I was addressed by some users because their inventory was reset during the crash and they lost valuables in the process. We have an entry on the FAQ page regarding this, and it states:

14. I lost something during a crash/death/theft/whatever, can you give it back to me?
No. I cannot. I cannot verify what you had before and I don’t hand out stuff. If you had bad luck, that’s what you will have to live with. If someone tricked you, same. If there was lag, a crash even. I only refund if there is a bug in the system that I can 1:1 trace and know what you had before, what you lost and why.

I understand that some people might have lost several days of work. But please put this into perspective:

1) I have put thousands of hours over the last 3 years into the server and some hardware or software error is making it crash just like this. After all the work, I had now spent 2 full days to restore the server twice for you to play on as best as I can and to find and fix the issue. So far, I could narrow it down, but nothing is fixed. I have chatted with tech support for 3 times over an hour and spend 2 hours in waiting lines for it. The biggest achievement so far is that I know the server might go offline again from the same reason, but it won’t crash anymore.

2) I have been, since 3 years now VERY strict on the rule above. If I can trace back what you lost, you get it back. The inventory losses cannot be traced back. I have written about this issues with inventories specifically on this page. The moment I start refunding stuff from crashes without being able to trace back what happened, people will come running for refunds because they fell in lava. Then we can convert the whole server into a creative mode and hand out stuff. I will not do it. If I have to carry a risk when the server crashes, maybe you can do so too. I am sure you guys understand.

If you lost something really huge, talk to the other people on the server, I am sure there will be enough kind people around to help you get your stuff back.

Guys, it seems that some people think it is smart to buy random street lots because they suspect sections of a stronghold within them or something else. Please be aware that I consider this a pretty idiotic thing. If you want to mine some stronghold blocks, go to the darklands. Imagine some guy being able to afford only one large lot, planning to expand and someone else coming and buying all the street lots around him to lock him in. If you are building a road, to your lot, fine. Get the street lot and build a road. But do not buy those just for mining or whatever other reasons.

I made now a new rule on the kingdom lot registration page:

ATTENTION (2): Do NOT BUY random corner or street lots somewhere. Those are meant for people to be able to connect their far away lot with the spawn with a road. If you buy those lots just at random next to other people’s lots, you limit those people from expanding their builds at a later point in time.

It seems that some people who have been here for a while did not catch up on the posts that I made about how the system for the lot expiration and reset works. For the new users, I updated now the “become settler” page to include the relevant information. Since the existing users usually do not read that page anymore, I re-post that updated information now once here in the hope that everyone reads it:

LOT EXPIRY: If you do not login on the server for some time, your lot will expire. The normal lot expiry time is 1 month after your last login. If you are Architect or above level, and while you are DonatorPlus the expiry is 2 months. Also, all skylands/aether lots expire after 2 months only. Lot expiry is fully automated. During the automated restart on the day your lot expired, you will be removed from your lot and it will be reset to an untouched status. Other people can then reserve it again. If you go offline for a longer time, there is no way to extend the expiry period. You simply have to login once with the 1 or 2 months (depending on your level) to keep the lot active. To find out when a user’s lot will expire, you can look at the user list page and see their level and last login time.

This means that I strongly hope not to get any of the following questions anymore (added to FAQ):

• I will be on holiday, will my lot reset? – YES. If you do not login within the reset time, it will reset and I will not do anyhting about it.
• Can I keep my lot even if I do not login for a month? Yes. Become DonatorPlus.
• I do not want to donate. Can you reserve it for me? No.
• Do I have to tell you now that I will be offline? No.
• When will the lot next to me reset? – Find out yourself. Go to that owner’s page on the userlist and calculate yourself when that will be according to the users level and his last login date.
• Can I get a warning before my lot resets? No. Use a calendar.
• My friends lot will be reset, but all my stuff is there and we built the lot together, what can I do? Go there and take what is yours before it resets. I will NOT stop the lot from resetting. If anything o your stuff is gone during a reset, it is your problem.

Since jailing people makes them normally even more noisy, I allowed masters now to also mute people after jailing them if it is necessary.

“Settler” level are now banned from using lava and water. That means however that all Donator levels of Settler as well as both donator and non-donator levels above are still allowed to use it.

This is to prevent any further settlers abusing it in the flatlands.

Don’t be a Help Vampire. Also, learn how to ask questions.

I want to give 2 warnings regarding the skylands railways. Please take those seriously.

1. Do not obstruct the railway, build on the railway, change it or similar. I consider this as griefing. You can fix it if broken, remove fences along the stations, make a building around it or similar. Anything else without my permission will either result in a ban from the skylands or a ban from the server if serious. I just had to remove a structure built by Binkydude that had next to some water-elevator access to the center of the rails two blocks just over the minecarts and injuring anyone traveling there. So: Do NOT obstruct the rails or travel on them. This is a last warning.
2. Do not walk on the railways. Wherever you walk, oncoming minecarts will push you off and kill you if there is no land next to it. It is smartest to make your access to the lot somewhere near one of the stations. They should not have fences near them. If they have, please remove them or ask someone who has permissions on the area to do so. I can also do it.

There is a small bug with the userlevels. The issue comes when you register on the blog with a different capitalization than you actual game name is. While you were added you to a usergroup before through the website with the same nickname as you registered there, the new version of the permissions plugin checks for your minecraft game-nickname and is picky there on the capitalization. If the spelling is different, it cannot find you and automatically registers you as a “guest”.

If that happens, send me a message in the forum and I will fix it. Please do not re-apply for a lot or similar stuff.

I made a new FAQ about signboards/info walls etc since the topic came up several times in the last few days. Since I do not think a lot of existing members re-read the FAQ too often, I post it here also:

I would like to have a notice/sign board in spawn or elsewhere with rules, ads, information, whatever
Sorry, this will not happen. I have enough to do keeping the website up to date with stuff. Also, writing/editing the in-game signs is a really big pain. I do not want to do that. Also, I do not want that people rely on several places to find info. If you have one watch, you know the time. If you have two, you never know which one is correct.

Please note that I have re-introduced the automated AFK kick plugin. I noticed some people being AKF at the harvest point of a mob-trap. Doing this is not wanted on this server. Either you are here to participate in the community, or you log out. We do not need people to slow down the server just to be AFK. If i catch someone being non-responsive at the harvest-point of a automated system, they are likely to be demoted or banned.

[Update]There seems to be an understanding point or some magic that disables people to read in the above paragraph. Let me explain again for those who asked the questions below about if it is OK to be chatting while harvesting from a mob trap: It says AFK which means “AWAY from KEYBOARD”. Which should be hard to be if you are chatting. Also, in the last sentence I stated, for the risk of someone not knowing what AFK means, “being non-responsive”. I am not sure what more I can explain about this. Where can you still read that “Chatting” is the same as AFK or “being non-responsive”? The Plugin works along these lines.

Unless, of course you chat in a different game, or with your mom which is standing behind you. Then, you risk a kick anyhow.[/Update]

Do not build any permanently running minecart or redstone system. Everything that is performing an action has to stop itself after a minute or so. Stuff that continues running slows down the server. Violating this is an instant ban.

Do not build wirting that is readable on the map. This is not a place for graffiti. I took away 3 of them in the last days. I will ban any other people who continue to violate the rule.