Folks that visited The Advocate's open house Thursday night

there were a good many

got a sneak peak at The Advocate's first venture into Cyberspace.

For those who missed it, here's the deal

if you've got a computer with Internet access, go to www.greenvilleadvocate.com.

While the web site has a lot of room to improve, we are proud of what if offers our readers.

The improvement of site will have a lot to do with our readers, and the feedback you provide us.

We've created this site to better serve you, our customers, and have a quick and easy way for you make the Greenville Advocate your home on the Internet.

I've told several folks about the site, and believe that the following excerpt from our site best explains the newest addition to the Greenville Advocate.

"Welcome to The Greenville Advocate Online edition. Enjoy your visit and please bookmark our site so you can visit us regularly.

The Internet is an exciting and useful medium and we are excited about the new doors our web site opens, not only for us, but also for our readers, advertisers and community as a whole.

The days of paper and ink are by no means behind us. Nor is our electronic edition designed or intended to replace the printed edition, now or in the future. Instead, it was developed to complement the print edition of The Greenville Advocate and allow us to extend our reach and further meet the needs of our readers and advertisers.

Key features of our website include:

* Information found in our traditional printed edition such as obituaries, news stories and photos, columns.

* Links to other resources, other newspapers, and other community organizations that have a presence on the worldwide web.

* Opportunities to interact with staff via email and to respond to and react to stories, columns and editorials.

* A place to reach non-traditional newspaper readers (as well as traditional readers) with an advertising message.

Thanks to the Internet, our doors will never be shut. You can submit a classified ad or letter to the editor, get information concerning home delivery or advertising services or simply catch up on the news. And, most importantly, you can do any of these things 24 hours a day whether you are in Greenville or thousands of miles away.

Please visit our website regularly and let us know what you think by dropping us an email. We are sincerely interested in your input.

Eric Bishop

Publisher"

Once you get a chance to look at www.greenvilleadvocate.com, we'd like to know what you think. You can e-mail me at eric.bishop@greenvilleadvocate.com.

Eric Bishop is the publisher of the Greenville Advocate. His column appears on Saturdays.