A Quizmaker's Update

I published my last JetPunk blog post way back on 16 July 2020. Upon reflection, this lack of posting is the result of two things primarily: 1) I do not think that JetPunkers would be interested in anything I might have to say, and 2) despite the worldwide pandemic, life/work has still found a way to keep me quite occupied. Mind, this has not prevented me from continuing to make quizzes from time to time.

The occasion for that post—'A Wee Nation with Wee Islands'—was the passage of what was, at the time, a minor quizmaking milestone: 'one of the first quizzes I ever published (which happens to be a combination of [my passions for] Scotland and geography) reached 1,100 takes.' From the date of that post, some 238 days, this quiz has only amassed a further 95 takes. Yet, while all of my quiz takes on 16 July 2020 totalled 14,197, as of yesterday, I have surpassed the 69,000 mark. I find it astonishing that, after publishing my first quizzes, it took 951 days (more than two-and-a-half years) to reach 1,000 takes, while I have 'jumped' from 14,197 to 69,260 takes (an increase of 55,063) in fewer than 240 days. I know that I've just thrown out a lot of numbers there, few of which are particularly round, but I felt as if now—with the prospect of breaking into the top 200 quizmakers on the horizon—was as good a time as any to reflect on these figures.

Since last summer, four of my quizzes have been featured. That, combined with the sheer number of other quizzes that I have published, makes sense of this increase. I have spent a fair bit of time learning about the SVG map feature (and exploring ways to make non-map SVG quizzes), which has enabled me to design a wider variety of quizzes (all of my features so far are 'map' quizzes, though only two of them contain actual geographical maps). I am humbled by the reception that these have received, this relatively good reception being evidenced by both the numbers of takes as well as the [mostly] very kind comments. Some people have commented (both on my featured and non-featured quizzes) that such-and-such a quiz was precisely the kind of quiz for which they were looking. I can empathise with this desire. I have enjoyed taking so many JetPunk quizzes and have learned about things for which I had held no interest before. Still, despite the plethora of excellent quizzes that exist within the JetPunk community, there were other quizzes that I wanted to take. For the most part, I've been publishing these quizzes. As an adult living with ASD (autism spectrum disorder – if I had to guess, I suspect that I'm not the only one on JetPunk), I have grown more aware that some of my interests are very much my interests, as in, they will not have a broad appeal. Still, other interests overlap with a number of other users. When these things converge, that pleases me greatly.

I continue to make quizzes and I do not know if I will ever crack the top-200 quizmakers list, but the fact that any of my quizzes have been featured (let alone, four) is a great and unusual honour. I will keep going as I have been going, designing the quizzes that I would like to take. Maybe you, my dear JetPunker colleagues, will like to take some of them too. Keep on keepin' on.