One Year of JetPunking + Q&A

Hello everyone! So, if you didn't read the blurb, don't worry! It's been a year on JetPunk for me! Actually, it happened on 29th of January itself but I forgot the date and had to ask Stewart about it. What a wonderful year it was! To celebrate this milestone, I am writing this blog telling you all how had my life on this tiny little corner of the internet been.

Oh.. there's also a Q&A planned. So, if you have any questions, please ask them out. I'll answer them in the comments and not in a separate blog.

Let's begin now!

Well, if I'm not mistaken, it was 2016. I was looking for a quiz that could help me memorise the American states. I found many websites, two of which I liked very much. One of them was JetPunk, while the other was Seterra. However, I didn't find what I was looking for. I was looking for something like this. But alas, this thing came out only in 2020! Anyway, I memorised the states and then... forgot the website.

It must have been 2019, when I returned to this adorable website. This time, I wanted to learn about California. Strange. Unlike most of the people, I did not stumble upon this website with the COTW Quiz. American topics brought me to this website not once, but twice! This time, I decided to visit this website more frequently, like once or twice a month.

Then came the pandemic! I had nothing to do back then. With schools closed, my final exams cancelled, and the second wave of the virus ravaging India, I was locked in my home. So, I thought of "enhancing" my already advanced geography skills. I came back to this website and decided to take quizzes regularly. Every single day! I made my account on 29 January 2021 but it all began in April when I wanted to comment on a quiz.

Much to my dismay, it said that I needed level 15 to comment. I pounded in and took some quizzes and made one of my first ever comments here.

May, June and July

I was doing good. Within a month or so, I had reached level 30. Then I came across something called Recent User Blogs. Oh boy! I found this part to be much more enlightening than the usual quizzes. The first ever blog that I read was Baptistegorce's Interview of Jiaozira. Since then, I've been checking the beloved RUB everyday.

Someday, I came across this quiz made by a certain user called TheNatureThread which was spotlighted. I commented something on it and checked more of his quizzes, not knowing that there would come one day when he will become one of my best friends on the website.

I read more and more blogs. I remember reading blogs by TheNatureThread, MG17 and Beckette at that time. Inspired by them, I decided to release my very own blog.

I released my first blog on 31 July 2021. You can read it here. I was nervous. Whether people would like it or not? Whether I would get a place in the RUB or not? After an hour or two, my good pal MG17 commented on it and complimented me. Soon enough, more people commented, some of them being TheNatureThread and BigGeographyGuy.

August and September

I released at least two more blogs in August. Much of them were not great. I made my flag ranking blog believing that people would like it. But I didn't get a lot of response. I felt disappointed. So, I resorted on making quizzes.

My first ever series did kind of well. It garnered me around ten takes within two days. Very few most of you might say, but it was overwhelming for a new user like me!

It was also during this time that I befriended MG17, BigGeographyGuy and ZooTuber3000. BGG proposed to lump them, Thread and me in a fictional alliance called the Quadruple Alliance.

October to December

This is when good times begun. I wasn't doing good on either quiz or blog sections. I was just making comments and so on. The Quadruple Alliance had kind of increased my popularity a little bit. That changed my world, umm.. my world on JetPunk at least.

On October 6, I released a blog sharing flags that I had made for the planets and other celestial objects. It became a sudden hit! When I woke up next morning, I found that it had been featured by the Quizmaster! It was unbelievable! Someone like me who started blogging just two months ago got a blog featured! I felt really grateful. I thank you QM once again for featuring it! :)

It got around 25 likes by the end of that week. My subscriber count increased from a mere 3 to 11! With it came new priorities, new ideas and new friends! By the year's end, it had 35 likes, being the fifth most liked blog on all of JetPunk at that time. It was also only the second blog featured which was written by a user other than the Quizmaster or Stewart! You can read it here!

In October, I decided to start a trivia for every Indian state inspired by the American state trivia. It is still in process and I have made only seven quizzes out of the total 36. I made my first ever SVG quiz in late October. I was quite satisfied with how it turned up. Most of November went on without happening anything serious. The Blog Games started and I wanted to write some blogs. In December, I started a new series called Weird and Unknown Flags from Around the World, documenting, well, it's self-explanatory! The series is still continuing to this day and has helped me greatly to grab the first spot in the Blog Games Leaderboard.

January and February

In January, I released the sequel to the Flags for Planets blog. It was about flags for the continents and some regions. I was expecting a lot from this blog having worked on it for roughly three months. While it didn't get anything of what I had expected, it did cause some controversy and teach me to not have expectations.

I released a new SVG quiz in February and it became a sudden hit. It gathered more than 20 takes in two days and immediately became my most popular quiz, surpassing another quiz which had been there since August! I was greatly motivated by it and am currently in the process of rolling out some other SVGs too.

So, that's probably a brief history of my first year on JetPunk. :)

Over the past year, I befriended several people here and they helped me quite a lot.

1. TheNatureThread – My first friend on the website, my first subscriber, my main inspiration to write blogs and for trying out all of my quizzes, be it good or not.

2. JWatson24 – For being a constant support to me since my earliest days as a quizmaker and for inspiring me to make SVG quizzes.

3. BigGeographyGuy – For making me a part of the greatest alliance ever created, the Quadruple Alliance, obviously, and for checking my quizzes and blogs.

4. MG17 – For being one of my inspirations to write blogs and for providing the constant support. Also being the first user on my notifications page.

5. ZooTuber3000 – For becoming one of my earliest friends and inspirations and checking my quizzes.

6. Jiaozira – For being one of my earliest friends on the website and one of the main inspirations for quizzes and blogs.

7. KingEureka – For providing support as a fellow Indian.

8. PotatoDude – For being one of my earliest quiz-takers and subscribers; haven't heard from you lately. Where are you?

9. NeilV – Another fellow Indian, or Indian-American, who has been an inspiration of mine too.

10. Fuse – For checking out my blogs and giving me great ideas. Also, helping me realise that I shouldn't really keep expectations.

11. Geopro – For creating one of the greatest blog series ever created on JetPunk and for also agreeing for almost all of the land I ever asked for the GIE.

Okay, there are probably others too. I apologise if I have missed anyone. :)

How about some facts about me?

1. I haven't memorised or tried the American state capital quizzes yet. Its ironic that American states brought me to this website yet I don't know their capitals or even flags!

2. I love red pandas. It is the cutest animal you'd ever see!

3. For a long time, I used to think that Jiaozira was an Indian user. When I found out he was not, I was surprised like hell.

4. I love travelling to different places though I haven't been able to travel since the pandemic broke out.

5. I love listening to music, mostly pop – both Hindi and English, and sometimes Spanish too. I like listening to Middle Eastern music as well.

So I guess that's it. Um, I am looking forward to having a great year ahead again and I wish the same to you as well.

Oh, the Q&A! Well, I haven't seen a Q&A on the website since a very long time, so maybe I can do it. Do you have any questions? You may ask them here and I will answer them in the same blog. Don't ask silly or inappropriate questions. I am an introverted (mostly) person and don't prefer to tell everything to strangers. Bye! :)