And the 2010 blog poll winner is...

New year, two of the same three competitors, same result - afterthegoldrush has been picked by my readers as the area's best blog.

Unlike last year's heated polling, which came down to a tight 6 vote margin between Ridgely's site and Salisbury News, this one was a blowout from the start as afterthegoldrush dominated each of its contests - it won the opening round with 68.42% of the vote, dominated its semifinal with an astounding 88.89 percent, and eclipsed the 80 percent mark again in the final.

Here are the final results:

• afterthegoldrush - 36 votes (80%)

• Twirling, Twirling, Twirling Towards Freedom - 5 votes (11.11%)

• Salisbury Soapbox - 4 votes (8.89%)

You can see the juggernaut in motion throughout the month or so I did this polling, which I'll keep doing as a year-end tradition. I was a little disappointed in the dearth of votes for the semifinals and finals, which leads me to believe that perhaps I either milked the concept a little bit too long or made the repeat voting a little too restrictive. It's something I'll take into consideration as I do the 2011 version later this year.

So congratulations to Ridgely, who runs an interesting musically-based site. I hear he may branch out a bit into politics for the local elections but I count on him to stay true to his style.

As for the poll, it's going to take a few days off but I have one in the works for later next week.