Dearly beloved, I had an email last week from
Peter Meindertsma, the creator and proprietor of Triviaplaza.com, Actionquiz,cm,
and Dominoquiz.com, to ask my opinion. Very kind of him in my opinion. Rather
cheekily I asked Peter if he’d mind me writing a bit about him for the blog, and
I set him a few questions. He was good enough to answer, and I take the liberty
of reproducing these here for you now.
1.
How did you first become interested and involved in quizzing?
When I was a student I participated in a few general knowledge pubquizzes, but I did not become a 'regular' until several years later when I joined the team of my department at the university. Teams changed over time and I have been a weekly quizzer for over 9 years now. Besides all this, about 15 years ago I won the first pop music pubquiz I ever attended and that inspired me to create my own annual pop music pubquizzes, as well as my site Popkwiz.com.
2. What made you decide to create your first quiz website?
At university I created my first personal website and it kind of evolved from there. I tried several things and found that my quizzes attracted some visitors, so I started Triviaplaza.com in 2001, Actionquiz.com in 2003, Popkwiz.com in 2005 and Dominoquiz.com in 2015.
When I was a student I participated in a few general knowledge pubquizzes, but I did not become a 'regular' until several years later when I joined the team of my department at the university. Teams changed over time and I have been a weekly quizzer for over 9 years now. Besides all this, about 15 years ago I won the first pop music pubquiz I ever attended and that inspired me to create my own annual pop music pubquizzes, as well as my site Popkwiz.com.
2. What made you decide to create your first quiz website?
At university I created my first personal website and it kind of evolved from there. I tried several things and found that my quizzes attracted some visitors, so I started Triviaplaza.com in 2001, Actionquiz.com in 2003, Popkwiz.com in 2005 and Dominoquiz.com in 2015.
3.
Do you play on any other quiz websites other than your own, and if so, which?
Not that much, but I sometimes visit Sporcle. There is so much creativity there, although that site has become annoyingly slow at times.
4. How serious are you about your quizzing (do you play in quizzes regularly? Have you ever taken part in championships – European/ World? Have you ever played in a television quiz?)
6. How much time do
you spend updating your quiz websites, would you say (weekly? Monthly?)
8. In your opinion,
what is the secret of a good quiz website?
I do not think there is a 'secret' to it, although I think it helps being a quiz fanatic, and liking to play the quizzes yourself (e.g. for testing and trying to remember facts). And I am very happy to see that many people seem to like the quizzes I make.
Not that much, but I sometimes visit Sporcle. There is so much creativity there, although that site has become annoyingly slow at times.
4. How serious are you about your quizzing (do you play in quizzes regularly? Have you ever taken part in championships – European/ World? Have you ever played in a television quiz?)
Although I have never taken part in televised
quizzes or European/World championships (maybe, maybe one day) I do consider
myself a fanatic quizzer as I nowadays participate in two or more pubquizzes
per week and my team also participates (and have won several times) in two
annual regional/national competitions (50-100 teams)
.
5. Do you watch
quizzes on television, and if so, which are your favourites? (British or
otherwise.)
The UK has so many great and serious quiz shows
and these are pretty much the only ones I watch. I've been following University
Challenge, Only Connect and Mastermind on Youtube every week for a couple of
years now. And I occasionally watch episodes of Eggheads, Pointless, The Chase
(Australia), 15 to 1, Impossible etc. Nowadays I also really enjoy Richard
Osman's House of Games because of its fun and creativity.
I work on my sites several days a week, e.g.
writing questions, updating, stats, handling email etc.
7. Do you get any
financial return from your quiz websites? (from advertising eg. No need to give
specific details of amounts)
Yes, I run ads on my sites, which (thankfully)
allow me to spent more time on creating new questions etc.
I do not think there is a 'secret' to it, although I think it helps being a quiz fanatic, and liking to play the quizzes yourself (e.g. for testing and trying to remember facts). And I am very happy to see that many people seem to like the quizzes I make.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Thanks for that Peter, and best of luck with
your sites.
2 comments:
Hi Londinius,
Thank you again for your honest opinion and your kind words above. And also for the helpful section of quiz reference books on your website. Wonderful.
Best wishes,
Peter
Hi Dave,
Thanks for this interesting and informative interview. I'll try some of his websites out.
You seem to imply attendance at international quizzing events is a good indication of a serious quizzer. Of course the very best quizzers like Kevin Ashman and Pat Gibson attend these events regularly. But I would have thought you considered yourself to be a committed and serious quizzer for many years, and I'm pretty sure you never attended international quizzing championship events on a regular basis.
Regards
Chris
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