G_cat: If you want, we are always available to interview. Unfortunately, we don't do 1.12, but you can talk about journalism, micro-journalism, or whatever you'd like to put on your podcast.

Enderman: I have a few questions prepared if you want to answer them right now, after the episode, or at the end.

G_cat: It's up to you whether you want to do this for the podcast or not. I can do it whenever.

Enderman: Well, it doesn't bother me whenever you want to do it. It's about five questions right now.

G_cat: Sure, let's flip the tables. The interviewee becomes the interviewer.

Siuolplex: We do this way too much anyway.

Enderman: I've never had an interview where I had more than one guest, but I guess I can figure this out post-processing. Alright. I don't really need to ask about the Just Enough Opinions podcast in general since I'm actually a guest of it right now. My first real question is about the origins. How did you get the idea to start a modded podcast, and what led to it?

G_cat: That'd be more a question for me specifically, though Frog was involved a bit too. Frog joined like two days after it was formed. Sioul joined about a season later. So I'm the only person who's stayed since the beginning, though Frog was in episode one. The original idea for Just Enough Opinions was always on my mind since I started developing stuff for 1.16. I registered a YouTube channel for that organization to post trailers and stuff. At some point, I thought, "Okay, I should do more media stuff because there's a lot of content for modded Minecraft on YouTube, but most creators just do let's plays or other stuff." I discussed this with one of the other members of that organization "What if we do a podcast" - it was mostly a sarcastic joke at first, but I kept it in the back of my mind. Eventually, that organization sort of dissolved, but the idea stayed. Then I joined the Minecraft Pack Development (MPD) server, and that's when I became aware of Emma from season one of the OG hosts. I proposed the podcast idea to Emma again as a sarcastic remark: "Hey, we should do a podcast." Over the course of two hours, it grew from a funny bit into "hey, we should actually do this."

Frog: I was supportive but didn't think I'd be involved.

G_cat: Frog was in that chat.

Frog: Then G_cat asked, "Does anybody want to be a host?" And I said, "I'll be a host."

G_cat: We found the name Just Enough Opinions after some brainstorming. I originally wasn't satisfied with it, but now it's part of our brand, which I really like. We created a server, Emma set it up and gave me admin. Then I posted asking who wanted to be the third host since we needed three minimum. Frog reached out saying they wanted to do it. Another guy named Chris also reached out and was in episode one, but we had disagreements about direction, so he never showed up for another episode. Episode one was pretty terrible overall - we didn't talk about modded Minecraft much and made a few bits we didn't really like. After episode one aired, some people enjoyed it due to the concept, while others were critical of the execution. We revised our approach, figured out what to fix and tweak. Unfortunately, Chris left because his vision didn't align with ours. We continued with Frog for the second episode since Emma needed a break. Emma appeared for a couple more episodes but then left, so it was basically me and Frog for most of the first season. Later, Deepacat joined, but they're kind of fizzling out of the project now.

Siuolplex & Frog: We still support and appreciate them!

Enderman: Perfect transition! My second question is about the seasons. I looked at the YouTube channel and saw season one and now season two. What are the differences between them?

Siuolplex: Season two was done in front of a live audience, and we're actually consistent about it.

Frog: it's very live right now. In season one, we recorded on Discord in our own channel. People could listen in if they wanted, but then we'd edit it. We had volunteer editors who we very much appreciate. Then we went to Blanket Con, and G_cat was really late. He said, "Hey, let's do season two in Minecraft." We agreed, and that's how this happened. It helps because we don't need to edit too much - we just have the stream and cut out the beginning and end.

G_cat: Editing doesn't need that much time now since we're basically publishing raw boards, just trimmed between the start and end of the episode.

Frog: The editing for Season one took months and months, which I wouldn't blame the editors for - they have lives and volunteered their time.

G_cat: Do you even know what Blanket Con is? For readers who might not know, it's a convention for modern Minecraft - Fabric and latest version.

Frog: Even if it's out of my wheelhouse with Forge or NeoForge, it's pretty cool with new projects and stuff.

G_cat: Before Blanket Con, we agreed we should go there and record an episode that would be the last of season one because we already had a huge delay between recording and publishing. But during the editing process, we realized it wasn't viable - it took a year after Blanket Con to edit all existing episodes. During that year, we realized that at Blanket Con, they had people recording us and live streaming for the Blanket Con channel. We should do that for our channel instead forever. That would be much quicker and eliminate the middleman editing process. Also, during the last episode of season one, we brought Sioul back on for season two.

Frog: We decided you were good enough to keep, but you're kind of on your last strike. Just kidding - no strikes! If there were strikes, you'd probably be gone.

G_cat: People would be gone so much, bro.

Frog: G_cat would have been gone like three episodes before the show even started if we had a strike system.

Enderman: You just mentioned the Minecraft server idea was yours. Who actually came up with the whole stage setup we have right now, the modpack behind it, and all the audio stuff?

G_cat: The server idea was actually Deepacat's. In fact, Deepa came up with live streaming after episode 14. Shout-out to them! But the server itself, I mostly made the stage specifically because I had this in mind since coming up with the idea that we should have a recording server. Frog was sort of critical of it. Frog, are you still critical of it?

Frog: I'm, still critical of it. I think G_cat's terrible. No, just kidding. I think it's all right. I've gotten used to it. The idea was like a stage with a set inside - like a sitcom house where it's half-cut open so you can see inside. All the junk here, a lot of it we picked up from earlier episodes.

G_cat: I kind of like the idea of having every episode affect the stage somehow. Maybe I'll keep either the cup or the coffee brewer thing as your memory. Maybe both. For the server itself, all the mods are a collection of things I wanted, things other members wanted, things our builders wanted, or random stuff that got in there for some reason.

Frog: Now there's a bunch of things we don't want, because it's kind of laggy or crushing other people.

Enderman: Alright, you answered my next question partially, but how do you decide who to invite? You mentioned DMing people, but there's still a decision process on who to DM and who not to. Frog: Oh, we ask Jack Black first.

G_cat: Usually, the process goes like this: First, we DM Jack Black. If he doesn't want to come for this week's episode, we skip him. Then we have a guest queue. I usually invite people to the guest queue based on the projects they make. If I find an interesting project, I'll DM them. Like, I know Vascii and I know the project makes cool stuff, so I DM him. Other times, people mention someone - like last time we had WD who made a cool fishing mod on the server. Someone said, "Hey, you should have the dev because they're chill and want to come." I said, "Yeah, sure." Sioul also invites people sometimes. They'll come to me and say, "Hey, this person made this cool project that I like, you should have them." I'm like, "Sure." Frog doesn't really invite anyone.

Frog: I wanted to invite my mom and dad, but they were too busy. And G_cat said he doesn't like people who have parents. Just kidding! I haven't talked to my mom and dad about the podcast. Well, I kind of had to because they're like, "What are you doing from 1:30 to whatever on Sundays?" I say, "Oh, it's my modded Minecraft podcast." But I haven't asked them to come on because they don't know anything about modded Minecraft.

Siuolplex: You should have them come on.

Frog: It would be silly.

Siuolplex: Don't you like silly things?

Frog: I do. It would be silly.

Enderman: My last question is kind of funny because I now have firsthand experience with it. Have you ever encountered technical difficulties before with the podcast and how do you deal with them? I know this sounds like it's self-explanatory!

[all chuckle]

G_cat: No, if you go to our YouTube channel description, it says "non-professional podcast about modded Minecraft and stuff." The non-professional part is because of this.

Frog: I like to think of it as: I tell my parents and anyone who needs to know that my podcast starts at 1:30, but usually it's 1:30 my time, then 30 to 90 minutes of technical difficulties, and then maybe we start. So far, we've started every time after 30 to 90 minutes of technical difficulties.

G_cat: I see that as the worst. Season one was way better with that because we basically just had everyone launch audacity, record their own audio, upload to Google Drive, and let the editor decide what to do. Season two is much worse with technical difficulties because we have to set up three different audio setups, have a cameraman, figure out Twitch, figure out YouTube, handle the chat being here, and make sure the server doesn't crash. But I guess that's what we get in exchange for quicker upload times.

Siuolplex: Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose.

Enderman: I guess that's all my questions. Thanks for this part in your podcast about asking you questions about your podcast.