What's worse than a bad website? How about a popular website that then bombards you with pop-up windows when you try to exit?

That's the case with Gene Ross' website these days.

I log onto Gene's site numerous times a day. Being a webmaster and pornalist myself, I know how much time and work goes into updating these things. He puts up new articles on a regular basis throughout most of each day. Sure, some of it is lame, happy horseshit shilling for his employers, but Gene also posts a lot of good, informative, entertaining stuff.

But now I find myself questioning whether I really want to log on each time I think I really want to log on. That's because I know I'll be faced with those annoying pop-ups when I leave.

So why are these annoyances suddenly there? Well, originally the only pop-up you had to deal with was a re-direct to Extreme's official website. You can't slight them for that. My guess is--from its inception--Gene's site was meant to be a feeder site to the Extreme site. It's a fairly common web strategy. And if it also afforded them the opportunity to shill their shit, and comment on the comings and goings of the jiz biz--putting their spin on it-- that's a bonus.

But now we have these fucked up pop-ups. And rumor has it that they're there because over the last few months, Extreme's membership site has gone into the toilet. Word on the street (yeah, that would be Porno Street) has it that they've gone from thousands of paying members a month, to hundreds. Ouch! That's gotta hurt! And I'll bet it pains both the inflated Extreme ego, and the apparently often-empty Extreme wallet. (Judging by the numbers of alleged bad checks talent claims they write)

So what do the rocket scientists there think up to compensate? How about a bunch of re-directs, or click-throughs, to make a few extra bucks? This means that Gene's site now tries to feed both an ailing Extreme website, while maybe grabbing a few extra bucks through membership rebates from other, non-Extreme, sites.

I guess, technically, there's nothing wrong with that. But maybe it's says something about the state of things over at Extreme. Maybe it's saying that things are pretty dismal in Lamelot.

But then, maybe not. I mean, "Hey! What do I know?"



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