Keith Gessen cannot adopt the adorable foster cat we got him, because he is apparently leaving the country soon. So it's available! She's spayed, housetrained, about 6 months old, and v v friendly. So if you'd like your very own Lolcat, email us.

We have a bunch of commenter invites to give out today. An invite is a link that we send out in email which allow you to create a username—a pseudonym if you want—and share your wisdom and wit with other readers. Just ask, putting "invite request" in the subject line.

Without any breakout story, Gawker's pageviews last month were 16.7m. That's 108% ahead of the level at the end of last year. But now comes that slow-news time of year that-in ancestral Hungary-they call the cucumber season.

Former Gawker commenter Newtojezebel has been banned for nine months now, which is probably some sort of record, but apparently people continue talking about her, all the time. She was banned for seeming a little unstable, so naturally she decided to contact former Gawker editor Alex Balk, via fax for some reason, to ask him to please email all of you to explain that she is not him. Balk, of course, is too busy writing on issues of great international import at Radar to do this on his own, so we've decided to help. You follow? Just read it!

The search box still isn't working—and nor are the tag pages. Bear with us.

Okay, it wasn't a case actually involving Valleywag, but ConsumerAffairs.com. Virgina judge Gerald Bruce Lee cited the Communications Decency Act in absolving the Web site and company of any liability for user complaints about car dealerships in Fairfax, Virginia. The commenters themselves, however, are still liable for defamation and libel lawsuits, so be nice! Or at least take steps to preserve your anonymity. Not a commenter on Valleywag, but would like to become one? Read our FAQ. We especially love folks who send us tips, preferrably from inside the belly of some Valley tech beast.

You might notice a small change to the design of this page: the 'skyline' array of top stories is now bigger and more easily clickable. With Gawker publishing up to 70 items a day, stories drop pretty rapidly off the page. So we're highlighting the day's top news more obviously than before for those readers who might only check the site once a day. (Some people have jobs which demand concentration.) When there's an ad at the right, four editor's picks will show; when there's no ad, six top stories. If you spot any glitches, email me.

I promised I wouldn't take another vacation. The last time I did, all hell broke loose. Larry and Sergey turned a Nasa base into their private jet hangar, Six Apart dumped its CEO, and Kevin Rose broke his iPhone. I dread the notion of leaving the Valley unsupervised for a week. But since September, I've replaced my entire collection of minions. Valleywag is now run by two drunks, a fag, a whore, and a madman. I am leaving Valleywag, and you, gentle readers, in their hands for a week, while I reacquaint myself with sunshine. And perhaps a wee bit of tin-smithing. I shall return on June 30, with the fervent hope that there will be a few Facebook and Yahoo executives left to write about by then.

Valleywag has added an option to subscribe to our most popular stories by email. I can hear the disapproving Twitters being typed already. The overflowing inboxes of Silicon Valley's hypercommunicative elite have led them to disdain the medium of email. The MySpace generation is said to have rejected email as a tool of parents and teachers, opting for private Web-based messaging instead. And yet email remains immensely popular — universal, reliable, and simple. Most importantly, it's something readers have been asking us for. Here's how you can subscribe to Valleywag, and what you'll get.

The big tech pubs have been shuffling their A-team players lately. Steven Levy jumped from Newsweek to Wired. Dan Lyons left Forbes to replace Levy at Newsweek. Forbes is now doing some high-end poaching of its own. (Can we vote for Brendan Koerner?) And the New York Times is staffing up for battle with the Wall Street Journal. Here at Valleywag, we heard that perpetual hanger-on, WSJ book reviewer, Wired kibbitzer and Bono impersonator Paul Boutin was being pulled into interviews for some of these big gigs. Paul, we told him, why bother? No matter where you end up, every single article you write will be 100-worded and openly mocked on Valleywag. Why don't you just finally join the team and post the stuff yourself here? Cracked Boutin, "That seems easier." He starts July 1.

Kurt Andersen, Jim Cramer and—blogger Will Leitch. Deadspin's 32-year-old editor, seen most recently warring with old-time blog-hating sports writers, has landed one of the sweetest gigs in print: a columnist for Adam Moss' New York magazine.

Thanks to Bill O'Reilly, whose studio temper provided so much amusement last month, and the Craigslist advertiser who called to ask we remove pictures of him waving cash at online female admirers. Those two stories-plus other more worthy coverage of the Democratic primaries, the turmoil at the Wall Street Journal and blogging narcissism-helped Gawker.com to one of its strongest months in May. At 17.3m pageviews, traffic was up 115% on December; and the site's audience was at 3.0m unique visitors up 150% since the end of last year. After the jump, the charts.

Format your comments with the wonders of html tags — just remember to close them. Available tags for use on Gawker comments are italics and bold. You can add a picture to the text of your comment using the <img src="url"> tag. You can also include a regular YouTube link anywhere in the body of a comment to embed a clip and generate a special "Watch Video" thumbnail.

Pageview numbers for Gawker titles have always been public—here are Gawker.com's numbers on Sitemeter. But now you can also check up on the site's reach. Gawker.com usually draws about 600,000 unique visitors a week, up from 300,000 last year. Last week—boosted by the tape that surfaced of Bill O'Reilly's meltdown—the audience was more than 1m. Here's a live chart, with data that is updated regularly.

Thank you, Sue Simmons and Bill O'Reilly.

So you're probably not executed.

Hey do you like to make things on the computer? Like designs and stuff? Gawker Media's sales department is looking for a highly creative, conceptual designer with experience and interest in advertising, branding, and web design to work with (read: get coffee for) the Senior Art Director. The ideal applicant holds a BA or BFA in graphic design (from an actual college or university, not Bob's Upstairs School of Law), is proficient in Illustrator and Photoshop, and has some experience with Flash and HTML. No minimum requirement for experience, just send a nice portfolio. Send inquiries to designjobs@gawker.com. Be sure to include samples in the email (pdf or URL link). As always, Irish need not apply. (Kidding!!)

A few small changes to the front page this evening. If something's glitchy, tell us in the comments, or email.


1. The list of Gawker sites, now a round dozen, is in the sidebar, each with an illustrative thumb and a link to a recent hot topic.

2. The thumbs on the front page are of fixed width, now, for consistency as the eye moves down the page.

3. And the 5pm roundup, of the most popular and most discussed stories, is a little easier to understand, we hope.

Gawker is looking for a television-obsessed intern to sit around and watch TV to find newsworthy clips for social commentary. The job requires a good eye and the ability to sit. The schedule is flexible but requires a minimum of 15 hours a week over the course of 3 months. College internship credit available to those who qualify. Pay is less than minimal. Email Richard Blakeley at tvinternship@gawker.com with proof of addiction to television; no attachments please.

Valleywag publisher Nick Denton likes to boast that our traffic statistics are published for anyone to peruse. As a former user interface developer, I'm painfully aware that we've made it impossible to find them. Here are the hot links to two of our three separate site statistics feeds. Thank God the numbers don't add up, or I'd really doubt them.