Fishwings

Nooo, titles are not for ego, and they most certainly don't mean nothing. You missed the whole point of the blog post. They're a reflection of how much a certain person has contributed positively to this site, their levels of commitment, and their writing ability. Of course, that doesn't mean that Hosted Authors/Promising Authors are necessarily "better people" (whatever your definition of a better person is) is than other authors, and it most certainly doesn't mean that you have to obsessively strive or care to obtain such a title. However, I think Hosted Authors and Promising Authors deserve a little respect for the hard work, effort, and skill they contribute to GA

So considerate hehe You're so fluffy I don't think I can resist...

I knew I wasn't the only one!!!

@Yettie Hur hur hur @MikeL If only readers knew then they'd review a lot more LOL

LOLOL

Me: "Hello. Thank you so much for taking the time to Beta my story. Here are the chapters to my story. Thanks." *1 day later* Me: "Hello, I just made a minor edit for chapter 3, so read this one instead." *2 days later* Me: "Hello, I just made a major edit for chapters 1, 2, 3, if you haven't started reading my story, here they are. If you have... here they are. I'm so sorry." *3 days later* Me: "Hello, I just rewrote chapters 1235678 in all it's entirety and added a prologue, epilogue, a preview to my next story because it's so riveting, and a fucking back story of the protagonist's sister's friend's mom when she went on a vacation to the Bahamas to have interspecific sex with a whale-shark. I deeply apologize for the inconvenience but these edits are of the utmost importance." What I imagine the Beta reader wants to say: "I hope you choke on a dinosaur dick." What the Beta usually says: "Don't worry about it! : )" RESPECT.

Ohh I see, that is unfortunate. Maybe I'll update my status and plug it into my signature or something so people in the forums can see it until you guys get it figured out LOL. You could additionally make a topic in the Lounge specifically for CSR weekly updates or something and then pin that... although idk how useful that would be either unless you could lock it so only admins can update it... anyways :0

Oh btw I think you have classy taste in music yettie, hehe

Hey that track is kinda sexy, makes me wanna do frisky things to my laptop Not really But it's still a good track Hope you feel better soon yettie. psstt by the way, it wasn't the aliens. I abducted you.

Well.... there goes my lunch. Thanks bro

Ahahaha I remembered reading ieshwar's prompt before I went to class. Cracked me up real good. Excellent way to start off the day

KC's statistics are right, but I can see where Tetrefine is coming from. Depending on where you live in/what community you are apart of, HIV might not be that prevalent at all. It also differs disproportionately between ethnicities and people of different lifestyles. It is also a harder disease to be transmitted as other venereal diseases such as HPV or herpes because it needs specific conditions for transmission to be successful (your sexual position, what type of wounds, your viral load count). However, HIV can also APPEAR to be much less prevalent because of the effectiveness of new antiretrovirals that have it way easier for people to hide their status. Also many people with AIDS just say they have cancer because they don't want the associated stigma. In short, your location determines whether HIV might or might not be prevalent, and new technologies and the stigma that is associated with AIDS have made the incidence of HIV infections appear to be lower. But of course... it is obviously still around.

Hey guys I was wondering, would it be possible to pin State of Mind to the top of the stories for awhile since it's being discussed? I know that it has been done for featured stories/discussed stories before on this screen: http://www.gayauthors.org/stories/ I think it's really easy for people to have missed this announcement and although I know that they'll be weekly reminders not everyone reads the news. Anyways just a suggestion I don't know who has the power to do that anyways.

What a great blog post! I agree, when I first came to GA I limited myself to not only one genre, but one Author one: Domluka. LOL. But then I started to read around... and really, there's great stuff everywhere. This is a colourful site.

Oh. My. God. I am literally the slowest person on earth. I FINALLY GET WHY BRENNAN TIED THEIR SHOELACES TOGETHER LOL, I think I read it too fast the first time around. OH GOD SO ADORABLE *dies*

I just read this story again :3 I liked it in the beginning already but I think I'm growing to really, really like it, probably 'cause I like the main character and shawn so much. Kudos to you for creating such a great protagonist (i think i already said that in my other review).

That.... was.... strangely... AWESOME :0 Second POV stories are so rare, and this was written very well. Very creepy. I hate dolls.

I don't think HIV disguises itself as one of our own cells? Unless you mean that when they hijack T-cell machinery and turn them into their virion producing factories, then yes, they pretty much use that as its hideout. Or that they remain latent within other lymphocytes so that they are indetectable until triggered. But I agree, that's one of the reasons (but not the main one) why similar latent type viruses are hard to get of completely. You have infected cells that act normal, but still harbour virion particles. The fact that HIV has such mutable protein components though is one of the major factors why vaccines and antibody treatments are probably never going to be successful -- retroviruses just mutant too quickly within a person. Add onto the fact that HIV targets the most important white blood cell type in our body, it makes your entire immune system appropriately self destructive. You have the commanding officers of your entire immune system telling all its soldiers to kill them and each other. I wish nanotechnology will be available soon, it sounds terribly cool :0 But gene therapy will most likely be available first.

NOmg our anatomy is not made for that, seriously, too many loose + delicate parts.

Wait, I don't think I nominated it. Whatever

I LOVE THIS STORY HELL YES, I THINK I nominated it but I have the memory span of a goldfish so I am not sure. It was the first Libby Drew thing that I read. And you know what they say... "Once you go Libby Drew you never go back." *fist pump*

Why isn't it plausible? I think this is a great breakthrough. HIV has always been the difficult virus to treat because of it's fickle envelope proteins but these rare cases will give us insight on inventing new ways to treat it in the future. I think the interesting thing is that the child was treated with only antiretrovirals while Timothy brown was treated in a totally different way. I honestly don't think antivirals will be the future for treatments though. It's more likely that some sort of gene therapy, something that might have the same effect as Timothy brown's scenario, will get rid of similarly persistent viruses.

But Narnia is wonderful :<

I know the feel .___.

That is a beautiful story :0 But honestly the first thing that came to mind when I read the title of this topic was: