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 petenge, curator for the Population, Judaism, and General Science subcategories.
How did you first get involved with Sporcle?
About four years ago, I became fascinated with memorizing geographical facts. I spent a while on another website playing their countries and capitals of the world games. After studying those over and over, I somewhat arbitrarily clicked on the Sporcle link. I played through all the Countries of the World quizzes on Sporcle and finally made an account about two years ago so I could save my high scores. It still took me a while to memorize all the island countries but by then I was off and running creating quizzes.
Why did you decide to be a curator for your subcategories?
Judaism was my first category and I applied for it in February of 2017 after earning several curator picks and reading about the duties of a curator. It was one of two positions open and I was itching to get the job–it coincided very nicely with my interests in geography and history. Soon after, I applied to the open Population curatorship. It only made sense to me that I would be a curator for a subcategory in what is far and away my most played category. At the time I had been taking an Earth Science course, and by the time the General Science subcategory was created I thought I had a fun opportunity to expand the realm of Earth Science on Sporcle.
What’s your favorite trivia fact having to do with your subcategories?
To combine my first two subcategories, I find it fascinating how while the central reference book in Judaism–the Torah–is written Hebrew, that language is not actually the most commonly spoken among contemporary Jews. English takes the crown, and Russian follows in third.
What are some of your favorite published quizzes from your subcategories?
Judaism: It has to be christopherjulia’s Thou Shalt Not What? which, as I found out later, I had given a curator pick.
Population: I will go with Matt’s classic Most Populous Cities.
General Science: I choose samc67’s Easy Science 7-1.
What are some of your favorite contributed quizzes from your subcategories?
Judaism: Among my Judaism curator picks, brdecker’s Christmas Songs by Jews was a fun find.
Population: I had a little bit of hometown pride when I played Acntx’s All Cities Challenge: San Francisco Bay CSA and it gave me a very fun challenge.
General Science: While I prefer not to be, I applaud any quiz that can make me feel confused and silly. NO_r_WAY’s The Mandela Effect did just that.
What are your favorite quizzes from an entirely different category?
I enjoy any quiz that combines another category with geography. Particularly, my favorites are independence quizzes, such as timjim’s Independence from the UK and Mateo56’s Country Independence Match.
Which Sporcle Group do you frequent most often?
I am very active in the Find the Star group. In my first game ever, I finished in second place and I got locked in. I have only topped that once since but I still have my hopes up for winning again.
How can Sporclers in your subcategories best contact you?
The best way to contact me is through the Sporcle messaging system. I do my best to answer within a few hours and provide detailed feedback. I also love to go through the Shameless Promotion or General Discussion groups and provide feedback or advice.
Are there any Sporclers whose quizzes you think merit more attention than they get?
I am completely engrossed with goc3’s Erase the Countries/States playlist and think they deserve to be featured soon. Also, while he has a badge named after him, I have to give a shout out to gazzso’s quizzes, specifically, the Graphical History of Temple Mount which clearly had a huge amount of effort put into it.
Haiku or favorite Dad Joke (or both):
What do we want?
Low flying planes!
When do we want them?
Nyyyyyoooooooowwwwwwww!
