Why supporting a server?

Hello dear Minecraft players and PMC'ers,

This blog it's going to be about why supporting a server, what it takes to make a server and why you should consider using your money for better stuff than simply buying a server and start running it without any experiece or people to help you with a great project.

It's more than truth that there are thousands, or maybe millions of minecraft servers online all the time. Maybe every day hundreds more come to action, but that doesn't mean that this hundreds or even thousands of servers are all great or work perfectly.

What it takes to an "owner" to make a server.

I'm going to talk for my case and show you what I had to do in order to setup my server. Obviously this depends on what kind of server you have and a bunch of variables, but this information may be "standard" for everyone.

1.) Paying a host
This is the most important part, if you want a great server, it can't simply be hosted on your PC. Obviously it is if your making a small server for friends and if your computer hangs it, but not for a "public" server where there are more players coming and going and where the bandwidth it's important.
Paying a host, it's pretty painfull, not much hosts have fair prices and normally all they do to win money is buy a dedicated machine on some datacenter and setup multicraft or mcmyadmin along with a web shop and simply check the dedicated machine status once for a while. Still, you have to pay for the first or two months 100% from your pocket. I runned with a bit of luck and called some friends in that could support finantially, but "average" minecraft players simply don't do that, and if you have a server that's enough to run with 60-100 players (I'm talking about 8gb or more RAM based on the ammount of plugins you have) then it might cost you about $60/month (or more).
In resume: The "owner" pays for at least 2 months (less if he runs with luck) which on an "average" 50-100 player server might cost them up to $120 bucks.

2.)Setting up the plugins
Setting up plugins might seem easy to you, but it's not.
It takes a BUNCH of time (took me 125 hours to setup mine so far) and it's pretty frustrating to see that they don't work and that you have to google around to find a solution. A server owner has to setup permissions for each rank and each plugin, configuration on all the plugins and solve compatibility issues (if there are).
Some plugins (like mob arena, pvparena, towny and residence) don't work by themself. You have to (ingame) manually setup their functionallity which normally also takes more and more time.

3.) Setting up the server "spawn" and other "official" areas.
This obviously depends of what kind of server you got, but every server needs to have an spawn area, which you have to build and if you would like to add some nice stuff (like scripts to be run when the player joins or goes through a tutorial), set it up.

4.) Choosing staff members
If your a GOOD owner, you won't simply go "hey who wanna be owner?" 'cause that's gonna be a pain for you when you see most of them ain't even good players. So, you would have to choose them manually, 1 by 1 and check if they are trustworthy or not. It's commonly a pay in the chat to see people ask for ranks all the time, even if there is a "Don't ask for ranks" rule.

5.) checking server status daily and solving status issues
The server won't be running by itself all the time, even if you have a crash detector and restart system (such as rtoolkit, mcmyadmin or multicraft) you have to check daily (more than once) in order to see if everything is ok.

Why supporting instead of buying milkshakes and burgers?
First of all, milkshakes and burgers make you fat, once each week should be considered a crime.
Now, if we go serious, the server needs $ to run, and the owner (if he shows that he diserves it) needs some help with that. Normally there are some &%"&"% admins and owners that ask for money all the time and do nothing but sit and whatch how his ballance goes up (if people actually sucks it) but that's not on ALL the servers.I guess that some donations and becoming a supporter it's a nice way to say "hey, I want this server to keep going and I appreciate your work to make it"
In resume: Don't become a fat guy (not that it's all bad, it's just bad for your health) support the server, that's a great way to say "thanks".

Why supporting instead of making a server yourself?
There are not many great servers around, and if your just the guy who wants the owner title around your just goign to be part of those "not so nice" servers, if you find a great server that has all you want, then why don't you support it and keep it running instead of attempting to make another one?

Why should I trust a guy (owner/admin) who I just knew on minecraft?
You shouldn't. You should trust his work, which is what you see daily and where you play constantly. He made a work and if you appreciate it, you should at least trust that it's a work that is worth of your money.

Supporting a server it's pretty nice, it's a great way to help and contribute, and some servers (I would guess that all of them) have supporter perks which might be juicy and interesting for you, appart of a great adition to the game.

So, why don't you stop buying candies and support a server instead?


A diamond it's the shiny way to say "thanks" :D / Join the Delta Team server NOW! read more *here*

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