Did you make it to Drop in the Ocean on Monday? If you didn't, you missed out on some fantastic conversation! We had four of our members presenting posts this week based on the topic of Transparency. The topic was a bit of a tricky one this week and it prompted varying perspectives from the writers. Perfect!

At the end of this post, I'll let you know how you can get involved with the Drop in the Ocean show next week.

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_{source - photo by philipp kämmerer}

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The votes have been rolling in from the attendees of the show and we have the two posts, with the most votes, ready to share with you all.

The top two voted writers will 'level up'. When a member has leveled up, they will receive a daily upvote from the BuddyUP account at 50%. The member keeps their level for 2 weeks, unless they level up again on DITO within those 2 weeks. Every time you level up, you will receive an additional 10% on your daily vote.

The writer with the most votes will be resteemed straight after this post. This is so we can all look back at the BuddyUP blog and see the winning posts from every week.

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Time for the winners!

We have another week of brilliant posts, which must have made the voting difficult for all the attendants. Anybody who has attended the show can still vote, once you gain access to the voting channel you will always have 1 vote to use every week. This is to try and gain more votes every week for a more balanced decision on the winners.

This week we only received 7 votes and there were two members who seemed to steal the show!

So without further ado, this week's winners are...

@andysantics48

The post by @andysantics48 was a personal story about an event from her life recently. It starts off very hopeful and friendly with the back and forth of conversation between herself and somebody at the event. It was joyful to read and the exchanges of generosity brought a slight smile to your face, until...

@andysantics48 gives us a brilliant look at how transparency can be considered, how some elements of dishonesty and shadiness can be hurtful, and how sometimes you are better off figuring out what the real intentions are of a person, before you go ahead with some plans.

Check out the post right here, how would you handle this situation?

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It was @andysantics48's third month on the platform on Monday! It's amazing to see how far she has progressed in just a few short months. With a brilliant support network around her and her natural talent for poetry and writing, I'm sure she will go very far.

Her poetry always provokes some added thought within me and brings something real to the table. She knows when to inject it with some humor and also when to focus on the serious.
You may of heard some of the poems within the various shows in our Discord communitities, but if you haven't, that's another fantastic reason to get yourself involved with DITO!

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@monchhichi23

In her transparency post, @monchhichi23 highlights some of the reasons why she gains so much from Steemit. Without delving too far into the post, and spoiling it for you all, she talks about how some elements of the existing social media just don't fit well with her and how Steemit has given her the opportunity to evolve on a more interpersonal level.

Sometimes the people closest to us in person, are nowhere close at all. This can be for a whole cluster of reasons but it usually comes down to the disconnect that's caused by all this external superficial mubo jumbo. The post highlights some of this and brings up a key point about the flip side of transparency. Sometimes it's better to be opaque.

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Always expressing honestly and sharing her mind, @monchhichi23 has continued to keep up with her writing and has shown us all here in BuddyUP how willing she is to improve. I'm sure we will see her again in the top two, but will it be next week?

Check out this post right here, I'm sure @monchhichi23 would love to hear your thoughts about her post.

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Current DITO standings

NAME	LEVEL	TIME
@monchhichi23	2 (60%)	2 weeks
@andysantcics48	1 (50%)	2 weeks
@dreemsteem	1 (50%	1 week

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Our runners up for this week

We had another pair of incredible posts by @dreemsteem and @penderis, but it seems like the competition was a bit too fierce this week! These two posts highlight the topic even further, giving us mre perspectives to consider when it comes to Transparency. Having this kind of variety provides such an amazing conversation in the show and I'd just like to virtually applaud you both for the effort you put in this week.

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@dreemsteem - Transparency: a Drop in the Ocean post

@penderis - Presently Opaque

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How do you get involved?

I'm sure you're wondering.. "how do I take part in this?!". Well first of all, you will need to head over to our BuddyUP server. You can do this by following the SafeLink post here. Secondly, you will need the topic for next week, which is...

ENCOURAGEMENT

Thirdly, you have to write a post about that topic and come by to the Drop in the Ocean show on Monday (20:00 GMT) to present it and join the conversation. If you are new and you don't have a membership to BuddyUP, you will receive free access if you present in Drop in the Ocean.

The final and the most important piece of information is... do not publish your post until Monday. This is so we can get you all the best amount of exposure possible on your posts and also so you get paid out on the day of the show, so you can come back with an even bigger smile on your face!

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_{source - photo by park troopers}

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Does this sound like your kind of community? If it does, you can head over and speak to any of us in #the-pond (general chat channel in our server) or if you have any further questions, you can direct message myself, @dreemsteem, or @penderis, and we will get in touch with you.

I'm looking forward to seeing you all next week for another brilliant show and conversation! Enjoy the rest of your week and don't forget...

We all grow together

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This has been @calumam, thanks for reading.

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All headers are sourced from unsplash.com or from the authors post.
_{top image: source - photo by averie woodard}