Today’s Gawker Media redesign unveils a new feature that attempts to optimize the loyalty of the network’s already robust fan base. Gawker Open Forums now exists on all of the group’s nine blogs, integrating social networking, crowdsourcing and standard discussion forums, leaving each blog as not only a conversation starter, but a channel where news can be broken, shared and commented on by readers, all in one place.

Is the Internet scummy enough to exploit a 17-year-old tennis sensation’s sexuality to drive traffic? Sex Watch is here to see how our link-baiting friends across the Internet are raising traffic — and eyebrows — on the coattails of young, blonde, U.S. Open star Melanie Oudin.

Michael Beasley was enjoying the off-season after his rookie year in the NBA getting tattoos and more, and documenting it all on Twitter.

But after a weekend that included a potentially incriminating Twitpic and some disturbing tweets, he’s now in rehab. What happened?

A.J. Daulerio is the editor of Deadspin.com, pretty much the top sports blog around and so enjoyably written that even non-sports people are fans, perhaps because of headlines like this: Mets Third Base Coach Does Not Like My Pants And Will Not Eat My Poop Sandwich (UPDATE). (It ‘s the helpful updates that make the [...]

News reporters like to catch readers’ attention with a few zingy lines at the start of an article. Sometimes, these so-called “ledes” go horribly wrong. But sometimes, they’re great! In Today’s Best News Ledes, we highlight the cream of the crop:

Welcome to the fun-filled world of a start-up! For the past four weeks, we’ve taken to comparing the site to a baby: Don’t leave it alone, don’t expect much sleep, you never know what it’ll burp up. (Wordpress! How you bedevil us!). Though it’s certainly forced us to stretch in ways we weren’t expecting, we’ve enjoyed the past month — enough to look forward to sticking around for a while (sorry, Brain Trust).

A tax on the fat; songs saved by the Internet; and the best food blogs including, but not limited to Dairy Today… Plus! Other fun things we’ve come across during our day reaping the fruits of the Internet.

Even non-tabloid readers have heard that Pittsburgh Steeler quarterback Ben Roethlisberger is the subject of a civil lawsuit, filed by a casino hotel worker in Lake Tahoe, that accuses the two-time Super Bowl champ of forcing her to have sex after a celebrity golf tournament in 2008.

They may have heard about it from any number of outlets, just not the self-proclaimed World Wide Leader in Sports, ESPN.

Ever since the story broke that ESPN’s hugely popular sideline reporter Erin Andrews was illegally filmed naked in her hotel room, her lawyers and ABC’s lawyers and publicists have been out in full force.

And with the way they’re sounding recently, all media covering this story have to be concerned about a pending lawsuit from the Worldwide Leader in Sports.