In case you missed it, this was the week we published our “First Edition.”

OK, maybe the website didn’t have a date on it on Tuesday, May 4, our first day. Details, details.

And sure, I might have gotten confused by our new-fangled publishing system, so much so that when I published our article welcoming readers, I forgot that I had put the entire text — other than the headline — behind the “pay wall” that seems to get so much attention. See, even I don’t like the pay wall — just kidding. It’s what keeps the lights on.

Sadly, we didn’t notice the embarrassing mistake until it was brought to our attention by somebody outside the building because we’re all logged in as members and can see everything on the site. (I now have a second computer set up on my desk that shows me what the site looks like to visitors who aren’t members.)

On the flip side, the early discussion on the site has been encouraging. Real people talking about real problems such as rail, homelessness, education, Furlough Fridays, one-party dominance and money. What’s especially cool is the diversity of members participating in the discussions. People ranging from Hawaii state Sen. Norman Sakamoto to 8th grade public school teacher Lika Jordan, and from local apparel entrepreneur Allison Takeshita to former Honolulu Advertiser journalist Fernando Pizarro. That diversity has led to thoughtful comments, suggestions and proposed solutions.

Working with our small team, it’s been exciting to discover how nimble we can be. That’s key to a start-up. The software developers know every corner of the system — they built it — and come up with new features and twists every day. If you looked at the site Tuesday and came back Friday, you would have found all kinds of changes — and there’ll be many more to come as we listen to your suggestions. And you can be assured, we do understand there’s a lot of work to do on the site.

It’s also been refreshing for our reporter-hosts to be “live.” One of the pleasures of Internet publishing is that there’s a deadline every minute and you can improve articles as you go. Our reporters are journalistic jugglers, who not only report the news, but also talk about it on a daily basis in our discussions.

What won’t change is our commitment to producing original, well-researched, well-written, thought-provoking articles.

I wanted to share a few examples from the week:

Nonprofits GET taken by the state (not the actual headline from the story, but one that captures how outrageous it is that state government takes a cut from donations to fundraisers, even though people think their money is going to a tax-exempt organization). Think again.

Plans, plans, plans. The state signed off on a 10-year-plan to end homelessness six years ago, but the problem has gotten far worse.

The high cost of living in Hawaii is a perennial problem. Many find themselves in a double bind, house prices are high, but so are rents. So what’s a person to do? The answer, we revealed, is that buying may not always be the best option.

The state has a plan to solve homelessness that hasn’t worked. It also has a “plan” for preserving farmland that doesn’t work. It’s not clear. And it’s not followed. Not much of a plan.

At Civil Beat we’re often going to share what we learn while we’re reporting a story and the first example of that came on the first day, when we reported that the state had shifted more than 80,000 acres to urban uses since 1964. We provided links to documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act and told our members what other documents we’re still waiting for.

We ended the week with a special package on “Furlough Fridays,” in part stimulated by members raising questions in discussions on the service. The bottom line, after all the noise over how to resolve the crisis, it turns out that the union was wrong that teachers couldn’t legally volunteer to work for free

I hope you’ll spend some time over the weekend browsing through the site — we have a special 99 cents for 15 days offer right now.

I can’t say it was an easy week. But I can tell you that it’s one I’ll always remember. The VOG kept me from running in Ala Moana Park for a couple of days, but that just meant more time in front of my laptop figuring out how to make this site go.

Next week, let’s hope the VOG isn’t back. We will be.

I look forward to talking with you here.