As we welcome two new reader-bloggers (Rog T and Jonty) into the Times Series family, I feel that now is as good a time as any to muse on part of the online experience - reader participation.

For me one of the most interesting elements of the website is the dialogue it allows between the news, reporters and readers. In print, this is a very flat relationship, with a handful of interested parties given a chance to respond - positively or negatively - to the issues of the previous week.

On the website you can comment on our stories as soon as they go up. You can comment on our blogs, we can respond to the comments. You can leave tributes to victims of crime. You can argue between yourselves (as some do more often than others). And you can take part in setting the agenda.

It's a great leveller, the only advantage any one person has over anyone else the frequency with which they can and are inclined to access our website. I know of one Safer Neighbourhood Team Sergeant who keeps the website permanently open and I hope many others do too.

While few would dispute that the paper editions of local rags have declined since they were the heart and soul of the community, the web offers an opportunity for them to get right back in there.

I read a new expression in the Guardian's Media supplement yesterday which, although I doubt it will find its way permanently into the modern lexicon, is something any regular readers of our website might appreciate: the ce-web-rity. That is, someone who becomes famous through the internet.

In the microcosmic world of Barnet news/politics I think we have some burgeoning ce-web-reties of our own. Although they may have been prominent in some circles already, to me and many others it is through the internet that Rog T and Daniel Hope - the first that spring to mind - have come to prominence.

Behind them are a few itinerant commenters that other eager readers will have noticed. The caustic council critic Dave from Barnet and/or the People's Republic of Barnet; Robert, who pins his colours to the mast of affordable housing and baffles with his encyclopaedic knowledge of the subject; and Petru Clej, who apparently divides his time between the political intrigues of Romania and Barnet.

There are also, inevitably, a lot of commenters with pseudonyms. We should give some credit to those who are willing to put their real name to their rantings. The most irate comment-arguments often end with posters attempting to unmask one another, a sure-fire way to bring a debate to an end. Partly because it reveals the partisan nature of the poster, partly the ignominy of defending their own interests and partly through the sheer embarrassment of dedicating so much effort to an argument on the Times Series website.

Maybe in a new spirit of honesty, commenters should start using their real names. You never know, if you put it to enough comments, you might even earn yourself ce-web-rity status too - and your very own blog.