The polite caller was perplexed.

He liked Sudoku, our new numbers-laden puzzle that is quickly becoming a reader favorite.

But why would we run the answers right next to this puzzle each day?

This forced him to peer at the ceiling to avoid seeing the answers. Unlike Scrabble and other word games, he argued, even a glimpse at the answers gives the game away.

I told him this had not occurred to us but calls like his help us learn how we're doing.

I didn't mention it - I wanted to be a good listener - but we already are running the puzzle larger than normal. We understand from users of Sudoku that they need work space to scratch out possible solutions.
The caller made a good point, and we immediately distanced Sudoku answers from the puzzle's location on the second page of our Living section.

The point is that we try to be responsive to letters, calls and e-mails. Sometimes, a suggested change can be made immediately. Sometimes, it comes down the road. And sometimes, it can't be done.
But we're open to ideas. There's an old saying that if we produce our newspaper just for ourselves, we would have a limited press run.

For years, we've had a Reader Advisory Team to do in systematic fashion what the Sudoku enthusiast did with a phone call: Help us improve the newspaper.

We're looking to re-create the team in 2006, with the first meeting coming in January. If you are interested in joining the team, just snip out the coupon at the end of this column and send it in. We usually received many more than our 15-member limit, so we try for the most diverse group possible. In the past, our Reader Advisory Team has helped us design a new weather map, critiqued our front page indexing to inside-the-newspaper stories and helped us develop newsroom policies.

Reader Advisory Team members usually are helpful and constructive. Of course, it's sometimes painful to hear their evaluations.

Recently, a former team member even critiqued our past meetings.

He observed editors here were defensive at times, with a tendency to talk more than listen.
Well, we'll listen to that criticism and give you time to make your points at the meetings. Otherwise, we're wasting your time - and ours.

Our Sudoku caller helped make our newspaper better.