And so to the tale of the tape, a highly distorted year in review via a list of stories website readers clicked on most in 2013. Here’s the top 10 …

  1. Election night 2013: Rudd v Abbott | Crikey live blog
  2. Day one of Rudd reboot: how it happened | Crikey live blog
  3. It’s a Bastardathon! Who will be the bastardest!? | First Dog on the Moon
  4. Here’s the real story of Australian debt | Bernard Keane and Glenn Dyer
  5. Rundle mythbusts Abbott’s victory | Guy Rundle
  6. What’s wrong with Tasmania, Australia’s freeloading state? | Jonathan West
  7. How dare you try to politicise this politicising! | First Dog on the Moon
  8. Mirabella scrambling as polling puts Indi on knife edge | Andrew Crook
  9. Super site: Guthrie’s secret publication revealed | Matthew Knott
  10. You’ll love the How Fast is the NBN site … until you read this | Stilgherrian

So what does that say about the year that was? Well, it reminds us we had three prime ministers in 2013 — which is at least two too many.

You were enraptured by the downfall of Julia Gillard. And Kevin Rudd. And Sophie Mirabella. And the Tasmanian economy.

You remained engaged in the debate over a national broadband network. And were intrigued by a new internet news start-up.

And you loved the work of our cartoonist. Which doesn’t at all surprise, because you’re quite a discerning lot.

For us, it was a record year. More people subscribe to Crikey than ever before. Traffic to the website has increased beyond our expectations. Across all our platforms and social media you’re deeply engaged with what we’re doing. We can’t thank you enough. We are, truly, nothing without you. And we vow to lift the bar in 2014.

So cheers to you. Stay safe and be merry, in whatever denomination and form your holiday takes. We’ll be back for more on January 6.