Since Blumenthal left, Salon has been in decline and such "products" as Broadsheet will hasten its demise.

Salon seems like such a part of my life, I can't imagine not having that window on the world. Thank goodness you guys survived, your sanity and humor help make the medicine go down. You've helped subdue my fits of political teeth gnashing by speaking up about issues that I care deeply about. I look forward to Salon forever or until senility rules out reading. Possibly in the future Salon will be rightly recognized as an antidote to brain cell atrophy. Loved your article and love your magazine.

Congratulations

Happy Birthday Salon!

Back in 95, when I first got on the Internet, I somehow found my way to you, how I do not know, but I do know you immediately became the homepage on my glacially slow AOL account. There were many a day I clicked to download a particularly juicy long Salon article, and went to get a cup of coffee while the page downloaded! (Remember those days?)

I wrote a fan letter way back when, and perhaps it was a novelty, but the Salon staffer on the other end wrote back that everyone was so excited they wanted to send me a Salon t-shirt! (I still have it!)

When you went subscription, I signed up right away, less to avoid the advertisements, and more because I felt I owed it to Salon, after all those years of enjoyment. I still ante up each year. It's a small price to pay for my sanity.

You see...you kept me sane during the last two presidential elections, and I don't know that I'd emotionally survive the Bush administration without you.

Salon's been my home page every day for 10 years. Here's to a decade of Salon, and a toast to many decades more to come!

-- Mary S. in Washington, DC

P.S. Cary Tennis, Patrick the Pilot, Tim Grieve, Farhad Manjoo and Sidney Blumenthal are totally wondrous beings!

P.S.S. Ayelet Waldman, I can do without...

In about 1998 I was a divorced single mom with a three year old. I worked full time, and spent the rest of the time with my son. Table Talk late at night WAS my social life. (Can't remember what my handle was back then, or I'd tell you.) Anyway, one late night I lamented on one of the more personal threads about my lonely existence, and someone I had come to cyber-trust said I really should try one of the on-line matchmaking services. On the strength of that, I did, and I met the man I married in 2001. He loves my kid, and changed my life dramatically for the better. So I have a real soft spot for Salon as it celebrates its first decade. Yours was the one of the first online communities, and I sure feel lucky to have been a part of it.

Salon has been an irreplacable part of my life for well overhalf of its first ten years. I'm looking forward to the next ten.

It must've seemed like you were living with that particular curse. When I surfed in here nine years or so ago, I figured Salon for a minor source of quirky opinions, gentlemanly muckraking, and smarty-pants commentary. There was all that and much more, so I stuck around. I don't subscribe to many online sites, but Salon is worth every penny. Congrats on staying alive, no small feat. Thanks for the ride!

Rob in Dago

Since I can be sold just about anything as long as the commercial is cute and the product is �new and improved,� I happened upon Salon because of a commercial with people dancing around and the � of a white S against a red background. Don�t remember what year that was because I quit marking time at 40, but I am thankful that I saw it. Salon is my home page and a member of my daily rounds, both at home and at work. I simply cannot do without it, so when asked to pay for (advertiser-less) content, I pony up every year. I�m getting off cheap.

The selling of Salon to me was easy since I was predisposed to come under its commercial thrall, but what really captured me for life were the arts and entertainment writers� steadfast in the face of ridicule devotion to one of the seminal discoveries of my life � one which bears your yearly award for underappreciated television shows � �Buffy�� I was absolutely giddy when I discovered all of Salon�s articles on the subject, articles which put into words my appreciation for �Buffy.�

Between the discovery of Salon and Buffy, my life has changed. I write now. I was fearful before. I enter contests and submit and spend hours at my computer amusing myself with words, striving for the perfect turn of phrase exhibited by Heather Havrilesky and Stephanie Zacharek. I write them e-mails fairly regularly and no, I�m not a stalker. Because of your examples, I just began writing for a magazine, a dream that has come to me now at 49, though I�m not nearly as clever as they.

Thank you, Salon, for your time and effort and talent and inspiration and art. I appreciate it.

And I like Broadsheet.

I grew up reading Salon, if you can fathom that. I came to Salon in about 1998 when I was still in high school, and have read it on a near-daily basis since then. When I look at the picture of stodgy Bay Area journalists that started the site, I marvel at how your publicaiton attracted me, a white trash, 17-year-old from the prairie.

The earliest piece I distinctly remember reading was "Death in Ghana", a Wanderlust inspiration.

I was a journalist then, as I am now, editting my high school newspaper. I went to college, got a journalism degree, interned for a daily newspaper in Ghana, moved back to the U.S., changed residences 9 times in 6 years, and now have my first paid job at a twice-weekly community newspaper in a small town outside of Salt Lake City.

Without equivocation or exaggeration, I can say that I've more or less been on an eight-year quest to join your staff. The last decade of my life has been preparation for a career in journalism generally, but try to fathom the hero worship that someone such as myself might have for a publication that guided him through every step of his journalism training, inspired him to form an irreverant politcal voice, and nourished me with the insight and commentary any member of this democracy needs.

I am who I am because of Salon.com

I thank you like a son thanks a mother.

My resume and clips will come to you someday when I feel I'm worthy of your attention. Here's to another 10 years that, with any luck, I will be a part of.