SPECIAL COLUMN — I don’t do annual retrospectives, but there is something heavy about moving from one decade to another. (Yes, I know. Some of you are thinking, “The new decade doesn’t start until 2021, Deb. Duh.” Just roll with me on this.) It seems to me that this occasion needs to be marked in some way. And since we solve together, it is only natural that we mark the end of the decade together (still rolling, right?).

So I’ll do what I normally do here, with a twist: I’ll tell you a story — this one is about how the New York Times Crossword has changed over the past decade — but this time, a selection of Wordplay readers are going to tell the story with me.

A couple of weeks ago, I asked readers to share their opinions on how the Crossword has changed. At the same time, I wanted to know if they felt their solving had changed. As usual, you did not let me down. While I couldn’t include everyone’s comments, I read them all and what was included in this column was representative of those responses. They have been lightly edited for clarity and brevity.

So many of you wrote lovely things, and there was constructive criticism as well. All of it was valuable.