Posts made by eobox91103

@blablarg18 said in Pope Emeritus (aka former Pope) Benedict XVI dead @ 95:

https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/ratzinger-vatican-ii
I don't know about this magazine, merely that the link turned up quickly in a search for "ratzinger theologian vatican 2".

Thanks for the link. Commonweal is a reliable source; I remember reading/citing it several times as an undergrad.

The article shows that Ratzinger was what would be considered "liberal" in the 1960's, but definitely changed his views. Those who do forensic psychology could have a field day in examining his motivation.

He will probably be remembered in LGBT circles for his 1986 letter On the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons (https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_19861001_homosexual-persons_en.html ). On a first read of that document, people saw hope when he said that homosexual orientation might not be a choice "in certain cases," and thus the person would not be culpable for engaging in homosexual activity. Unfortunately, he went on to insist that all such activity was "objectively disordered." It's a bit like saying "you were born a bird, and thus the desire to fly is not wrong, but if you do fly, it's a sin." (This bird metaphor is admittedly an oversimplification of the interplay between the very complex topics of free will and sin.)

While I am not a member of the Catholic church, I probably have more respect for it than most LGBT people. I also respect LGBT people who have a long family and cultural rooting in Catholicism, and thus live a difficult life with one foot in each community. My first partner was among that group, and life was a challenge for him.

@blablarg18 said in Pope Emeritus (aka former Pope) Benedict XVI dead @ 95:

Reality is a vast mosaic, none of us get to see it all.

Very true! I sometimes use the metaphor of people standing in a circle around an elephant--no one person gets the full concept.

I think it would help the discussion if there were some links or references, especially when an assertion like, "As a young theologian he [Ratzinger] was the key liberal voice at the Vatican." This is not the presumed narrative, so a link to something he wrote/published in that time frame would be very useful.

@blablarg18 said in Pope Emeritus (aka former Pope) Benedict XVI dead @ 95:

I don't ... claim to know everything.

Your post suggests otherwise.

There have been many very lengthy discussion threads on this topic, and I don't want to start another one...but the most likely reason is that the copyright owner asked the site to remove the torrent, and site management complied with the request. Some studios are very thorough about finding their material and asking for it to be removed. That's their right if they are the copyright owner. This site's management is very thorough about complying with those legal requests.

It's staged. See https://pbc.xxx/wiki/Category:Czech_Gay_Fantasy_models for a listing of some of the models that worked it.

Too bad it's not real; it would be fun to visit.

@FDS2000 That's a good approach. It's a gold mine if there's a brand new freeleech torrent and you download just a few of the files, and keep the thing running. You won't be "charged" for the download, but you should get lot of upload credit. You want to keep that torrent active, which I think is what you mean when you say "keep it in my download area."

This also works for non-freeleech torrents, but you will be "charged" with the amount that you download. Whether freeleech or not, check to be sure that there are other people who are leeching the torrent. For example, I just did a search on freeleech torrents, and here's a snip of the results:

The second one could work out well for you: Notice that there are many leechers compared to seeders, and also nine files, all about 1 GB each. I'd select one, or two of those and let the system work. It doesn't matter whether you like the content or not; you're acting as a "distribution hub" for other hungry users.

I hope this works for you.

What an amusing domain name! When I first saw it, my mind went to "Lad Suck," but now I see it means "Lads UK." I wonder what that says about me...

@kalayaan The "pause" symbol in the first image over the guy's asshole is amusing. Does it mean, "stop fucking me?"

@ianfontinell said in DMCA takedowns ( Access denied!):

Likely a duplicate. If you check the full URL when you're on the torrent page you'll see that theres an identifier that saying it's a duplicate file and therefore neither you nor other members can see the torrent anymore. If it was a DMCA you would have been informed in your inbox.

This sounds right. I think the way the system works is that if a torrent is removed for being a duplicate, it isn't really taken out of the system; it just becomes invisible so that people who are leeching it can finish the file(s). It's a nice feature, because that way leechers don't get stuck with just a partial download.

The models are Ian Ivanovic (who gets fucked) and Rosta Benecky (the "hunter").

At the risk of repeating myself, I really think that we've beaten this topic to death. Before posting another item here, may I suggest that the Gentle Member re-read the preceding 200 posts, and then consider two things:

• Was my question already answered?
• Will my new post add anything to the discussion?

I think the bottom (!) line is that people upload torrents, and moderators are sometimes forced to remove some of those torrents. It has always been that way, and always will be. It's inherent in peer-to-peer file sharing.

I am thankful for members who upload things, and I am thankful for moderators who keep the site safe and available for all of us.

In the mean time,

When asked this question, a friend of mine responded, "middle."

@gizmo4005 Welcome! I work in California part time.

There are various tips and tricks (!) to be found in the forum. I'd suggest a couple of things if you're new to torrenting:

• Keeping a good ratio is important. If you're new, avoid downloading huge collections. Even a 5 GB DVD can kill a ratio if you don't have a lot of uploads.
• You'll get seed points (which can be converted to upload traffic) if you have torrents seeding on here, even if nobody is actually taking your data...so keep things available to seed for a while even if you're tempted to junk the material.
• Search the site frequently, and if you see a new "freeleech" torrent, download it if you have room. You won't get charged for the download volume, and if it's fresh enough, you'll get "free" upload volume.
• If you see a fairly recent torrent that has multiple files, download just a few of them (10% or so), and when you complete those, you will become a source for other users who are downloading the whole thing. I recently downloaded half a gig of a 45 GB torrent, and my seed ratio for that torrent alone is now over 100.

I hope this helps. Happy torrenting.

@Rotron said in Pornhub users in Louisiana now have to submit government ID to access the site:

I for one was never regulated on anything when I was a child. I grew up freely and I think laws like these only messes up what comes naturally for a man

Ah, OK, so I'm not going blind...I think this addresses your edit.

What you say above applies in many areas. My parents took a characteristically European view of alcohol with their children: It was not forbidden, and we were welcome to taste--or even have--the same beverage they often drank with dinner. Like most children, I found the taste dreadful and stayed away from it--not because it was forbidden, but because I didn't like it. I had some mates in school who drank simply because it was forbidden to them, and the outcomes were not good.

Once I got to university, things were different. I still remember my first serious overconsumption...it was with American bourbon whisky mixed with 7-up. That was several years ago, and I still can't come anywhere near that stuff. (A good single malt Scotch? That's a different story, but I digress...)

@Rotron said in Pornhub users in Louisiana now have to submit government ID to access the site:

Nothing's gonna stop a male adolescent get what he's looking for.

Ah, but people will try. I worked for a while at a small firm that wanted to keep tight control over what websites staff could visit. They didn't want to invest in a commercial net-nanny service, so they had a "blacklist" of websites and character strings. One forbidden combination was s-e-x, which made it very clumsy for me to work with a colleague in the UK at the University of Essex.

@Rotron Thank you for posting this. I note two things here:

• I can understand the need for porn providers to take "reasonable care" to not distribute their material to minors, much like a shop clerk can ask for ID for purchases of alcohol or tobacco. The clerk, though, keeps no record of the purchaser. This state system presumably accumulates a database with unknown privacy protection. I think it will be amusing to see how many prominent persons, including elected government officials, become listed in (and leaked from) the database.
• Most family values/anti-porn/anti-governnent-intrusion-into-our-lives groups usually argue that the parents of a minor should make decisions on what their child experiences, not a government bureaucracy. There are porn filters/net-nannies/etc. that parents can use with some success. The Louisiana law overrides parental prerogative in favor of letting The Big Deep State make these decisions. This would seem inconsistent with their overall philosophy.

@ianfontinell I still have to log in to see that...but I do remember meeting a 19 year old guy from Long Island, and a good time was had by all. That's a nice enough memory to tide me over.

I don't know what sin(s) "tkhuma" is thought to have committed, but he's only banned from logging in and posting. He can still read the forums

@Mrker1234 said in Will the 'Golden Era' of Gay Sex Movies with proper storyline ever make a comeback?:

Most are now designed for the web and to allow people to get off quickly.

And the irony, for me, is that I find all the "pre-sex" stuff to be more arousing: The search, the look, the returned glance, the first brush of hands together, the first kiss, etc. Those are the things that are unique with each person. Once we get into the territory of a medical textbook, it's all pretty much the same on screen. (In real life, sex is more exciting and individualised because people talk to each other, even if only to say "what do you like?" or "please lick my elbow." One doesn't have that in porn because even with good story lines there's a director dictating the action.)

It's not that different than young people now seeing something like a letter or email with full paragraphs and actual punctuation as hopelessly boring and prefer/use a text with everything abbreviated and a couple of emojis

That's a very interesting and perceptive connection! I think the similarity here is noting many peoples' failure to distinguish between something functional to be done quickly and something to be savored over time. An encounter with a passing jogger who just wants a quick suck/cum/zip back up will soon be as forgotten as a text message saying "running late see you in 10." For that matter, forget the jogger--whip out the porn and soak a tissue in less than a minute.

While I don't consider myself "old" or even "middle-aged," I appreciate the care involved with writing cards/letters and thus I send them as well. I know that many years from now I will thumb through them fondly remembering the people who wrote and handled them. One doesn't get that feeling pulling an old email from an archived hard drive.

@tkhuma Posting an image will get you better luck than Twitter links--many people don't like to sail on Elon Musk's sinking ship.

I think this thread has run its course. I think we've all concluded that:

• Some person or people rather indiscriminately puts/put one-star ratings on some torrents.
• Those ratings do not seem to bear any correlation to the quality of said torrent.
• Those ratings could be seen as insulting to the uploader, but regardless of the rater's intention, the efforts of uploaders are to be appreciated.
• The overall star rating system is of questionable value.