was leading a fundraising drive for him and the site.  He told me "racism" was the issue he hated coming up most on the site.  And having a place to put that stuff was what the politics forum was for.  So in some ways it's always been where unwelcome things go to die - or not.  Several people have said it already, and it's true.  It's hard to split politics out of life.  Racism in escorting was an issue that kept coming up, for example - on the part of both providers and clients.  Before I was a loudmouth lib, I posted a ton about organizing for same sex marriage.  Which was a very unifying issue here, mostly.  And Bill and I were partners in crime in ranting and organizing against the Rentboy raid.  That's politics, specific to our community.  So you'll have to figure out what people can say, if anything, about same sex marriage or the politics of escorting.  Those may be the kinds of things @Orin mentioned that are near and dear to me, and many in this community.
Notwithstanding that politics is almost the oldest profession around, there was a marked change in tenor here about 2016, for obvious reasons.  I always found it amusing when Bill posted his Miss Manners/decorum logo.  And wanted us all to be polite.  Even as there was a massive and deepening culture war everywhere across America.  It was of course inevitably going to get in.  The Gays are very political.  And proudly so, when you think of everything our politics has won for us.  So I take this as very much a sign of the times.  And in many ways a positive one.  People are just getting sick of it.
I always told Bill, "Your website.  Your rules."   I think there is also something to be said for temperament.  Oz at his site always lets everything fly, because he mostly enjoys it and hates to set rules.  And it seems to work well at least in that forum.  The temperament here has always been different, for whatever reason.  My own view of this period is that the toxicity and poison has to be allowed to run its course.  Which it will, in its own time.  Like I said.  This is in some ways an encouraging sign.  But it was clearly very annoying to moderators here.  So now you get a well deserved break from the nonsense.  You deserve it.  Thanks again, guys!  I'll miss you.

It was the hurling of epithets, expletives, and profanities that soured some of the postings for me, but they were not so plentiful as to tarnish the Politics Forum experience.
While there were instances of off-topic wanderings, guilty of that myself, many of the postings were spot-on informative, thought-provoking, and enlightening, which I shall miss.

I have mixed feelings. I think it was helpful to know who is who. Also, based on the time they spent there, the frequency of their posting, and the blatant bitterness, it looks like some poor lonely guys do not have another place to vent their grievances. 
Besides, I wonder how we will keep politics out of the conversations. The same homophobia and racism that a few posters bragged about, will show up when we discuss non-political issues. After all, (nonpartisan) politics is everywhere. 

I agree that a high fiber diet is very helpful in cleaning out.  It's also important to understand the difference between soluble and insoluble fiber.  Soluble actually may slow down your digestion but will ultimately produce a good clean result.  Insoluble will move through you more quickly.  I think it's best to have a balance between them. 
https://www.healthline.com/health/soluble-vs-insoluble-fiber#insoluble-fibersources

I agree that a high fiber diet is very helpful in cleaning out.  It's also important to understand the difference between soluble and insoluble fiber.  Soluble actually may slow down your digestion but will ultimately produce a good clean result.  Insoluble will move through you more quickly.  I think it's best to have a balance between them. 
https://www.healthline.com/health/soluble-vs-insoluble-fiber#insoluble-fibersources

Stop digging.  You came across poorly, to him and to those of us who've read this thread.  You wanted to take his pics, he (politely) declined.  That should have been the end of that particular issue, but you became obnoxious and agressive by suggesting  he must have been burned and that he was dismissive.  That interpretation says tons about you, and nothing about him.
 

Since PD1_jap did not want to share his conversation. I contacted Lewis.
“Hi Lewis, I’m excited to see you this coming weekend. I have a quick question before we continue to speak about our meeting. I’m sure you get a lot of clients contacting you throughout the day. I’m curious in the past few days have you had anyone contact you and been rude toward you? Or called you rude, conceited, dismissive?”
Lewis - “ Hey hey, hahaha. What a funny question, it doesn’t happen often that someone is rude, but yes! Yesterday/day before that. How do you know? What makes you ask? Some guy contacted me and asked to take my pictures, so I asked for his professional link, he said he isn’t a pro but an amateur, so I replied “Sorry not interested. Thanks though” then he got butt hurt and asked me “How many people have fucked you over to be so dismissive” haha….so I told him to move on and don’t be so butt hurt by me politely declining his offer. Not heard back since thankfully. That’s it though. Why?”
”Thank you Lewis. As always I appreciate your time. I was asking as on an online forum someone mentioned you being dismissive toward them and I was curious why? Doesn’t sound like you.  I know from experience that is not your vibe. I was checking facts.
Lewis - “Ha hilarious! Some people are weird! Thanks for checking in……..” 
How coincidental only one person has called him dismissive in the last couple of days.