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You are here: Home > Forum > A Place of Safety > General Talk > I'm thinking it's perhaps time to retire the thread "Total Inspiration".
I'm thinking it's perhaps time to retire the thread "Total Inspiration".  [message #69688] Mon, 25 May 2015 00:52 Go to next message
The Gay Deceiver is currently offline  The Gay Deceiver

Really getting into it
Location: Canada
Registered: December 2003
Messages: 869




I can't remember last when one singular thread here at APOS had taken over completely all activity; but, this appears to be the case with Timmy's, however well-intentioned, topic TOTAL INSPIRATION which he had hoped had been designed to start some creative juices and foster new stories generated through the images displayed and thought provoking conversation they may have provoked.

Unfortunately, whilst a story or two may arise from them, the bulk of the thread seems to have become nothing more than a teen-boy images' gallery.  Now don't get me wrong here... I love a good picture with the best of them; but, we now have 9-pages of them and counting, and one would think that would surely be enough to get even juices from the most frost-bitten reprobate amongst going.

Case in point:  Friday a event of Global interest occurred and nary a comment was made; which doesn't say a great deal about our interest, let alone my own, in World affairs.

I do note however that several attempts in the past weeks were made to open discussion of few worthy topics; but, none have been able to halt the juggernaut that TOTAL INSPIRATION has become.

Warren C. E. Austin
The Gay Deceiver
Toronto, Canada

P.S. Timmy, why is the American flag flying next to my user-name in threads lately, whereas it always used to be that of Canada?

[Updated on: Mon, 25 May 2015 00:54]




"... comme recherché qu'un délice callipygian"
Re: I'm thinking it's perhaps time to retire the thread "Total Inspiration".  [message #69689 is a reply to message #69688] Mon, 25 May 2015 02:04 Go to previous messageGo to next message
ChrisR is currently offline  ChrisR

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So let me get this straight -- because a particular discussion thread seems to have a high level of interest, we should retire it so the group may discuss the far-more-important-but-evidently-less-interesting topics? Sounds like something my less-than-stellar teachers would have cooked up. (Sorry, but I'm in a hyphen mood today.)

The best way to change directions is to start some of the worthy discussion topics yourself. For those of us who live in other places around the world, a brief background would be helpful rather than assuming we are all yearning for information about the situation in your Freedonia (or wherever) homeland. (Hail, Hail Freedonia!)

People may still be inspired over time to write new stories, or not. Or to remember old fiends, or not. But it's been a bit of fun.

(Sorry to hear about the flag. A few years back while traveling I was even advised it was safer to wear a Canadian flag!)
Re: I'm thinking it's perhaps time to retire the thread "Total Inspiration".  [message #69690 is a reply to message #69689] Mon, 25 May 2015 03:28 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Smokr is currently offline  Smokr

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What happened Friday? And if it's so world-shaking, why didn't you post about it?
I'm notorious for ignoring television, internet, and print news sources.



raysstories.com
Re: I'm thinking it's perhaps time to retire the thread "Total Inspiration".  [message #69694 is a reply to message #69688] Mon, 25 May 2015 19:42 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Pedro

Toe is in the water

Registered: March 2014
Messages: 93



The three longer stories that I have hosted here were inspired by pictures on the thread and I am working on a fourth (**).

So whilst I am grateful for the inspiration provided, I am somewhat ambivalent in my attitude to the thread. I would agree with Warren's comment that it is not a discussion, but a gallery. I too like a good picture but I do feel uncomfortable about some of the shots, especially those where the subject is pre-pubertal or appears vulnerable or uncomfortable with the situation they are in. The term voyeuristic comes to mind. I know artistic merit and 'beauty' play a part in my reaction to any particular photo and these are very subjective attributes.

I try to ask myself, if it were my son in the picture, would I mind if I found it posted on a public forum where old gits like myself can look at it?  Two out of the three I have used I would probably say no, but  the third, yes, I would mind, and yet in that one you do not see the boy's face and he is fully clothed. He is the youngest of the three but I think it more to do with the pose than his age. Did I say I was confused?

Am I advocating closure of the thread? Not really, but I don't want it to take over.

To me, this site is like a library, there for reference and reading. It's nice to have a some tasteful pictures on the walls as long as they don't distract from the ambience. There are galleries elsewhere on the street for those that are into the visual arts. 

Pedro

(**) I might need an editor for this one. Any volunteers? Preferably someone with a little knowledge of British politics/government, just to get the 'feel' right.




Pedro
Of ages and threads  [message #69696 is a reply to message #69688] Mon, 25 May 2015 22:51 Go to previous messageGo to next message
timmy

Has no life at all
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The thread is meant to show beauty. Most boys are most beautiful fully clothed. I have no particular concerns about the onset of puberty in the subjects posted since all are non naked pictures. I am not expecting folk to do more than enjoy a diverse pageant of good looking lads. For my own taste I think the less young age group is the more appealing aesthetically. The younger lads are pleasant, but so is a box of puppies or kittens. It is harder to imagine a young child in a story, and the pictures are intended to stir inspiration.

I'm not particularly exercised by age, though. A good writer has the ability to see an inspiring face and change the age to match the story. If you see a six year old beautiful lad and age him to 16 in your story that is your prerogative. Inspiration strikes us from all sorts of angles.

I agree that those where the subject appears to be in some way uncomfortable with the situation should be omitted.

[Updated on: Mon, 25 May 2015 22:53]




Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
Re: I'm thinking it's perhaps time to retire the thread "Total Inspiration".  [message #69697 is a reply to message #69694] Tue, 26 May 2015 02:17 Go to previous messageGo to next message
ChrisR is currently offline  ChrisR

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Pedro - Most of your work I've read here fits in the charming region I'd call 'vignettes'. They aren't lifelong tales, but that collection of tiny things in life that make it such a magical place. (The bit of the boy with the hole in his worn jacket is delightful.)

In a sense, they're exactly what I picture as a good use for these inspirational photos. It's not to see a picture and envision a seven-volume sequence about how the kid grows up to be a great wizard. It's more a quick shot at what we see in the world around us.

Well done.
Re: I'm thinking it's perhaps time to retire the thread "Total Inspiration".  [message #69698 is a reply to message #69688] Tue, 26 May 2015 10:40 Go to previous messageGo to next message
NW is currently offline  NW

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I also have few concerns about the popularity of the "Total Inspiration" thread - more to do with the positioning than with the content (although there have been a couple of images that have caused me to raise an eyebrow).

My worry is that, by always appearing as one of the top two threads, it will be among the first things anyone sees. If I were an adolescent looking for advice or assistance, or even just looking to engage in discussion on the stories (so mainly interested in the "Literary Merit" section), how would I feel about "total Inspiration"? I think I'd feel considerably put off ... some of the images might suggest (IMO wrongly, I stress) that the posters might get unhealthily interested in me.

It's a difficult question, and in my view tied in to some extent with the issue of what are the forums for. If there's going to be a role as a place for uncertain kids to venture, then I think that at the least the "Inspiration" pictures should be moved away from the main "General Talk" area. But it's a long time since we had many younger people posting here (I have no idea how many read but don't post).  If we are all happy / Timmy is happy to see this place as an area designed for mature gentlemen, then as long as the pictures do actually seem to suggest stories, or raise questions about what the kids involved are doing, where they've come from, where they are going etc, I don't see a massive problem with them. I'd still prefer them not to dominate the "General Talk" area, though ...



"The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. ... Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night devoid of stars." Martin Luther King
Re: Of ages and threads  [message #69701 is a reply to message #69696] Tue, 26 May 2015 19:16 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Pedro

Toe is in the water

Registered: March 2014
Messages: 93



Timmy said: "The younger lads are pleasant, but so is a box of puppies or kittens."

i knew new my thinking was confused and inconsistent. Somehow this one phrase has acted on my subconscious  and calmed some of my concerns!

NW has given his reasons for suggesting that the pictures/thread might be better in a separate area. I think I agree for much the same reasons.




Pedro
Re: Of ages and threads  [message #69702 is a reply to message #69701] Tue, 26 May 2015 20:14 Go to previous messageGo to next message
timmy

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"Pedro wrote on Tue, 26 May 2015 20:16"
Timmy said: "The younger lads are pleasant, but so is a box of puppies or kittens."

i knew new my thinking was confused and inconsistent. Somehow this one phrase has acted on my subconscious  and calmed some of my concerns!

NW has given his reasons for suggesting that the pictures/thread might be better in a separate area. I think I agree for much the same reasons.




--
The way the software works is that an update to a thread creates a place movement. Last updated first on the list.

If I created a separate display location that would emphasise the supposed importance of the thread. It would be the sole fish in that pond. I did, once, have a Tumblr thing. That is where most of the pictures I've posted come from. Apparently boys break the Tumblr terms and conditions. I have often wondered if girls do, too.

I rely on those who post pictures to use mature judgement. I prefer swimwear to underwear because swimwear is top clothing and underwear implies a different state of undress, despite showing less boy than swimwear. I'm less keen on amorous scenes because it is the boy that is to inspire a tale, not the scenario The pictures are better in the writers' and the readers' heads than on the page.

I suppose one can lust after some of the lads. Seriously though, they are not, at least in my view, objects of lust, of desire. They are objects of beauty. But one can imagine being in the physical presence of beauty. These are boys in whose presence I would be tongue tied, quite often. I have little idea how to talk to anyone who is very lovely. And yet I could not imagine myself in flagratne dilecto with any of them, not in anything more than passing and transient fancy, and at their age, not my own age.

Some of the reason for the thread is to remind us of our own fleeting youth.

[Updated on: Tue, 26 May 2015 20:16]




Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
Re: I'm thinking it's perhaps time to retire the thread "Total Inspiration".  [message #69711 is a reply to message #69702] Thu, 28 May 2015 00:03 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Mark

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Location: Earth
Registered: April 2013
Messages: 275



Now, if someone were to show me that "Total Inspiration" was keeping people from posting, either by starting new threads or leaving comments in other threads, then yes, I might be inclined to accept the idea of retiring the thread.

But, honestly, I do not see how that is the case. Yes, a lot of posts are being made there, but as the old saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words, and perhaps that is what makes it easier to post so much more in a thread based on pictures and in one of the many other strictly text-based threads here (and besides, I for one, when posting a text comment, like to be able to actually contribute something beyond just saying something like "I agree with so-and-so!"). Plus, no one is forcing anyone to even look at "Total Inspiration" at all, much less at the expense of other threads (quite a few of which have started and had multiple posts since Timmy started "TI"). And, as Smokr pointed out, if you find something in the news that you think might be of interest, don't wait for someone else to start a post about it (I also have no idea of what happened Friday that might be considered globally newsworthy).

And on the topic of an adolescent looking for advice or assistance, or even just looking to engage in discussion on the stories, were to come on here during the time that such topics as "Definite cult material here", "Justin Bieber has a face like a potato", or "All Dead Mormons are now Gay" were in the top few spots, how do you think they'd feel - especially if they were, for example, struggling Christian/Mormon youth or JB fans? Personally, I think they'd be put off a lot more by such threads than "TI" (and those three are only a very, very small sampling of the threads posted here over the years that could be similarly off-putting under the "right" circumstances...).

P.S. Warren isn't the only one having flag problems - ChrisR is listed as living in the "Western US" and yet seems to have a different national flag (and none of them the U.S. flag) next to his name every time he posts (he's got two posts and different national flags in this thread alone!).

[Updated on: Thu, 28 May 2015 00:04]

Actually, and after some thought, no  [message #69714 is a reply to message #69688] Thu, 28 May 2015 22:21 Go to previous messageGo to next message
timmy

Has no life at all
Location: UK, in Devon
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Messages: 13739



What can possibly be the objection to seeing beauty? Does a beautiful face embarrass you? Does a beautiful body?

There is nothing shameful about faces, bodies clothed in swimwear, even bodies clothed in underwear, though those do look like they are from the Sears Catalogue, rather.

No.

If the issue in your plural minds is that someone may have a wank looking at a clothed picture that is a weird issue. Or are you wanting to have a wank and feeling guilty? Just do that thing. No-one will know.

Next someone will suggest that the site no longer has stories featuring young gentlemen. Maybe I should replace them all with male/female Harlequin Romances?

Perhaps I should get rid of the health information next. After all, if we all abstain...

Maybe I should add biblical tracts?

Maybe I should spell "fuck" as "f**k"?

Some years ago we used to have someone post here. I forget his name. He went on to start a PG squeaky clean forum. If anyone dared post a rude word on it he was down on them like a ton of bricks because it "was for the kids"

Fuck that!

What a pale pink political correct pile of ordure that turned out to be. I suspect most of the posters were old men posing as kids in order to seduce kids. Create a gay kids forum and that is what you get.



Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
If nothing else...  [message #69716 is a reply to message #69688] Fri, 29 May 2015 11:18 Go to previous messageGo to next message
The Gay Deceiver is currently offline  The Gay Deceiver

Really getting into it
Location: Canada
Registered: December 2003
Messages: 869




my comments at the top of this thread have gotten people motivated, with several new threads generating responses, and the focus once more not being entirely on one thread.

It had never been my intention to ban comment or conversation or the portrayal of comely youth who could perhaps inspire others to greatness; but, more to draw attention to just how much focus had been placed on the one singular subject.

I do think that perhaps the topic should be moved to the LITERARY MERIT portion of the board, which would solve the problem of the thread's apparent focus; but, not discontinue more of the same should that be the consensus amongst our membership.

Warren C. E. Austin
The Gay Deceiver
Toronto, Canada



"... comme recherché qu'un délice callipygian"
Re: If nothing else...  [message #69717 is a reply to message #69716] Fri, 29 May 2015 13:44 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Smokr is currently offline  Smokr

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No one has told me what worthy news article was missed and not discussed. I'm growing very curious.
As for the possible prurient use of the Total Inspiration thread, you get that even with things like the aforementioned Sears Catalog and most of the programming on the Disney channel. If I get one more request for a Sprouse twins/Life on Deck story I'm going to stop writing sex in any of my stories with characters less than 21.

P.S. Thanks to the member who pointed me to the site where I could host my site for free for a while. I wish he'd allow me to thank him publicly but he'd rather it remain anonymous. But without his help my site would still be offline until I get called back to work.

[Updated on: Fri, 29 May 2015 13:52]




raysstories.com
Re: If nothing else...  [message #69718 is a reply to message #69717] Fri, 29 May 2015 14:10 Go to previous messageGo to next message
timmy

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Messages: 13739



Quote:
Smokr wrote on Fri, 29 May 2015 14:44No one has told me what worthy news article was missed and not discussed. I'm growing very curious.
As for the possible prurient use of the Total Inspiration thread, you get that even with things like the aforementioned Sears Catalog and most of the programming on the Disney channel. If I get one more request for a Sprouse twins/Life on Deck story I'm going to stop writing sex in any of my stories with characters less than 21.

P.S. Thanks to the member who pointed me to the site where I could host my site for free for a while. I wish he'd allow me to thank him publicly but he'd rather it remain anonymous. But without his help my site would still be offline until I get called back to work.

--
There was a picture of a boy in a shower in the UK Argos catalogue when I was a teenager. He had the most glorious bum. I wish I'd kept that picture. He and I had many showers together.



Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
Re: If nothing else...  [message #69722 is a reply to message #69718] Fri, 29 May 2015 21:08 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Smokr is currently offline  Smokr

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An Argos catalog had a nude boy in the shower? What were they trying to sell?



raysstories.com
Re: If nothing else...  [message #69723 is a reply to message #69722] Fri, 29 May 2015 21:23 Go to previous messageGo to next message
timmy

Has no life at all
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I have no idea. I just know I was sold. It was tastefully misted up, but what a rump!



Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
Re: If nothing else...  [message #69726 is a reply to message #69717] Sat, 30 May 2015 04:01 Go to previous messageGo to next message
ChrisR is currently offline  ChrisR

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Smokr - I'm going to take a WAG and presume it was the Irish vote. Haven't seen it discussed here. Not sure what the immediate impact is for young teens who are just trying to survive from age 13 to age 14, but older ones could have some interest.
Re: I'm thinking it's perhaps time to retire the thread "Total Inspiration".  [message #69727 is a reply to message #69711] Sat, 30 May 2015 04:06 Go to previous messageGo to next message
ChrisR is currently offline  ChrisR

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Hey - a boy has to travel, doesn't he? Found an SR-71 cheap on an army surplus site. Might as well travel with class while you're at it!
Re: I'm thinking it's perhaps time to retire the thread "Total Inspiration".  [message #69728 is a reply to message #69727] Sat, 30 May 2015 07:17 Go to previous message
Smokr is currently offline  Smokr

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Yeah, I don't know about the Irish vote being the worthy news not mentioned. Maybe.
You know, the only thing I can find wrong with the inspiration thread is that if I would have come across it when I was a teen, it would have occupied quite a bit of my time. LOL
Oh, and I would have felt very inferior, as I looked nothing like any of them.



raysstories.com
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