Welcome to the official site of KewlMCserver (KMCS)!

Hi!  After a long absense from blog-writing I have decided to write this to let everyone know what has been happening, what is happening right now and what will hopefully happen next.

Most importantly of all to let everyone know KMCS is NOT DEAD and I will NEVER allow it to die.  It can be stressful sometimes, but giving up would be even worse.

So enough of trying to setup your own servers. Doing it PROPERLY is very hard work indeed and costs money plus I have extensive experience of it now.  I've been at this for months now, so trust my comments about it.  I know what works and what doesn't work.

If you're just starting out with your own server you'll quickly see what you've let yourself in for, so let me do the work and just stay here. If you're unhappy; tell us what you don't like, tell us what you want us to fix, instead of trying to start your own.

Anyway; what has been happening?

At the start of all this I threatened to do a daily blog, but for numerous reasons this isn't really feasible.  However, I'll try doing one at least once a week, I also have no objections to other people writing blogs for us.  You don't even need to be an admin or mod either, I'll consider all blogs from any server regular.

We tried Bukkit when hey0 stopped supporting hMod and that was so broken, so incomplete and so unsupported by plugin developers that we gave up on it for a while.

I predicted, "it wouldn't be ready for at least a few months!". That's how broke it was.  

Then recently we tried it again. We had 2 servers.  One server for hMod 1.1 where people still had to use the downgraded client from Digiex and another "test-server" for Bukkit.

Well, after a week or 2 of evaluation I see Bukkit has indeed made some progress but my prediction was fundamentally correct....months have passed and it STILL isn't completely ready....

Sure it has "potential", but that's BS. I want something that works here and now.

What we have now is the best of both worlds. ALL the latest things found upto and including Minecraft 1.3 (dyes, squids, beds, sandstone, dispensers, cake, all that stuff) PLUS almost all of our old favourite hMod plugins AND working as they should be!

The day Teals and I figured out how to do this was like Xmas

I have also cleaned-up the ranks structure a bit. VIP which became GreenVIP is now dead and has become one of 4 possibilites for people. These are-

* BuilderVIP (awarded because you're a great builder!),

* ArtistVIP  (awarded for making artistic things especially pixelart and videos),

* HelperVIP  (awarded for generally being helpful to people),

* AwesomeVIP (2 or more of the above).

These make much more sense than just "VIP" or "Green". It wasn't specific enough.  People had to ask what it meant and how to get it.  Fail.  This is much better.

The AwesomeVIP rank simply means you're 2 or more types of VIP.

You may be a great Helper AND a great Builder, in which case you deserve the "Awesome" title....

If you are a HelperVIP or ArtistVIP you are more likely to be considered for Admin roles at some point. Much more likely if "AwesomeVIP".

All of those VIP ranks are EARNED and result in extra status, respect, rights and extra commands for you.  

Will be adding a Ranks and Roles page where all of this is explained in more detail.

Be helpful to me, the mods, admins, other people and you'll get HelperVIP status.

Make awesome artistic things like "pixelart" or awesome vids and you'll earn ArtistVIP.

BuilderVIP is self-explanatory really, just make awesome constructions.

Some of you may recall I was having problems getting to this site from my ISP. Was incredibly frustrating. Well, after about a week of that and much investigation it seems the guilty party was my ISP and not webs.com. Apparently after legions of my old ISP's customers complained they eventually fixed it, but too late for me. I ditched that ISP now, problem solved and have MUCH faster broadband plus cheaper into the bargain

Not sure if we'll be ditching webs now, will be a pain to migrate everything across to somewhere new, so unless you can suggest somewhere much better we'll be staying here for now.

Also, there's a new Twitter now....."KewlMCserver".... twitter.com/kewlmcserver

What is Happening now?

People can now come and go as they please. No need for the hassle of downgrading their client software, no need to apply for whitelist. There is no WL anymore (EDIT: However, I AM planning to add an Emergency Whitelist (EWL) for extreme scenarios). Anyone is welcome now (unless they've been previously banned).  I will be adding a "special form" for them in next few days :>

Sure, there's still a few plugins we're wrestling with like Vanish and iConomy, but we will persevere, and are also open to help from others.

We've also started adding some new plugins for first time such as NPCs, it looks like fun

Many other things remain to be done, so we will need more mods (for server and forum-mods) and more admins.

I am going to add 2 application forms.  One for JuniorMods, the other for JuniorAdmins.  People can still become SeniorMods and SeniorAdmins but they can only earn it over time, and not just get it from an application form.

All of the people who were admins or mods (apart from the Teals) need to reapply using said forms.  This is because I handed out those ranks too easily before.  I need to be 95%+ sure that this time I'm giving those ranks to people who won't let us and the server down, especially when there's a crisis as there has been over last few months.

Anyone can apply for mod or admin via one of the forms I add, just don't ask us personally about it, it's all to be done via the forms now.  You apply; we consider it; then let you know our decision.  That's it.  If you're unsuccessful you can try again after a few weeks.  But we don't spend time chatting about it.  And anyone hassling about it will fail application or even risk being demoted.

There are different types of activity for mods and admin.  

At the moment, lots of work is needed on website, so admins focusing on "webdesigner" task would be much appreciated as we seriously need somekind of proper Homepage.  

There is also need for lots of automation of common tasks and admins with knowledge of Linux for being "scripters" I guess would also be helpful with that.  There is also a need for plugin configuration and increased content.

If you want to increase your chance of earning HelperVIP or if you're already an admin; I STRONGLY urge you to look in the Downloads section at "Achievements Editor".  Download this and you can define your own achievments for use by everyone in server.  See this thread for more info.

Also in the process of adding a survey form to website, but also thinking of adding a getsatisfaction account for KMCS. Feel free to use as much as you want. The survey is still needed because it asks highly specific questions.

What is happening later?

* Perma-Bans are gonna be less likely now.  As originally planned I'm gonna use other means to deal with people causing problems (including suspensions).  Admins and mods have a long, fun list of ways to deal with troublemakers.  Also, this is partially gonna involve resurrecting the famous "pink" status

* Sooooo many things to add to website 

Other Stuff

Also something all the people who've gone off to try their own little servers need to know....if you want to advertise those servers on here or on my server itself, you will need to pay first or we'll just simply mute/jail you, or ban you if you do it persistently. Why should we let you advertise your servers for free here?  They're just gonna fail anway lol.  Trust me.

For serious people; We can help you advertise your products and services in a number of innovative ways, please use the CONTACT US link above so we may begin a dialogue.

Donations are still welcome, however, I am now referring to them as "Upgrades", more than "donations".  You are paying to support the server and site, but most importantly to "upgrade" your account.  This entails lots of privildges and extra commands which are all spelled out on the Upgrades page, which will appear shortly.

One of these benefits are custom titles and custom colours.  The Teals are "King" and "Queen" for example and selected their own colours.  And I am "Emperor".  lgotpower was briefly given title of "Pen0rBreath" for lolz, but I restored "BuilderVIP" to him which is more accurate.

That's it for now, comments welcome as always, cya