To all readers and tweeps

Thank you for helping to turn around 2010. It got off to a bad start, with the news in February that the Honolulu Advertiser was being bought out of existence. As freelancers or full-timers, all of us at Nonstop worked our butts off to help keep it this town’s No. 1 newspaper, and to watch it go down hurt.

Even before the end came in early summer, we knew we were regrouping. Diane Seo and John Garcia mapped out a different kind of site: We were all in it for the love of what we do, with zero corporate ownership or oversight, so we’d take this chance to fly with our instincts and let you tell us what worked and what didn’t.

That’s how you changed the entirety of what I do. A year ago I’d try out a new place two or three times, using my first name or friends’ names for bookings. My pic was nowhere to be found, I wasn’t on Twitter, didn’t have a blog. I’d slip under the radar alone or with one to three others. The whole point was to be treated like anyone else who walked in, so that I could accurately represent the experience for the reader whose $11 hourly earnings make any meal out special, as well as for the one who thinks nothing of dropping $42 for an entree.

Even though these reviews appeared in the Advertiser and on Metromix, the effect was mostly like dropping them into a black hole. I knew people read them when someone I knew said something, or when a stranger somewhere recognized my name. It was a little lonely, to be honest.

Nonstop’s launch revealed the whole universe of you. All of a sudden I could see you and talk to you. Now I know who I’m tasting for and taking photos and writing for, and every time you say something, whether I’ve ever met you or not and whether you agree with me or not, I’m thrilled. I’m thrilled when you tell me you went somewhere I’ve reviewed and give me your own take, and I’m thrilled when I see faraway places in your name and realize I help keep the flavors of Hawaii vibrant for you until your next visit. And even when you don’t say anything, Livefyre lets me see how many of you are reading, and that thrills me too.

You know what’s more thrilling? I’ve started using this site and Twitter to open up eating invites to any and all you, and you respond! (Tipping hat to Melissa Chang, who started inviting her Twitter friends to her reviews a couple years ago.) You show up, pass me all the plates so I can photograph them intact, never complain when the food gets cold, save a share of each dish for me to taste, and pose for my pics! Not only that, you show up expecting to pay your share, and with no corporate expense account, I want to fall to my knees in gratitude.

Now a lot of my reviews are one- or two-shots. I’ll scout out a place to see if it’s promising, then throw out an open call for eaters. Big-name places with a lot of PR hype may get a visit on opening night. The more of you show up, the more my camera and I get hidden among you and your cameras, the more food we taste, and that’s the experience I write about.

The whole world of reviewing has changed — not for everybody, but definitely here. It reflects a new reality of low budgets, social media and letting go of the traditional ideal of the reviewer as an anonymous individual known to no one. We still hide our identity at restaurants, we avoid reviewing places if we’re friendly with the owners or chefs, we all maintain our Nonstop rule of not accepting comped dishes, and if we’re recognized as reviewers, we’ll say so.

It’s a lot less lonely out there now, and a lot more fun. That’s why I want to thank you. I hope you’ll keep telling all of us what you think. I hope to meet many more of you this year.

And I hope you have a happy, healthy, delicious 2011!