It's astounding how much can happen in one year. That's 365 days. That's roughly how long this community's been on the blockchain. Silver-blonde Lizzie registered the account established it on the back of a throwaway comment from Flowing River. Lizzie created the account - and the community - on 17 April 2021. Three days later and with some serious behind-the-scenes work, she introduced the baby community and the inaugural team. She followed that with the inaugural post from the community account, in the community.

But first

You might be wondering why Lizzie's not writing this post herself. There's a simple - and complicated - reason: life happens. And she's had a lot of real life to deal with this year! If you've been following her #hiveblopomo posts, you'll know that the city and province in which she lives has been devastated by a cut-off low and Subtropical Storm Issa. It left a trail of death and devastation which has impacted at least three Silver Bloggers and Lizzie. More than a week later, they're all still mopping up and doing what they can.

Team work

The last thing Lizzie's in the right space to do, is to write a post like this. That's also why we have a behind-the-scenes team: life happens and we all have to help each other out. And we do. So, when you've finished reading this, pop over and give Lizzie some love by upvoting and/or tipping her posts - she is having to dip into her crypto stash to get through this patch.

Milestones

Anniversaries are a time for reflection, right? So here are some of the important milestones that punctuate our first twelve months:

The first team

In that inaugural post, the team lead by Lizzie, included Sterling Silver, @ericvancewalton and moi (Silver Flower). Very much in the background, but very supportive until ill health made him step back was @tarazkp to whom we remain very grateful. In the subsequent months, both Sterling Silver and Eric were central to our work and especially as part of the Blog of the Week judging panel. Although they're not so involved in the day-to-day running of the community, we know they're behind us. So, to them:

Four month frenzy

In preparing to write this post, I checked back at our January looking back to look forward post.

Never, in a million years, did Lizzie and I think that the community would have achieved what it has in just four months, let alone the last year. Here's a brief summary of what has happened:

• The blog of the week took off like a steam train, so much so, that it made sense to reduce its frequency to once a month. Thank you to all of you who contribute and to the sponsors. Speaking of which, we'd like to add to the prize pot so if you'd like to add to it, please send either Hive or HBD to @hive-106316 with the memo BoM Sponsorship.
• Silver Names soon became a thing: again, they were Lizzie's brainchild and new (now not so) team member Silverfish took the concept to a whole new level. If you haven't chosen yours, here's what to do.
• Silver prompts are our newest innovation and are our Silver Cat's clever creation. Look out for the next prompt - we always look forward your contributions.

But that's not all

Because it became clear that we needed an off-blockchain space for our community, and one which didn't use up manna and VP, we (I) went on a steep learning curve and set up our Discord channel. I didn't do very well and had a great deal of help from our guardian angel @macchiata. Now, we have Mr Discord, himself, Silver Fish, who takes care of that and so much more.

Join us in our Coffee Corner?

Incubation and support

We would be remiss in not thanking the team at @ocd. In addition to Macchiata, we need to make special mention of @acidyo under whose leadership it operates and our other guardian angel, @livinguktaiwan whose sage advice never goes amiss.

The numbers

In January, we had a mere 700 subscribers. Just four months later, we have nearly double that. Similarly, delegations have increased, too. From just over 6,000 HP from just 19 Silver Bloggers to more than 8,000HP from 32 Silver Bloggers. As we always say, every little helps.

We are looking at ways of saying a "proper" thank you. In the meantime, you're all:

Blog of the month - new topic/prompt

Because the last month has been a busy one for everyone, it seems, we have decided to combine the new #bom with the April prompt.

The theme is:

Celebrations!

This fabulous suggestion came from Silver Cat. The decision was unanimous! She asks:

How do you like to celebrate? Has that changed over the years?

Memories of special celebrations, and so on...

To enter

How to enter your post for the Blog of the Month (#BoM) -

1. Posts must be in English (or with a translation from your home language) and obviously centre on the month's theme or topic.
2. Prose must be a minimum of 350 words. If it’s a photo or graphic essay, the photos must be your original work and preferably with some sort of back-story to the images.
3. The blog must be posted in/from our community
4. The account must be a subscribed Silver Blogger
5. Use #BoM - blog of the month - as your first tag.
6. Share the link to your entry in the comments of this post and in our Discord channel which is open to subscribed members only.

Word to the wise:

If you don't follow the rules, your entry will not count.

Also -
Do follow the #BoM tag so that you can easily find, upvote and comment on other contributions.

Reminders:

The community description which you will find here, is a guide to the content that is welcome in the Silver Bloggers' Community.

We will encourage folk who post content that doesn't jive, to find an alternative and more comfortable space in which to play.

and

To keep things fair: the same person (account) may not win twice in succession.

In summary, last edition's winner may enter, but the contribution, like those of the judges' panel, will not be eligible for a prize.

Deadlines

This round closes at midnight GMT (also known as UTC) on Monday 9 May 2022 and the winners will be announced later the following week.

Bumper Silver Birthday Prizes

We have a pot carried forward from last year, and from which we will continue to draw the prizes:

The winner gets

• 50% of the liquid rewards from the post announcing the winners. His/her account will be set as a 50% beneficiary
• 15 Hive/HBD* sponsored by @lizelle
• 15 Hive/HBD* sponsored by the Silver Bloggers Community

The runners up win, too

Thanks to our founder and Silver-Blonde Lizzie, the runners-up will also receive 10 Hive/HBD each, and we may be able to allocate another 10 Hive/HBD from the community account for the runners up - we'll look at what's left in the pot!

Also
If we get some generous additions to the prize pot in celebration of our first anniversary, there may be some additional spot prizes, too!

All prizes will be sent directly to the winners' wallets.

*the sponsors reserve the right to pay prizes in either Hive or HBD

Would you like to sponsor a prize?

If you would like to sponsor a prize, please comment on this post and tag any of the mods (@coquicoin, @mondoshawan, @lizelle or @fionasfavourites). Alternatively, send either Hive or HBD to @hive-106316 with the memo BoM Sponsorship.

Theme suggestions

If you have topic suggestions, please leave them in the comments?

Themes can be anything you like - within the Silver Threads preferred for this community. Content creators will, of course, make of them what they will.

Last words...

We would love to get more eyes on this post and all community posts from - @hive-106316 - our Silver Bloggers account. This is is why we try to make a point of reblogging your posts. Please do the same?

Come and join our Silver Bloggers community

You can also now join us on Discord

in the Silver Bloggers server

And, thank you in advance

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