Interview of a JetPunker #27 - Simon1006

Hi Simon! How are you? I was wondering... Would you like to be my 27th interviewee?

I'd be honored!

Glad to read that! So let’s start this interview! First, could you present yourself on JetPunk quickly for our readers who don’t know you?

Great, let's get started! For those of you who don't know me, I'm Simon. I live in the Rotterdam-The Hague metropolitan area in the western part of the Netherlands. I started using JetPunk in early 2017, when I was about to embark on my first intercontinental trip and realised I didn't know quite some countries in this world. That sparked my interest in geography, and with some detours I ended up at the Countries of the World quiz. I made my first quiz shortly after that in April 2017, but only really started producing a lot of quizzes in 2019. You might know me from the Random Mystery Country / City series, or if you visit the Dutch section of the website from my many features there over the past year. 🙂

As you said, you are mostly known for your awesome “Mystery … by Hints - Randomized” quizzes, and you even helped Pandora to create his own “Colour” ones, with Stewart. How did you get these ideas? Were they technical challenges?

Pandora's Random colour clues actually was the first one of this series. Pandora (and Stewart as well) had both tried already to create the random version, but hadn't been able to find a way yet. I got the idea to randomise these quizzes after Mystery Country by Colour Clues #2 was featured on the front page, and decided to also give it a go. Some brainstorming and a lot of technical difficulties later, we finally got it working. Because it was all Pandora's idea to begin with, we put the quiz on their account, even though it still feels a bit like my quiz. Nevertheless I'm extremely proud of that one, and it's closing in on 1,000,000 takes as we speak!

The Hints sequels work exactly the same, so once the Colour Clues version worked there was not much challenge left there. But of course I have to credit ThatOneGuy25 here as well for giving me the idea of the Hints in the first place when I came across their unrandomized version. Needless to say, this one was an immediate hit as well.

The third (very recent) addition is the Random Border Hints one, where I got the idea from RoxyTheQuizzer's Travelling to the Next Country Alphabetically quiz, which, I must say, is my personal favourite. This one definitely was a technical challenge as well, since there are many ways to get from one country to another, so how do you know which is the shortest? Solving that problem, together with the fast-paced nature of the quiz (and less guessing needed) is why I love that one so much, even though it hasn't attracted as much attention yet.

Wow! That's fabulous! You have all my congratulations for the one million takes achievement, but also for the success of all the quizzes based on this concept.

You also published many quizzes about country first level subdivisions, and some of them even got featured. Where does your interest in this subject come from?

At the time I wanted to take on a massive project. I don't remember how exactly I ended up on the topic of First Level Subdivisions, but the diversity in the different types, sizes, and amounts of subdivisions caught my attention and interest. After compiling a quiz for the entire world I quickly realised that that was a bit too much, so I started creating a quiz per country, and then moved on to capitals and proximity, where the latter was mostly a challenge for myself again to be able to get it working. 🙂

We haven’t talked about the Dutch section in the interview blog series yet, but you are in charge of its development, so that’s a perfect occasion to address the subject. What can you tell about it? Are you optimistic for its future?

The Dutch section is currently growing quite a bit, although compared to English and French it's still small of course. Over the last few years I have spent quite some time to streamline all the already featured quizzes, alongside selecting (and creating) many new quizzes to be featured. I actually finished updating all quizzes only a few months ago, so hopefully there should be no more issues! 

Since I properly took over the development of the Dutch section, I have been using the takes on the Dutch Countries of the World as a measure for the well-being of the entire Dutch section, which has increased from about 200 takes per day to about 600. So I'm very optimistic for the future there, with many new quizzes to be featured this year as well. I'm aiming for level 50 to be possible by the end of the year!

That's pretty encouraging! Thanks for your implication on the development of this section, and good luck for level 50!

You published only one blog on JetPunk, but it was nothing less than the third most liked blog published in 2022. Are you proud of it? How did you get the idea for a that interesting JetPunk-related theme? Do you plan to maybe publish some other blogs on our favourite website?

I got the idea for a blog on how random the JetPunk randomizer is from a discussion I had with Stewart about some comments on his 20 random countries on the world map quiz. They were claiming that the JetPunk randomizer wasn't random due to it selecting bordering countries or selecting a disproportionate amount in specific areas of the world. 

We originally started with just the question "Can we calculate how often you should get bordering countries?", and that kept evolving until it reached the amount of questions addressed in the blog. 

Although I had a lot of fun writing it, I am not currently planning any new blogs in the near future. I probably will return to the blog section at some point (maybe getting the Dutch blog section a bit more active), but at this point I'm not sure yet.

It could be pretty interesting to "revive" the Dutch blog section, since many dead blog sections are coming back to life this year. Let's see...

You have also got noticed by providing thice many stats about comments published on JetPunk. How did you collect this data? Do you plan to do this again this year?

Ah yes, that's been a while indeed! Collecting the most liked comments started as a challenge to myself to see if I could get something like that working in the first place. I am collecting the data using a web-scraper, essentially a script that visits every page on JetPunk and collects all the comments there. I then compile all of those in an Excel sheet, sorted by number of likes, and by username. All of this runs in a script I wrote in Python. It's sadly not foolproof though, and last time it failed to collect two of the top 20 most liked comments due to them being hidden by the "Load more Comments" button. 

I am planning to revisit this at some point, but to be able to get accurate statistics I need to rewrite the entire script so that it can expand those buttons as well. I do know how to do it, but I need to find the time to rewrite everything. I won't make promises, but there will be an update this year probably.

Good news! Take your time, and good luck on this great project.

What is your own quiz you are the proudest of?

That's a tough one, there's many quizzes I am proud of. To go with one we didn't discuss up until this point, I have to pick the Random Wordle Challenge Chain. It is not always easy, but definitely solvable, it's fast paced, it's colourful, and it was really nice to make. And there's also an Easter egg hidden in it somewhere 🙃

An Easter Egg? Wow! I have to take the quiz again to see if I can find it. Damn, I failed in publishing this blog for Easter...

Do you have big projects of quizzes or blogs in preparation?

I've been working on a sequel to my Road Networks quiz for a while now, that'll be my next big quiz. But I can't set a time on when it'll be out yet. Other than that my main project on JetPunk is making it possible to reach level 50 in the Dutch section!

What is the most important event in your own life of JetPunker?

Three separate events immediately come to mind for this question, so I guess I'll just list all three of them since I can't choose. 🙃

Haha! Go ahead, that's completely fine. I'm sure that it will be interesting.

1. Joining the JetPunk Discord server. The people I've met there are absolutely wonderful, and it has shaped the way I use and enjoy JetPunk today.

2. Taking on the job of Dutch translator. What originally started as a few suggestions for better translations quickly turned into a revamp and attempt at revival of the entire Dutch section. I didn't visit the Dutch section much before becoming translator, but seeing it starting to grow is an amazing feeling.

3. My first feature. Although maybe a bit of a typical answer, I was extremely excited when I got the notification that I had got a feature! Even though I have well over 100 now (mainly because of the Dutch section), that first one will always remain special.

I have exactly the same feeling, I definitely understand your point of view.

If you had to resume your JetPunk adventure in one word, what would it be?

That's a tough one. There's a few good candidates, but I think the best one is "Unexpected" . When I started using JetPunk a bit I had never thought I would actually meet so many wonderful people through the website, I had never thought I would ever have a featured quiz, let alone become the designated translator for the Dutch section. But most of all, that I'm still visiting JetPunk daily after well over six years is something I had never thought would happen when I made my account after finishing the Countries of the World quiz.

Would you change something to your JetPunk adventure, if it was possible?

Honestly, I don't think I would want to change anything.  I am very happy with where I'm at at the moment, which is in the end a result of many choices I made at some point along the way, such as joining the Discord server or diving deeper into First Level Subdivisions. Even larger projects that I never finished due to them already being finished by someone else while I was still working on it, or them becoming too time consuming, I would not want to change since I really enjoyed the process of making it. A quote i like often attributed to philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson: "Life is about the journey, not the destination.", and if you enjoyed both the journey and the destination, why change anything?

What beautiful and intelligent words! That's really inspiring.

If you had to choose just three JetPunker for their quizzes, who will it be?

The three I like most, in no particular order, are SpiritOfFire, overtired, and Stewart. 

SpiritOfFire's recent SVG quizzes are absolutely magical, and every time I see a new one I just have to play it. I only recently discovered their quizzes, but I've been hooked ever since

Overtired has already made some appearances here if I remember correctly. The cartoons, word plays, terrible spellings, drawing quizzes and so many more just keep drawing me back to his quizzes.

Stewart has also been mentioned many times here already. The main reason I included him is the random sequential series, which I spent months playing on repeat, to the point where I could recognize the tiny countries based on the direction the arrow was pointing. 😅

Haha! What a passion! The only quiz with the one I did the same is a certain Trouvez le département français aléatoire avec des indices de couleur. Do you know this one?👀

And for their blogs?

I must admit I rarely visit the blog section. I mostly read the word search blogs by akjlddkjslfsd and Stewart, since I quite like the monthly statistics they both provided for the word searches. Besides that I always read the Year in Review blogs by Stewart, and the Quizmaster's predictions for the next year, since they are the right mix of statistics and humour in my opinion. Since I don't generally read any other blogs, I guess these three are my favourites, although I should maybe venture into the blog section a bit more to see what else is around. 🙃

What are your passions in life, excepting JetPunk?

Ooh, time for the stuff nobody knows about me! 

In my free time I dance quite a bit in the Latin dancing scene. This includes salsa, bachata, and kizomba, where I mainly do the latter two. If you're not familiar with them I'd suggest looking up some videos on YouTube, they can explain / show it much better than I can 🙃. 
I also really enjoy travelling. I truly enjoy discovering different cultures, cuisines, and meeting new people from other cultures. I've been lucky enough to visit 28 countries during my lifetime, and meet people from many more. The stories they have are always interesting to hear. I also enjoy going on small city trips throughout the Netherlands, visiting museums or cities all around the country. 
Thirdly, I really enjoy programming. Sometimes for a purpose such as the Mystery country series, but other times just for fun to create games or see if I can do something. 
Finally, I really enjoy cuddling my cat 🐱

That's always interesting to learn about what famous JetPunkers do beside JetPunk. I wouldn't have imagined that you were interested in Latin dacing scene, for example. Thanks for this information!

Now, “JetPunk actuality question”: the price of the JetPunk Premium subscription recently increased. As a Premium member for a while now, would you say that the subscription is still worth it?

Not me completely forgetting how much it is now. It went up considerably indeed, from $35 for 5 years to $40 for 3 years. It really depends I think. I really like statistics and visit the Analytics page on average about 5 to 10 times per day, so I would still have bought it even with the new prices. The ads never bothered me too much since they aren't placed in obnoxious spots. But honestly, if you use JetPunk a lot, like statistics and/or hate ads, and have the spare money to buy it I'd say it's definitely still worth it at a little over $1/month. But everyone should make the decision whether or not to buy it by themselves based on their own circumstances, I also spent a few months thinking about whether or not to buy it at the cheaper rates.

You are on the JetPunk Discord server, and you are one of its important members (helping Stewart with the mod elections for example). What do you think about this server and its members?

The Discord server is great, and the people on it are truly wonderful. It's honestly amazing how such a relatively small community from all around the world can be so accepting of everything and everyone. It's one of the most friendly communities I've been in. 

That's also one of the reasons I wanted to give something back to the community, but I'm too busy to become a moderator since I'm simply not online on Discord enough. I proposed to Stewart to help him with the moderator elections instead, and I've been doing that very happily ever since!

And we all have to thank you, with the mod team too, for your incredible work!

What do you hope for JetPunk development in the next months?

A month ago I'd have said that I hoped that the word search would return, but that has already happened, so I'll pick something else 🙃 . Something I'd really like to have is an adaptation of the random groups quiz format. For those of you less familiar with this: these are the types of quizzes where you get random sets of answers that belong together. 

The adaptation I'd like to see / have is where instead of e.g. 10 groups out of 100 are selected, 1 answer per group is selected (in the example that'd be 100 total answers). I have some fun SVG ideas that would work a lot better with such an option, but I totally understand its probably not worth the effort for the amount of use it would get 🙃

That's probably one of the features that has been asked the most in the #ideas channel of the Discord server, if I'm right. Let's see if Stewart or QM can handle with that, one day, when they will have some time...

Do you have a message to pass to the whole JetPunk community (or at least to the few users reading these blogs…)?

Remember that there will always be at least one person that enjoys your quiz or blog. (An adapted quote from RoxyTheQuizzer that I really like.)

Haha! If Simon says that's the end, then that's the end.

Thanks for having been a that implicated interviewee, with your very precise and pertinent answers. 💚

Thats fair indeed, you're very welcome! 💚