I also wanted to kick off some kind of discussion on the unspoken courtesies of the server, to hopefully avoid something like this happening in the future. Some people may think it doesn't need a discussion, that its simply "don't build walls in people's areas", but its probably not that simple for everyone and that we need to come to an understanding to make sure everyone is on the same page. We haven't needed this discussion for a while because vanilla has been so inactive for a long time, but with renewed interest and people rejoining from different areas and having different expectations, I think we have to do a better job communicating what all our own individual expectations are so that we don't inadvertantly violate someone elses expectations.
First, a little history lesson. There have been 4 major mafiascum vanilla worlds I have been a part of. There may have been one or 2 earlier worlds before I joined, but I believe the first world I was a part of is what most consider the first major, longstanding world. The world lasted for at least a year, and passed through ~5 or maybe even more Ops/owners/hosts. This server had the "pit of minor inconvenience" (when the world was formed, spawn was in a 2-block high pit, and because it was under spawn protection, no one could get out
), and we had spawn bay - an area around spawn where people build houses and developed a nice little spawn area. It is remarkably similar to how our current server spawn area is developing - organically, footpaths between places, no walls, etc. But it was generally understood that people didn't really claim large areas around spawn - just enough to build a modest house and decorate the immediate area, maybe dig a mine with the understanding that someone else might dig into your mine due to proximity, and there was an understanding that pretty much anywhere within close proximity to spawn bay was fair game as far as new people coming in and building a house. There wasn't even a no ugly builds rule, so if someone wanted to build an all-1-blocktype box house just down the street from your mansion, it could/would happen. The understanding was that if you wanted to have a huge area or control the type of builds around it (or request that no one build around your area), then you would move a distance away from spawn bay and be secluded.
The second world was also a major world and lasted a good while, but it formed a little differently. Spawn was manually placed in a nice area on a mountain overlooking a NPC village. The NPC village was the starting point of spawn town. First we moved in and took over buildings and built a small wall around the area that we lit up within for mob proofing. eventually we would tear down most of the original NPC village and replace them with custom houses/bases. We had all sorts of community farms within, and when we filled up everywhere within the wall, we would tear a section down and expand. Pretty much any empty space inside the wall was considered community space that anyone could build on. If people had plans for areas, people would put up signs and post in thread saying so. I built a small house on the bay, and built a fenced boardwalk along the coast instead of a solid wall for the mob-proofing there. The house was mine, but the boardwalk was community - even housed the nether portal for a while. We had tunnels connecting all the houses underground - the origin of the Hub, and scenic underground and above ground walk ways up to spawn from the village. And like the previous server, it was pretty much anything goes inside spawn town, and if you wanted your own base/area, you moved away from spawn. It was even more exaggerated than the previous server because spawn town was even higher in build density than spawn bay of the previous server.
The third world is kinda a dark age. I'll call it the "snapshot" world. There was very little activity. Only a few of us were regularly active. The death of theprevious world and throughout this one was when the modded worlds were at their high point, so most chose to play on modded. Because of there being so little activity, there was really little collaboration. At least not as much as in the past. People could pretty much claim any size area they wanted right near spawn, and still be out of site of the nearest neighbor if you'd like. This was all because of the low activity, really, and not because we've changed how we played. And we still had things like the infamous giant wooden cube house that popped up one day in between my farm and another's area.
That brings me to this world and the point of the history lesson. Currently, vanilla is as popular as it was at the peak of the golden ages between world 1 and world 2. We are a much more diverse community. We have "old timers" who started playing during the first "spawn bay" world and before. A large portion of the community started playing during the walled "spawn town" world, and a few didn't join the community until the "snapshot" world that was almost like playing SSP on a server. Naturally, people from the different ages of the server have different ideas for how to play minecraft. Some prefer to just go out and build somewhere and don't organize a walled spawntown and just develop areas naturally, like the first server. Some want to recreate the highly connected community walled spawn town of the second server. Some are used to life in the "snapshot" server, just wanting to claim an are and do what they want with it and not see ugly things in their line of sight. Some people just want bits and pieces - the bests - of each world, but people have different idea of what the bests really are.
So, when something like a cobble line indicating where a wall would go shows up in your back yard, I just want people to realize that its not because someone was disrespecting your area - in fact its likely people didn't even realize it was your area. In the major past servers, the area around spawn was typically a fair game communitity area, and as long as people were not literally right on top of another build, it was free space to build there. Nobody had signs up indicating how much space they had claimed, except for maybe the Kc's swamp sign. I don't think anybody really knew they were violating anybody's spaces, because traditionally they were far enough away from the builds to be outside of "spaces" - in previous servers, nobody claimed big areas around spawn, and areas they did claim and had plans for and wanted to make sure no one built into, they put up signs saying as much.
I feel partly responsible, because when the discussion of where to build "new spawn town" was going on, some people were planning on building it away from spawn, and others didn't think that would make a good spawn town because it was too far away from spawn. I supported/suggested building a spawn town actually around spawn - but I wasn't aware until it was actually happening what it actually meant, with the wall, and where it was going, and the cutting down trees that happened.
But thats why we need to have this discussion now I think. In past servers, the wall that was laid out wouldn't have broken any of the unspoken rules. But probably before actually starting to do any work, there should have been more of a discussion on the forums here about if an organized spawn town was wanted, if a wall was wanted, where should it be, etc - and actually, there was some talk about it in the forums and nobody who was posting really voiced any objections to the idea of a spawn town. I guess more planning should have happened first though. And we need to have an understanding about things like how close to builds are considered claimed areas, and should people mark their claimed areas better? I mean, just for example where the wall was marked near the bag end side of spawn, I probably wouldn't have thought twice about building a house in there behind on the coast between KC's swamp and tierce's barn. I wouldn't have known that was claimed area, or that I wasn't far enough away from the existing builds. I mean, there was Kc's sign, and I know how tierce likes her area based on playing with her on the snapshot server so I probably wouldn't have built there especially not without asking for permission. But for people just returning now who didn't really play on the snapshot and are tryin to recreate past experiences, that area certainly would have been considered far enough away to be a fair place to build.
I know this is a long post and I see I didn't get it posted in time before tempers started flaring again
but I was just hoping to let all parties have a better understanding about where people were coming from - why people wanted a wall, why people built it where they did and didn't think it would be a problem, and why people are maybe not liking the wall in their areas.
I really love this server, this world, and this community, as if that isn't obvious by how long I've been a part of it, and I am absolutely thrilled that vanilla is getting popular again and people who played 2 or 3 servers ago are coming back and building cool things again. But this is really just a big misunderstanding based on different personalities and expectations of people who started playing in diferent eras. I was online, I should have maybe said something about waiting/planning/etc before we start laying down the outline but I was too obsessed with working on my maze at the time so thats on me. People building maybe were a little too enthusiastic about getting started without planning but I don't really hold enthusiasm against them - no one acted out of malice, and people did think they were building for the community. Other people maybe reacted a little too hostile/negatively to the situation but they didn't really know what was going on. In the end there's no harm done. No reason to rage at each other, no reason to rage quit or not have any more community involvement. Everyone just needs to quit yelling at each other and realize where people are coming from.
I'd still like a spawn town, walled or not. I haven't even built a house yet on the server because I was waiting for an area to start developing so I could build there with the community. Maybe we just let the bay side of spawn mountain develop naturally without a wall as it is now, and build a walled spawn town on the death games side of spawn mountain?