WayneByNumbers

It seems odd that people would want an "I don't know, so I don't say yea or nay" option when one already exists. Staff members are not required to vote in these things, and those who do are not required to vote on everybody (at least, I don't think so, I can't recall just now exactly how the polls work). What's wrong with just not voting on those who you don't feel comfortable voting on?

I've found that even for fire currently burning, the coal block only gets the trace if you right-click on the fire, replacing it. Left-clicking on it only puts it out, without getting a trace.

I confirmed on C after the update that it still crashes clients (why do I always have to test this crap on myself?), even with the new texture.

We were given an almost immediate rundown on the flint and steel and fire WorldGuard warnings when the server updated, and I noticed that when people used the flint, both warnings popped up (spamming our screens with double effectiveness). I suggested at the time to buzzin that perhaps the flint and steel warning be disabled, since the fire warning pops up anyway when it's used, making the flint warning unnecessary.

If you really do wish to be unbanned, please reply stating, in at least passable English, what rule it was you broke and that you intend to abide by the server rules (available at nerd.nu/rules) from now on.

I have to admit, when I read the subreddit post and considered just how "political" it sounded, my mind actually flicked briefly to barneygale, but then I thought, "No, that'd be ridiculous." Shows what I know. One thing barneygale is not, and has never been, is unintelligent (he was a tech admin, for crying out loud). The post was arranged very cleverly, in order to keep a neutral-sounding stance while still expressing hostility and grievance over certain server administration practices (several of which were misrepresented in the "references"), while completely ignoring anything directly related to the gameplay, which I feel is the true purpose of the servers anyway. That's not to say anybody should pretend the post didn't happen, or ignore its contents completely. I think a few of the points raised were valid concerns in and of themselves, such as the continued unavailability of the public logs (which is a tech issue), and the gradual thinning of the ranks of the Head Admins and all admin positions in general. I hardly imagine the current admin team is holding "back room discussions" to consolidate individual power; I think it much more likely that they're simply having trouble finding people trustworthy enough, diligent enough, and willing enough to take on such a thankless, risky job (I certainly wouldn't want it).

Just checked the new carto, it seems to be updating, but it also seems to be using code from a slightly older version of MC; anything quartz is not showing up at all or rendering with the wrong texture (in cases of quartz slabs and stairs, which have a valid data value but an invalid damage value for pre-1.5).

Now I'm curious, buzzin, what exactly does CARTS mean/stand for? The wiki doesn't say (though it does have nice building instructions). I was under the impression that it referred mostly to the station button panel, which is basically a nicely organized RS NOR array. I may be mistaken, and the term CARTS may officially include the system of having a separate rail for each destination, but if it's only the button array, then CARBON or MAPSE can be integrated easily, and require far fewer rails laid. Also, will the four quadrants be completely distinct, requiring someone to return to the HQ to get from one quadrant to another?

You don't even need Worldguard for firespread anymore, the /gamerule command implemented sometime in 1.4 made that vanilla (in addition to turning off mob spawning and items dropping, look it up on the Commands page on the wiki). The only thing unstable about C maps in vanilla that /gamerule didn't fix is that ice still melts.

In defense of CARBON, my oft-referenced "new system" is based heavily off of it, and serves pretty much the same function. I'm currently thinking of calling it MAPSE (Minecart Analog Parallel Signal Encoder). It's signal repeaters and encoders are much smaller than CARBON units, but the decoders are of comparable size. I've built a hodgepodge prototype, but should probably start putting together a full working model for clarity's sake. One disadvantage vs. CARBON is that MAPSE can only handle up to 15 2-way stations, 16 if we include a zero signal, but that strikes me as risky, since the data line idles at zero (perhaps the zero signal could be used as a failsafe, stopping carts before they run down the line on an unassigned signal). Any stations built after the data lines are full would have to be outgoing only. We'll probably have to publicize the fact that people should ask for Express Rail connection approval before building one.

I think that we need to centralize the whole thing a little bit, plans for the upcoming CTA system have been, as far as I've seen, rather scattered. I think we need to make some decisions here concerning both design details and the overall purpose and execution of building and maintenance. For instance, do we or don't we want a PVE-style data system that allows you to choose your destination, but requires rather complex stations and junctions? Do we want this to be more of a transit system, or more of a touring system? Do we want multiple lines accomplishing more than one of these ideas, i.e. a scenic line and an express line? Do we want subterranean, ground-level, or elevated tracks, or some combination of these? And worst of all, who has final say on these questions? It kind of throws a horrid wrench in the works that, due to minecarts being so illogically slow, there's pretty much nothing the CTA can accomplish that flying can't do. Maybe what we should really do is get together a petition for mojang to make carts faster.

Regarding C, cyotie911 already set up a nice jail in spawn (a.k.a. the Box of Shame) that I've used a few times to slow someone down while I take screenies. One question, though; do the jail commands require a player to be online, like /mute and /fakeop (I assume yes, since muting is involved)?

With regards to the mechanics of the upcoming CTA, I've been doing a little consulting with TheRandomnatrix and some experimenting on my own, and was wondering what kind of wiring is planned for the CTA. I've researched and can now duplicate CARBON systems, and I've also been experimenting with a signal-strength system--it's simpler in a few ways, but limited in others (it can only code for 15 destinations maximum, and it doesn't have a cool acronym yet). It uses comparators heavily, making it impractical for P, but on C that wouldn't be an issue. One nice thing about both data systems is they allow for expansion as long as there are data points not used up. In that case, if the rails are protected, a modreq will probably be necessary to connect a build/region to the CTA, but I think that's probably a good requirement anyway.

Apologies, your actions looked at first glance like griefing, but fortunately, another mod with prior knowledge expained the situation, and you have been unbanned already and your edits reinstated. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Well, it seems things are narrowing quickly, by far the most controversial idea I've brought up is the alt stuff, which frankly comes as no surprise to me. I don't play with any alts, so I can't really judge how traumatic or not it can be to have one's alt names revealed; I assume that's widely variable person-to-person. While I certainly understand, and pretty much agree with, the concerns that have been raised about uncertainty and the potential for abuse, I'm still of the opinion that auto-alting is something that we should perhaps be addressing more than we currently are. LadyCailin's new command, /mbg, is definitely a help in this regard (making it easier to grab admins from other servers), but since the admin team is smaller and busier in general than the mods, there are still limitations on how effectively ban evaders can be dealt with. If giving mods /alt permission is too risky (as it well may be), does anybody have any ideas to throw out there what we could do to better equip the staff in general to deal with this problem? For instance, should mods simply request admin involvement more often?

Like many attendees, I had a few questions to bring up in the staff meeting that couldn't be squeezed in, so I thought, what the heck, we have a forum, why not use that? (WARNING: Wall of Text) I'm posting here in Private Mod Chat (the acronym is now PMC, was that on purpose?) because most of my questions have to do with moderation or technical issues. A few of you may find these familiar, as some of them have grown out of in-game discussion. Also, most of them have to do with C, since that's where I spend the most time. 1. Alternate accounts. Evading a ban via using alt accounts is considered a serious offense, earning a perma-ban on the alt and a ban extension on the primary account. Flouting one's consequences with one's own alts is bad enough, but one thing that really bothers me is when griefers/trolls use auto-alting clients linked to lists of hacked accounts to jump back on immediately and repeatedly. Not only is this annoying and disruptive, it is nothing less than identity theft, which is not just an in-game nuisance, it's truly illegal. I've been throwing out the idea, and those who've heard me seemed to have agreed, that moderators should have access to /alt or some other form of alt detection; as it stands, only those with admin-level permissions are equipped to deal with such offenders, and I have a sneaking suspicion that they're more common than we might think. 2. Banned blocks on C. The question was recently tossed around in /mb as to why fire was banned, and I couldn't for the life of me come up with an ironclad reason. The server is very well-equipped to prevent fire from spreading, and even in such rare occasions as plugin update delays (such as the TNT debacle this rev for the 1.5 update), the 1.5 update introduced the /gamerule command, which makes several functions previously left to plugins vanilla, and could at least be a supplementary safeguard when the plugins aren't up to speed. Most other banned blocks are rather obvious cases, with severe grief/lag potential, but fire seems to have lost its sting. It does generate sound and particles, but not enough, I would think, to lag either the server or most players; consider the abundance of fire in the Nether for comparison. 3. Rei's Minimap player radar on C. This has already been enabled on P, and I can't think of any reason not to do so on C as well, which needs as much social encouragement as it can get. I've already talked to Dumbo52 and Barlimore about this, 2 of the 3 C admins, and I doubt cyotie911 would have anything against it either. It could even make tailing suspicious players easier. 4. Furnace placement alert on WorldGuard. Whenever a furnace or burning furnace is placed on C, we get a WG warning, as I'm sure many of you have had the misfortune to experience. It's true that furnace spam was quite popular for a while (thanks, Avo ), but I've seen hardly any of it in something like a year. It's been suggested before, but I think the time is ripe for that alert to be retired, or perhaps even updated. Skull spam is certainly big right now, maybe replace furnace alerts with skulls? 5. /tp requests. I've noticed a trend in chat where players, especially newer players, become frustrated with the teleport system when they send a /tp request to someone in Ask mode, but that person does not see the request message, and it has to be sent again. Being a code noob, I've got no idea what's behind that, but it seems to happen frequently enough to warrant attention. 6. Block 124, lit redstone lamp, is still placeable on C, though it seemed people agreed that it would be best if it wasn't (I brought it up as a side note in this discussion about sand and gravel). Hardly a major issue, just wanted to make sure it wasn't forgotten. Note: since it can be acquired by Silk Touch in survival, it should remain placeable on S and P. Thoughts on any of these?

If this is set up, then we should probably post some very clear rule signs (at the /warp location if there's a warp, or at least somewhere conspicuous) about any redstone loops needing an easily accessible toggle. The signs at spawn only touch on the subject lightly, and I sometimes find that when I try to explain this concept to inexperienced redstonists, I'm met with confusion as to how/why this is done. We should also be clear that lag machines, defined as devices with little/no other purpose than to make noise and/or excessive updates, are not allowed.

I second MasterCommaThe's suggestion for having a signal for skulls (maybe, in the interest of catching spammers, have it start sending signals after 5 placements in a row or something), and I think it would be best to have that replace the old configuration of having furnaces throw up a warning; furnace spam, from what I've seen, is far out of style, and I've seen very little of it in something like a year.

Being one of those who needs Optifine in order to play MC effectively, I'm definitely for keeping that one. I wasn't aware at all about the fact that it could make lava easier to see through, but from what's been discussed so far, it doesn't seem to make things easy enough to be much of a temptation to otherwise rule-abiding players, I agree with totemo that it's probably a non-issue. Anyone who tries to take significant advantage of this feature will, firstly, be treated as a texturepack xrayer, and secondly, probably get impatient with the difficulty of lava swimming and opt for cheatier methods, making them easier to catch. As for Rei's Minimap, I will confess it has sometimes occurred to me that it does seem to offer potentially unfair/non-vanilla advantage. For instance, it allows you to see the surface even when underground, and, as has been mentioned, allows you to see certain features you might not be able to see otherwise, like villages and temples hidden by landscape. However, I greatly enjoy having the map myself, and it seems to have become so popular and widely used that attempting to ban it would not only be cumbersome, but perhaps even result in player loss. P has even enabled Rei's player radar to promote social interaction (and I've been throwing around the idea to do the same on C as well). And after all, even at minimum zoom, it only gives a view distance of up to about 120 blocks, which is less than someone on far distance. While we ultimately might have to define Rei's as something of an exception to the principle, I don't find it feasible or desirable to try to phase it out.

GMM mentioned something about clanchat that's been bugging me in the back of my mind; what happens to orphaned channels? I assume that there are some channels that are only used for a short time, and then abandoned. I'm the type of miner who hates leaving 1 block spaces sealed up underground, so the idea of channel names being used up forever through one use, even if left untouched, bugs me. Maybe have any channels unused for, say, a week, be automatically deleted. I'm also on board with the idea of public channels, we could definitely use that. I assume that staff will have channel owner permissions of the public channels, so that if anyone joins just to be abusive, people can report it, a mod can join, and kick that person out of the channel (and in most such cases, they'll probably then do something to get them kicked off the server entirely). Would there be a way to keep someone like that from rejoining the channel? Is there a "channel block/ban" command? I don't remember.

NCH Debut is a pretty good screencorder in my experience, and is free, I don't get a too great a framerate with it, but that's due to my laptop being crappy, not the software; it's amazing that it works at all (fraps didn't). NCH VideoPad isn't a bad editor, either, and it's free too. It has very little by way of effects and transitions, but it will open and edit anything (including MP4s and FLVs downloaded from YouTube), and unlike Movie Maker, has a separate clip editor screen that works independently of the main sequence, allowing for pinpoint timing. Not meaning to advertise NCH or anything, that's just what I use. I may consider giving that OBS a try though, see if I get better performance than Debut.

So many customization options... So you're basically writing a Bukkit-compatible plugin that allows any mob, with any name above it, wearing and wielding any item (including customized items), riding any other mob, carrying any effect, having any amount of health, accompanied by any mob/group of mobs automatically, confinable to any area, and summonable in survival by any configuration of blocks imaginable as long as there's a named pumpkin involved. I think there are more possibilities than just getting skulls here.

I remember a few builds fondly in my relatively short time here (joined in rev 19). I'll just link the cartos for convenience. The aircraft carrier USS Saratoga drickei's skyship dock Spawn City Rev 20 The Ice Palace Spawn City Rev 21 The Enterprise E (naturally) marting11's Bellevue Laputa Dome 6 (carto's still broken :/ ) NEVAstop's spleef arenas; Rev 21, Rev 22, and Rev 23 (current rev too, but a little early for nostalgia on that)

Doesn't KitchenSink or something allow for preventing specific dispenser activity? I know arrows, fire charges, etc. in dispensers are disabled on C.

Recently ran across a speed-hacker on C who was speedhacking successfully; I would TP to him, he was out of vision range in less than a second (Short vision range, admittedly). He wasn't griefing fortunately, only cruising through 8bit, but he was setting off enourmous CreativeFly alerts. I was under the impression that NCP was supposed block as well as report such behavior. I haven't noticed any similar problems with Frequency or Speed, so it's not a pressing issue, at least on C.