Challenge #17 is now closed and we have a new winner! Check out the announcement post and read all the cool comments. Get inspiration and prepare yourself for the next round: Steemit Comment Challenge #17

This Challenge is part of my campaign to help other Minnows. The #minnowsupportproject helped me and I want to help others.

Steemit Comment Challenge #17

This week we featured a post with a lot of potential for discussions and reflections, and sure thing, we received a record amount of comments. It was a post from Hive account@meditationmann, titled “Your Darkness Will Transform You”. It was a post that reflected on the dark and bright sides of our lives. Much deeper compared to the posts in the last couple of weeks.

Hive account@amariespeaks was this week’s Guest Judge and as part of her duties, she also picked this post. Big thanks for finding this hidden gem in the Steemit universe.

In the last few challenges I have had a $20 SBD prize pot. I have been able to sustain this with the help of some nice returns from the bid bots. But lately the ROI has been really bad, so I’m afraid I won't be able to sustain the high prize pot. I’m working on additional ways to return cash to the contestants which I hope to be able to announce within 1-2 weeks. But for next round I’m afraid the pot will go down to $15SBD.

This week's Judge: Hive account@amariespeaks

Nice lady Hive account@amariespeaks has been with me this week. We had plenty of contestants again this week and the Challenge post reached over 1300 views. Wow!! Votes were really "steeming" this week with one of the Top5 comments receiving more than 60 votes. Counting all the votes, we had the following Top5 contestants: Hive account@celineaugustinee, Hive account@adesojisouljay, Hive account@desmonddesk, Hive account@blessing2002 and Hive account@samal.

Congratulations Hive account@adesojisouljay & Hive account@wizardave

We had some seriously good comments in Top5 this week. 😊 Hive account@amariespeaks and I had great fun comparing every angle of every comment. We also felt it was a nice addition to be free to award the 2nd prize to any of the comments, that freedom gave us the chance to pick something that really stood out or a great comment without many votes.

1st prize this week we have awarded to Hive account@adesojisouljay for his outstanding comment. Here follows Guest Judge Hive account@amariespeaks motivation:

Your comment was nearly as inspiring as Hive account@meditationmann's original post! It was heartfelt and well thought out. My favorite line, "Trouble doesn't kill but makes you stronger. Darkness doesn't cage you down forever but makes you think of inventing light." And though I may not have the same exact opinion regarding God that you've outlined so beautifully - I must say your faith is admirable and courageous. Great comment - you've made me proud to be a judge in this contest! So happy to award you with the grand prize! Keep Steemin'!

And 2nd prize we award Hive account@wizardave, for his story about the worm and the butterfly. Excellent amusing short story that, in the end, connected very well with this week's theme.

Well done Hive account@adesojisouljay and Hive account@wizardave!! And a big thanks to all the participants for just being awesome!!

1st Prize: 15 SBD!! - Congrats Hive account@adesojisouljay!!

2nd money: 5 SBD! - Congrats Hive account@wizardave!!

Proof of payout

I'm very grateful for the donations received so far. It has given the challenge some extra "steam"!

• Hive account@zeartul donated 10SBD
• Hive account@destinysaid donated 5SBD
• Hive account@dray91eu donated 8SBD
• Hive account@tech-trends donated 10 STEEM
• Hive account@fishmon donated 10SBD
• Hive account@destinysaid donated 5SBD
• Hive account@fishmon donated 5SBD
• Hive account@nanosesame donated 10SBD
• Hive account@amariespeaks donated 5SBD

If you are reading this, please visit the blogs of the cool bunch above and send them some love. Why not write them a godlike comment? 😃