Continuing to blog on all the fascinating aspects of my experience on our Steem blockchain, here is my sixth monthly update. One-half a whole year!

⭐ Wow!! ⭐ I'm still here ... In spite of the "gloomy" outlook ... ☔

Since posting my introduction on May 14th, these updates represent my "log" of sorts, giving my readers a monthly window into my "journey" through the Steemisphere - a new "virtual world" based on the creation of our Steem blockchain.

So ... "What are you doing 'in there' @roleerob and how is it going?"

Status or "Executive Summary"

To begin, here is a brief overview to answer the "how is it going" question we should probably be "checking in" with ourselves and answering, from time to time.

Statistics

There is an old saying, "numbers don't lie." Yes, well, there is also an old joke about the executive asking the accountant, "what do the numbers say about how we're doing?" to which the accountant replied, "what do you want them to say?" ... 😉

Required to issue a monthly report for most of my career, with numbers to quantify progress, here are a few:

To date on my Steem "journey," these numbers are the most important. The first three quantify our influence on adding value to the Steem blockchain. And the second two, the actual work we are putting in to adding value ourselves. Given all of our rich diversity, I trust we all have one focused objective in common - adding value to the Steem blockchain.

We want the value to go up!

"Fully" Engaged

"In here" after six months, I am still working on getting the right "rhythm" down in the investment of my time. I am currently working on a rough one-third slice of my time invested in three different areas:

1. Engaging "down" with all of the many great Steemians steadily adding value and working hard, who have a smaller stake and doing what I can to encourage them.
2. Engaging "up" and adding value, as much as I can manage, to the posts of those who may chose to ... uhhh ... increase my "influence" ... 😉 ... to help those in #1 ...
3. Adding value by writing my own posts, so #1 and #2 have some idea of why they would want to hopefully "engage" with me ...

I say "rough," as I don't have my stopwatch out or anything. I just try to be mindful of switching from one to the other. Part of the "flow," as I have written about elsewhere, is naturally regulated by your decline in voting power is "overused."

Increased Stake

The Steem blockchain is somewhat of an "open book," so evidence is readily to those who seek it that I have been steadily increasing my stake in it since I "jumped in" on May 14th. During this recent major market downturn, I accelerated increasing my stake. Up over 25% since last month!!

This puts me at "Level 4" in the great Minnow Power-Up League's weekly post of @steemcommunity - the Witness account of @abh12345 and @paulag!

• Note: If they are not already on your "short" list (very short even ...) for one of our vital Steem Witnesses, they deserve to be. Please check them out!!

"Resolute"

From my perspective, this recent couple of weeks have been the roughest of my "journey" so far in facing the steep decline in STEEM pricing and answering the "what are you doing in there" question.

Especially some recent news and posts "in here," as more fully covered in my One Thumb Down 👎 section below.

So ... "Resolute" simply means I am doing what @roleerob typically does in any "downturn" events in my life. I am "hanging in," in the face of adversity. How smart is that? Better, how wise is that?

Well, from painful past experiences, it is not uncommon for me to "look back" and say I should have left long before now. I am facing this exact thought process in my final days at work. I should have gotten away from the unhealthy environment there long before now.

But ... There are also times when "hanging in" has been the right thing to do and much has been written by others "out there" and "in here" about not quitting. Almost as a sort of virtue.

I guess we'll all find out which it is, in the coming months. For now, I am still here and doing my small part.

Awards and Accomplishments

Winning Travel Digest Award

I was very pleased that a very special memory with my children - as covered in my Travelogue 5: Cirque Lake in the High Uintas post - won an honorable mention from the Daily Travel Digest hosted by an impressive community - @steemitworldmap.

This post also got awarded by @c-squared and @trufflepig, along with some great supporting comments, so I must've had a good Steem day in putting that post together!

More on this can be found in my 1 👍 section below.

Winning @trufflepig's #1 Post of the Day

I really enjoy this clever little bot, as detailed in my Steem and the Adventures of @TrufflePig!! post.

While I have won some daily awards before, I had never won the #1 Post the Day award until ... fun fact ... this one - Update, Month 5: Still Engaged with an Increased Stake and "Doubling Down" ...!!

Yes, dear reader, I managed to win this award with my last monthly update! 😉 👍

Publishing my Steemisphere Posts

Once deciding “Chapter One” of my Steem “journey” was over, I wanted to post what I had learned, for the benefit of other Steemians choosing to join the Steem blockchain. Why?

Here is what I said in my introductory comments:

”You are reading what I would like to have been quickly introduced to, when I was where you are right now.”

I wanted to help others avoid what I had been through, as much as possible.

Here are the two complimentary posts created:

1. Welcome to the Steemisphere! Getting Off to a "Flying Start," Version 1.0 – Covers the full spectrum of what a new Steemian needs to know to get off to a “flying start.”
2. User's Guide to the Steemisphere, Version 1.0 – Covers the recommended apps and tools a new Steemian needs as they begin to engage with our Steem blockchain.

Carried over from last month, as these two posts were major efforts of mine, which I likely will never attempt again, at least not until the Steem blockchain fully supports work like this ...

Monthly Highlights

As started in my very first monthly update post, I was inspired to try to capture "the good, the bad, and the ugly" here in this section every month.

So ... What do we have this month:

👍 👍 Two Thumbs Up 👍 👍

Working with ”systems,” as well as managing the work of others, for much of my career, I have always emphasized ”people” over ”process” believing that is the right priority. From a lot of experience, I know the best systems are greatly diminished, if not ”manned” by competent, engaged people. A great team will always solve the problem of less-than-ideal systems. I have never experienced the reverse to be true ...

This section, then, will always be about the people I “meet” in our Community. Specifically, those who have had the greatest impact on my "journey."

• Ongoing involvement with the @pifc community, started by @thedarkhorse, and "doing life" together. Literally. From true end-of-life input from some to others wrestling with beginning-of-life challenges linked to child care. And from all over the world - with "regulars" being from Venezuela, Indonesia, Philippines, Bulgaria, and other countries of Europe and states in America.
  
  As explained in my Chapter Two: My “Journey” and the Pay It Forward Community post, this is still where I spend the majority of the limited time I have "in here."
  
  
• A poignant "meeting" with @buckaroo was an important highlight this month. In this compelling post, I learned her family is being threatened by her own government! How did I find it? I learned about the #gratefulvibes channel via this interaction with @ironshield, who dropped by one of my posts (don't know how it caught his attention). It was in following up and checking into that channel that the title of her post caught my attention.
  
  I am now supporting them both.
  
  These exchanges were my most recent reminder on the importance and value of "engaging," as first clearly laid out for me by @abh12345, who puts together an excellent weekly effort to track this in his Curation and Engagement League posts.
  
  
• Another big highlight was learning @partiko founder @crypto.talk appeared in a Forbes magazine interview. Wow! In this article, we learn more and more people in China are using this great mobile app to interact with the Steem blockchain, rather than use Facebook or its Chinese equivalent, WeChat.
  
  As covered in my very first monthly update, I have been following and interacting with @crypto.talk since my first few days "in here." I talked then about the passion and commitment he had and the impression made on me. As a result, of course, I began using Partiko very early on and have referenced the great value of it many times to others.
  
  Due to their hard work and excellent resulting mobile app, a recent initiative of the @partiko team resulted in a +250K SP delegation from the Steem community!! The team is also now serving as one of our vital Steem Witnesses!
  
  So, six months later, very pleased to see how well he and the @partiko team are doing!
  
  
• The engagement efforts of @newageinv are inspiring to me. We first "met" thanks to a resteem from one of our great Steemians, @steemchiller. @newageinv is very disciplined and steady with his engaging and posting.
  
  Fun fact - In his Introduce Yourself Curation posts, @newageinv references my Steemisphere posts, when I have not yet had time to get going on that myself ... 😉 👍

_{Source: Steem Artwork contributed by talented Steemian @dandesign86!}

👍 One Thumb Up 👍

The @steemitworldmap community is comparatively new to me, introduced by my Steemian friend @delishtreats. A very important part of engaging with this community is their Steem World Map website and posting to the #travelfeed and #traveldigest channels.

What an impressive interface! Recently tested by my Travelogue 5: Cirque Lake in the High Uintas post about an important trip with my children, into a remote "high country" mountainous region. Was able to pin exactly where we were!

As good as it is, according to this comment from @martibis, an even better interface is on their "road map!" I am anticipating some major interaction with this community and its map, once I set out ... Reflections: My "Road to Recovery" Trip ... on the trip outlined in this post.

So, beyond being simply a Community (which are all very important!) a great example of the synergy between any enterprise with an innovative idea built on top of the Steem blockchain foundation.

Overall, I was impressed enough that I decided to delegate to them. I hope to increase my delegation to them, as I am able.

👎 One Thumb Down 👎

As if we needed any reinforcement that it's "tough out there," we get this post from Ned, indicating 70% of the workforce of Steemit Inc. have been laid off.

Just in time for Christmas. Oh joy ...

With reduced resources and a vital cost containment / reduction initiative needed, this post covers the proposal of @blocktrades to help Steemit Inc out of of its present bind, in an attempt to help keep the critical SMT feature on track, to be up and running by its originally forecast deadline.

A significant expectation has been raised by the potential of SMTs and it is not good business to fail to live up to them.

This post from @exyle really goes into the issue of Steemit Inc.'s survival from one well-known Steemian's perspective. This is just one of many which could be listed. All of them are attempts by well meaning Steemians to help the Steem blockchain survive.

I am a big advocate for the decentralized nature of this new blockchain technology. From where I sit, it seems painfully obvious we have a ways to go to have a truly independently decentralized blockchain where no "single point of failure" can "bring the whole house down."

So ... Right now Steemit Inc is at least one "single point of failure" that can also reasonably be considered to be in the "too big to fail" category. That is, should they go under, they arguably will take the rest of the Steem blockchain down with them ...

Not good ...

👎 👎 Two Thumbs Down 👎 👎

The nasty exchange between some of our fellow Steemians briefly touched on last month has only grown worse. How is it possible the "combatants" don't understand the foolish and destructive nature of this? They are certainly not doing each other any good.

Worse, they are hurting those who are trying to support one side or the other, but to no avail ... Their "reward" in so doing is loss of reputation, as well as any financial benefit from their posting efforts.

What an ugly mess ...

I will reluctantly agree that downvoting has its place "in here," but not like what I have witnessed.

❌ This is just not right and should be stopped! ❌

The challenge for the vast majority of Steemians, including me, is we do not have sufficient influence to affect any change. It requires one (or better a group) of the very large stakeholders to take a stand and put an end to it ...

Closing

So, overall a steady and productive month for @roleerob. Thank you for reading my monthly update. I trust you have found something of value in it.

I always welcome any input you may be inspired to provide!

Until "next time," all the best to you for a better tomorrow, as we all work together to build our Steem Community! 👍 😊

Respectfully, fellow Steemian @ roleerob

Posted using SteemPeak and “immutably enshrined in the blockchain” on Friday, 7 December 2018!

December 7th, Pearl Harbor Day ...

Interested to read more of my “log” posts on my Steem "journey"? Great! Here you go:

• Update, Month 1: Engaged with a 4-Figure Stake in the Future
• Update, Month 2: Still Engaged with an Increased Stake and "Growing" ...
• Update, Month 3: Still (Somewhat) Engaged with an Increased Stake and "Recalibrating" ...
• Update, Month 5: Still Engaged with an Increased Stake and "Doubling Down" ...
  
  

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