www.roanoke.com

Thanks for the birthday wishes from our stalwart readers — Sandi Saunders, Other John and Trevor.

Sandi, we are glad to hear you consider roanoke.com your site, and Other John, thank you for your support of our blogs and local news.

Trevor, thanks for checking out the Toronto site and sharing your thoughts about it (we will aim for less clutter).

It was entertaining to read about the Internet providers of 1997: AOL, iPlus and dial-up (just the words sound ancient!).

We’re looking forward to celebrating our Sweet 16 next year, and it’s exciting to think of the changes coming to the site. Please stay tuned!

In other news, we’d like to brag a bit.

Last week, roanoke.com received “special recognition” in The Society of News Design’s Best of Digital News Design competition.

“Telling great stories and designing successful experiences is never easy. Whether the team or the organization is small, limited resources can limit but they can also inspire great creativity. Several small teams and organizations stood out in this year’s competition. The Roanoke Times is emblematic of the challenges of a smaller community and team. Roanoke’s coverage may not be able to be as broad as national or international news organizations but it is deep within their community. The multimedia storytelling explores highly personal issues and forces viewers to confront issues that rarely surface in their daily lives.”

Thank you, SND!

And if you’re curious, the winner of the World’s Best Designed site is the revamped bostonglobe.com.