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The blogger we've all come to know and love for his educational services, The Bareback Top, has retired, posting a short farewell to readers last night. Retired from blogging, that is. We're sure he'll be keeping up with his other activities. The gay semi-consensual barebacking enthusiast wrote that "I am young, and I am far too smart to live on the edge." Could have fooled us! And yet, love to hate him as we did, he was one of the only gay guys who seemed to be telling the truth about how sex goes down in this town. Even if he was lying!

In late January, Mr. Top noted that the end might be near, as seven people knew of his identity. (The one person we've found so far who has met him has been unforthcoming with details.) In that same post, he also told a story about being scorned by a group of the gay at a bar (we're gonna go with The Phoenix), but that these fellas, when approached one-on-one, were totally into it and were pretty much ready to do him condom-free.

And that was the real point of Confessions of a Bareback Top, and why he was such a monster-piece. Just because he's only a step or two beyond being a rapist doesn't mean there aren't thousands, maybe tens of thousands, of guys like him in New York right now. Most of them are on Manhunt. (The rest are on Craigslist.) The Bareback Top was just the vocal, bloggy tip of the iceberg—he's actually just the only one who'd gotten honest and then articulated and printed what he was into. He was the unofficial spokesman for all the guys with "Safe Only!" all over their sex ads who are so quick to change their tune.

So maybe he wasn't the enemy, even if he was obnoxious and vain and obsessed and creepy. He's just the manifestation of a set of confused and untrustworthy homos out there. And he did a service—he was, after all, pretty much the only one keeping a record of these times. (Kinda sad, when Blogspot contains the historical literature of a time.) Anyway, when half his friends test positive over the next couple of years, at least he'll have this diary to remember his youth.

EARLIER: Crossing the Line: Confessions of a Bareback Top Speaks....