Originally Posted by gaybucks_chip
One can be a shrewd business operator AND work in ways that benefit the community as a whole, particularly in this business. There is a whole school of thought about this style of doing business, including some MBA programs that focus on that style of doing business, and many companies are discovering this. It requires a different mindset than most are used to, but to say it's ludicrous and hypocritical is not an accurate statement.
Originally Posted by XXXWriterDude:
So essentially you are saying, "But the way ***I*** think people should do business is the right way." That seems to be the whole basis for your objections, Chip.
No, not saying that at all, I was addressing the notion that it was "ludicrous" to indicate that cooperation is impossible. I would have thought you were astute enough to catch that.

Originally Posted by Gaybucks_Chip:
I've said that the gay adult community is a double minority and should, for the health of the community, make more effort to work together, but I've never said we're *different*, just that we, as a community, would be more successful if we band together rather than splinter.
Originally Posted by XXXWriterDude:
I think it's time to take off the rose-colored glasses, Pollyana.
Think what you will. Being optimistic about what's possible is different than being unrealistic. And as Brian said, these companies putting on these shows are representing them as opportunities for the community to come together. In that context, the hope that people sponsoring events that are supposed to foster unity within the community is not unreasonable, and shouldn't be unrealistic.

Originally Posted by Gaybucks_Chip:
The mature way being to try to pretend that people aren't concerned, so you can ignore the issue and hope it will go away?
Originally Posted by XXX WriterDude:
In a sense, yes.
Wow. Talk about rose colored glasses. Pretty amazing that a company whose business it is to communicate to the industry is consciously and apparently intentionally refusing to communicate to the industry on an issue that is obviously important to a significant number of people in the industry.

Originally Posted by Gaybucks_Chip:
People can have healthy disagreements on issues and still share the same community with others.
Originally Posted by XXXWriterDude:
Tell that to the guy who called us all "scumbags."
I didn't read the entire thread back but I don't think I said anything like that, nor do I condone that sort of name calling. However, at a certain point, disingenuous statements do tend to speak for themselves, and whether stated or not, many people may feel what one person stated.

Originally Posted by Gaybucks_Chip:
If the parties that haven't addressed the issue that clearly concerns a number of people in the community want to solve the problem, all they need to do is communicate about it.
Originally Posted by XXXWriterDude:
If that's true, then I think that these people need to bring benefit of the doubt to the table, and not infer things as fact based on innuendo or things they've heard. You can spin it any way you want, but the fact is this thread consists of nothing but conjecture from sketchy sources and is salaciously slanderous in nature. As far as I'm concerned, that's not the right way to go about getting answers from people.
And I think that since you've pointed that out, several posters have changed the tone of what they've been saying. Yet, they are still greeted with stony silence. And as you've said above, apparently AVN believes that stony silence is the right way to handle the situation, so therefore, it wouldn't matter how friendly and charming the thread is, there still would not have been any answers.