For the third time since we launched www.honoluluadvertiser.com in October 1999, our site is getting an extreme makeover, and although the official launch day is March 27, you can get a sneak peek right here.

The latest version of the site is more interactive and streamlined but retains some of our most popular features, such as breaking news.

For more than a year, we have provided news around the clock, and readers have responded with 2 million to 3 million page views a month. Overall, the site set a personal best in January, with 24 million page views, and for February, traffic was up 12 percent from a year ago.

Meanwhile, our blogs are booming, video is a great success and our specialty sites for moms, prep sports, UH sports and communities on O'ahu are growing.

So why fix what isn't broken?

We realize that what readers want on a news site has to go beyond breaking headlines and a recitation of what's been in the print edition that day. They want the ability to start their own blogs and personal pages, take part in conversations, upload photos, videos and stories, and debate the news of the day.

Our online and news teams have been working for months in improving what I think are the best portions of our current site and adding features that will bring in newer readers who enjoy the interactive nature of other sites. That is why, for example, we are expanding our readers' ability to comment not just on select stories but on every article.

We will also create forums and allow readers to create their own discussions. Our searchable calendar will be rich with information about places to go and things to do. We're also getting a new video player that is embedded into story pages.

Some of our staffers will have their own Persona pages and look forward to interacting with readers. But we are also excited about readers creating pages of their own, inviting friends to join and getting involved in the world of social media.

More and more of what appears on the Internet goes far beyond just providing content and encourages users to become social commentators, bloggers or videographers. Some might say we are years behind the social networking phenomenon (sometimes called Web 2.0) since MySpace was launched in 1999, Flickr in 2004 and YouTube in 2005.

But the new application www.honoluluadvertiser.com and other media companies have chosen — called SiteLife and developed by social media technology provider Pluck — is helping readers to get involved more aggressively.

"Readers are no longer a passive audience," said Andreas Arvman, our Information Center digital editor. "Instead, readers can use the news as a basis for instant conversation. This creates communities, where readers create their own independent content. It's the First Amendment on steroids."

We are hopeful that reader-submitted content will be reasoned, thought-provoking and fun. But we are not naive enough to think that problems will never arise, and we have incorporated new checks and balances that did not exist under the old system.

The best comments will earn recommendations and be highlighted on our site and perhaps in print. But there will also be opportunities to report abuse.

"If a certain comment, blog entry or other item records too many abuse reports, it will automatically be taken off the site," Arvman said.

"To ensure that this automated process doesn't remove appropriate and tasteful contributions that belong on the site, our staff will periodically review content that has been reported and may choose to restore items that were removed."

No system is abuse-proof, and we know there will be days when we cringe at what appears on the site. But the First Amendment brings free expression, and our new site will be an invitation for new thoughts and ideas.

So, without further ado, go to http://beta.honoluluadvertiser.com, and you're free to explore. Please let us know what you think.

Mark Platte is senior vice president/editor of The Advertiser. Reach him at mplatte@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8080.