Letter from the publisher

Here at Gothamist, your satisfaction is important to us. Maybe not as important as finding new BBQ restaurants, panda porn, or slutty socialite pictures, but important. With that in mind, we wanted to let you know about some new stuff that we're doing on the site, and get your feedback.

1. Advertising: as you may have noticed, we've begun running some advertising in the right column and in the comments area on each post. Gothamist is not hugely expensive to run, but we do have server costs, and Jen has a pretty bad gambling problem (Caribbean Stud Poker and Pai-gow, mostly), so rather than call you up in the middle of the night screaming things like "We need five hundred bucks or they're going to break our legs!", we've decided to run these fairly unobtrusive ads. Ignore them if you aren't interested in what is being advertised- we're going to try to find products that appeal to us. For instance, Gothamist T-Shirts by Tiny Factory, or the Gothamist personals site that we've launched with Spring Street Networks. We're not planning to run any more ads than what are currently running, and we'll never do annoying stuff like pop-ups. If you want to buy advertising, or want to tell us how much we've sold out and betrayed you, email Jake.

2. We're hiring (sort-of): in a couple of weeks, we're going to add a new calendar section to Gothamist. It'll work as a New York City events listing for the stuff that we post about, and for other events that seem interesting. We need a couple of interns to help contribute to and run the new section, as well as helping us out with some other editorial tasks around the site. Of course, the work will be unpaid, except for our thanks and a free Gothamist T-shirt- but just think- you'll be making the same salary as Jen Chung! If you are interested, email Jake.

3. Suggestions- if you have any ideas for things you'd like to see at Gothamist, leave them in the comments section on this post.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

October 17, 2003 2:28 PM

Comments [rss]

Hoofin

That was the T-shirt that was only made in Medium?

I take nothing less than a "XXL" since Gap decided to be funny and shrink the size of the "XL" sometime in the very early part of the century.

You don't have that stupid plastic band running on the inseam of the shoulders, too?

jkottke

Instead of bothering with your own calendar, why not just use upcoming.org? It has RSS feeds so you can use MT to pull those in...plus you'll be contributing to Upcoming. And so on.

acquaintanceships

in the same way that you note when a story was tipped to you by a friend, it would be cool if you denoted which stuff is being pushed extra hard by publicists.

melissa

Okay, I shouldn't have assumed it was [headless] Jake. I did know that it wasn't Jen, because I am strangely fascinated with her boobage. Still, I'm just saying, that guy better be careful lest he fall.

Coolfer

More pandas! Oh, feedback about the site changes? Um...I'd prefer to see the personals below the fold, if it's possible to move that below the Google ads. Maybe it's just me, but I'd rather have to scroll down to see a poor, dateless New Yorker than have his/her mug looking right at me when I go to Gothamist. Again, just a preference. In general, I think the ads have been incorporated very well. They're not at all intrusive.

Jen

Yeah, that is so not me on the Tiny Factory site. I'll never be thin.

rachelleb

jake, i always though that was you and jen in the tiny ad. .. but now that i look again .. i can.. um.. tell that's not her.. 2 obvious reasons , not that i was looking !

jen in the shirt :

http://www.gothamist.com/archives/2003/09/23/tiny_factory_launches_gothamist_tshirts_for_sale.php

Frankenstein

I'm pretty sure that Amazon doesn't sell barbeque.

Though they do sell grills and mesquite chips.

jake

what's hilarious is that the people in the tiny factory ad are not me or jen- it's sam, the guy who made the t-shirts and the gothamist logo, and his girlfriend frances, i believe.

melissa

Dudes, Jen seriously needs a raise. At the very least, a well-placed "Amazon Wishlist" is in order.

The only ad that bothers me on the site is the tiny factory ad with the headless, upside-down Jake. I sincerely sorry that he will fall right off the page.

Jake of 8bitjoystick.com

Thanks for keeping the banner ads on a different server.

Greg Scher

You guys are one of my daily reads. Dig the banter.

Curtis

More Lenny, please!

rudderless

The ads don't bother me in the slightest bit and I can ony hope that one day you get hugely rich. Kudos on the blog!

Aaron

Is Jen available for parties? I'd pay to have Jen show up and entertain my guests.

Anonymous

I don't mind the ads at all, they are alot better than the majority of ads out there. I'm glad to see that they are mono tone and blend in nicely with the rest of the site, and allow the colorful images of the articles to remain a for frunt.

doshin

The ads are fine really, the real problem is the odds for Caribbean Stud Poker, especially the progressive bet. While the element of risk makes it a more attractive game than most people incorrectly assume, the progressive bet is highway robbery. Ah, but then again how will you ever win the 80K when you hit the once in a lifetime Royal Flush, if not for the progressive bet.

Save Gothamist, stop playing Caribbean Stud Poker!!!

(Recovering Caribbean Stud Junkie, Current Blackjack, Poker and Craps Junkie)

Karru

As with everything on your site, the advertising is being done with grace and style. Keep the panda porn coming -- being a nice guy who, according to New York Magazine, must keep his addiction satisfied.