It is a pretty close finish for the last part of the 10k SP dpoll generously offerred by @theycallmedan. As we are closing in on the final stretch, there is only a handful of votes that seperate @steemitbloggers from the top finishing position.

Strong communities are the good face of STEEM, this is the side of STEEM that will bring in active and engaged users who are critical for the success of the chain. If you take a quick look at the dpoll, you can see that @steemitbloggers (with a membership of around 85 core members) is punching way above it's weight. We are ahead of large dApp communities like @actifit and @dsound, whilst drawing level with communities with much much larger membership.

How is this possible?

Well, don't underestimate the power of dedication and passionate advocates of the STEEM community. We (@steemitbloggers) are a core of highly dedicated bloggers who remain passionate and engaged in many other communities (not only @steemitbloggers) even in these dark days of crypto winter. We are not people who jump in when the money is easy and then run off at the first sign of trouble. We are here to stay, and we will actively promote STEEM on this chain and every other social media (crypto and traditional).

We are humans, not bots... Pretty much every one of our votes are cast by an individual who has been touched by our commitment and you can see that we have more support than the 85 members would suggest! With a supportive delegation, we could do so much more! The investment in this community would repay in supporting and engaging multiples of human and distinct bloggers.

If our community wins this delegation, you will see us paying forward the support as we grow stronger, our support of our different communities gets also stronger. We are diverse in interest and location (there is likely a couple of us already in the communities that you follow!) , concentrating support is a very dangerous thing in an ecosystem that is based upon decentralisation.

You will see many other familiar names in the list of voting, and it is a testament to the quality of the @steemitbloggers project (and also to the generousity of the supporting accounts) that @spunkeemonkee, @freewritehouse and @qurator have also backed us. Unfortunately, the dpoll doesn't allow an easy transition of votes, but hopefully that support can be taken into account in the final tally? (@theycallmedan, @abh12345, @emrebeyler)?

Why @steemibloggers?

As I had pointed out in my previous post, these are the primary reasons that I would offer to support @steemitbloggers:

1. @steemitbloggers is a tightly curated and quality controlled (human curated) group of international bloggers, musicians, poets and photographers who work hard to create high quality content with a high degree of engagement across the blogs. The blogs don't get insane payouts like the trending page (in fact most of the bloggers are minnows), and are a better representation the STEEM ecosystem than the few blogs that can afford to pay their way up to the top. The fact that it is a human curated and open only by invitation (on each post that is submitted for review) means that it doesn't suffer the same degree of abuse that some of the automated projects otherwise can be affected by.
2. @steemitbloggers recently had a name change #powerhousecreatives to better represent the group. Although STEEM is the main home of the group, a good deal of the posts are also cross-posted to other crypto chains, and MORE IMPORTANTLY to traditional social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram....). This visibility of good content and a tight community is a face that entices new blood to come and join the STEEM chain (a goal that groups like @oracle-d also try to manage). The survival of STEEM means that we need to show the benefits and quality of the chain to others that are outside the STEEM bubble, there is no use preaching to the choir!
3. There are a few groups that are on the final 10 that I would dearly also love to reach the final goal, however, from a pragmatic point of view, there are only three groups that are within striking distance of the end (#Powerhousecreatives (aka @steemitbloggers), @votovzla , @team-cn). Whilst all these projects are all worthy of the delegation, I would argue that the benefit of having a community that is NOT centred around a particular country affiliation would be a more efficient and productive use of the delegation.