# Flaming Bags of Poop = Salon **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [December 3, 2001, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flaming-bags-of-poop-salon/96574 "2001-12-03T05:15:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![NotWithoutRage](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/22d042/32.png) [@NotWithoutRage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NotWithoutRage)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2001, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flaming-bags-of-poop-salon/96574/1 "2001-12-03T05:15:20Z")
Dear motherfuckers at Salon, A few months ago, you tried to get me to pay for your Ultra Extra Fabulous Premium Service. I said no. Lots of people said yes, obviously, because you are still in business. My gripe is not with you putting this service into effect. I think it was an okay idea. Howthefuckever, When I _do_ visit your sight, and click on one of the free links, I do NOT fucking need to see a FULL page ad for a movie, shampoo, or whatever… it’s just unneccessary. I clicked because I wanted to read the story, and instead, I have to click through the huge ad to get to the story. It’s like Cartman’s search for the fucking clitoris. Look, if you have Premium Service, GET RID of the fucking ads. Or at least make them less than the FULL SCREEN. Cunts. ---
**Author:** ![NotWithoutRage](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/22d042/32.png) [@NotWithoutRage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NotWithoutRage)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2001, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flaming-bags-of-poop-salon/96574/2 "2001-12-03T05:17:54Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by NotWithoutRage \* > \*\* > > When I _do_ visit your sight, (Hmm, and I learned to spell when… it should read site. Thank you!) \*\* ---
**Author:** ![Daowajan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3bc359/32.png) [@Daowajan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daowajan)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2001, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flaming-bags-of-poop-salon/96574/3 "2001-12-03T05:25:11Z")
But if they didn’t assault people with ads, how would they get you to pop for the premium service? I went through the same thing with the message board company I just dumped. They had at least three pop-ups per pageview, ads that wouldn’t close unless you found a special “close this window” link, talking ads (those were the worst!), ads that FOLLOWED YOUR FREAKING CURSOR, and stuff that attempted to place an advertisement file on your hard drive. Every time they came out with a new pay service, the advertising would get that much more annoying. Eventually I gave up and went with one of the companies that gives you a board you implant into your site. Online companies are definitely the pushiest when it comes to this crap. “GIVE UP AND PAY US NOW.” ---
**Author:** ![THespos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8c91f0/32.png) [@THespos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/THespos)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2001, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flaming-bags-of-poop-salon/96574/4 "2001-12-03T13:34:52Z")
So I guess they should just keep giving you content for free until they run out of money and go out of business? Folks, publishers need to pay the bills somehow. **NotWithoutRage** , you indicated that you didn’t want to sign up for their premium subscription, so you’re not willing to pay directly for Salon’s content. The alternative is supporting the content with ads. You don’t want to see the ads? Well then how is the publisher going to monetize his content? You shouldn’t expect that the people who elected to support the publisher with subscription fees should be giving you a free ride as well. If you like Salon and you want to support them, then pay for a subscription and maybe the annoying ads will go away. ---
**Author:** ![PhiloVance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e19adc/32.png) [@PhiloVance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhiloVance)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2001, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flaming-bags-of-poop-salon/96574/5 "2001-12-03T14:33:14Z")
**sez THespos** > [@](#): > > …then pay for a subscription and maybe the annoying ads will go away. Suuurrreee they’ll go away. Ever subscribe to HBO? Did those ad’s ever go away. Suuurrreee they did. 😃 Go **NotWithoutRage** , go, go, go. ---
**Author:** ![THespos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8c91f0/32.png) [@THespos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/THespos)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2001, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flaming-bags-of-poop-salon/96574/6 "2001-12-03T14:49:18Z")
**PhiloVance** , what ads are you getting on HBO? If I get ads on HBO, they’re promos for other HBO presentations/series that fill the time between the end of the movie and the start of the next one. So what’s the problem? ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2001, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flaming-bags-of-poop-salon/96574/7 "2001-12-03T15:02:56Z")
BooFuckin’Hoo **[click]** Problem solved. [sub]Sheesh! :rolleyes:[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![PhiloVance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e19adc/32.png) [@PhiloVance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhiloVance)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2001, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flaming-bags-of-poop-salon/96574/8 "2001-12-03T15:06:34Z")
Naturally, I don’t subscribe any more because they lied. They said no more commercials which to me means just that. You may call them promos but I call them **COMMERCIALS** , and these go on and on and on and on and on (15 mins of promos, wtf???) and it’s the exact same commercial each time. HBO, Showtime, whatever, they’re all the same. Hardly commercial free. What, nobody has a TV guide??? :eek: ---
**Author:** ![THespos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8c91f0/32.png) [@THespos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/THespos)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2001, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flaming-bags-of-poop-salon/96574/9 "2001-12-03T15:18:20Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by PhiloVance \* > \*\*Naturally, I don’t subscribe any more because they lied. They said no more commercials which to me means just that. You may call them promos but I call them **COMMERCIALS** , and these go on and on and on and on and on (15 mins of promos, wtf???) and it’s the exact same commercial each time. HBO, Showtime, whatever, they’re all the same. Hardly commercial free. > > What, nobody has a TV guide??? :eek: \*\* Jeez, **PhiloVance** , if you took two seconds to think about the problem, you’d see that there isn’t much of an alternative. If I run a movie at 8 PM and it runs for an hour and 45 minutes, I can either fill in the remaining 15 minutes to the top of the next hour with some sort of “filler content,” or I can run movies back-to-back. Problem with running movies back-to-back is that you can’t have things starting at the top of the hour. Instead, you have movies starting at 8:12 PM and 9:06 PM. It would also make it difficult for you to get your Soprano’s fix at exactly 8 PM now, wouldn’t it? So, which way do you want it? Or do you just want HBO to fill that time with dead air? ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2001, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flaming-bags-of-poop-salon/96574/10 "2001-12-03T15:41:40Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by NotWithoutRage \* > **It’s like Cartman’s search for the fucking clitoris.** Stan was the one searching for the clitoris. I should make you eat your parents for that. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2001, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flaming-bags-of-poop-salon/96574/11 "2001-12-03T16:16:31Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by THespos \* > \*\*how is the publisher going to monetize his content? \*\* lillypond background? ---
**Author:** ![Stoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stoid/32/272_2.png) [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2001, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flaming-bags-of-poop-salon/96574/12 "2001-12-03T18:14:17Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by THespos \* > \*\* > So, which way do you want it? Or do you just want HBO to fill that time with dead air? \*\* I don’t have a problem with it, and I like seeing what’s coming…but I do miss LA’s Z channel, which would show shorts. There’s also music videos. It’s not like they MUST show promos. stoid ---
**Author:** ![THespos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8c91f0/32.png) [@THespos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/THespos)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2001, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flaming-bags-of-poop-salon/96574/13 "2001-12-03T18:37:54Z")
> [@](#): > > I don’t have a problem with it, and I like seeing what’s coming…but I do miss LA’s Z channel, which would show shorts. There’s also music videos. It’s not like they MUST show promos. They don’t HAVE to, you’re right. However, pretend you’re the guy in charge of such things over at HBO. When your boss asks you what you did for the bottom line this month, do you want to say “I purchased rights for music videos and shorts to play between movies” or something like “I aired promo spots to increase viewership of upcoming features.” One represents a hard cost and doesn’t contribute to the bottom line. The other represents some additional man-hours in production and may play a role in getting some additional eyeballs to tune in when they otherwise might not have. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Man\_Who](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c2a13f/32.png) [@The\_Man\_Who](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Man_Who)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2001, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flaming-bags-of-poop-salon/96574/14 "2001-12-03T22:57:42Z")
Right-click with mouse “Open in New Window.” Sometimes you get a banner add that pops up a little window, but you won’t get the full page ad…most of the time. You can read more stories at a time that way too. Scientifically Unproven Myron ---
**Author:** ![Abe\_Babe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3ab097/32.png) [@Abe\_Babe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Abe_Babe)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2001, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flaming-bags-of-poop-salon/96574/15 "2001-12-03T23:15:06Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by NotWithoutRage \* > **It’s like Cartman’s search for the fucking clitoris.** I certainly have no interest in searching for a non-fucking clitoris. ---
**Author:** ![pesch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pesch/32/4925_2.png) [@pesch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pesch)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2001, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flaming-bags-of-poop-salon/96574/16 "2001-12-04T00:25:49Z")
It seems like to me Salon’s gone down in quality a lot lately. When they started, they were a pretty funky magazine with at least 2 or 3 good things to read in each issue. Now, they’re trying to emulate the news magazines. Their sex columnists are all gone, and their movie reviews pretty much echo the mainstream press. I’m finding more and more the same pattern: visit site, skim page, go over to the Evil Empire and read [slate.com](http://slate.com) instead. :eek: I was seriously thinking about paying for the premium service, but after a month of rarely clicking on a link, I’m having second thoughts. ---
**Author:** ![NotWithoutRage](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/22d042/32.png) [@NotWithoutRage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NotWithoutRage)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2001, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flaming-bags-of-poop-salon/96574/17 "2001-12-04T05:34:44Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Max Torque \* > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > \*Originally posted by NotWithoutRage \* > > **It’s like Cartman’s search for the fucking clitoris.** > > Stan was the one searching for the clitoris. > > I should make you eat your parents for that. \*\* My most humble apologies.