[roastnewt / FatherSouth AMA]

 

 

The first thing I'd do would be to talk to the current head admins, and get up to speed.  As normal players, we have basically no idea what the head admins get up to on a day-to-day basis, so I'd try to get more informed before trying to change anything.

 

Then I'd have to talk to the other heads, and find out what they think about the future of the server, since it seems they make decisions by consensus.

 

But that's how the management of nerd is set up.  It's set up to maintain the status-quo, and provide players with a consistent experience.

 

However, if I were made solo-head-admin-dictator-for-life-doesn't-need-anyone's-approval, I'd make more drastic changes.

 

First, I would try to make the servers more nimble.  I would experiment a lot more.  Maybe I would try letting PvE players flow their own water for a week, then gauge the community's reaction.  Stuff like that.

 

I'd set aside a percentage of donations (20-30%) to be used for advertising the servers.

 

I'd leave PvE pretty much how it is.  PvE has a successful formula of "community-oriented survival-mode building."  I might rename it "Vanilla," or "Survival Mode," to better describe what kind of server it is.

 

I'd get rid of Survival.  Survival is my favorite server, and the server I play on the most, but it's too close in gameplay to PvE, and PvE is more successful.

 

I would make a PvP server.  To be clear, this is NOT Survival.  This would be a server whose concentration is exclusively PvP.  This could either be a completely Chaos map, a hardcore-deathbans map, or a factions map.

 

I would divide Creative into two worlds. I would add a plot world where WorldEdit is allowed (limited in total number of block changes, to eliminate lag issues).  The second world would be an open world, as it is now, with no worldedit, and no flying.  In this way, the first world would be a place you can test designs and patterns, and build impressive structures quickly, and the second world would be the "community" world, where you can build together, and the lack of flying would promote the building of infrastructure.

 

I add a rotating experimental fourth server, running all the time.  This server would run minigames and other non-persistant gametypes, like Skywars, Hunger Games, Kit PvP, The Walls, etc.  I would take votes, and anything wildly popular could be added as a permanent game type.  The fact that the servers are now on a Bungeecord setup makes this feasible.

 

On the "permanent" servers, I would KEEP the philosophy that all players are the same, and there are no "donation" ranks.  On the rotating server, however, I would allow players to purchase unlocks that benefit the entire server, like new maps, temporary XP boosts for everyone, expanding the worldborder, etc, depending on what gametype it is.  Thus the fourth server would serve as a permanent donation event.  100% of the donations would go towards advertising the server, server costs, and development of custom plugins.

 

Finally, I would divide the staff into each server.  When someone is made a mod, they would be a mod on their "home" server only.  If someone plays on multiple servers, then they are free to earn staff on each server separately.  The responsibilities, rules, and culture of each server are too different for "foreign" staff to moderate effectively, and it just causes conflict.

 

To be clear, I'm not recommending that the current Head Admins do this stuff, this is just what I'd do in my feverish dream of being server-dictator.

 

 

Denevien, thrawn21, WickedCoolSteve, cyotie911, draykhar pls :)

[PvP Rankings Idea]

I wouldn't want to see rankings in chat either, they might seem a bit irrelevant to a new player joining (unlike clan tags since that's a widely used feature). I like the idea of redesigning the leaderboard page, both in how the rankings are calculated and how the page looks. As suggested before, I think we should take note of how other servers record player rankings and statistics - looks appealing and is very informative.

[Forum rule request: use of up/downvotes]

In a perfect world that may be what the downvotes are used for, but around here they more frequently get used because someone dissagrees with a contributing post or simply doesn't like the player posting. If you look through the threads (especially some of the more recent ones) the use of downvotes just spurs butthurt "y u downvote me brah" posts and other drama that really only hurts the discussion.

I definitely think upvotes still have a place, but downvotes really don't and don't seem to add much if anything to a discussion.

That is the same opinion I got from reading the old thread that draykhar posted. players missed the upvotes when they were removed, but really didn't care about the downvotes.

 

I disagree, I think downvotes can be used well to even-out the karma in some situations and I don't think there's a problem with using them to show if you agree or disagree with a post, as long as it doesn't discourage you from commenting with your own opinion (and just using the votes instead).

 

If you don't like the votes, ignore them. They really don't affect anything negatively, I don't understand the complaints.

[Forum rule request: use of up/downvotes]

The problem I see with the system is that it encourages to much of the whole "faction?" thing between players. If you look at the previous thread about 100k bans it is for the most part the same group of people upvoting or downvoting another group of people and nothing useful is coming out of it.

 

I don't see a problem with similar groups of people sharing the same opinion. At the end of the day, voting doesn't really affect anything but shows who supports what ideas and opinions.

[Forum rule request: use of up/downvotes]

Yup, trying not to though as that does nothing to help the servers.

 

 

Anyways, do you have a contributing comment to post that I could maybe upvote? or just more mudslinging?

 

Like any of what you just said was positively contributing...

 

I don't see a problem with upvotes or downvotes. Lots of people want them to stay because it's easier to give a vote rather than typing out an opinion/idea that's already been said. If you use them incorrectly then it'll give you a poor reputation. Generally, I think that's enough to put people off from misusing them but if they do get misused it's no big deal.

[Congratulations on 100k total server bans]

Continuing on the topic of bans in general, I think we need some kind of policy change. 

I mean, barneygale was banned for far too fucking long, dobreira's ban was absolute bullshit, and BCB228's ban could've been handled with a kick and a note. There's plenty of other bans that I and many others can name, but I'm going to leave them out of this. I really don't know what we can do to fix these issues, but needless to say staff need to speak up a little if a ban is clearly unjust. 

 

This.

 

I'm not sure if there's something that we're all missing here, but so many of these long bans recently could've and should've been handled so much better. Why 'perm' bans have been replaced now with a year+ ban is beyond me, makes no sense and if those players are sane (and if nerd is still running by then) they wouldn't be coming back. We need a rethink on how we handle things, whether that's a change in staff or policy.

[Congratulations on 100k total server bans]

I don't understand the downside of temp bans. It reduces work load since there won't be nearly as many ban appeals to handle, the amount of bans that we have would be dramatically reduced and we might start to get rid of our image as the ban-happy server, more people would be able to play on the server because they aren't banned. Stop being so closed minded about this kind of thing, with there being so much evidence supporting temp bans and pretty much every other server out there using them, it's got to be pretty good, hasn't it? Let's try it out.

[Post your ideas here (Creative mostly)]

As someone who has played C for a long time, i can accurately say this: If you create any kind of plot system, it will confuse the hell out of people, and in some cases, make people instantly leave the server. For example, someone logs on looking for the open build creative server they have been told C was, and the first thing that person sees is plots. 80% of players would just log off at that point, not bothered to fly around or modreq a plot. Its way easier to fly or use /randlock to find a flat piece of land and build away.

 

I totally disagree with what you've said. If you make it clear that there is open land as well as plots, there is no way that people will get confused, they'll only be leaving because they don't want to stay. Have big, bold, pink, flashing letters when you join screaming the commands at you to get to either plots or open land. 

 

someone logs on looking for the open build creative server they have been told C was, and the first thing that person sees is plots.

 

Firstly, there's no way people would know about our server since we barely advertise apart from the occasional post on /r/mcservers, but if we did then don't advertise it as an open build server alone, say "open build and plot server". There is no way that players can get confused by this. The logical thing to do would be to have plots near spawn since people who just want to build something quickly won't hang around, but if that really is so confusing then don't have them at spawn, but have several warp signs and a command at spawn for instant travel.

[Post your ideas here (Creative mostly)]

The main thing I want to stress in this regard is that I don't want PvE players to be taking up more of the map than the Creative players themselves are, as that isn't the real purpose of Creative and has frustrated a few players in a couple of past revisions. 

 

Although I agree that I wouldn't like to see the PvE player base taking over the other 2 servers, it's not the fault of the PvE players if they use C more than the C players. We shouldn't restrict server access to only C players, we just need to get more C players to play on the servers more. C.nerd.nu is a server for building whatever you like; test builds, redstone creations, massive castles etc. I'd like to see some plot areas so that those that want to test build can do so quickly and conveniently instead of having to find good land/making a platform for the build, but apart from that I see no issue with any of the test builds that appear.

[[PMC] Inactive moderators]

The way that we do it currently, any past or inactive mod can ask for their powers back, after a couple of weeks back in the community they'll get retrained and be modded again. Really, there's not too much difference between the 2 groups. I think past mods should be for just that, past mods. If they want to get their powers back then they have to go through the same process as anyone else. When inactive for 3-4 months, a mod should be moved to the inactive group without warning, but give them a message via the forums/in game letting them know they've been moved.

[[PMC] Inactive moderators]

There was one done more recently than that, about 4-5 months ago if I recall, but it just wasn't spoken about as much. I don't think there's much of a need for discussion, just let the inactive moderators know that they're being demodded/moved to inactive, and if they increase their activity then they can ask for their powers back.

[MCPublic General Meeting. Please read and share your ideas.]

I agree with all this, especially the year-round donations and asterisk ideas, but the asterisk could be abused by people donating small amounts of money entirely for the asterisk, not the server. Perhaps something like /donorcheck (playername) would be nice to implement instead. 

 

I don't think you can really abuse donations. Maybe a tier or something, people donating smaller amounts will have a less fancy looking thing on their name than someone who donates more if you wanted a solution for that. I'm not keen on this fix too much though since it's really people with essentially more money getting nicer looking things than those who can't donate as much - any size donation helps.

[[PMC] Advertising]

Lots, but we are unsure a good place to do so. Please let us know if you have any suggestions.

 

Minecraft server listing sites are a good place to do so, minecraftservers.org for example.

[It's been a good run, but I'm setting sail.]

The only times I've really spoken to you have been to do with serious nerd topics which is a shame since I would have liked to get to know you better. You've had a great influence on nerd and creative especially and you'll be missed. Take care, Magknee00s, and if you ever get some free time we'd welcome you back with open arms! :)

[We need your help!]

We need to be careful with the plugins that we choose to add to the server as a large part of survival is building and surviving, not just PvP. If we use plugins that only cater towards PvP I fear we will alienate some of our player base.

 

We should be striving towards making the server better as a whole, whether or not it alienates the current player base. I think the feeling of the majority of the players is that we need to focus on having a PvP-focused server to differentiate ourselves from p.nerd.nu and to bring in a wider audience. If we only change things to what the current player base want, nothing will really change since those still playing are ones who enjoy the server how it is.

[Nerd.nu General Meeting: I think it's about time we convene and sort this thing out.]

I always thought the idea of "more players" is a good thing, but think of who we're up against here. The dominant servers with tons of players are factions and/or mini games servers. Since those have so many people, there is no community feel whatsoever, and a good amount of people in said servers have no respect for rules in general. Are these the kind of people we want here? Just leaving this here, as I may sound extremely stupid / in the wrong.

 

It sounds as if you haven't played on these kinds of servers very much. There are plenty of factions/PvP servers that have good communities, you just need to play them for a little while to get a feel for things. They do respect the rules too, otherwise they wouldn't be playing there. Any new players are good players. We should advertise and aim to draw in as big of an audience as possible, then from the players we bring in, the ones who enjoy our servers will hopefully stick around.

[We need your help!]

Again, we need some debate on this before we can do anything, otherwise we're all going to be very confused. 

 

No need for debate here, Duff was asking for help with his idea to give him an idea about the values of certain items. This is far from a finished article, we don't need to debate at every stage.

 

I think this should be playtested on a server instead of predetermining the randomized drops. How are we supposed to know beforehand if the drops will be balanced or not?

 

Duff needs to have a starting point for this idea which is why he is asking for help. If it gets to the point where we think we'd like to try an idea like this, definitely play testing would be needed, but not at the moment.

 

I'm neither here not there with this idea, but I think it'd be better to group items together and then add values, rather than having to choose a specific value for each item. Building blocks together, food, tools with different tiers (diamond, iron) etc.

[Other languages than English on global]

The problem with this is that if they are talking in a non english language then 95% of us won't be unable to understand them which itself is preventing them from being involved in the community. If they don't speak English how can we expect them to get involved when we all speak English?

 

You can't. Regardless of where they speak, that won't change so it's not really an issue.

[Other languages than English on global]

I have encountered such rules on many different servers and its never been a problem.

Mainchat always had to be english and all other chats Clanchat whispers etc was up to the people that used it.

 

 

Since almost everyone understands english its easier to monitor for the moderators.

 

I've seen this too. I can't say I fully agree with it, but I understand why they do it and for good reason.

 

Do i know if i was just insulted in chinese, french or swedish ? No i don't.

Do i know if that guy wants me to help him or if im standing on his claim ? Again the answer is no.

And neither do most of the mods or admins, so they cant help or intervene.

 

If they want to speak to other people on the server then they'd know to use the same language as them. They're gonna be smart enough to figure out that no one understands their own language. I'd only see this being a problem if they're constantly being openly racist/sexist/homophobic, but I doubt that would occur.

 

Another problem with non english languages in the mainchat is that the other languages will be ignored most of the time.

Again because almost no one understands them, meaning they are separating themselfes from the community and at least from what i know thats something that should be avoided

 

If they're being made to use private messages instead of open chat then they're further separating themselves from the community rather than being more involved.

[An early start to end of rev chaos on S]

Claiming the rev has been dead for a few weeks shows you are out of touch.

 

When you're managing to reach 5 players at peak times and for the majority of the day there's no one online, I think it's safe to say the revision is pretty dead. 

 

Instead of turning to chaos as we always do, I'd much rather use this time to test out ideas for major changes that were discussed in the meeting. If we did this we wouldn't want it to be too tasking from a tech or sadmin standpoint since it'd be a bit silly to put a lot of time into organising something that wouldn't last for too long. Maybe implement some big plugins that we've never tried before like mcmmo, factions etc. without tons of polls first just to change it up a bit and get an experience of these types of gameplay.

[TornadoHorse Mumble Ban [Mumberthrax]]

#1 I came into the meeting a bit late and saw that discussion had moved on, so rather than disrupting the main meeting by talking about old topics, I stuck mainly to text chat and said my opinions there. As far as I can see, there is nothing wrong with this. Everyone is usually focused on what people are saying rather than typing during meetings, so this kind of thing should be fine. I'm not sure why you see issue with this.

 

#2 This has been the first meeting where chat has been moderated so harshly, where you aren't even allowed to say hello to someone entering the channel. I think you take yourselves a bit too seriously. Why can't we make a funny comment now and again in chat and why is that being ever so disruptive? The answer is, it's not. It doesn't disrupt anything if you just read it and move on. The problem is when players bring up that it isn't on task, which sparks off more of an argument than there was. Yes, not everything I said was to do with discussion. Whilst the meeting was ongoing, how did any of those things (that you've listed in #2) *actually* disrupt the meeting? They didn't. Calm down.

 

#3  Me and tobylane were having a discussion about things brought up in the meeting. Apart from a couple of insults here and there, we didn't do anything hostile. It didn't disrupt the chat, and instead of thinking that you have to govern it, it would be better if you didn't pay attention to it and started talking about other things.

 

#4 There was a discussion in chat where someone brought up the sadmins and I voiced my opinions. I didn't do so by shouting about how bad you all are or calling you unintelligent twerps, I politely and calmly voiced my thoughts on our current sadmins and what should happen with them. If you're unable to take criticism then that is your problem, don't get angry with me for it.

 

#5 A kick was not the right way to deal with the situation which is why I was so suprised by it, I did not expect that from you Mumber. It made it worse. People were kicking up a fuss in chat about it and it totally derailed the meeting, especially after I was banned. I hope you can see this now.

 

I did nothing to deserve a ban, but I have already admitted that I was a bit disruptive after I'd been kicked. I want the server to improve as much as you may think I don't. I think these meetings were a great idea and hopefully something big can come from them.

[TornadoHorse Mumble Ban [Mumberthrax]]

I was wrongfully banned from Mumble. It was a meeting where there are discussions. I was being a little disruptive but those were my opinions, shared by many others. I'm not sure why you thought it would be a good idea to ban me for that as I'm sure with hindsight you'll see it was rather foolish. I wish to be unbanned.

[Survival Server General Meeting. Please read for important information regarding the meeting including the time and agenda.]

Factions is ruled out by this, unless you have a heavily detailed idea of how it can be different. "More focused on PVP" is also ruled out by the past unless you have a heavily detailed idea.

 

These changes aren't only to make the experience more enjoyable for only the current players, it's to bring in more players so that, in turn, the current players have more fun and the whole server is improved. If we're purely focusing on what the current players want, we have pretty much nothing to go on and nothing will improve. We shouldn't rule out anything at this stage and we need to be as open-minded as possible about Survival's future.

[Survival Server General Meeting. Please read for important information regarding the meeting including the time and agenda.]

Because most of us are terrible at finding Diamonds.

 

That's impossible. If you strip mine, you've got as much of a chance to find diamonds as anyone else. I don't know how plumping ores would affect anything more than the XP plump and enchantism have already. Ores are easy to get at the moment, and we've already tried to make the grind to get armour easier. It's not positively impacted PvP levels at this point, so I think we might be barking up the wrong tree there.

[Feedback thread regarding the mod voting change]

Don't think of it as "Don't know" vote, because that would be a vote for an undecided person leaving you not really knowing what their stance is. Having the 3rd voting option as neutral would leave it as a throwaway option, if you will. If you don't have an opinion on the player you can choose to just stay neutral on them, and that vote will count neither for or against them.