Minnow #541,753—Monthly Report: September

in #steemit5 years ago

So, September Happened

Ah, September. The beginning of fall (in the Northern Hemisphere), the return of football (American), school starts up again for me a youth, and we realize that the holidays will soon be upon us.

Oh, yeah. Something about a hard fork.

For me, it also meant helping my wife continue her recovery from hernia surgery, at least for the first two weeks. Then, the hard fork hit.

September and STEEM—well, let's just say, it wasn't pretty.

Let's get this over with.

Minnow 541,753_8.3M.png

Quick Summary

I think the mere fact that I'm still here and actually publishing this report should count for something, right? Maybe we all should get T-shirts that read, I survived Hard Fork 0.20.0, 0.20.1, 0.20.2, 0.20.3, 0.20.4, 0.20.5...

Mine, however, would probably just say, I survived September.

The numbers are way down. That's about really the only way to put it.

Let's roll 'em.

Posts (no comments)—11

Well, the good thing about having so few is that it's easier to count them.

My wife's surgery and the hard fork are the reasons for the lack of posts. Not much to add to that other than I intend to get more posts up in October.

Comments—431

This actually looks better than it was. In truth, 350 of those comments were accomplished over the last two weeks, so you now know how the first part of the month went.

Average daily number of comments were 18.7, based on 23 days where any comments were made.

Surgery and hard fork. Moving on.

Upvotes given—140/425

Less activity on the blockchain leads to less upvotes. First part of the month, it was my lesser activity. Latter part of the month, there was fewer days of activity for everyone. Hardly the best way to get back in the groove.

Upvotes received—1091/1338

Those numbers look pretty good, don't they? Well, it's mostly Curie. 940 of those votes came on one post, with most of those coming from the Curie vote trail. This time it was pretty much in full force, and I believe they set a personal record (for me, not them) for number of votes on one of my posts.

SP increase—61.616

Another dip in SP, but given how September went, I'm grateful this was only a 9.4 SP drop from August. Curie was responsible for well over a third of that, along with some awards from contests and bounties.

Total earned SP since January 1, 2018 is 672.937. Unless some major things happen in the last quarter, it doesn't look like I will reach 1,000 SP. There's still time, however, so we'll see.

Highest single payout—11.659 SBD/13.204 SP

My post, Going To A Football Game Is Exhausting, garnered the Curie upvote. I knew it would, too. I knew it had great photos (thanks to my oldest son) and I thought it would meet Curie's writing standards. It took a little while for it to happen, though, so I was doubting my instincts when the upvotes starting rolling in. I use GINAbot, so it was pretty fun to watch and hear the votes. While I've received curie votes before, this was the first time I'd actually watched them come in.

All in all, I think the story I told was a singular experience that I don't feel many fans have, so I think in that way the post was very distinct and personal.

Self-upvotes—0

No accidental upvotes, and I think I managed to stay away from replying to myself this month.

Contests—4*

I'm involved in a number of contests now, but it's kind of hard to keep track of what each are doing and what I actually participated in. The one I'm sure of is reflected in the amount above—@abh12345's Engagement League. I was not as involved in foodfightfriday in September nor did I make any attempts to compete in the comedyopenmic. I was involved in a Curie curator comment contest and possibly another by the C-squared folks.

At any rate, the only STEEM I was rewarded came from second place in the Engagement League.

Flags given/received

None. All was quiet in September.

Followers—684

That's a 24 account increase over August, though I did notice that a few accounts dropped me, so the amount is definitely a net this time. Of the four or five I remember seeing unfollowing me, all were following 10,000-plus accounts. Not sure why I was singled out, but hey, it's okay. I didn't recognize any of the names, so I don't feel like they were really following me, anyway. At least not in any real, substantive way.

Reputation Rating—58

Thanks to the Curie trail, I did manage to go up a tick this time. I thought I might be staring at 57.999 like I did going from 49 to 50, but the trail was merciful and put me well over the top.

Investment—1,845.258 STEEM

This is by far the thing of most significance I did in September. Thanks to prices dropping below $0.70 USD, I went ahead and bought more STEEM. I made four different purchases on September 11. I'm still very wary about this whole process—going from fiat to alt coin to STEEM—so I broke up the purchases.

That amount more than doubles the investment I had accumulated through August. At that point I had 1,642.883 STEEM. The new amount brings the total invested STEEM to 3,487.141. All of it was powered up.

I've pretty much spent all I can on STEEM this year and probably into the foreseeable future. This amount does not make me a Dolphin, but I'm much closer than I would be without it.

Miscellaneous

Hard Fork 20 happened. While I believe the amount of STEEM I had before the new round of investment would have sufficed (at least with the current 10 x booster patch in place), I believe I will be okay even if the booster patch is removed or diminished. I can't see myself reaching Dolphin status anytime soon, but I'll take stock at the end of the year, and then at six months if I'm still not there yet.

One Final Note

For what it's worth, @pjau, here it is.

Image comes from my page on steemitboard.com.

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Hey, @steemitboard.

Thanks for coming round. Seems like I'm replying once a week now for something related to comments. Need to keep up with the ones I'm receiving, it looks like. Keep up the good work.

And here comes Halloween.
That is a cool stats report. I think I'm gonna make mine too, Glen.

And, hope everything is in control.

Hey, @aneukpineung78.

Well, thank you. It seems kind of dull to me, really, since it's now the ninth report I've made and I pretty much adhere to the same categories. I guess if you only see it once a month, it's not so bad.

Go for it! I think more people should do it, but it does take some time to put together and the folks who have commented about it really don't want to mess with a report. It helps me to see what I've done and to try to motivate myself to do better. Others, it just seems to take the thrill out of it.

I'm not sure if everything is in control, but we have no surgeries scheduled for October or into the future, so as long as everyone stays healthy and relatively happy, we'll call that in control. And if Steemit can manage to hold off doing something else, other than keeping the site up, that will be good for now, too.

No one is talking about the HF anymore, so that is a good thing. It means it is officially over. Haha at least until the next one in 6 months. 😀

Anyway get posting again while the rewards are high!!!

Hey, @pjau.

They've already reached their height and they're starting to come down. However that works. But yeah. Post more. Duly noted. :)

No one is talking about the hard fork anymore... Man, would I love to be in your circles. It's still happening in mine, and there's still people who are having a hard time doing anything. And new accounts, according to what I've heard, manage a few comments every couple of days and that's pretty much it.

Which may be why no one's talking about it. They can't!

Yeah. I am NOT looking forward to late March. I am not an SMT enthusiast to begin with, and after this hard fork, I'm not a fan of hard forks, either. Less of a fan of Steemit Inc.

Trying to stay positive here while I'm also keeping it real. It's a fine line balancing act, but someone has to do it. :)

No one is talking about the hard fork anymore... Man, would I love to be in your circles.

Sounds like you need 2 follow lists (one muted for the HF people) 😊

few comments every couple of days

Really... 🤔 when you have hundreds or thousands of SP I guess you don't really notice unless someone mentions it.

Which may be why no one's talking about it. They can't!

I think most people on my feed are > 100 SP.

Yeah. I am NOT looking forward to late March.

I'm excited for it actually. Really looking forward to communities. I want to make a few, not going to publicly say what until it is done. Don't want people snapping it up. haha, as for the SMT, yeah not really something that interests me, as I don't run a website or anything that would need them.

But what I'm not looking forward to is how it is implemented. Like I'm expecting there to be bugs, but I just hope its handled a bit more professionally this time, it was a bit all over the place and felt like no planning was involved for HF20.. 😂

Well, I'm sure it will die down, it has since I mentioned it, but still, folks are struggling apparently.

I think most of mine are over 100 SP, too, but some of them hang out more with folks who have less than 100 SP, so that's where my intel is mainly coming from.

re: communities

You must know something I don't. I haven't heard anything about communities or hivemind 1.5 for months—since they announced the deadlines for the hard fork and the SMTs, there's been nothing about communities on the steemitblog. I've seen others, like you, commenting about it, but it's like, where's the official word? I know, go to github. I'm a writer not a dev. :)

I really think people will be able to do some good with communities. I'm much more into that than I am SMTs. Probably because I'm onboard with the concept more, but as you said, the implementation track record isn't that great, and if they don't get it together in the next five months or less, it's not going to be the STEEM users they're going to be dealing with, it's going to be that big money they've been drooling over, and if it doesn't work well enough out of the chute, it's over. It will take a long time to recuperate from that, and those of us here aren't going to be able to do anything about that, other than hang on and hope. Which seems to be all we're really doing now. :)

I haven't heard anything official. Just words floating in the wind from unrelated to development or steemit inc people. I have asked people about it. But no one is really clear on wtf is going on or even how it will be made and work. 🤔

Okay. I was kind of hoping you had some top secret decoder ring or something that only witnesses of any kind are privy to and that you had the inside scoop on this.

I'm not sure which is more disappointing—that there is no super secret witness decoder ring, or that no one you've spoken with has a clue how this is going to be built, let alone when/if it's going to happen. That sounds like a ready made, handy dandy recipe for success. :)

Yeah, well I don't unfortunately. 😁

I just hope it's like reddit. That would be a good setup. And proven popular.

Reddit? There must be more to Reddit than I've seen the half of dozen times I've gone because it just reminds me of boards and forums. Can't we do something to it? Spruce it up a bit?

I'm not sure what I want, but something that allows me to see more of what's been written and get my stuff out to more people who like what I'm posting, be that on a community wall, in their own feeds, or what have you.

Nice, considering the issues going on at home and with the fork. I think you are going to feel blessed in the coming year or two being able to invest as you did. Congrats on the curie trail, I don't believe they have ever found me worthy, lol.

Hey, @practicalthought.

Yeah, I suppose it was, all things considered. I keep finding myself in consolation mode, though. Oh, well, that happened, so I should feel fortunate that I made what I did, kind of thing. Not trying to be ungrateful, but it would be nice to start stringing together some 100 SP months at least. :)

I'm really hoping that things start showing up soon. Two to three years is very much a possibility, even though sometimes it takes much longer. I just don't seem to have the ability to convince my wife of that. My powers of logic, good sense and measured persuasion don't work on her. Neither does yelling and flying into temper tantrums. You know, in case you wondered.

You seem to be getting into the infowars/family protection posts quite a bit, which isn't necessarily curie's territory, but it still has a decent following, and dolphin/orca backing at least. And in that case, it can hit at any time. Curie tends to hit no more than twice a month, regardless of what you do. It's not something to rely on at all, and considering many people don't get one, that experience (not getting a curie) is very much in the majority.

You seem to be getting into the infowars/family protection posts quite a bit

Yeah, both of those groups are a natural fit for me.

I'm really hoping that things start showing up soon.

I believe that we will see another rise as we close out the year so they can get maximum tax revenue. I also hear that there is interest from some of the Ethereum apps in the SMT when it rolls out so thinking next spring will see excellent growth as well.

Oh, yeah. Maximum tax revenue. That's why we have cryptos. :) I've been wondering. Seriously. Not joking.

I've heard that somewhere to, that the Ethereum based tokens weren't happy with what was going on. It seems like we're always in a hurry up and wait mode. First the hard fork, now SMTs, and maybe communities? More dapps? Something else?

Supposedly institutional money is making it's way into the crypto space and that's supposed to do something.

I hope so. I need for it to do much more than what it's currently doing, swimming sideways, and occasionally bobbing up and down.

So, September Happened

I love your title @glenalbrethsen. It sort of sums it up for me too, at least as far as Steemit was concerned.

October's not looking too different except there won't be a hard fork.

Glad to see you've managed to keep up your commenting despite all the goings on.

I just wish you could find another 30K or so!!! 😱 😂

Hey, @gillianpearce.

Thirty thousand what? Comments? Upvotes? Rewards?!?

That would be awesome. However, I suspect you're referring to points. As in 30,000 Engagement league points? If so, I actually probably need 50,000, just to make sure.

If that's not it, though, let me know. I know I don't have another $30,000 USD. :)

I'm hoping October will turn around my STEEM time finally. The last two months have not been all that productive, or for that matter, fun. Surgery and a hard fork that was a rollercoaster ride in disguise are to blame—but still, I need to work on my mindset, too. Don't know how, but I do. There was plenty more I could have done on days where I actually had time that I ended up not doing anything. I flaked. And while that's okay, I guess, it's time to stop flaking.

For me.

Others are free to flake if they feel it best.

And just because I say I need to stop flaking is not a guarantee I will. I have the desire to stop flaking. That's a start. :)

30,000 Engagement league points

Yep. That's what I was referring to @glenalbrethsen. 😁

I have the desire to stop flaking. That's a start. :)

It is indeed. Is there any way I can help you in your non flaking endeavour?

What do you enjoy writing about most? 😊

Well, creating my own stories and offering my opinions are basically what I like to write, which means all kinds of genres and topics can come into play. I think it's more of a time issue, and getting lazy because I haven't been able to accomplish even what I was managing before. There's just a lot that goes into it before you even get to the post part.

And of course, trying to do anything with the Engagement League means you're commenting much more than you would otherwise. But getting an award is a significant part of what I earn here, so I can't just give that up entirely. It's finding the right mix of comment and post production that I haven't mastered yet, even when I was producing more.

I'm not sure how you can help, other than doing what you're already doing. I don't think I need a taskmaster. That only tends to add to the flakiness.

Well, don't tell anyone (I know, we're on a blockchain), but one of these weeks I'm going to get back up there. I'd rather keep it low key, though, because there's a lot of ground to cover and I don't need a lot of fanfare before it even works.

getting an award is a significant part of what I earn here, so I can't just give that up entirely.

same for me. 😁

I don't think I need a taskmaster.

Oooo. I wasn't looking for that role. I'm not here consistently enough for that anyway. 😂

one of these weeks I'm going to get back up there

yay. Glad to hear it @glenalbrethsen. 👏 🏆 🏅

I love this post. Detailed analysis of yourself! I must do that. Question have you ever went on musing.io? I think you would be a perfect fit for this dapp.

Well, thanks, @blanchy. That's my ninth straight month of posting some kind of results from the prior month. I'm always amazed when people find it interesting, but I think it's good to chart your progress, especially if you want to get somewhere with it. So go for it!

re: musing.io.

I've gone a couple of times. Quora for the blockchain. I'm guessing you mean I would be good at answering people's questions? Maybe. I should probably take a closer look and get more into what it is and what I could do.

It's kind of misnamed, though. I don't think answering people's questions are really musings. That would be more of a rambling post about whatever that people either really like or think is trash. :)

80 cent and answer may change your mind ! 😉

Posted using Partiko iOS

It was a rough month for a lot of people, but it seems that you did fairly well. Good for you for getting more Steem at the lower prices. That's a great way to lower your average cost for the shares you already purchased. Hopefully we'll be seeing the prices head up soon. For now, it's nice to be collecting larger amounts of rewards.

Keep at it, buddy. You're making progress! And congrats on getting the Curie vote again!

Well, thanks, @themanwithnoname. I know I am making progress, it just feels like a slug stuck in molasses during an ice age.

re: investment

Well, it was nice to see my SP more than double for a little over a third of what I'd previously paid. Then, of course, I'd wished I'd waited to buy the first rounds. So, I ran the emotional rollercoaster gamut in about 3.5 seconds, got over it and only think about it when it gets brought up. :)

Considering that my first STEEM purchase was at over $6, I'm waaaaay glad to bring that average down. Would like to see it get down farther, but that means $0.25-$0.50 STEEM, and at this point, I'd just rather it go up.

re: rewards

That has been nice. Speaking of which, I need to come up with another post for today. Always something. :)

it just feels like a slug stuck in molasses during an ice age.

Ha! I know what you mean. Think back to when we were just starting though! It was even worse then. Sometimes I think you'd be one of my only votes. I'd often have posts pay out with only $0.02 - $0.03. Those were really slow times.

I've recently made some investments that I could have gotten for even less if I had waited. It's hard to know when the "perfect time" is to buy, so you just have to make a determination if you think it's a good investment, and then buy. You might be right, you might be wrong. Either way, you made a decision and moved on it. Still, I'm sorry you didn't get a better price.

It seems like the price is dropping to $0.80, so it could go even further. Could be another great buying opportunity!

Yes, having the greater rewards has been nice. I've been enjoying seeing my account grow a bit recently. I've been doing two posts a day with the Steem Monsters stuff and that has helped quite a bit. Are you planning on getting involved with it at all?

Never say never, I guess, but at this point, I'm not that motivated to do it. It's certainly not going to suffer without me. It's got a lot of buzz and a lot of backing and a built in following.

It's truly amazing, actually, and a testament to what this community could do if it wants to. I wish it would focus on more long term things, but hey, it's a start. And maybe STEEM Monsters will last longer than I think it will and people will actually manage to see their digital cards make money rather than become worthless.

That's alright if you're not jumping in. It took me a while to get involved. We haven't actually started playing yet, so I don't even know if I'll be good at it. For the time being, I'm counting on being able to borrow card from Dave McCoy to play. The ones I have aren't good enough to compete.

I haven't put a lot of money into Steem Monsters. I guess it's probably around 7-10 Steem in all. I had to buy the starter pack which was 6 Steem at the time. So far I've been making a decent amount off my Steem Monsters posts, so I think it has paid for itself. I'm not sure how much I'm going to put into buying/building decks. We'll see. Part of it depends on how well I can do and what the rewards are.

I guess this Sunday is when the fighting starts, and that as a means to check the system and ensure that it's working properly? Anyway, I wish everyone well in this. And now that I've won a card pack, I guess I need to figure out what they might be worth and how much I can get for them.

From what I understand, yes, the fighting starts Sunday. I'm honestly not that excited for it at all. Because they have only let a select few people try the game out, I don't even know how to build a team or what cards to use. I'll probably get into it eventually, but it won't be right out of the gate. I think they did themselves a disservice by not allowing everyone to play.

Once you open the pack, let me know and I can give you an idea. There's also a "Market" tab where you can look through and see current sale prices.

When I go to the Steem Monster site and click login, it asks me for my username and STEEM key. There's not an option I can find to use steemconnect. I've even tried to go directly through steemconnect, but there's not a way to do that, either.

I'm okay with trusting steemconnect, but I'm not all that keen on putting a private key into another site.

re: fighting

It seemed like they could have let more people in. Maybe that's what this new round is all about, since everything is still in beta stage and looking for equilibrium. I don't know how it's all supposed to work, period, thus my lack of involvement.

I'm in no way trying to cast aspersions on those who are, so no shade coming from me. When I'm asked, though, I have to say nope, not going to get involved (if I have any say in the matter.:)

Hey, it looks like you got involved in Steem Monsters quicker than you thought!

image.png
https://busy.org/@steemcommunity/the-minnow-power-up-league-week-4

Yeah. Sigh. It seems there things on STEEM that are as inevitable as death. :)

Any idea how I'm supposed to "pick" these up? Do I have to go and signup for them on the STEEM Monsters site? I read through the post again to see if I could find instructions for claiming them, but didn't see it the two times I read through.

Ha ha!

Well, you can use my referral link to sign up. https://steemmonsters.com/?ref=themanwithnoname

(Full disclosure: I get a 5% kickback if you choose to buy and packs after signing up with my link. If you don't, I don't get anything. It doesn't really matter to me either way, so no pressure at all. I just thought I would clarify what the referral link did.)

You use SteemConnect to log into Steem Monsters with your account. Then you click on "Open" and you should see a pack there. After you open it, you can see what cards you got.

I do enjoy the monthly update :)

No accidental upvotes, and I think I managed to stay away from replying to myself this month.

Failed and did both of these last month I believe!

I think the 1000k earned may come after xmas too, but there's an outside chance it will happen before too.

Hopefully October and the run into Christmas will be more enjoyable than last month.

That would be nice, @abh12345.

It's been kind of strange. I've ran a business and tried to set up others, and each time, it got easier (if it got off the ground at all), over time. With the business, it took longer than a year or two, but by the end of it, I was at around 12 hours of work (laying out newspapers) with some miscellaneous owner stuff mixed in. Mostly, though, the time was mine.

Here, it's like the more I work, the less I get ahead, and the less I work, the less I get ahead. It's bizarre. And just when I think I'm getting into a rhythm, something comes along and knocks me out of it. Will or no will.

So, I guess it's a good thing this is a long haul deal, because the short haul stinks. :)

howdy this fine Saturday night sir Glen! fine job as usual in gathering the stats, you'd make a good accountant possibly? lol.

Hey, @janton.

My wife has been pushing me to go back to school and take accounting classes. I could do it at LDS Business College again if I wanted to. The problem is, I'd end up spending another three semesters probably, and as far as I know, I can't do it from home.

At any rate, I like counting my numbers—not so much the numbers of others. I know there's more involved than that, which includes revenue forecasting and other things, but I worked in a Savings and Loan once and that didn't turn out so well. :)

hahaha yes sir, I'm sorry that didn't work out so well for you! Well, I can see what she's getting at because they have more job security than practically anything else and you can work on your own.
I'd hate it though. Not much creativity for you either!

My time might be limited here too. I mean my wife has the jailers job, she got accepted this week and goes to meet with them next week to talk about the work schedule and stuff like that.

But then when she gets a set schedule I'm supposed to find something for when she's home, hopefully she'll get days and I will work thirds.
Unless steem takes off then I could probably stay here. lol.

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