Two more things...

1. This article is part of what seems to be a blog (would-be blog?) called "Inside Salon," but there isn't a link ANYWHERE on Salon to a blog of that name. Hiding something? Or just overlooked that? I suppose it will be fixed, but for the moment it is frustrating.

2. Following up on my comment above, all designers should be forced to try out their clever new designs on the computers people actually use. If New Salon works on a hotshot workhorse computer with a 20+ inch screen, great for those who have such machines, but try it out on a 14 inch screen (or a 8.9 inch netbook -- there's a challenge!) and see how you like it. Not so great anymore, is it? So, please ADD AN OPTION for a design that works on the size screen that readers actually have. Telling us that we should go out and buy ourselves new Macs so that we can appreciate your brilliance is not an option.

I decided to try out the "New Salon" (may it go the way of New Coke) on my computer at.. ahem.. work, and find that on a 20-inch screen the new design is not bad. Much less crowded, easier to find things. (Still impossible to find everything, such as this article, when it isn't part of a column/blog and doesn't appear on the front page. I had to search for it.)

I suspect, then, that 90% of the complaints about clutter and ugliness in the new design come from those, like me, who read Salon at home on older machines with smaller screens. On a big screen, not too shabby.

That said, all the other criticisms of New Salon still stand. With all those links and tabs and buttons cluttering up the home page, can't you add one -- just ONE -- that gives readers an option of "all content in chronological order"?

And I would still like to be able to customize my own Salon home page. I can do that with Google News, and I don't pay them anything for the privilege.

Cons:

1) The new design, as every post (but one) has pointed out, is ugly, cluttered, and much less readable than the old one.

2) No chronological listing of new columns means no way for frequent readers to get directly to the new stuff without seeking randomly through the old.

3) The link to Camille Paglia at the top of the unavoidable home page is an insult to readers, intelligence, all that is holy, truth, justice, the American Way, Ways and Means, Kurds and whey, little miss Muffit, and everything else I can think of.

4) If we are going to be saddled with the new design, then please at a minimum let each (premium) reader customize their own home page. I could (almost) live with the redesign if my own Salon homepage had links to the blogs/columns that I regularly read. As it is, I have CP on the homepage but How The World Works, Ask the Pilot, and all the comix buried under other links. This will not stand!

5) Rarely as I agree with "Little Brother," all of his critiques -- all of them -- are right on target, none more so than his take-down of the dreaded and dreadful "Continue Reading" buttons. Truth in advertising, or simple honesty, would require you to follow his suggestion: instead of "Continue Reading," the button should say "F*ck You, Reader." This is a hateful, hateful "new functionality," about which no good can be said.

Pros:

1) The new design may just break me of my Salon addiction. It is so painful to use that instead of checking Salon 2-3 times a day, I may start to check in once a day, or once every 2-3 days. Who knows, maybe after a while I'll realize that I can live perfectly well without it and let my subscription lapse. I suppose my wallet will thank you then.

H.G. Wells, in The Time Machine (1895), foresaw a future 800,000 years from now with two distinct humans species. The overclass, grown rich, lazy, idle, and incapable of producing anything but pleasantries, had evolved into a sweet species (the Eloi) that lived a blessed life above ground. The underclass, meanwhile, having been forced underground millenia earlier to work the machines that made civilization possible, had evolved into a kind of combination of Neandertal and naked mole-rat (the Morlocks) -- very unpleasant sorts, but at least the machines ran on time, production continued unabated, and the Eloi got whatever they needed to live. The only catch for the Eloi: they were also the cattle that the Morlocks ate. Oh, well!

"[H]eavyweights like former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and former House Majority Leader Dick Armey..."

(snicker)