Readers will notice that a few things have changed, but the overall Sag Hampton experience should not be much different than what you are used to. The one obvious change is that the photo album, which used to appear on the upper left side of the screen is gone. This may return at some point, if I find a way to implement it in WordPress. For now, a sort of replacement is the revolving pictures in the page header. In theory, every time you move to a new page in Sag Hampton, a different picture will be shown at the top of the page. This worked pretty well in testing, although occasionally, the replacement picture was the same as the one being replaced. It is a random selection after all, so this is likely to happen every once in a while. Another change is that I am no longer using excerpts on the blog’s main page. Where you used to see a little snippet of the post, and then have to click on the “more” link in order to read the rest of the article you now will see the entire article, on the main page.

Also, for now, most of the other content in the sidebars is missing, including ads and links to other blogs and websites. As I get around to it, at least some of this content will return.

Finally, if you previously commented on this blog and used your real name, or an alias, you will find that your name has now been removed from the comment. This was an unavoidable side-effect of moving the blog content from one platform to the other. I have also taken this opportunity to turn off commenting on all the older posts, as most of the comments a blog receives on older posts are “comment spam” anyway. Comments will be allowed (and are encouraged) on all new posts, including the most recent, “The Five Top Problems Facing Sag Hampton.”

Oh, one more thing…if you’ve previously subscribed to Sag Hampton through RSS or e-mail, you may want to redo your subscription. In theory, all subscriptions should still work, but in reality, they may not. And, by the way, thanks for sticking with Sag Hampton, through its long hiatus.

Sometimes, they publish a version of what I’ve written shortened to fit in the space they have available. Sometimes they capture the essence of what I’ve written in the shorter version, but sometimes it ends up too short to really make the point I’m trying to get across. When that happens, though, you — the reader of the newspaper version — can go to the web and read the full version. You’ll always find a link to my blog at The Express’ web site: http://www.sagharboronline.com.

Now here’s the cool part. Both the editor of the newspaper and I think that it would be great to know what people in the community are thinking about the issues we write about. Sure, you can write a letter to the paper, but that may not be your style. Maybe you’re a bit more spontaneous, or would prefer a less formal way to express your thoughts. Perhaps everything you have to say about an issue can be summed up in one sentence and you think it’s just too short to make a good letter to the editor. If any of that applies to you, or you just like being a part of the online community, then the blog is made to order for you, because blogs, by design, are meant to encourage two-way communications. At the end of each article in Sag Hampton there is a place for you to leave a “comment.” In other words, a spot for you to have your say about the issue, or about what I’ve written. Others can comment too, and one person can comment on another person’s comment, giving us all a chance to have a real dialog online. Everyone can read it, everyone can participate in it. Comments can be signed, or anonymous. You must enter your e-mail address, but it is not published. Again this is different than writing a letter to the editor. When you do that, you have to sign it (even if your name isn’t published). On the blog, you can be completely anonymous if you chose. Even I won’t know who you are.

I blog (yes, it’s a verb too) because I want to start a discussion with other members of my community; so I invite you to visit Sag Hampton online where you can not only read the full text of every article (called blog posts), but also find other posts that were never published in the newspaper. And best of all, you can add your two cents (or more) to the discussion.

By the way, for those of you who do read Sag Hampton online, I would love it if instead of stopping me on the street to discuss what I’ve written (or in addition to that), you would add a comment to the blog. Even if it’s only to say that you agree (or disagree). It’s great  for me to know what you think, but not so great that you’re depriving the rest of the community of the benefit of you opinion. Please share your thoughts with the rest of the community on Sag Hampton.

I gather these statistics from a few different sources, which tell me how many readers I have, and where they are from, but not who they are. So, unless you leave a comment signed with your real name (not required), I have no idea who is reading the blog. It is fascinating, though to discover that I have had readers from all over the world, including what seem to be repeat readers in Germany, England, California and other far off locations.

It’s comforting to have these statistics, because as much as I enjoy writing these articles, it wouldn’t be half as much fun if no one was reading them, and, since not that many readers leave comments on the blog, without the statical reports, I just wouldn’t know if anyone was out there.

During the past year, I’ve had the opportunity to write about many interesting topics, some controversial, some not, some personal, some not, some informative, and some just for fun. Being the one who picks the topics is both challenging — I often have no idea what I’m going to write about when I start a post — and inspiring. Having the responsibility of  picking meaningful topics, has often inspired me to write something of which I end up being quite proud.

Herewith, the highs and lows (in my opinion) of my first year as a blogger:

Best Post: 98.6 Miles – Maybe the best thing I’ve ever written.

Best Comment: I wrote about an op-ed piece that Robbie Vorhaus wrote for the Sag Harbor Express and then he commented on my blog post. It was a real thrill for me to have someone I wrote about read and comment on what I had written. The post was called What I Learned About Love Today, and Robbie Vorhaus’ comment can be found at the end of the post.

Funniest Post: What’s In a Name? – This one was written by my wife, Bobbie. We got a lot of comments about this one, both on line and in person.

Most Childish Post: A Mess for S.G.  – Really pointless, although one reader did comment that he thought it was “hilarious.”

Most Rewarding Moment: This is a tie. My first most rewarding moment, came at a Sag Hampton gathering where I was introduced to the head of a local real estate company who, it turns out, had been reading Sag Hampton. He proceeded to let me know why my attitude about the gentrification of Sag Hampton (I hate it) was wrong. While I didn’t, and still don’t, agree with him, it was very gratifying to learn that he was a Sag Hampton reader! The other most rewarding moment was when the post I wrote about Robbie Vorhaus’ column (mentioned above) was in turn written about by Jennifer Jones in her blog, Goodness, Graciousness. I have a great deal of respect for Jennifer, so to have her pick up a topic from Sag Hampton was very meaningful for me.

Biggest Disappointment: Only 101 comments. (Unfortunately, that number is misleadingly high, since some of those are my responses to others’ comments.) As I’ve said before, one of the main reasons I started this blog was in the hope that it would evolve into a forum of sorts where everyone was welcome to express their thoughts and opinions on a broad range of topics relevant to the Sag Hampton area — and certainly we have had a bit of that going on. But, I hoped for more, and still do. Maybe it’s me. Maybe I just don’t write about the right things, or maybe I don’t write well enough keep you engaged. If that’s so, then I accept that I’m never going to see the volume of comments I had hoped for.

But, if it’s not me. If the topics I write about do interest you, and if I am writing well enough to keep you reading to the end, then I want to encourage you to click on the words “Post a Comment,” or sometimes “Leave Comment” that follow each post, and let me, and the other readers of Sag Hampton, know what you think. (By the way, if there are already comments on a post, the words “Leave Comment” are replaced by “X Comments,” where X is the number of comments already left. In that case, just click on “X Comments” to add yours.) Oh, and if someone has already commented, and you want to comment on their comment, you can do that too. You don’t have to register – that’s optional. You don’t even have to leave your name – just check the box that says “Post Anonymously.”

With that said, let me sincerely thank you for making Sag Hampton part of your world over these past months. With your encouragement, I’ve really enjoyed my first year as a blogger. Looking ahead…well, I’m not sure what I’ll be writing about, but I’ll do my best to keep it lively, and  I hope you’ll do your part too…go ahead, just click below and have your say.

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Currently listening to: The Late Greats by Wilco

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In one of those ironic twists of fate, I noticed today that one of the renovated houses I was critical of in an earlier post is now appearing for sale in an ad on my blog. 168 Main Street appears frequently in rotation with other Google ads in the right hand column of this blog. Google places these ads – with my permission* – and tries to match them to the content on the page. So, it’s not entirely surprising, given that I write exclusively about Sag Harbor and the Hamptons, that real estate ads for Hamptons brokerages appear regularly on these pages.

But it was a bit disconcerting, none-the-less, to find an ad for a house I complained about. My complaint was, and is, that the owners chose to turn it back into a single-family dwelling, after its having been used as an apartment house for many years. I just don’t think it is helpful to this community to be removing much needed apartments from the market. Apartments being one of the few options for people looking for (something close to) affordable housing in this area.

That said, I don’t choose the ads and, as far as I know, the advertisers don’t choose the sites on which their ads appear. I wonder if the owners of 168 Main would have decided to run their ad here if they had the choice. In any case, they appear to have done a spectacular renovation. The house looks great on their website, and since there’s no hope that it will be turned back into apartments any time soon, I wish the owners luck selling it in the current down-market.

To make it a little easier to remember and share Sag Hampton’s web address with friends and acquaintances we’ve added saghampton.com and www.saghampton.com to our original address, saghampton.eponym.com. You can now get here using any one of those addresses. They’ll all work just fine.

We’re still blogging at Eponym.com, a really great blog host. We recommend them to anyone who’s thinking of starting a blog (www.eponym.com). Unfortunately, most people had a hard time remembering that or understanding why .eponym is part of our address, so we decided to take advantage of one of the features offered by Eponym and add additional addresses, that are easier to remember and type.

So, just to be perfectly clear; the next time you want to visit this blog, simply type saghampton.com in your browser’s address bar, press ENTER and you’re here!

How does this work in a blog? In its simplest form, someone — me in this case — writes entries in a blog. Other people –  you — read what I’ve written, and then you respond by adding a comment to the original post. Then it’s my turn, along with anyone else reading the blog, to comment on what you’ve written. So, we all get a turn to have our say.

Of course, the situation is slightly biased in favor of the blog owner because he or she gets to pick the original topics. But, and this is really cool, if you don’t like my topics, you can start your own blog, and then you get to pick the topics. There’s even a cool blogging tool called trackbacks that allows bloggers to link articles in one blog to similar articles in another blog written by someone else. It’s all about conversation — between people, and even between websites.

The real value of blogs only emerges when there’s a dialogue. If I, the owner of the blog, am the only one speaking, then the readers of the blog only benefit to the degree that my thoughts are valid, interesting, insightful or entertaining. But, when your reaction to my thoughts is added in, and then the reaction of someone else is added to your thoughts, things start to get interesting. When the conversation really gets going, it can often lead to new and unexpected ideas emerging. I might even learn a thing or two.

So, you’re probably wondering why I’m writing about this. There are two reasons; the first of which is that I think the number of comments on this blog, compared to the number of readers (which are tracked by the blog host), is very small. I don’t know why that is, but I hope it will change. I encourage you to interact with this blog, even if it’s just to say, “I agree”; but especially if it’s to say “I don’t agree, and here’s why…” The second reason is related to the first. I’m guessing that many of you are new to blogging, and maybe don’t realize how much your comments add to whatever value this blog may have. Well, let me tell you, your participation is vital. Without you, this is nothing more than an online op-ed page. Your comments turn it into a social network.

So, in a few minutes I’m going to try to recreate what I had written, and then repost it. Well see what happens.

9/12/06 – Update: OK, it’s done. You can click here to read the re-created post.

Corinne Cohen is a website designer and jewelry maker originally from Sag Harbor, but now living and working in New York City. You can see samples of her web work at http://www.houseofingri.com and http://www.oliadesigns.com (Corinne designed the website but not the jewelry). If you’re interested in having Corinne do some design work for your website or blog, you can contact her by sending an e-mail to me at ecohen49 at hotmail dot com. I’ll pass on your request to her.