. . about what’s causing this.  But if you’ve been following along, you’ll note that we’ve had a lot of comments.  Most of them, though, seem to have been from positive guys. In fact Rodger pointed this out on Brian’s latest entry.

Sites like this generate way more lurkers than people who actually leave a comment. We’ve had about 20, 000 visitors or so, of which only a fraction have commented. That’s not a problem. But I’m left wondering how many of those visitors were poz vs. neg.  If the majority of those who’ve commented have in fact been poz, does that also apply to the lurkers?  We’ll likely never know. But nevertheless I can’t help wondering why there have been relatively few comments from neg guys, when here in Toronto they outnumber us poz guys four to one.

The campaign is, after all, heavily slanted towards getting neg guys’ attention. I mean isn’t that slogan: “If you were rejected every time you disclosed, would you?” intended to provoke neg guys not only to think about that concept but visit the website to learn more?

I have some possible theories why the site may have attracted more poz guys than neg guys.

1. Most of the facilitators are poz. Neg guys might have taken a look around and thought it’s not a place for them. Or perhaps they felt their views would just be shot down.

2. Some poz guys have a natural interest in all things HIV (I sort of do myself) so poz guys are over-represented when it comes to comments. Or perhaps it’s just more likely that poz guys want to talk about it, to dialogue with others. etc.

3. Perhaps many neg guys don’t want to discuss HIV, period. No way would those guys want to visit the site, yet alone leave comments.  It’s the head-in-the-sand syndrome, perhaps.

I’m sure there are more reasons; I’d really like to hear what other guys’ theories are on this though. I’d like to stress that I’m not questioning the value of the site. It’s a place where poz guys can and do dialogue about issues of concern to them - and let’s face it, there’s a dearth of similar venues - and It’s been invaluable for that alone. But I’m just trying to learn more.

Seems to me, be being gay is a bit of a journey. (For an animated  - and quite cute - look at this,  see here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SBLqqSmXIo )  In any event, there are times in our lives when we want to engage on issues like this and times when we don’t. If I look back on my life as a negative gay man, HIV sure wasn’t a subject I wanted to hear about most of the time. In fact, I studiously avoided any talk of it. Probably not a good strategy for a gay man in the 90’s, ’tis true, but there you are. Maybe that attitude is still common.

Anyway, waddya think? Why not much neg commenting here?