There wasn't much to explore in 1.8 , now all the 1.9 pre-releases are mind blowing. if someone doesn't keep updated with this pre-releases, their mind is going to blow when the 1.9 official is out.

Notch actually said sorry for all of this, because of servers, textures and mods have a little trouble in keeping up, but he says he is rushing the thing to the final release in November. A necessary evil.

i feel the same way. i download 1.9.3 (its here already!?) off of jebs twitter and am putting it aside for when im ready to play it. im still to hooked on 1.8.1 plus all my saves are on that and i will have to restart my survival when i load 1.9.3. toooooo tooooo fast -.-

Also all the servers im op on are 1.8.1. what about 1.8.2, 1.8.3 and so on?