![](https://steemitimages.com/DQmWU4vu9AvUz34u83sTq4N525Po7pWhgJJ7HHcBssBw5xb/image.png)

So, a lot of people seem to think that I'm a whale.  That's a misconception.  I'm a Dolphin.  I'm not even a particularly large dolphin.  That's because ball size is typically measured by SP.

## A couple ways to look at this account <h2>

If you go by the standard-

Redfish 0-1000 SP
Minnow = 0-5000SP
Dolphin = 5000-50000SP
Whale= 50,000SP+

I'm a dolphin.  I'm not even that large of a dolphin because I'm not that huge.  According to Steemwhales I'm not even in the top 500 accounts on Steemit.

## What's another way to look?  <h2>

I like follower count generally.  I'm floating around top 60 most followed accounts.  If you exclude all the people that just followed 40,000 people and now have 4000+ followers then I'm in the top 40 most followed accounts.  Actually I think I might be personally responsible along with @jerrybanfield for the rise of those folks.  I wrote an article about the ways you get on the top 25 most followed list and mentioned spam f4f as an approach.  Now's there's 20 of them near the top of the list.  I also think Jerry has been actively encouraging the behavior.  Oh well.   Sorry guys.  For the record it is a pretty shitty way to get up on the top of the list.  You'll notice many of those accounts have thousands of followers and still accounts only worth $30.  It's probably not worth your time.

Anyway, all of that is to stay now that I'm rockin' close to 4,000 followers I'm in the top most followed.

## The Best handle for figuring out long term success <h2>

I don't know any place that tracks this conveniently right now, but my favorite measurement of success is looking at the combined SP of all the people that follow you.  That gives you a sense of the long term trend you're likely up on.  So, yeah, having 4,000 brnad new minnows is neat and all, but I'd rather have 1 whale droppin' votes on my posts from a strict financial gain perspective.  It's the same with tracking this.  What you want to know is how big are the collective balls of all the people that read your posts.

It's easy to do that in Discord rooms that use Banjo.  Just type $follows Steemitname and watch what it spits out.  The higher your value is the better off your long term success on the platform is looking.

## Anyway, I'm not a whale... yet <h2>

People seem to think I'm a whale.  I'm not.  I make decent money but I have a house, wife, and 2 kids.  So I basically have no spending cash for say 15 more years or more.  So, I can't just come in here and buy a shit ton of steem.  So, I have to do it modern way, which is posting for it.  I have around 20k steem.  I have purchased $2500 of steem, but the vast majority has come from author rewards.  Yes I have a big following.  Yes I helped create a minnow group and get some publicity for that.  Yes I am a witness.  Despite all of that.  I'm not rich.  I'm just a dude.  Just a medium sized dolphin.  I still got 30k Steem Power to earn before I'm there.  It's gonna be a bit before I get my Whale Ball upgrades.

So, lots of people make this mistake when reaching out in Discord or Steemit chat.  I just wanted to clear it up.

## Witness Side Note <h2>

I'll probably do a full post on this laterz, but I'm rocking 19.1 now.  Hopefully you stop seeing the broadcast error.  I got it once myself.  For the record @netuoso broke steemit.  For the record we didn't give him the Minnow Support Project Medal of Honor for that specific activity!  Fortunately, the devs and some really smart users fixed it in pretty close to record time, and now many of the witnesses are rockin' the fix.  This place is stronger for having gone through that process.

Good Times.