* Here's another blog for all of you! Enjoy, and expect more to come. *

Server ranks and permissions are arguably the most important parts of a server. They are what define your experience and how long players will stay. You want to create sensible and clean ranks with attainable goals.

There are four things to keep a good balance of when creating your ranks. How many ranks you have, how long it takes to get a promotion, what perks each level gets, and how they are displayed. Keeping all of these things in check can be a challenge, but one worth pursuing.

Here are a couple key points on how to manage your server's ranks and permissions.

1) Avoid favoritism.
This is a big one. If you promote one user earlier than in the standard, people will often blame you of corruption. Of course, sometimes it is required that you push someone ahead. So, you have to be careful with what you "require" your users to do to level up, and how flexible you are.

2) Have clean rank prefixes.
Many players will simply leave a server if it has bad chat management. Try to do something unique, but not so hard on the eyes.
Good: [Rank] | [Name]: [Message]
Bad: [Faction] >> [Worldname] | [Ranking] / [CrazyNickname] : [Message]

3) Promote in a uniform way.
It varies per server on how users should be ranked up. It can be based on anything from time, to money (in game or not), or the owners discretion. Whatever you choose, stick to it, and make sure that it's well documented for the player to understand. (Not just on signs)

4) For larger servers, use automated methods of promotion.
It becomes a huge hassle, keeping track of every person on your server and manually promoting them, even if you have multiple staff members. It can also lead to problems such as corruption and disagreement. So, consider using a plugin to let users earn their own way up, and not bother you about it.

5) Give players attainable goals.
If you say that someone has to play for 500 hours to attain a certain rank, it's not going to happen. More often than not, they'll just forget about it and move on. However, if users are ranked up fairly often, they will continue to come back. This is not to say that they should get promotions so quickly that they are all done after a week ok playing.

6) Take advantage of all permissions from all plugins.
Many servers don't configure their plugins fully, and just block off access to certain commands. It is always best to "finish the job", and give players all of the correct permissions access.

7) Display new perks in a clear way.
Users always want to know what new abilities they have received with a new rank. On HammerCraft, we display these in a command, "/Perks". Signs work as well, but after getting asked this question over and over, you'll want to consider something more easily accessible.

8) Update permissions.
We all hate doing it, but it must be done. To take advantage of new features in plugins, often permissions have to be updated. Try not to let yours become a "jumble", so that it is easy to go in and modify them.

9) Give each rank sufficient perks.
If you rank up on a server, and only have one more command, things get pretty boring. Carefully measure out the number of ranks, the time between promotions, and the perks to be had at each tier.

10) We all have remissions bugs, fix them.
The most common downfall of a server is permissions. Take the time to make yours orderly and update them often. Also, don't let permissions bugs last a long time, fix them as quickly as you can, so that they don't seem to stack up on you. And whenever you have a seemingly "unfixable" bug, just think over the basics, and you'll probably figure it out. If not, just know that you are not alone. :D

Hopefully you have found this blog to be helpful and informational. If you liked it, feel free to favorite and subscribe for more to come soon.

Until next time,
- The HammerCraft Team

Up next: o How to professionally run a large Minecraft server #2o .