LRR Minecraft Server

[Trisha Lynn]

I can also harvest some snow as well.

[Lord Hosk]

awwwww you guys

[Electricfox]

I've put in a request for the area around x529 z2666, there's some torches around x651 z2560, I don't know who owns those, but if you want me to move, just say, I've only made a temporary shack so far.

EDIT: I've moved to x1573 z1466, was advised that areas outside 2000 were probably best left alone for the time behind, so came back inside the 2000 circle. Will adjust the entry in the request book accordingly.

[AdmiralMemo]

So I get back and find you guys have changed half the map, are talking about wars, are building large-scale projects that I've never heard of, and have new players stuck in jail...

You guys are 1. pushing my buttons with every new thing I hear and 2. not inspiring me with confidence to ever leave the server unattended again.

If I need to force everyone to just stop everything, I will, until I can make sense of what is going on.

Why can't you folks just act normal for once?

[Lord Hosk]

because you haven't given us your definition of normal and your definition is different from ours.

[Merrymaker_Mortalis]

I'm confused. I don't see anything different. Apart from a neighbourgh of mine has developed some more.
And a lot of snow talk.

[Sibanamush]

Let me preface my response by saying that nothing i say is meant as an attack or a put down. All I am trying to do is communicate my feelings and establish a dialogue to try to sort out issues.

So I get back and find you guys have changed half the map,

Why is this a problem? you were gone for four days and we played the game. There was no technical issue , and no one has as I have heard had any complaints about their areas being altered.

are talking about wars,

The only reason I even mentioned the "war" (HEAVY emphasis on the quotation marks) was to explain that it wasn't a war, that it was a non issue that you didn't need to worry about if you heard about it.

In short my trying to prevent you freaking out about a war , made you freak out about a war. If I hadn't mentioned it to try to prevent a possible misunderstanding, then I highly doubt you would have ever known anything about it.

it was 4 people having some fun with consensual PVP. nothing was damaged, no ones feelings were hurt, and it didn't involve anyone who didn't want to be involved. The worst that can be said about it is that some arrows were used up. The best that can be said about it was that it was a fun bonding experience that strengthened ties between players.

are building large-scale projects that I've never heard of,

Again, why is this an issue, if something large scale was being built in an unauthorized area I can understand there being some concern, but why are you surprised and upset that over the course of four days people built some things that were big? That is kind of the entire point of playing Minecraft.

The issue here I think is that you've never heard of them. well I think that is kind of a given considering you were away. You get to hear about them now though, its not like people are keeping secrets from you.

and have new players stuck in jail...

The mods handled this one very well. The person was in jail because the same issue with the auto jailing admin base that's been happening to 20% plus of new people that join the server. (yes I know 1.8 is going to solve this) No one was 'stuck', the mods got them out once they figured out the problem and made sure of the reason why the person had been jailed. The only issue was that they didn't know the command to remove mining fatigue right away.

And on top of that , they posted about this issue in the forum while you were gone, you were aware of it , and responded to it.

You guys are 1. pushing my buttons with every new thing I hear

I apologize again for this, I should never have mentioned the pvp thing. it wasn't an issue in any context whatsoever , and my trying to forewarn you that there was no issue for some reason caused an issue.

and 2. not inspiring me with confidence to ever leave the server unattended again.

The server ran smoothly and efficiently while you were gone, from an interpersonal position there were no issues at all that I'm aware of, everyone got along very well and had an enjoyable time. From a technical standpoint I was very impressed that after four days of running continuously , the only issue there was was some slight lag for a few people.

The mods handled new players fantastically , and the one time someone got jailed by the auto jailing admin base, they kept you informed and dealt with the issue as soon as they could.

If I need to force everyone to just stop everything, I will, until I can make sense of what is going on.

Again I don't mean to be rude, but this is getting old, you are repeatedly coming on and holding a gun to the server's head saying "STOP THAT OR I WILL TAKE THE SERVER DOWN". Why? The only issue that I can see is that there are four days of developments that you're not aware of, and need to make sense of. Why do you feel the need to threaten us with taking the server down for you to get an understanding of them?

Why can't you folks just act normal for once?

Everyone was acting completely normal, the aberration here was, no offense intended, you Memo.


I wasn't going to make any comment, and just try to let this Memo storm blow over. I know that it was fueled by stress from being on a trip and jet lag etc. But I lost sleep last night , and ended up having a mild anxiety attack (I can be prone to them) because of your reaction. I was on line a lot over the past few days, and I really feel like I have to say that things ran very well, the mods were fantastic and handled the very few things that popped up ( accidental player jailing ) cheerfully , professionally, and as quickly as they were able to. I even commented before your return how happy I was that things had gone so smoothly while you were away, and I was sure that there wasn't going to be anything for you to take issue with when you got back. Someone warned me that you can never be sure what Memo will take issue with , and I 'm sad to see that they were right.

Again, nothing I've said was intended to be malicious, and I apologize if it was taken that way, I just get genuinely upset when this kind of thing happens.

[Can't Wear Hats]

I was going to make a longer post, but Sibanamush had sad pretty much everything I would have.

As far as I could tell, the *only* difference while memo was away was in dealing with a new player getting stuck in jail and not released for a while, which the mods handled. The PVP that happened yesterday was just a bit of fun role-playing and nothing more, and people building stuff is what minecraft is all about.

Quite frankly having an admin who doesn't seem to trust the members of the server and snaps at the drop of a hat is not conducive to a good environment to play in. I realise that you have a lot to deal with elsewhere and server stuff is often the straw that breaks the camel's back, so to speak, but equally I don't feel that we deserve to have your frustrations taken out on us with threats of shutting the server down, for example. I am sad to say that the more I see this happen, the less I want to keep playing on the server. I know it's trite, but, at the end of the day it is only a game and there are other ways I can amuse myself without dealing with this sort of thing.

It's a shame, because I have been having a great time with my fellow players.

[AdmiralMemo]

Look, I'm sorry for my reaction last night, but I get very cranky when I don't know what's going on and nothing makes sense.

Why is it so hard to just talk to me and explain things clearly and simply in a basic manner? Why does everything have to be a jumble? I don't do well when I get 10 people trying to give me information at the same time with no context. As you all know, I don't do well with surprises.

an admin who doesn't seem to trust the members of the server

To reply to this, I don't trust anyone. Anyone. That includes myself. I know myself, and I don't trust myself, so how can I trust anyone else, who I know less well? It's nothing personal, really. It's kind of like how the misanthropes hate everyone equally. No one seems to judge them, though, but when I don't trust someone, I get judged.

I don't feel that we deserve to have your frustrations taken out on us with threats of shutting the server down.

That is totally fair, and I should not. However, like I said, I get frazzled when I'm surprised. If you don't surprise me with things, I'm fine.

I do much better with things than with people. I really don't want to deal with you people, honestly and truly. Nothing personal, and you're great one-on-one, but as a group, you're overwhelming.

I am glad that the Mods are in place to handle people, because I really just want to deal with things. I do better with things. I'm not that good with people. The only problem is that people end up doing stuff to things, and that's where we interact. I usually end up treating people like they're things, and I'm pretty sure not many people appreciate that.

I probably should not have logged on last night, but judgement was impaired due to many factors. Also, I wanted to make sure the server was doing mostly alright, which it was until I got assaulted by everyone at once. (And the server did fine even after that...)

My threats to take down the server are just a need for you guys to just STOP whatever it is that you're doing to me at that moment. 9 times out of 10, it's an information overload, which comes like a physical assault to me. (I think you can see that no one would come out of a physical assault very sane or happy, unless they were prepared for it.) Simultaneous bad. Serial good. I need to process things at my own pace, and when you try to SHOVE information at me faster than I can cope, I break down. I'm like a laser. If you point me in the right direction at the right time, I can do stuff very efficiently. If you try to yank me around while I'm in the middle of something else, I can get destructive.

I apologize for being such a terrible person. I probably should go out and shoot myself in the head so you never have to deal with me and the problems I generate anymore. (I don't think I will, though, because I still have 2 shelves of books to read. But if I disappeared, no one would care and the world would be better off, probably.)

Edit: Maybe I need to appoint one of the Mods as a "community manager" of sorts? Maybe I just need someone who can filter the noise and turn simultaneous requests into a string of things to deal with, one-by-one. I'll need to think about that.

[Sibanamush]

I apologize for being such a terrible person. I probably should go out and shoot myself in the head so you never have to deal with me and the problems I generate anymore. (I don't think I will, though, because I still have 2 shelves of books to read. But if I disappeared, no one would care and the world would be better off, probably.)

I know this is a joke, but its still pretty disturbing Memo. No one at all wishes you ill , I'm very grateful for everything you've done and when you're not stressed out , you're a lot of fun to do stuff with. I just want to help find a way for it to be less of a source of stress for you.

I think that a big part of the problem may be the everyone all the time aspect of the chat system in minecraft, things seem to get sorted out a lot more easily on the forum. I know that you monitor the chat from the server console most of the time, is there a way for us to use like the /w command to send a specific message to you so you can filter out the rest of our mad rantings and only see things directed to you specifically?

not sure if it would help, or if it's even possible , just spit-balling ideas .

[Necabo]

We do love you Memo, no worries there.

but a community manager of sorts might not even be a bad idea. It would help to filter out a lot of the ranting for you and makes it so you can concentrate more on the things You like to do.

[AdmiralMemo]

You say it's a joke, but it's something I've actually thought. The key point, though, is that shooting yourself is an act that takes deliberation, and by the time I would have had the deliberation to go get a gun to do it, my brain has already rejected the idea. But it's an idea that still comes up frequently.
Also, the fact that almost no one would care if I disappeared is almost certainly true.

I have next-to-no real-world friends, and the 2 or 3 I do, I haven't seen in years. This company meeting is the most actual socialization I've gotten since January, which was at the last company meeting.

All I know is that when problems come, the way I end up thinking is that it's either I'm the problem or everyone else is. In my more logical moments, I think "Occam's Razor says that it's probably me that's the problem. The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the one, so I should remove the problem." In my more emotional moments, I end up thinking that I'm fine, so it must be everyone else who is the problem, so they deserve whatever they get from me. (And what they get usually ends up being the worst, most homicidal rages.)

I guess that I'm just caught in the dilemma Kirk and Spock discussed in Star Trek VI: "You're a great one for logic. I'm a great one for rushing in where angels fear to tread. We are both extremists." It's just that I end up flip-flopping between both extremes, instead of staying on a single one.

There's no way that I know of to /w me when I'm not online. Also, the problem with /w is that I already get enough while online. When someone sends a /w to me when I'm online, the problem becomes that no one else sees it. Thus, someone else might not know they're interrupting me by sending another one, or sending a message in public chat.

For example, when AlexAshman was tunneling through everyone's stuff, part of the reason I was so frazzled was that I was trying to deal with EIGHT different people sending me /w messages at the same time, along with at least 2 or 3 people in chat saying stuff to me. I have a hard enough time dealing with TWO things at once, let alone ELEVEN.

We do love you Memo, no worries there.

See, I hear this all the time, but it always sounds hollow. I mean, if someone says that, but then they do something to deliberately or ignorantly piss me off, then they don't really mean it, and they're a hypocrite. I don't like hypocrites.

I mean, if they really loved me, they'd prove it. I haven't seen much of the proof at all. That's all I'm saying.

[Can't Wear Hats]

I don't trust anyone. Anyone. That includes myself. I know myself, and I don't trust myself, so how can I trust anyone else, who I know less well? It's nothing personal, really. It's kind of like how the misanthropes hate everyone equally. No one seems to judge them, though, but when I don't trust someone, I get judged.

It's hard to know how to respond to this. Honestly, it's very hurtful to be told that you're not trusted when all you've ever done is play by the rules. That's why you get "judged", because you're hurting people's feelings, quite deeply, when you say you don't trust them. But of course, as you say, if you don't trust yourself how can you trust anyone? I can understand that, but you have to learn to trust and respect yourself. It's key to anyone's mental well-being that they're able to trust their own judgement. I don't know what else I can say, I'm no psychiatrist, but I really want you to be well in yourself. To that end:

Maybe I need to appoint one of the Mods as a "community manager" of sorts? Maybe I just need someone who can filter the noise and turn simultaneous requests into a string of things to deal with, one-by-one. I'll need to think about that.

This sounds like a fantastic idea.

Memo, it's becoming increasingly apparent that being the sole administrator of a server with over 200 people is not good for your health and sanity. As I said before, it's only a game and the last thing I want you to do is run yourself into the ground from trying to deal with everyone's crap. If you want to keep the server going, delegation is inevitable if you want to remain on top of things and stay sane.

Ultimately, you have to do what's in your own best interests. Your health, mental or otherwise, has to come first. If, for example, you decide that you need to take the server down and take a break for a while, or make some new strategies, then I am perfectly fine with that. It would be a shame, but hell, I'll cope. I would much rather you be well than I have somewhere to build a castle with my friends. Our enjoyment should not have to come at the expense of your sanity.

I don't know what else to say, except that I really hope you'll be alright.

[King Kool]

I'm here to help, Memo. The wiki eats up some of my time, but if I'm playing MC, I have time to take requests. And maybe then we (maybe ALL mods) put them in a list in the order they were asked and you handle them as you see fit.

And then we make a rule: If Memo's on the server, he's either ALREADY busy, or he's having some fun. Either way, don't bug him.

We just need organization to keep things straight. I think we can make that happen.

[AdmiralMemo]

Hats: I don't think I've ever had a problem with anything you've done. You wanted to expand into the jungle, and I needed to evaluate that situation, but through careful consideration of all the variables, I saw it was fine. Other than that, I've had no issues. (And that's even taking "issues" without negative connotations.)

Regarding the trust issues, from what you're saying, it seems that you expect other people to trust you by default, and when they don't, it hurts. That has almost never been my experience. I never actually expect anyone to trust me, so if they do, that's just a bonus. That's what I've extrapolated onto everyone else, though apparently, that's wrong.

If I'm hurting anyone's feelings from not trusting them, I completely apologize, but that's just how I roll, at least for now. Trust is something earned. With me, you don't earn trust by simply playing by the rules. Playing by the rules is expected of you. That's the default. It takes going above and beyond the minimum for me to start to have an idea that maybe there's something there.

For example, take Red_Mist. For the most part, from the beginning, he was just another guy to me. But then, he asked if he could bring his kids on. I was leery, but I didn't really see any reason not to. So I let them on, and I watched. I saw how he treated them, how he managed them, and how things were done. Through that time, I saw qualities that I thought were good. I began to trust him with managing his kids. That was when I came to the conclusion that if he could be trusted with managing his kids, he could be trusted with managing others, too. That's when I thought about making him a Mod.

For Osprey, as another example, the process was different. We butted heads in the beginning sometimes, but what got me to trust him was simple: talking one-on-one for hours at a time, every few days. Over the course of several months, I got to know him. I got to realize what he could do. I got to see that he can have a larger scope, a bigger picture, in mind. That's when I started to trust him.

So, unless you can show me that you have exceptional skills in a short period of time, the process of getting me to trust you is just to talk to me, one-on-one, for a while, with no other distractions. If I get the right impression from you, then, maybe 6 months from now, I might start to trust you.

I always advocate patience, but it seems that I work on a much slower scale than most people like, and that makes them frustrated.

[Admiralmatt]

i submitted a building request on the issue page and got temp permission to build from a mod. how do i know when i have full permission or if i need to stop.

[AdmiralMemo]

Matt: Well, 9 times out of 10, if there's nothing underground that someone is using, then your build request is fine. So far in this entire history of validating locations, I've only had to reject 1 time when the case was not something underground, but there were other considerations. So if you're far enough away from everyone else that no one's going to be impacted by your stuff on the surface, and there's nothing underground (bases or anything else that isn't mines) to worry about, go ahead and build on a preliminary authorization.

There should be a refinement of Wheaton's Law for MineCraft: Don't do anything that causes someone else to do a bunch of unnecessary work.

If you adhere to that, it resolves about 95% of problems right there.

[Dutch guy]

Memo, I would care if you disappeared. And NOT just because you run this minecraft server. Over the last months you have seemed to me like a very nice caring guy who is just being pushed to the breaking point by his circumstances. I wish I wasn't on the other side of the globe (or had the funds and days of leave to jump on a plane) because I most certainly would have tried to visit to give you some actual human contact.

If you want I can send you my skype info, so you can contact me if you want. (I'm on GMT+1 though, so timezone wise it might not be ideal)

[RoentgeniumFinger]

Memo. I can't say that I've been there, but I can understand a little due to my own issues. If I have done anything to make your life harder or more frustrating, I apologize. Let me know if I get too annoying and I'll tone it back a bit. Playing on the server for the past week or two has been one of the best experiences I've had in recent memory. It's pretty relaxed, even with all the headaches that must be happening behind the scenes. I have anxiety and depression, and recently discovered that playing MC calms me down. Things have been bad lately, so I've been playing a lot. Thank you for running this server. It's meant a lot to me despite my short time here.

[BlackDragonMTG]

So here's what I'm taking from this event that unfolded last night. Sib wanted to inform memo of the little fun him and a few others had that involved them tossing around "war" at each other. In attempt to not alarm memo this had an opposite affect and was not articulated via chat thanks to system messages and players chatting. Though he was right to inform memo about it because it could be taken out of context and beem worse.

The event caused no problems to the server damage feelings or otherwise and was purely mutual amongst participating parties. Therefor for future events like so should be submitted via the form clearly articulated so memo can have all information available about the situation right away.

Ex: x, y, z, and I partook in a little mutual rp involving a little pvp and you may hear about "war" from us but it's meaningless fun between us. Aside from chat text no one was involved unless they wanted to be and no structures were damaged in the process. Please feel free to contact myself or others for more information if necessary.

Thanks,
I

obv include more details if there is more to include. I was using my outside perspective of what happened as the example. Which seemed harmless and fun for those involved, but the point is use the form or forum pm to message memo of a situation like what happened. Include as much information as you can and be as clear as you can. So he can sit down, read it at his leisure and then contact and reply as necessary.

For non issues of course.

I'm probably the worst to explain what's going on in my head lol

Edit: now if only we had the proper pair of scissors to cut his lit fuse we'd be able to avoid a lot of our missunderstandings

[AdmiralMemo]

If you want I can send you my skype info, so you can contact me if you want. (I'm on GMT+1 though, so timezone wise it might not be ideal)

Working for a French company, I'm already used to communicating with people on GMT+1, though, so it's not as bad as it may initially seem.

I'd appreciate a Skype from anyone.

[Dix]

I know I only just started playing and your's is the first server I've ever joined but having a CM (community manager) or two would probably be a huge assist. Just my 2 cents.

That said.. MY GOD MINECRAFT IS SO ADDICTIVE. HALP.

[AlexAshman]

For example, when AlexAshman was tunneling through everyone's stuff,

Aww, c'mon, it wasn't everyone's stuff

Now just accept everyone's thanks for keeping things going, and we'll keep being grateful

[DewKnight]

Haven't read through everything and I'm not even really supposed to be online right now, but I think having the mod team as the interface to the players would be really good. Appoint a head mod or community manager to handle requests. When something interacts with the overall working of the server, then the mod can talk to the admin, memo.

That means that a lot less people are giving you info, and you're probably used to getting info from those few people now. That's how we did it on dewcraft. Of course I still drove myself mad and had to resign, but it took a couple of years.

Hopefully I get to come home from Denver next week. Maybe even get some of these stupid tubes out of my body soon.

edit: also I still think a help desk of sorts would be good for the server. doesn't have to be much, just give the mods access. I'm willing to set that up on my webserver as needed.

[red_mist]

So I get back and find you guys have changed half the map...

Hmm, well, I take full responsibility for cleaning up some of the holes around spawn and adding a few trees...c'mon, you have to admit it was pretty barren. I also added some cacti in the desert area and a few desert bushes.

I also filled in a desert somebody had used for strip mining and fixed what I think was a tnt made river.. that was near my house.

I filled in countless holes and repaired damaged areas that appeared griefed by creepers and enderfolk.

There was some random floating island in the ocean that was not marked so I eliminated it. There were a few other unmarked structures and hovels that looked abandoned, so I wiped em clean; too many small things to count really. If they looked decent or in use, I left them alone.

So I guess I helped in changing the map a bit. but for the better I think. Oh, and I've been pretty busy added things on and around my island... I may be pushing my 150 boundries a bit, but I do have like 4 other people living there with me.