Vykoden

Yes, Phillip and gsand, the mrstone derp hut issue was grossly over-modded and is a partial motive of my concern in this post. For all who don't know the story, here it is .... When we began building our small town in June 2015, we noticed a small birch hut that appeared abandoned. After a couple weeks of not seeing the owner, "mrstone", we followed the old rules, which included: Placing a sign outside the front door, notifying the owner of our intention to remove the structure within 48 hours, if we didn't hear from them. Doing a modreq for permission to remove the structure after 48 hours had passed without any sign of the owner. Our community has done this NUMEROUS times with no problems, and Schererer will support that claim. In past maps, we have also incorporated nearby builds to gain friends, built nearby residents new structures, and we have even paid people with valuable materials to compensate them for the inconvenience. We would have done exactly the same for mrstone, had he returned to the server. But, mrstone never returned. However, because we didn't place his unprotected blocks, under the new rules we were prevented from razing his shack. This might not sound like a big deal, but consider all the time and effort that went into the issue: My initial modreq to remove the structure. My communication with mods. Other community members' discussions with mods. Community members' discussions with admins. Mods told to check on the mrstone property often to make sure we're not griefing it. My e-mails with admins. Tons of screenshots and hours of diplomacy. One final three-way discussion between myself and two admins. Eventually, an admin told us we could build within four blocks of mrstone's hut, but we couldn't touch it or put anything over it (or under it)? So, we built the "mrstone and Nerd Pride Tower" around it... not only to cover the abandoned derp house with pleasant colors but also to make a historical marker out it ... because mrstone never returned to the map. In fact, he hasn't logged in since the middle of May 2015. His hut has been abandoned for three entire months, and, under the current rules, we still can't have it removed. It's another real-life example of how you're working too hard ... all to protect a derp shack that was built by a random player three months ago. I don't care how you spin it; it doesn't make any sense.

Okay, cutting through all the crap, here's the raw thought .... What does it take to run a server? "We" have played PvE on Nerd since 2009 & 2010. We have also played on Yoshi's, Zimsky's, Zimdoorcraft and Junction, and we've hosted our own. There's not a whole lot that needs to go into running a decent Minecraft server that people enjoy and to which we're attracted. The job of the admin is simple: Make sure the game is running well, Make sure players are having fun, Make sure mods are doing their jobs, Make sure mods are not overloaded. The job of the mod is simple: Do modreqs. Handle griefing. Players should have no other reason to involve mods or admins. There has been recent talk about why this rev has experienced such a decline in population. Mods and admins speculate it's because this rev lasted so long. But, players agree that interest in Nerd has dropped off so drastically only because of their constant need to involve mods and admins in their experience because of all the reasons they (we) need to do modreqs and all the ways we don't have control of our cities. It doesn't need to be this way, and this is why I'm saying you're working too hard. To continue operating under your current assumptions is both self-defeating and inefficient. It used to be that Spawn had a simple rule board; maybe 10 signs total, all on the same board; much like cities often have. Today, all of Spawn is one giant tour of rules and explanations, and we even get our very own "rule book", which is fairly useless. That, in itself, requires too much work and instantly makes players think to themselves, "That's an awful lot of rules." I think we can all agree that fewer rules = more fun. And, with that sense comes player responsibility; which is why "Don't be a dick" is/was so effective. Until all these "new" rules came about (within the last three years), we governed ourselves, and we did a pretty good job with it, too. Our limited experience with the current map is exemplary of the inspiration supporting my concerns. My community returned to Nerd roughly (2 or 3 months ago?). We were accustomed to the old way of protecting areas of land for future building projects and were quickly informed that we couldn't do that anymore; that protections are for buildings and not for reserving land. However, when we lose the ability to protect land for future builds, cities attract other players, who might not want to be part of the community but only want neighbors and to have a nice sidewalk, which the city builders already created. Currently, our community has three such builders on land we wanted to use for something else, but we couldn't protect it, because we can no longer protect undeveloped land. We even have one guy, who we deterred, but who already started a build in part of our town. But, because we didn't place his blocks, under the current rules, we can't remove them without doing modreqs and negotiating with the admins, which causes less fun for us and more work for you ... and it's all soooooo unnecessary. While refusing to protect undeveloped land is new-user friendly, as described in the preceding paragraph, it creates a whole new mountain of problems with which the mods are forced to deal. We don't want non-active neighbors building in our town, but we cannot prevent them from doing so under the current rules ... which makes town building REALLY unattractive. So, anyone who wants to build a city in multiplayer Minecraft may be deterred from Nerd, because they cannot be guaranteed that they will be able to build their city the way they want. For example, under the current region protection policies, in the next map, if we want to be sure not to have unwanted neighbors, our community will be forced to build super fast; possibly even including tons of materials in temporary derp structures just so we can get that area protected under our region for our future projects ... and that's a giant, unneeded pain in the ass for us. So, although the rule is "player friendly" it is also not fun. And, when we build our city, because of your current rules, your mods will be extremely busy fulfilling all our modreqs for regions, child regions, flowing water, etc., And, that's just one city. Imagine a map with 10 towns, who all have to build and get protections under the same system. That's a ton of modreqs all caused by the fact that towns no longer have the ability to reserve and protect undeveloped land ... and that doesn't make any sense whatsoever, when you're trying to run a good, efficient and attractive multiplayer Minecraft server. If a build is abandoned (1 month with no progress), or if it's just not wanted in a town, no one should have a problem with the townspeople removing the structure. We did it this way for, at least, three years, and it worked great for everyone. The only people who complained were those few who were either complete dicks or who weren't mature enough to effectively communicate their thoughts with the town's leaders. Finally, a word about the development of your current rules and policies .... The majority of your new rules was not developed out of player-player concerns but out of plaver-mod concerns. When the Nerd-to-Junction exodus occurred, it was because new admins, who the player-base knew to be self-righteous and corrupt, took over Nerd and began implementing new, much-unneeded rules. The "new regime" micromanaged Nerd's players, and the result was absolutely awful .... awful enough to make players, mods and even a couple admins flat-out leave Nerd all at once. So, your "new" rules didn't come from players; they came from the mistakes your preceding admins made. I am hoping you choose to break that cycle and end that erroneous "us vs. them" position. As for the lava, water and stuff, all that can wait. Right now, let's focus on regions and allowing cities to reserve land for big builds and govern themselves. If you allow us, the players, to reserve and protect large areas of land for cities, and if you allow each city to free govern itself, without the need for mod input, your workloads will be reduced, and your server will attract more players who want to be involved in bigger, more-enjoyable builds with more-rewarding social experiences ... ... and that's what multiplayer Minecraft has always been about. Your predecessors just forgot that along the way.

My mistake on his fangurl. Suffice to say his supporters. Scherererer can jump in and back me up anytime on the history. We met on a Nerd PvE map in 2010, which had been around since 2009. I have friends who were literally kids, playing Nerd PvE in 2010. This is ridiculous and extremely immature. I shouldn't feel a need to defend myself in a post that is intended to help you guys. But, to those of us, like Scherererer, who've been around since the beginning, it's nothing new to see admins using their power to trump others in otherwise productive discussions.

You are referring to "Rev 1" as the first map after Minecraft was a finished game title. Before that, Nerd hosted maps when Minecraft was in Beta ... long before 2011. This is a great example of Nerd admin group-think. It's a herd mentality. Redwall thought he would say something that would make an user look like an idiot, and another admin supported him. It's a bully mentality. But, touche; I know more about Nerd's history than your own admin, so the joke is on you, and to anyone who has used Nerd as long as I, Redwall and his fans are looking like total morons by now.

Sapphric, with respect, almost everything you said in your response was contradicted by two other admins, whose names I won't mention, out of respect for them and your community. There is clearly a disagreement/ dysfunction about what all admins and mods believe to be "policy". Again, I will respond in more detail later.

Hi Barlimore ... I need to make a quick initial response and then head out for a while. I will respond in more detail later. First, I want to thank you for your deep consideration and objectivity. It is my goal to help Nerd through these "growing pains"; not only to improve my own experience but to improve the experience of all admins, mods and users alike, with the hope of inspiring renewed growth. In terms of #1, it used to be that cities governed themselves, without the need for mod or admin input. We made our own rules, had our own policies, etc. And, we enforced those rules as needed. As I understand it now, with the current region permissions policy changes, it could take days and even weeks to resolve a city issue, while following the rules, if a mod or admin are included in the discussion. Cities should feel free to kick and ban residents as they deem fit, and they should be able to remove any structure within their region; providing that region protections policies go back to they way they used to be, Concerning #5, city builders can no longer reserve large plots of land for their build. "Region protections are meant to protect the buildings, not the land." This will deter city-building communities from attempting a pre-planned build, because ... at any time, any player can build within three blocks of an unprotected structure. If an entire area could be reserved and protected under one name, at one time: Mods wouldn't need to be contacted to create "child" regions so much, fewer protection modreqs would be made, mods wouldn't be as busy, fewer land disputes would arise, and city builders would feel assured that no one will be able to interfere with their plans. Making this one simple change would relieve so much work and anxiety on the server while making it more user-and-mod-friendly. I need to go buy coffee and food but will respond in more detail later. Thanks again, -Vyko

As a long-time Nerd PvE veteran user, it's easy for me (and others in my community) to see how and why the Nerd population has dropped as drastically as it has. Please consider this post merely as a constructive observation and suggestions; not as a negative criticism. There is no reason any of you should be offended by what I'm about to say. In the beginning, PvE was chaotic. Players could do practically anything. The Nerd servers were attractive, because they weren't "vanilla", and "don't be a dick" was the law of the land. But, as the server grew, more "dicks" began appearing. And, instead of simply kicking or banning the players, mods and admins who were ruining the Nerd experience for others, The Nerd Collective chose to start handling every complaint diplomatically; in an attempt to retain users ... dickish or not. With that attempt to retain as many players as possible (and often more players than the server could handle) came more so-called problems. Land disputes were settled by towns and among players. The only time a mod was called in was to protect a region, to investigate griefing or to place water or lava. Since then, even more rules have been created to protect players' "rights" ... even after said players abandon their builds and the server. Creating more rules is the logical "next step" when running any community; be it in gaming or IRL. Most gaming communities overreact to what they see as ongoing problems. But, those rules are a double-edged sword. When the average post-16-year-old player is faced with all these rules, they become less enthused about the server. Although those rules are implemented to protect the players, too many rules can deter players (see Communist Russia). And, with more rules comes more complaints, more violations and thus more work for the mods and admins. For example, take our community's issue with mrstone's birch derp house. This is an issue where the player (mrstone) still hasn't returned to their derp shack since the middle of May. Had our community simply taken it down, per the old rules, your mods and admins never would have been involved, because you never would have noticed, because mrstone never came back. But, I chose to handle the issue "legally", and doing so caused more work for the mods and admins because of the new "user friendly" rules and policies. Soon, that tiny abandoned house became a property that was regularly monitored by mods. It became the source of discussion, debate and controversy in our community and with your staff. In all, more than three hours of mod/admin time and more than 10 hours of player time was devoted to this tiny house, in the middle of nowhere, which remains abandoned, to this day, since the middle of May. Now, here's the kicker: YOU'RE NOT GETTING PAID. This fact is key, because the only reimbursement you are receiving for doing "your job" is the satisfaction of knowing that others are doing what you're saying ... which, although most of you are great people, is rather narcissistic. The consensus in my community is that, if Nerd wants to to attract more and more-regular players and put itself back on the map, it has to take a serious look at all its policies, rules and procedures, because, clearly, how you are currently thinking isn't working to your benefit. Although you are mods and admins, you should be having more fun than headaches. You should be able to play, without feeling like babysitters or hall monitors. By adding more rules, you have more than doubled your workload, which will only lead to one thing: Burnout ... especially because YOU'RE NOT GETTING PAID. Moving forward, we recommend you roll the Nerd clock back a couple years and make the following changes: Allow players the freedom to do anything they want outside of griefing. Any region or build that hasn't been touched within one month should be cleared for removal, so others can use the property. Allow players to place running water and lava. Keep "fire spread" off, so running lava doesn't cause destruction. Allow city builders to reserve and protect large areas of land ahead of time ... or as soon as they spawn in and find a location. Only use moderators for griefing, region protections, "harassment issues" and land disputes. By making these changes,: Players will be attracted to build large cities again. Players will be able to do almost anything they want without doing modreqs. The server will grow and be more fun again. And, You will cut your work, at least, in half, which will increase your fun and decrease your stress, because you're NOT getting paid to work so hard. ​ We're all here to have fun. For that to be achieved, rules must be clear, concise and minimal. We don't need events and prizes to attract players; we just need more reason to keep building, and your current policies make even that, at least, fairly undesirable for most players ... and, obviously, for most moderators and admins. (If you haven't noticed, your unpaid turnover of mods and admins is HUGE). Give the players what they + Moderators work less = Community is more fun and thus more attractive to new users. It's simple, but to see it, you, the mods and admins, have to admit that you are not always right and that your way is not automatically the best way .... because if that's what you believe, then Nerd has become nothing short of a modern-day embodiment of fascism. "Don't be a dick" was a great blanket policy. It demanded respect between everybody on the server. It's time we revert back to that policy, respect everyone and remember why we're all here ... (and respond reasonably when we're not here and haven't been here for several months). Thank you for your consideration, maturity and objectivity while reading. -Vykoden (p.nerd.nu player for six years)

Every community of more than 4 regularly-active players should be able to build its own nether portal.