When it comes to Sporcle, curators truly do know best. In this blog series, some of the great curators of Sporcle share their expert opinions on curating, top-notch quizzes, up-and-coming Sporclers, and a wee bit of trivia.
This week we feature Tr4pD00r, curator for the Asia and Flags subcategories.
How did you first get involved with Sporcle?
I can’t for the life of me remember what circumstances led me to create my account in the first place. Knowing me, I probably came across the Countries of the World quiz and made an account on the fly. As for when I started getting involved with the Sporcle community, I found myself without any hobbies and not a whole lot of people to talk to in the winter of late 2015. I bumped into Sporcle again and discovered badges. It didn’t escape my mind that a whole family of badges required picks and publishes, so I started quizmaking with hopes of earning those badges one day. Fast forward to present day, I’m on the leaderboard for all time badge count and I’m glad I’ve met lots of helpful and friendly people along the way.
Why did you decide to be a curator for your subcategories?
Not going to lie, sometime around June last year, I noticed while viewing the profiles of some curators that the number of badges they were able to collect was 1 greater than mine. In my head, I was thinking “Hey, all these curators have 1 extra badge that isn’t listed on my unearned badges page. I should look into that.” I then spent an embarrassing amount of time cross-referencing other people’s badge pages with my own to see what that hidden badge was. Turns out it was the Back to Sporcle badge and it had nothing to do with curating. By sheer coincidence, it turns out the only profiles I noticed that badge on all belonged to curators. Oops.
Still though, I was interested in helping out the community and the idea of becoming a curator was still in my mind, so I applied anyway. I went to the Curators page and looked at all the available openings. Out of the available ones at the time, I chose Asia because I grew up in the continent and picked up a lot of knowledge especially of East and Southeast Asia. A few months later, I felt like doubling my workload and approached mvheald about the possibility of taking over the Flags subcategory, since that was the subcategory I was hoping to pick up before even looking at the current curators list. It all turned out to be one of the most fun and worthwhile aspects of Sporcle.
What’s your favorite trivia fact having to do with your subcategories?
Combining both subcategories into one trivia fact, Philippine law requires that the national flag be flown upside down (ie with the red field on top) when the country declares a state of war. The Philippine flag has a blue field that represents peace and a red field that represents bloodshed. As far as I know, it is the only instance of any national flag anywhere that can be legally flown upside down. So when playing Scuadrado‘s Flag Color Click – Philippines quiz, It would be a wise idea to check the news first, just in case.
What are some of your favorite published quizzes from your subcategories?
Flags: For flags, I really like Hejman‘s What Is On That Flag? and zaphenath‘s Countries by Former Flag.
Asia: For Asia, I’m a fan of Colmar‘s Name an Asian Country That… and Chenchilla‘s Find the Upside-Down Countries of Asia.
Also, since Kyrgyzstan is in Asia, I almost feel legally obliged to count The Kyrgyzstan Quiz among my favourites.
What are some of your favorite contributed quizzes from your subcategories?
Flags: I recommend checking out Scuadrado‘s Flag Color Click – Seychelles, goc3‘s Pixel Art – European Flag #1, and NarwhalNukeYT‘s Badly Drawn Flags of Asia to get your flag fix.
Asia: For Asia quizzes, I like pecheneg‘s Japan by Sporcle Category, timmylemoine1‘s Build a Mosaic of China, and kfastic‘s Sliced Map of Asia.
All of the quizzes I’ve just mentioned all happen to be part of much bigger playlists covering similar topics and if I had the space to, I’d list all of them but you owe it to yourself to check them all out. That should sort anyone with free time out for the next month or so.
What are your favorite quizzes from an entirely different category?
Even before I became active on this site, my favourite non-Geography quiz has been Ben‘s Beatles Songs (Studio Album Tracks). I’m also very smitten by needapausebutton‘s Mixed Word: Valentine’s Day Mood. It’s a very charming quiz.
As for unpublished quizzes, I’m a big fan of Simon and Garfunkel, so if they interest you, bowsntoys‘s Simon and Garfunkel Song I and the playlist that comes with it is really worth checking out.
Which Sporcle Group do you frequent most often?
Definitely Find the Star.
I’m playing this meta-game right now, trying to finish in last place in as many games possible. I always appreciate more competition in that regard.
How can Sporclers in your subcategories best contact you?
Send me a message on Sporcle and I’ll get back to you ASAP.
Are there any Sporclers whose quizzes you think merit more attention than they get?
Pastor_Maldonado and christopherjulia both put out excellent quizzes, and definitely deserve more quiz plays than they have right now.
Haiku or favorite Dad Joke (or both):
I don’t like haikus.
You won’t see me making one.
…Nah, that was a lie.
