The Future of YAMS for 2014 [FEEDBACK]

darrenstraight · January 9, 2014

YAMS is 3 years old today the 9^th of January 2014. I truly cannot believe YAMS has been going for 3 years, with nearly 2 of those years being in our current world. Itâ€™s been an enjoyable experience so far but you can make it even better by helping shape the future of YAMS.

I'm here to discuss why things are how they are in YAMS and what the future holds for YAMS.

I also would like to find out from the community what they think has and hasn't worked well and how we should proceed with the future of YAMS, if at all there is a future for it?

Let me start my going into detail on the various aspects of YAMS both past and present:

A family friendly community
YAMS is a family friendly community orientated server and I wouldn't want it any other way. I truly believe in having a community where everyone can happily coexist. YAMS just wouldn't be the same without the community atmosphere.

Spawn tower and the rules
A spawn tower has always been present on YAMS; it gives a great vantage point of the centre of YAMS.

Spawn tower hasn't always had barriers to prevent you from getting down quick, in fact there used to even be signs in the very old spawn towers encouraging you to jump into the water. Unfortunately however it became apparent that some people were not bothering to read the rules and instead jumping from the tower and running away, since then we have always forced users to walk past the rules room by having fences and such on the top preventing players from making excuses of not having seen the rules.

A lot of people say to me you should place a warp at the bottom of spawn tower so we can get down quicker, my answer normally goes along the lines of there are warps everywhere you only need to find them. Itâ€™s true, the people that usually ask are just not looking hard enough, whereâ€™s the fun in having a warp thatâ€™s in plain sight, itâ€™s much more fun and rewarding to find hidden warps, they are there, yes even right at spawn tower, you just need to look.

The first original spawn tower didnâ€™t have many rules in it; I had decided that I would start off with little rules and if the community decided to break my trust then I would add rules as required. When first starting off I had no idea that there were people out there that actually had fun in destroying others people creations a lot of the rules you see today are there because at some time or another someone did something to abuse our trust that made us add a rule.

Every so often I consult with staff and ask them whether there needs to be any changes to the rules, be it adding or removing rules, changes are made as required. It was only very recently that we updated our current rules, I removed quite a few and made a few of them clearer.

I also try and improve the spawn tower in general, such as working out the recent issue of huge FPS lag when 1.6.4 came out, I spent a lot of time working out what the issue was and once I found out that it was signs I spend time finding out solutions, the quick solution was to remove as many signs as possible and allow people to use the Optifine Mod while work was carried out on creating a new tower. It was unfortunate that we lost a lot of the rooms, but Iâ€™m very happy with the new tower and does make tours quicker, plus the old signs (stories, events etc) are still in YAMS, they have just been moved to other areas.

Sandbox and approval process
When YAMS was first opened to the public, there was no sandbox, people could join and build anywhere without prior approval. This at first seemed quite nice however it soon became apparent that this wasn't working especially as we were becoming even more popular, the community started to become more disjointed with people all over the place.

After a few months we started to look into ways to fix this and we came up with the idea of having a Sandbox, players would be able to build a temporary home here so they could explore YAMS properly and meet everyone and choose a town to move too, making them feel a part of the community, after all being a part of the community is our number 1 rule.

The whole sandbox system has changed many times through YAMS history, sometimes it was simple other times it was more complex and tedious.

At one point you could become semi approved; this meant that I had seen your house when you were offline, but I wanted to see it with you in person, this wasn't to be awkward but rather because I wanted to actually talk with you and show an appreciation for your house and help you, a lot of server admins donâ€™t take time to get to know their players, I wanted to. This semi approved process gave me that once chance to have 1 to 1 time with you seeing your house without anything else getting in the way. Unfortunately however meeting players was a problem some players could only come on for a few hours and I wasn't on at those times. It was decided that for the new world, the one we are in today that this semi-approval process would go.

Today the sandbox process is much more streamlined but I am still the only one to do sandbox approvals, this isn't a power thing but rather it still gives me a chance to actually be involved in a players first steps in the YAMS community, of course they donâ€™t have to see me online anymore to get approved but I do try and find out when that player is on and talk to them and leave tip signs in their house, I even like to help players build their sandbox houses when they are struggling.

I believe we have fined tuned the sandbox experience as best as possible. I fully understand that there are still things some players see as an issue: too many signs, plots too small, still complicated etc. Itâ€™s not easy making everyone happy, getting the balance between things just right. Too few signs and players wonâ€™t understand. Too many signs and people lose interest. Bigger plots less plot numbers and players concentrate too long on their sandbox home and forget about all the towns they need to explore and that sandbox is much more than just building a nice house.

The towns
When YAMS was first opened to the public, just like sandbox there were no set towns, people could join and build anywhere without prior approval. This at first seemed quite nice however it soon became apparent that this wasn't working especially as we were becoming even more popular, the community started to become more disjointed with people all over the place.

It was decided that we would try to regroup people by creating specific towns in high populated areas; some players had already started building towns themselves so we had a starting point for most of them but this gave us a chance to define those towns properly and put someone in charge of that town who could approve builds within that town, approvals had to go through me before.

In our first world, we had all sorts of different types of towns/places you could live at different times in the first world included: Plankville, Creeper Swamp, Woodbridge, Highland Cliffs, Splinterz, Beachside, Enderville , Tumbleweed, Winter wonderland, SinkCity, Saidai, Hakakai Island, Birchville (removed during town restructuring) and The Lyonesse Inn (A massive underwater hotel never completed before our move to the new world).

As you can see it was a big list, this is where a lot of confusion occurred even more so when not all towns were towns you could move into from Sandbox, but rather they were towns where you could rent/buy with iron/diamonds etc a predefined building/room that you could only change the interior of so the exterior of the house was kept in line with the town theme, for example Japanese.

It also didn't help that not all towns had the same plot sizes; this caused players to be drawn to the towns with bigger plots.

Now we had regrouped most players (there was still lots of disjointed players in the wild), we could start working more closely with players and have a better sense of a community, of course not everyone was happy with this change as they were used to building wherever they wanted but I do believe it was the right decision to make, having everyone all over the map was pretty crazy, it was hard knowing who was who.

One of the biggest problems with so many towns was that we didn't have enough staff to cover all towns or staff were appointed for that town then disappeared, leaving the players confused as to what they could or couldn't do and who to speak to, myself and my team were picking up the pieces time and time again.

When it came to a new world, we had a chance to structure things properly and thatâ€™s exactly what we did. We now have 4 plot based towns one for each main cardinal direction, with the main town station being 1000 blocks away from the centre of spawn tower.

The towns are this far away are for multiple reasons:

It makes it easier for people to understand coordinates.
It puts a nice distance between towns, so we can build lots of nice and interesting buildings/projects/areas at the side of the tracks for people to see between towns.
It gives towns enough area to expand without having to worry of getting in the way of others.
It makes players aware of just how large an area we have to play with, which would hopefully inspire some big builds.

Town themes
When YAMS was first opened to the public, there were no town themes. Some buildings were wonderfully themed themselves while others were not so nice on the eyes. Some players created town style areas for themselves such as wooden planks in woodbridge and cobblestone in Highlands Cliff before they became official towns for the community.

As time went by towns were officially formed and town themes given to those towns.

Having town theme styles was a choice that some were happy with while others were not. Some of the reasons behind it were:

It gave towns a personalised style; they were not just a collection of random houses of all types of different materials.
Players could build towards integrating within the town, feeling like they were a part of the town style and not just another random person building another random house.
Some people would build wonderful things that looked wonderful and would probably feel very welcome in any town regardless of what materials were used (even wool), but others struggled building a house with so many materials to choose from not knowing what looks good together. Picture a cube house made out of dirt/cobble/white wool/pumpkins/sand and gravel, not a pretty sight. Limiting the materials helped people, of course 2 years ago there was less materials then there are now so we had less options of what would go well together.

Our current world town theme styles were chosen based on discussions about what the community would like, we had to take many things into account such as:

How easy it was to get those materials.
Would people enjoy using them.
Would the materials look nice together.

The main materials of our current town styles are as follows:

Snowheim:

Cobblestone for the main walls.
Mossy Cobblestone for small amounts of detail on walls.
Dark spruce logs for detail such as corners/rims.
Oak plank stairs/slabs for roof.
Cobblestone stairs/slabs for roof.
Dark spruce logs as extra detail for roof.

Farefall:

Stone brick for the main walls.
Mossy and cracked stone brick for small amounts of detail on walls.
Oak pine logs for detail such as corners/rims.
Oak plank stairs/slabs for roof.
Stone brick stairs/slabs for roof.
Stone brick as extra detail for roof.

Maplehold:

Oak, spruce, birch and jungle planks for the main walls.
Oak, spruce, birch and jungle logs for detail such as corners/rims.
Oak, spruce, birch and jungle stairs/slabs for roof.
Acacia and dark oak are not currently allowed.

Perivale

Smooth stone for the main walls.
White stone slabs for detail such as corners/rims.
Stone brick stairs/slabs for roof.
White stone slabs for roof.
Stone as extra detail for roof.

As you can see some towns have a better selection of materials than others, letâ€™s take Maplehold as example.

When maplehold was originally chosen as the wooden town there was only one type of plank (oak) and 3 types of log (oak, spruce and birch) this was fine at the time but as Minecraft progressed so did the types of wooden logs and planks available to Maplehold, though I am currently stopping acacia and dark oak from being used.

I and the town moderators regularly discuss town themes/styles and what amendments we can make to the town rules, thereâ€™s a lot to take into consideration such as would a new block look ok in that town and would all the towns community be happy to change their houses to fit in with the new style, also would it cause any problems for others towns.

We try our best to allow things; we are not trying to be difficult rather make the general community is happy and make sure that as best as possible no one town is disadvantaged.

Town plots
As you know all towns have plots, thereâ€™s a multitude of reasons why, let me explain a few things about plots:

Some people like being in a plot as it gives them a place they can call theirs, others donâ€™t like them and feel too restricted.
We decided to go town the plot route so people felt like they were a part of a town and had people next to them, giving more sense of a community instead of people living out in the wild never to be seen.
The current 14x14 plot sizes were chosen for all towns as that way no one town had an advantage over others, the plot size seemed reasonable. The size was even as people preferred having double doors in the middle rather than a single door.
In the previous world an average plot size was 12x12 but a lot were even smaller! Only the town of beachside had a section were there was very big plots of 19x19, players who were seen to be active within that town, would be invited to take a bigger plot, this caused some unfairness.
There is currently no set block height for houses, the town rules state â€œYou must only have 2 levels above ground to your house.â€ along with a pointy roof and attic inside on top. The reason that there isnâ€™t a block height limit is that we trust players not to build ridiculously high houses and also because itâ€™s another rule/restriction to add, despite what some people may thing, I donâ€™t want to keep adding restrictions, quite the contrary. Most rooms are not more than 3-5 blocks high anyway so most houses are all roughly the same height so no one person can over tower others. On a few occasions people have built very high houses and we have had to speak with them and explain why we would like their houses shortened. I believe that while sometimes no height limit can be confusing, it allows you to be flexible in your house design and not have to worry about going those few blocks over a height limit.
You can currently dig 11 blocks down from plot level so you could in theory have your basement split into 2 floors of 3 high with double flooring, before September 2013 it was 8 blocks down.

Beautifully themed non plot based towns
Just to add to what I explained above about town themes/plots.

You will probably have seen lots of beautiful non plot based towns created in Minecraft, but while wonderful looking (mostly done in creative) normally these towns consist of lot of vacant houses (the town is for show) or when people do live in them they canâ€™t really alter much of the structure outside as it will ruin the impression of the beautiful town theme.

These towns are normally created by a specific group of people that know what the town should look like, leaving no room for others to join in and those that do want to take part are not sure how to start or feel like they cannot do anything better than what the others are doing anyway.

Saidai the Japanese themed town from the old town reminds me a little of this, there were 2 people working on it but after their absence no one knew what to do about the town.

What the town of snowheim does in our current world with their plots is something I've always thought was quite nice, the way the plots are on different levels and different paths is quite nice as it makes the town seem less plot based compared to other towns that have a cluster of plots all huddled together.

Public building requests
I have always made it clear to town moderators that they should actively engage with the players of yams from all towns. I am fully aware how restrictive plots can be at times, so Iâ€™ve always wanted to make sure that there are building projects going on within the towns that any player from any town can come and take part in without anyone needing to be on to guide them. Unfortunately even though we have warehouses full of resources for players to use so they donâ€™t have to use their own materials on public builds sometimes thereâ€™s a lack of participation from players all round.

Any player wanting to build something in YAMS only need post in the relevant section of the forums (town topics for town buildings and community building project forum for other non-town buildings) and ask if they can build it, itâ€™s not so much for approval but more so others can show their interest in wanting to help before approval is given, so many times have we approved things only to have them unfinished while the person who started it goes offline for months and months.

Have a look at the past few last pages of each town topic and youâ€™ll see thereâ€™s plenty going on within towns and actually quite a lot still going on out of towns, anyone forgot about the Ender Dragon statue? Thereâ€™s even a warp for that. It's /warp dragon

The mining world
When YAMS was very first setup, mining was allowed in the main world, this didn't seem like a problem at first but as we became bigger and bigger it was soon apparent that this was a bad idea, not only did it mean there was a limited amount of resources and we would never have the new resources but also that people were digging tunnels into other peopleâ€™s houses and projects.

Our solution was to have dedicated mining areas which could be regenerated back once cleared (some where encased in bedrock), but this was problematic. Luckily once we had upgraded YAMS processing speed and ram we had another solution, the mining world!

Our current mining world is refreshed every update or so, when I think itâ€™s ready for a change.
People who say thereâ€™s not enough ores are just not looking hard enough, I routinely check ore percentages to ensure the world is still useable for both new and existing players.

The mining world rules have changed a lot through the times, I'm hoping the rules we have now in the mining world are much more friendly and open then what we had before. Some of the core principles of the mining world have stayed through the times though, such as the mining world being a place where you mine not build your house.

The nether world
We do not currently allow people to build individual nether portals, not because I donâ€™t want people to visit the nether but rather because it allows players to have fun exploring YAMS while looking for the community nether portal. It also helps organise the nether refreshes and having one central point for the nether rules.

The end world

There is currently no public way to get to The End as it brings up a few issues, one being that thereâ€™s not really much you can do there once you have killed the dragon or the person that does may end up with load of experience levels while others get none, though some people may want the end stone. Instead we use The End for event dragon killing, that way we kill the dragon as a community just for fun. I did plan to do an event to The End, if the dragon statue was finishedâ€¦ but itâ€™s still not.

The test build world
Some of you may remember that in the old world we had a place called the test build area, a 200x200 build area where you could pay 1 - 2 diamonds (fee was later removed) to build anything really, as long as it wasnâ€™t offensive. Every month the area would be cleared and you would have to pay again if you wanted to build anything.

Unfortunately however even after we removed the diamond fee this didn't really take off; I think a lot of players didn't use it because you still had to use your own resources, such a shame more people didn't use it as people were always saying I was being too restrictive, yet here was a place people could build with freedom and they didn't use it.

Over a year ago and a year after the original test build area, we opened in our current world the test build world, this was a slightly different approach to what I had before, this time it was more about having a place to allow people to show their ideas and designs to others of things that could be included in YAMS rather than build anything you like.

You do of course have to find the test build world portal, but isnâ€™t that part of the fun on YAMS? Finding all these hidden treasures out there and thereâ€™s plenty of clues, like did you know the hot air balloons can see the portal to the test build world portal?

Other worlds
Every so often we open up other worlds on YAMS; a quick count gives me over 30 unique worlds. From past old world backups to adventure worlds and free build worlds. We really have been to a lot of different worlds. Just a shame that as many things on YAMS you open up these things and sometimes players donâ€™t visit, yet they say thereâ€™s nothing to on YAMS!

The transportation system
YAMS has always been known for its extensive rail systems, the rails in minecraft were something that got me playing more in Minecarft before YAMS, so let me explain a bit about the rail system in YAMS:

Our current rail system is in grid format for quickest understanding and access to towns.
Every town station is 1000 blocks away from spawn; corner stations (like the oasis) are also 1000 blocks away from town stations.
Some people think that the rails are too long, but thereâ€™s good reasons for them:
- They allow you to see things on the way to where youâ€™re going.
- They help you get a better understanding of the layout of YAMS in a grid fashion, as each town is 1000 blocks away from spawn you can work out your coordinates easier.
- You donâ€™t need to sprint to a town which requires food/potions as well as having to hold down buttons, you can just pick up a provided minecart and press a few buttons and youâ€™re off, you can even quickly go AFK and do something while you wait for the cart to take you.
- They are still one of the fastest ways to travel excluding the newly added horses

Banning
You may be aware, our current policy here at YAMS is once you have been banned we had good reason to do so and we will not unban you, unless there's been a mistake, which is very rare. Our policy is this way because usually if you've done something we can forgive you for we will jail instead that way giving you a chance to explain yourself, though if you don't turn up for months to discuss it, then you may be banned. I've done some unbans in the past and they never turned out well, since then I stick to no unbanning.

Of course no unbanning does present its own issues, some players move on while others just cant take no for an answer and instead go on a pathetic revenge, I've received my share of unwanted abuse. These players do not get unbanned, but they do show me that we did the right thing in the first place by banning them, anyone who abuses me, my staff and the community or wants to harm our community in general doesn't deserve to be a part of our community.

Wrapping up
Thereâ€™s so much more Iâ€™d like to tell you about YAMS and why we do things the way we do, but I've already spent way too long writing this post and I really donâ€™t want to bore you (8 full pages long in word at this point excluding images). I hope that you find everything above fascinating and I have given you a better understanding of YAMS so you can help contribute to its future. Maybe you'll even go exploring a bit more... just like this person in the image below having fun on an adventure and yes all the images in this post are from YAMS at one point or another.

The future of YAMS is the title of this postâ€¦ and Iâ€™m here to tell you the future of YAMS is:

Blank!

That's itâ€¦ thereâ€™s nothing to say, the future of YAMS is open for debate, it's a blank slate, there is currently no planned future. I want you all to take some time and think about what you've learnt above and post constructively below on what you think should happen with YAMS. To get you started Iâ€™ll give you a selection of things to think about, but please donâ€™t just answer these think of your own too, these are just to help you think of what to say:

Is there a future for YAMS?
We've been in our current world for 2 years now; how long do we have left?
What would get people involved more in building public builds?
Are the current town themes ok?
Is there a better way than plots?
We have a test build world but would a free build world work too? Or would it just make players neglect the normal world even more, not helping on community projects, as free build can be very much do your own thing rather than help the community.
What could make the YAMS experience better?

Ok good luck with your posts everyone, Iâ€™m looking forward to your replies and please comment on each otherâ€™s posts too, this is a discussion forum, so letâ€™s discuss!

Nikki Nutta Palmer · January 9, 2014

Firstly thanks to Darren for taking the time to post a mini history of YAMS, it was great to see some of the pictures from past builds/towns/worlds. (even had some kitty flashbacks with my Puss in boots skin :blink: ).

I believe there is a future for YAMS, our current world still has a lot of unused/unexplored areas so as to how long do we have left here in our current world I would say a lifetime if we can work together and keep things fresh and update as and when we feel things need it. (i.e. spawn tower has had a massive makeover as has mining world hub recently).

I know YAMS struggles now and then for getting players involved with public builds, often because not everyone can get on at similar times, or those that are new are unsure what they can and cant do for the builds.

I will say though sometimes it just takes a couple of nights to transform a whole area and often it might only take 1 or 2 people to make a big difference. (I spent two nights almost alone in YAMS last week so I decided it was time to make some bigger changes around Snowheim and it now has a fab underground stables and horse access so u can take you horses for a ride underground. Which am pleased to see its already being used). Was also able to add to some existing building with help of players who were online at the time. So to be honest I am not really sure what else can be done to help activity for bigger builds other than just be spontainious, if there are a few on just comment on what needs done and see how quick those that are on can do it.â€¦. We always seem to get so far and just fizzle out.

Personally I like the current town themes, although with new materials appearing on most updates lately maybe a closer look at the towns in the future to see what changes could be made. I feel if plots were removed it would then lead to issues with how big can u build your house, how far from a town can you build, with the current plots everyone is close to their town centres and information centres etc.

I think a free build world would be best as a special event like previously done, or we may find players living in the free build world instead of helping in the community.

Hmmâ€¦. Thatâ€™s all I have to say at the moment, no doubt as others add their say I may comment further as they may remind me of something I wanted to add.

d8g4cnd24_h7 · January 9, 2014

YAMS has provided me with a great 2 years 4 days of fun where I could, and still can, work with the community! I am very happy that it will now be going on for a third year. I think that YAMS has a positive future and I would like to give some feedback based on my ideas and past 2 years of experience.

First of all, I think that Darren and the staff have done a great job with keeping the server running properly and organized, so thank you all for that! I love the mining world and Sandbox how they are, along with the house plots in all of the towns. I enjoy the test build world because it is a nice place to build ideas that have the potential to be added to the community. Personally, I would not like a free build world because there would be less focus placed on the projects in the new world and players would go there instead of the normal world / test build due to it having fewer building guidelines. I still think that plots are great, although I would like to have plots be more like Snowheim (on different levels of ground with different views) rather than in Maplehold where it is practically one giant flat area with plots.

Every year (or about 14 months), it seems that YAMS transfers to a new world, and I would like to continue that tradition. We have been in the current world since February 2013, and I think that we could possibly move this February 2014, or whenever is most convenient. I love the current world, but it is also fun to mix things around and start all over again. When this 2013 world was created, the community all came together and built the warehouse, spawn town, beginnings of the university, and other builds very quickly. The point is that a new world could cause players to come on more and build public builds. I liked the world back in 2012 (with Winter Wonderland, the Redstone Museum, Highland Cliffs, etc.) because I enjoyed having many towns that were close by. For example, Winter Wonderland and the Beach town were neighbors, and it was easy to travel around on minecart and solely by walking. Changing to a new world could allow new biomes from 1.7.4, new/revised towns, and fresh builds. It would be nice to have the towns within 500 blocks of spawn rather than 1000, just to make the community more centered, and make it more appealing to travel to another town without having to go on a 7min cart ride. Additionally, towns in the new world could be made to fit all of the new materials added in 1.7 (one town could take certain types of wood while another town could take one type of wood and stone brick, etc.) I am not against staying in the current world, but am just throwing out ideas if we happened to move to a new world.

The current town themes are good for the most part; I would just like to see a town that can implement the acacia / dark oak wood, along with the other new materials from the last update.

I enjoy playing on YAMS and am excited to see what happens in the future! Thank you, everyone, for making it a fun, safe place to be (especially Darren and staff)!

Devon_HD · January 9, 2014

On feb the 25th I would have had the best 2 years of my life thanks to Darren. I've been a pain but I've enjoyed my self from the start and can't imagine where I'd be without YAMS. Any who I don't think this server is getting the attention is should be, Therefore I think we should put it more out there , I know this may cause SOME problems but it would e nice to see more people on towns. However I remember joining the new world pretty much right after it was done and I wouldn't like this world to change (not yet anyway) I've really grown a bond with this map. On subject with the map, the towns, I can't think of anything possible to change them! I like the idea of the plots as it's not messy and I like sandbox too!

The only thing I ask for in this year would be more games like the walls, ect. Also some more building events like metropolis. How to get players involved however is a tough one, if however I think of something I will edit this post.

Over all I'd like to thank Darren and all the staff for keeping this server strong and running and I hope this server goes on for everrrrr!

changingtuna88 · January 10, 2014

Firstly, thanks to darren, the rest of the staff, and the entire YAMS community for giving me a place to enjoy Minecraft! These past 2 and a half years have been amazing, and I hope to make even more YAMS memories in the future.

Like Devon said, I think we need to spread the word of YAMS. I remember when the new world started, there was always someone on to talk to, now, not so much . More members will not only fill up towns, but give us more members to help build, and freshen up the community with new faces.

As for the world, I like this world. Most of my YAMS memories are from here, as I actually signed up and went on the forums just before the move. Yes it is nice to refresh, but the reset only happened due to the disorderly houses and mines etc. Like Nikki pointed out, there's still so much more out there to explore, and many ways to give things a fresh look (redoing spawn town and tower for example).

The test build world is great for showing ideas and expressing your ideas. However, a free build world suits events much better. If an event, you could see how much we can build, and see who would actually come on for it.

I love the plots! They keep towns nice and organized, and structured. They are pretty generous at 14x14 and 10 blocks down. If you think this isn't enough, then they are a great way to perfect compact building! They also make sure that people aren't focusing too much on their houses and instead participate in builds.

Once again thanks for a wonderful 2 and a half years. *raises glass* and here's to many more!

ZhonLord · January 10, 2014

I first joined YAMS in april last year, and since then have fallen in love with the server. Personally speaking I have never found another multiplayer server with this many friendly, helpful, wonderful people anywhere else on the internet. You guys are amazing, especially Darren and everyone else who works hard to keep YAMS great for the rest of us. Here's to more years of laughs, projects, new members in the community and much more besides!

I agree with Devon and Tuna, we should draw in more people to the community, fill up the towns and gain more people who want to help with the big projects as well as just building small things and having a blast. Hide and seek, spleef, infection, arenas, chess, there are all sorts of things to do around the world of YAMS, and all of them are just waiting for enough people to get on together and say "hey, who's up for <insert random activity here>?"

The current world is enormous. We have Spawn Town, the four outlying towns, the oasis, the ark, the coliseum, the halloween park, a number of fun surprises all over the place, and yet we still haven't filled the place in yet. There are large areas of undeveloped land waiting to be filled with large builds, above and below the ground as well as on it. It would be nice to have the distance between towns reduced for travel purposes, say 500-750 blocks away instead of a full thousand, but changing worlds just for that purpose would be a shame. We still have a ton of untapped potential in this one, let's use it up before we move on.

As for the big public builds, there are many cases where players are unsure what to do to further a build, what they're allowed to add or change and what is already finished. If they come on when no one else is online, they may not even know where to start on a project that's already been set in motion. My suggestion would be to set up a display at the build sites, either a set of signs or a chest with written books. These displays would supplement the forum topics by explaining what needs to be done where for that specific project, what areas are allocated for what aspects of the project, what resources are needed and the amounts required, etc. Quick access with more detail and direction, so that players can jump into the project easier even without knowing what the final result should look like.

The current town design and themes are wonderful. Each one has a unique layout, shape and overall feel that makes visiting them feel like going to a completely different part of YAMS. The plots ensure that the towns are kept neat and organized, the plot size is great for newcomers and experienced builders alike, and the new basements actually give more useable area than the allowed space above-ground depending on how it's used. Plus the lack of restrictions on inner appearance still allows us to get creative if we so choose, from large spiral staircases, to convoluted basements with hidden rooms, to a complete indoor roller coaster. Deciding how the new materials will be incorporated is going to be a bit tricky (for example I personally feel that dark oak would fit snowheim better than maplehold), but there is plenty of time to settle that out and the towns are great as they are.

The test build world is fine as is too. Free build events are a lot of fun, but they can easily suck people in for large amounts of time working on enormous pixel arts or other projects to the point where they forget about the main world. Left as an occasional event rather than a permanent feature, we can still enjoy it without it taking up all of our time.

Well, that's it for this peanut gallery. Thank you all again for a great year on YAMS, and I hope to see all of you and more in the future!

Edited January 10, 2014 by ZhonLord

aoelos_ · January 10, 2014

Hi Guys!

So firstly I'd like to thank Darren for this post And also for setting up YAMS - I have so many fond memories of this place

So a little bit about me - thinking back at my time here, strangely I found YAMS by accident, I was going through some things one day when I found an IP address scrawled over a piece of paper in very messy handwriting I've no idea where I'd got the original address from but I decided to take a chance and go with it. So on one autumn Saturday I logged on and there was Nams, and well here I am now Some of you may know my settling in to YAMS was a little turbulent at first and I made a few mistakes - but I've learnt from them and feel I've become a better player!

So now I've got my autobiography out of the way ..

I personally like the town themes we have, I think they are all unique and offer different building paths, for example those wishing to build medieval style houses may move to Snowheim, or people who like modern builds may move to Perivale. I have given some thought to biomes though - I did feel Perivale might look good in a savannah and Snowheim might look nice in a redwood forest. In the current world we can't come across these biomes - but that's what the mining world is for! I do think town plots are the best approach for houses they ensure a degree of structure to the town, and prevent ridiculously sized palaces popping up everywhere

With regards to a move I'm torn on this one. I do like the current world, all of my memories are in this world and we've devoted a lot of time to it however sometimes it's nice to drop everything and start afresh. It would be difficult at first to set up a new world but it would refresh everything - we could even design new towns, maybe more than four - who knows? But perhaps that's something for the future, at the moment I think I'm happy in version 2

I also think free build worlds are better as weekly events or so, as they do detract attention from the main world and build projects. With regards to player numbers I do think we should look towards setting up a youtube account, even if we just post clips from events, some prospective players could see the videos and seek us out

But enough of my rambling! Thank you Darren for running this crazy place - you do a fantastic job!

Luke

darrenstraight · January 13, 2014

Thanks for the replies so far, I'm going to try and reply to each of you individually but I may repeat some of my responses as similar things have been said. I suggest you read all of my replies either way.

Firstly thanks to Darren for taking the time to post a mini history of YAMS, it was great to see some of the pictures from past builds/towns/worlds. (even had some kitty flashbacks with my Puss in boots skin ).

I believe there is a future for YAMS, our current world still has a lot of unused/unexplored areas so as to how long do we have left here in our current world I would say a lifetime if we can work together and keep things fresh and update as and when we feel things need it. (i.e. spawn tower has had a massive makeover as has mining world hub recently).

I know YAMS struggles now and then for getting players involved with public builds, often because not everyone can get on at similar times, or those that are new are unsure what they can and cant do for the builds.

I will say though sometimes it just takes a couple of nights to transform a whole area and often it might only take 1 or 2 people to make a big difference. (I spent two nights almost alone in YAMS last week so I decided it was time to make some bigger changes around Snowheim and it now has a fab underground stables and horse access so u can take you horses for a ride underground. Which am pleased to see its already being used). Was also able to add to some existing building with help of players who were online at the time. So to be honest I am not really sure what else can be done to help activity for bigger builds other than just be spontainious, if there are a few on just comment on what needs done and see how quick those that are on can do it.â€¦. We always seem to get so far and just fizzle out.

Personally I like the current town themes, although with new materials appearing on most updates lately maybe a closer look at the towns in the future to see what changes could be made. I feel if plots were removed it would then lead to issues with how big can u build your house, how far from a town can you build, with the current plots everyone is close to their town centres and information centres etc.

I think a free build world would be best as a special event like previously done, or we may find players living in the free build world instead of helping in the community.

Hmmâ€¦. Thatâ€™s all I have to say at the moment, no doubt as others add their say I may comment further as they may remind me of something I wanted to add.

Thank you for your post Nikki and you're welcome, it took me a while to write and still have more to say.

Glad you think there's a future for YAMS, sometimes it feels like there isn't or it's not worth continuing when people don't appreciate the time and money that goes into running it.

Yes I too believe the current world has lots of unused areas, it's one of the reasons why we separated the towns so far apart so we lots of area to build in, if we had the towns nearer to spawn and then decided latter we wanted more space we would have to go further out and generate more terrain which would probably not merge correctly if it was done much latter. Yes I try and keep buildings fresh.

I've seen people build wonderful things in the normal world and test build world, town moderators should get these people involved as much as possible, they have talent and it should be used so they can feel appreciated.

As a mod you know we have had a town theme discussion, the discussion is still there to have, you mods just have to discuss why you want a certain theme change to happen and what benefits it brings and agree between all of you that you are happy for it to go ahead so I can approve.

I'm quite surprised that a lot of people are ok with plots, I thought people were not. Also hopefully those who visited the old world would have seen that the plots we have now are much better than what we have before, we had fences all the way round the plot before instead of just the corners and they were much smaller for the most part.

Having a free build world is always something I've been worried about having, it's another area to protect/police and a lot of players may just stay there and not get involved around the other parts of the community. If the community really wanted it though, I would look into it. Maybe though it would be nice to do some build challenges again, problem is getting people involved though, also all the hard work never gets seen by others afterwards when the world closes, even if you release the map as download its just not the same as seeing it in YAMS with others.

Looking forward to seeing if you have anything else to say.

YAMS has provided me with a great 2 years 4 days of fun where I could, and still can, work with the community! I am very happy that it will now be going on for a third year. I think that YAMS has a positive future and I would like to give some feedback based on my ideas and past 2 years of experience.

First of all, I think that Darren and the staff have done a great job with keeping the server running properly and organized, so thank you all for that! I love the mining world and Sandbox how they are, along with the house plots in all of the towns. I enjoy the test build world because it is a nice place to build ideas that have the potential to be added to the community. Personally, I would not like a free build world because there would be less focus placed on the projects in the new world and players would go there instead of the normal world / test build due to it having fewer building guidelines. I still think that plots are great, although I would like to have plots be more like Snowheim (on different levels of ground with different views) rather than in Maplehold where it is practically one giant flat area with plots.

Every year (or about 14 months), it seems that YAMS transfers to a new world, and I would like to continue that tradition. We have been in the current world since February 2013, and I think that we could possibly move this February 2014, or whenever is most convenient. I love the current world, but it is also fun to mix things around and start all over again. When this 2013 world was created, the community all came together and built the warehouse, spawn town, beginnings of the university, and other builds very quickly. The point is that a new world could cause players to come on more and build public builds. I liked the world back in 2012 (with Winter Wonderland, the Redstone Museum, Highland Cliffs, etc.) because I enjoyed having many towns that were close by. For example, Winter Wonderland and the Beach town were neighbors, and it was easy to travel around on minecart and solely by walking. Changing to a new world could allow new biomes from 1.7.4, new/revised towns, and fresh builds. It would be nice to have the towns within 500 blocks of spawn rather than 1000, just to make the community more centered, and make it more appealing to travel to another town without having to go on a 7min cart ride. Additionally, towns in the new world could be made to fit all of the new materials added in 1.7 (one town could take certain types of wood while another town could take one type of wood and stone brick, etc.) I am not against staying in the current world, but am just throwing out ideas if we happened to move to a new world.

The current town themes are good for the most part; I would just like to see a town that can implement the acacia / dark oak wood, along with the other new materials from the last update.

I enjoy playing on YAMS and am excited to see what happens in the future! Thank you, everyone, for making it a fun, safe place to be (especially Darren and staff)!

Thank you for your post Carter. I'm glad that you think YAMS has a positive future. The decision to continue YAMS or not and how will be based mainly on responses here.

I'm sure I can say from me and all our staff, you're welcome, it's very hard work but we try our best.

Again I'm quite surprised that a lot of people are ok with plots, I thought people were not. Also hopefully those who visited the old world would have seen that the plots we have now are much better than what we have before, we had fences all the way round the plot before instead of just the corners and they were much smaller for the most part, as you know from places like Winter Wonderland.

Like I told Nikki Having a free build world is always something I've been worried about having, it's another area to protect/police and a lot of players may just stay there and not get involved around the other parts of the community. If the community really wanted it though, I would look into it. Maybe though it would be nice to do some build challenges again, problem is getting people involved though, also all the hard work never gets seen by others afterwards when the world closes, even if you release the map as download its just not the same as seeing it in YAMS with others.

Yes I would have liked to see other towns to what Snowheim did, not sure if that can change now however and some towns such as Perivale are quite flat.

You're mistaken, our first map was between January 2011 - February 2012 (13 months) and our current map February 2012 - Onwards (23+ months). There's absolutely no way a new world would be up for February 2014, discussions about our current world started in August 2011 a long time before we moved, there's lot to think about and prepare for to ensure a smooth transition, of course now we have done it once if we ever did it again it wouldn't take as long but still discussions would have to happen and a world prepared, took a while last time to generate a world where the towns could all go and there was plenty of nice flat areas for other builds.

The new biomes will actually make a new world harder, as there's even more to think about.

Sorry but again you're mistaken, it doesn't take 7 minutes to get to a town on a cart, from spawn station (most people would /spawn) it takes 2 minutes and 5 seconds at the minimum, even if you dont /spawn and go 2000 blocks it still doesn't take 7 minutes.

Would be nice if we can include some new materials but only if they look good together, as an example we have allowed coloured glass but some players have gone a bit wild on the colour patterns using a lot of colours so some houses look a bit out of place, especially when there's more glass then there is main wall material.

We decided not to allow acacia / dark oak wood to be fair on other towns. Another problem is if a town has too many materials you could have too many different types of themes within a town so some houses look out of place.

On feb the 25th I would have had the best 2 years of my life thanks to Darren. I've been a pain but I've enjoyed my self from the start and can't imagine where I'd be without YAMS. Any who I don't think this server is getting the attention is should be, Therefore I think we should put it more out there , I know this may cause SOME problems but it would e nice to see more people on towns. However I remember joining the new world pretty much right after it was done and I wouldn't like this world to change (not yet anyway) I've really grown a bond with this map. On subject with the map, the towns, I can't think of anything possible to change them! I like the idea of the plots as it's not messy and I like sandbox too!

The only thing I ask for in this year would be more games like the walls, ect. Also some more building events like metropolis. How to get players involved however is a tough one, if however I think of something I will edit this post.

Over all I'd like to thank Darren and all the staff for keeping this server strong and running and I hope this server goes on for everrrrr!

Thank you for your post Devon. You're very much welcome.

I like to do events, but when people don't turn up then it makes me very disappointed as I go into a lot of effort to ensure they are running on our YAMS setup, a lot of maps now use command blocks and such so I have to make sure these don't impact on the main world or remove the /spawn plugin so you can respawn correctly when you die on an adventure/game map etc. I also have to wake up early and make sure I'm on till the last event at night when running multiple time slots, I try and have multiple time slots so people from all over the world can join. Really wish more people would take part in the events when I run them.

Looking forward to seeing if you have anything else to say.

Firstly, thanks to darren, the rest of the staff, and the entire YAMS community for giving me a place to enjoy Minecraft! These past 2 and a half years have been amazing, and I hope to make even more YAMS memories in the future.

Like Devon said, I think we need to spread the word of YAMS. I remember when the new world started, there was always someone on to talk to, now, not so much . More members will not only fill up towns, but give us more members to help build, and freshen up the community with new faces.

As for the world, I like this world. Most of my YAMS memories are from here, as I actually signed up and went on the forums just before the move. Yes it is nice to refresh, but the reset only happened due to the disorderly houses and mines etc. Like Nikki pointed out, there's still so much more out there to explore, and many ways to give things a fresh look (redoing spawn town and tower for example).

The test build world is great for showing ideas and expressing your ideas. However, a free build world suits events much better. If an event, you could see how much we can build, and see who would actually come on for it.

I love the plots! They keep towns nice and organized, and structured. They are pretty generous at 14x14 and 10 blocks down. If you think this isn't enough, then they are a great way to perfect compact building! They also make sure that people aren't focusing too much on their houses and instead participate in builds.

Once again thanks for a wonderful 2 and a half years. *raises glass* and here's to many more!

Thank you for your post Jake. You're very much welcome from all of us, including yourself!

Its keeping the players that's hard, we have lots to do you only have to look around as you know and I do listen to feedback on what we can do to improve things but a lot of players don't take the effort to take part or don't understand why we do things the way we do and just assume we are being awkward so leave. Had quite a lot of people use the wishing well in the shopping centre though wish is good, 39 books so far, some people have done multiple wishes.

Yes the mines and map corruption was part of the reason why we moved, there was literally air bubble pockets all over the map as if there was supposed to be ores there but they had vanished. This time we haven't had that problem and the mining world has really helped as well as all the space we have to play with, unlike before where it was messy in areas and we didn't have places for things.

Glad you like the test build world and plots too, I really was thinking people would say they don't want them, I'm quite surprised but relieved to know those that have commented so far are happy with them.

Again you're welcome.

I first joined YAMS in april last year, and since then have fallen in love with the server. Personally speaking I have never found another multiplayer server with this many friendly, helpful, wonderful people anywhere else on the internet. You guys are amazing, especially Darren and everyone else who works hard to keep YAMS great for the rest of us. Here's to more years of laughs, projects, new members in the community and much more besides!

I agree with Devon and Tuna, we should draw in more people to the community, fill up the towns and gain more people who want to help with the big projects as well as just building small things and having a blast. Hide and seek, spleef, infection, arenas, chess, there are all sorts of things to do around the world of YAMS, and all of them are just waiting for enough people to get on together and say "hey, who's up for ?"

The current world is enormous. We have Spawn Town, the four outlying towns, the oasis, the ark, the coliseum, the halloween park, a number of fun surprises all over the place, and yet we still haven't filled the place in yet. There are large areas of undeveloped land waiting to be filled with large builds, above and below the ground as well as on it. It would be nice to have the distance between towns reduced for travel purposes, say 500-750 blocks away instead of a full thousand, but changing worlds just for that purpose would be a shame. We still have a ton of untapped potential in this one, let's use it up before we move on.

As for the big public builds, there are many cases where players are unsure what to do to further a build, what they're allowed to add or change and what is already finished. If they come on when no one else is online, they may not even know where to start on a project that's already been set in motion. My suggestion would be to set up a display at the build sites, either a set of signs or a chest with written books. These displays would supplement the forum topics by explaining what needs to be done where for that specific project, what areas are allocated for what aspects of the project, what resources are needed and the amounts required, etc. Quick access with more detail and direction, so that players can jump into the project easier even without knowing what the final result should look like.

The current town design and themes are wonderful. Each one has a unique layout, shape and overall feel that makes visiting them feel like going to a completely different part of YAMS. The plots ensure that the towns are kept neat and organized, the plot size is great for newcomers and experienced builders alike, and the new basements actually give more useable area than the allowed space above-ground depending on how it's used. Plus the lack of restrictions on inner appearance still allows us to get creative if we so choose, from large spiral staircases, to convoluted basements with hidden rooms, to a complete indoor roller coaster. Deciding how the new materials will be incorporated is going to be a bit tricky (for example I personally feel that dark oak would fit snowheim better than maplehold), but there is plenty of time to settle that out and the towns are great as they are.

The test build world is fine as is too. Free build events are a lot of fun, but they can easily suck people in for large amounts of time working on enormous pixel arts or other projects to the point where they forget about the main world. Left as an occasional event rather than a permanent feature, we can still enjoy it without it taking up all of our time.

Well, that's it for this peanut gallery. Thank you all again for a great year on YAMS, and I hope to see all of you and more in the future!

Thank you for your post Joe. I'm glad you think we are friendly, we may not have some things that other servers have and we do have some restrictions, but we make up for it with our community atmosphere.

Yes, need to round people up, like sheep! Who wants to be a Sheppard? Haha.

Another two reasons I forgot to mention in the post about why the towns are so far apart are: It allows us to have lots of terrain pre-generated already so we can build lots of nice things on the rails without having to worry at a latter date about expanding the map and where things are going to go and if terrain would be ok, we had this problem in the old world. The other reason was it separates the lag areas, so everything isn't cluttered.

Lets look at some coordinates, currently heading north: 0 is spawn tower, -250 is the road at the edge of sandbox, -523 is the road that goes to the coliseum (coliseum width is 227) and then snowheim at -1000 with the castle grounds starting before that. Some towns such as maplehold have houses before (870) you arrive at the station, then there's other things such as adventures that take space!

Allowing dark oak is an issue as I said above, you can allow it for one town, if all mods agree but then what about other towns that have less materials, look at perivale as an example that doesn't have different variations for stone and mojang said at Minecon 2012 they will not be doing more stone variations, when I was there and heard that I thought immediately of steer and perivale. Also lets say we allowed dark oak in Snowheim, someone could build a house all made of cobblestone including the roof and then use dark oak and the rest of the town carry on as is, it creates a divide in the theme, that's the biggest problem. I'm not against new materials, I just want to make sure all towns are fair with each other and the towns are themed nicely.

You're welcome, lets see what happens.

Hi Guys!

So firstly I'd like to thank Darren for this post And also for setting up YAMS - I have so many fond memories of this place

So a little bit about me - thinking back at my time here, strangely I found YAMS by accident, I was going through some things one day when I found an IP address scrawled over a piece of paper in very messy handwriting I've no idea where I'd got the original address from but I decided to take a chance and go with it. So on one autumn Saturday I logged on and there was Nams, and well here I am now Some of you may know my settling in to YAMS was a little turbulent at first and I made a few mistakes - but I've learnt from them and feel I've become a better player!

So now I've got my autobiography out of the way ..

I personally like the town themes we have, I think they are all unique and offer different building paths, for example those wishing to build medieval style houses may move to Snowheim, or people who like modern builds may move to Perivale. I have given some thought to biomes though - I did feel Perivale might look good in a savannah and Snowheim might look nice in a redwood forest. In the current world we can't come across these biomes - but that's what the mining world is for! I do think town plots are the best approach for houses they ensure a degree of structure to the town, and prevent ridiculously sized palaces popping up everywhere

With regards to a move I'm torn on this one. I do like the current world, all of my memories are in this world and we've devoted a lot of time to it however sometimes it's nice to drop everything and start afresh. It would be difficult at first to set up a new world but it would refresh everything - we could even design new towns, maybe more than four - who knows? But perhaps that's something for the future, at the moment I think I'm happy in version 2

I also think free build worlds are better as weekly events or so, as they do detract attention from the main world and build projects. With regards to player numbers I do think we should look towards setting up a youtube account, even if we just post clips from events, some prospective players could see the videos and seek us out

But enough of my rambling! Thank you Darren for running this crazy place - you do a fantastic job!

Luke

Thank you for your post Luke and you're welcome.

Sorry what did you say? Ohh you're talking about yourself, we are not here to disguise you Luke, we are here to discuss YAMS. Hehe.

When you say biomes, do you mean changing the current biomes with world editing tools etc to those new biomes? I'm not a big fan of changing biomes and I only really do it if there's an issue, such as when Mojang decided it would be a good idea to remove snow fall from Taigas and create a Cold Taiga where it does snow so I had to download the map and convert biomes then reupload etc. Another time is when there was spots all over perivale that didn't have rain while other parts did, some houses had rain on one side and no rain on the other side, so we changed it all to plains to keep the whole town in tune.

Funny you say more towns, as some people say we need less. We choose 4 main ones for simplicity, there's a town at the end of each cardinal direction and all at the same length, there's no unfairness and it's easy to go straight to the end of a track and find a town. There was lots of plans to have loads of other towns (not living in) on the corner stations, such as the oasis, underwater town, cave town, valley ravine town etc... but there wasn't that great of a leap of people wanting to help out at the oasis that I haven't come forward about the other towns yet. If people would help finish the current projects off, id love to start on some of the corner stations.

Again you're welcome.

@Everyone - sorry if I missed parts, I've tried to answer as mush as possible and I also don't want to be the only one to comment on what's been said so far.

I would like to see more people take part in this discussion, as well as those that have done already, there's plenty more to discuss, don't just think about what I've said in my main post in this topic, there's plenty more to talk about. As an example villagers, I'm assuming you all know why we don't allow village trading? So the shopping centre doesn't become obsolete. But is it something we need to look into again. There's lots of things like this that I haven't mentioned but maybe you'd like to see improved or changed.

Looking forward to more replies. If you care about YAMS now is the time to show it by taking part in discussions here.

Thanks,

Darren

changingtuna88 · January 14, 2014

Just going to try and create some discussion here- One of the big things that I think is bringing YAMS down is the understanding of what we are. Sure, there are a few of us, who are eager to check the forums, get online, build chat, and have fun. But it seems whenever I try to get someone on, like he vast majority, they just build a house and then lie low, mining and logging in every so often to try to stop eviction . I don't really know hoe, b if anyone has any ideas as to how to make people more acquainted with the idea of community, please help. I mean I guess one big way would just be talking to them, but for those people that get on when white list. Is off, they kinda go their own way and ignore chat. :/

Crispy BartyJnr Barras · January 14, 2014

I still think it needs pimped out a bit really. Even if it's twitter, or there had to be some big forum site somewhere for family/community places so that you can join. There's a Facebook mc group I saw the other day that was sponsored and that's a 1000+ group. A lot of kids go to FB and social sites , but not many will sit and sign into a forum and things.

I know it'll bring a lot of trolls and spammers and whatever, but it'll probably be worth it.

darrenstraight · February 24, 2014

Was hoping for some more replies, lots of people who visit YAMS and have been around for a while still haven't said anything.

Just going to try and create some discussion here- One of the big things that I think is bringing YAMS down is the understanding of what we are. Sure, there are a few of us, who are eager to check the forums, get online, build chat, and have fun. But it seems whenever I try to get someone on, like he vast majority, they just build a house and then lie low, mining and logging in every so often to try to stop eviction . I don't really know hoe, b if anyone has any ideas as to how to make people more acquainted with the idea of community, please help. I mean I guess one big way would just be talking to them, but for those people that get on when white list. Is off, they kinda go their own way and ignore chat. :/

Yes this has always been an issue, some people just don't want to get involved in anything community related either because they can not be bothered or because they are affraid of messing up, even though I tell people I doesn't matter if you mess up in building something, we work together and improve from what you've built if ever needed. Theres one person in Farefall for example whos built wonderful things in the test world before and been with us for quite some time now but yet has barely helped out on community projects for fear of messing up, staff members need to assure players like this that nothing bad will come of them trying to help, even if they do it wrong.

I still think it needs pimped out a bit really. Even if it's twitter, or there had to be some big forum site somewhere for family/community places so that you can join. There's a Facebook mc group I saw the other day that was sponsored and that's a 1000+ group. A lot of kids go to FB and social sites , but not many will sit and sign into a forum and things.

I know it'll bring a lot of trolls and spammers and whatever, but it'll probably be worth it.

The problem with having a facebook/twitter/youtube page is... who runs it? I myself do not have the time to manage a social media page and I still think with the exception of YouTube it could split up YAMS more. I've had multiple people tell me before we should do it, but time and time again no one offers to manage it when I tell them reasons why I don't have time and those that have done in the past offered but that was it, nothing more came of it as they are too busy.

The forums have plenty of share buttons which can be used, though I don't think many people use them.

I also use RSS feeds to send various sections of the forums automatically to my twitter feed.

Anyway I'd really like to see more people comment on what I said in my original post as I spent a lot of time making that post, so it's a little upsetting that there's people who still haven't commented.

darrenstraight · March 18, 2014

Hello again,

It's been over 2 months since my original post in this topic about the future of YAMS.

Since then I have only had 7 people in total post here, yet the topic has had at least 297 views and during that time we have also had at least 89 unique players on YAMS so there's a lot of people that could have potentially commented here but haven't.

As I have not had many replies, I am now faced with the decision on whether YAMS is continued or not.

The next server rental is due in 23 days so time is of the essence.

I have always said I'm happy to pay for YAMS if people enjoy it and appreciate the time and effort I put in to it, so it's quite upsetting that there has not been much response here on the one time I really needed to hear the voice of the community, some of you who I consider good friends.

Lets take a look at the costs of YAMS last year, it works out at:

Server hosting (a lot more expensive if purchase monthly instead of upfront annually) : Â£278.55 / $461.91

Web domains: Â£16.00 / $26.53

Website hosting (shared amongst my other websites so id always pay this): Â£86.40 / $143.28

Website protection (Purchased this when were maliciously infected and I wanted to protect everyone): Â£54.26 / $89.99

Invision forum support renewal: Â£15.07 / $25.00

TOTAL = Â£450.28 / $746.71 / â‚¬536.225

And there's probably been other things here or there I've purchased to make your experience on YAMS as enjoyable as possible and of course doesn't include the time I spend setting things up for the community.

The cost has never been an issue as I said above, if the community is enjoying YAMS and appreciates it I'm happy to pay, I never directly ask for donations and when I do get donations I am very thankful on them ensuring they know how much I appreciate it and if they are sure about the donation.

But when I see hardly no one reply here, it makes me think about the money I've spent over the past 3 years and how I could have done other things instead of carrying on with YAMS.

I'd be very sad to see YAMS go, because while it can be stressful (the griefers and such) and upsetting at times (from no committed players to being insulted in multiple ways), I've made very good friends here and have had a lot of fun with good memories.

So I guess I'm here to ask one more time for your opinion and thoughts on the future of YAMS and if there is one, the future of YAMS really is in your hands, it's up to you the community on whether you let it die or not.

Nikki Nutta Palmer · March 18, 2014

If am honest I know with work I have been busy and not as active as I would like, however when I do play on Minecraft it is 95% of the time on YAMS. the other few times is single player and usually if Internet is being silly so can't get on multi player. I understand your dilemma and like yourself I have made some great friends on the server and would be sad to see it go. But would fully understand if you felt it was time to lay YAMS to rest for a while.

Devon_HD · March 18, 2014

I'd hate to see YAMS go, I've had my ups and downs but lots of new players are joining now and I'm meeting new friends . I know the problem with the lack of activity on the server as well as the forums is an issue but I have a feeling that if we really put the server out there (planet minecraft, telling friends, ect.) we can have so many new players by the end of this year, and yes the grieving is a problem, but what's the world without any badies . I believe that YAMS' future can be a memorable one, hopefully with new players and events, after all there's no other server out there like YAMS.

Thanks,

Dev

changingtuna88 · March 18, 2014

I fully understand if you wish to close the server down, but like stated above, YAMS would be missed.

Countless times I have lost interest in minecraft, but the community and all the good times I have had on YAMS draw me back. I'll try my best to come on more, and invite new people, and increase player activity if possible. I feel like I've grown up with YAMS, and I have learned a lot from playing here. Once again, thank you for keeping YAMS up as long as you did, without YAMS, I feel like I would have never discovered the joy of pc gaming, and would not have met many of the brilliant people that I have the pleasure of calling friends.

ZhonLord · March 19, 2014

Between senior project and trying to find a job before I graduate, my free time has been pretty much nonexistent this last month. I try to get on when I can, but it tends to be at random hours of the day when I suddenly have 20-30 minutes to spare.

As I said before, I love this server and everyone on it. Playing Minecraft alone isn't nearly the same as playing it with others, and all of my time in this game for the last half a year or so has been spent on YAMS. If the server ends up being going, we all understand why it would happen, but it would be depressing to see one of the friendliest communities that Minecraft has ever had pack up and end. It's been a great year, meeting new friends and doing all sorts of fun things with everyone: discovering goodies and structures that people put a ton of effort into, contributing to the server and helping make/test new activities, taking part in events, etc., and seeing that it all might end is heartbreaking to say the least.

I'd love to see YAMS go strong for another year at least, but if it is something that you think cannot continue, then I understand. And even if it does end I won't stop keeping in contact with everyone, because you guys are what make YAMS great.

Hope to see you all in the main/mining worlds soon,

-Zhon

Edited March 19, 2014 by ZhonLord

VictoriaPorter · March 19, 2014

I'd really like YAMS to continue. i found minecraft at a horrible time in my life, i was depressed and felt cut off from the world, and then i found you lot, some of the nicest and friendliest people i've met and or spoken to. i've enjoyed my time as a moderator too, its nice to feel i'm helping even in a small way to make this little corner of the internet such a nice safe place to be. i often come on just to talk to anyone who happens to be on.

minecraft itself is constantly gaining players and some find their way here, i'm sure we must be one of the longest running servers there is, and while we do get troublemakers some stay and join our community and make new friends just like me.

If YAMS continues i will be very happy. this is very important to me- two and a half years ish of my life has been devoted to it and i'd be devastated if it were gone.

ryanfenton · March 19, 2014

After being banned from my first ever server, I found this one after searching for British minecraft servers and have never looked back. I like many have found new people, people I can call friends. On the 15th June this year I will have been on the server for 3 years which is quite a big chunk of life for one game, let alone one small server out of thousands. I have seen plenty of players come and go, those who joined in the days I joined, long gone. While being on this server I have searched and explored many other servers. Maybe even playing on them for a week or so, but none have ever had the community that YAMS has.

None at all.

The community that YAMS has is so close that it is pretty much inseparable. You get the odd person that goes off and leaves, but there's always a new person to take the place. I have seen many people leave for valid reasons such as getting bored of minecraft or not liking the way we run the server, I can see why some people may not like it, but that is the way that has worked for the past 3 years. Maybe there are changes that can be made to loosen restrictions. But still people may not like it. In my mind, I like the server the way it is. It always depends on the type of people you get joining the server.

Now I have been inactive for over 3 weeks, almost 4 (a whole month!). That is quite bad for someone who is a Moderator. The fact of the matter is, I have hit a stage where after 3 years of non stop playing minecraft I am finding that I am getting bored of it. Now I know that it is just a stage I am going through and know I will be back. Other things include not feeling myself the past couple months, lot's of college work, working and lastly applying for uni.

I have donated 2 times before to keep the server running and do wish to donate again to keep it up as I wouldn't like to see it go, but there is going to be a point where there server will go. It will be sad for all of us, but I don't think that time is now. It is up to you though Darren. If you feel that you can not keep it up for another year then so be it. But remember that the 3 years that it has been up has made many peoples lives a joy and has let us meet new people.

Thanks for reading.

Ryan (Your resident Enderman)

VictoriaPorter · March 23, 2014

Is there a future for YAMS? I really hope so

We've been in our current world for 2 years now; how long do we have left? ages. we left the old world because of map corruption and theres none of that in this world.

What would get people involved more in building public builds? encouragement and more people on in different time zones.

Are the current town themes ok? yes but Perivale is a bit short-changed at the moment. am hoping something will come up to fix that.

Is there a better way than plots? not that i can think of.

We have a test build world but would a free build world work too? Or would it just make players neglect the normal world even more, not helping on community projects, as free build can be very much do your own thing rather than help the community. i think its more fun when you have to collect resources.

What could make the YAMS experience better? more players. but that involves promotion of the server, and that can attract an unsavory element as well as nice players.

on the whole i believe YAMS is incredibly worthwhile and i love it.

Captain_Marbles · March 24, 2014

Sorry for the late post - lazy slime is lazy :ph34r:

I first logged into YAMS in September 2011, having not really spent a lot of time in multiplayer. The previous servers I had been on were big, and no one was very social. When I first logged on, I was taken aback by how friendly and sociable people were. Everyone was super friendly, and I soon got settled in (after a minor rule infraction...).

In the 2.5 years since, I've spent a great deal of time on the server. I applied to be a CSO not long after joining, and became part of the staff team, eventually becoming a moderator. Even though I'm no longer on as much as I used to be, I still care a great deal about the server, and I pop on when I can.

That said, it is not hard to notice the decline in player numbers we have had over the past few months. I remember when the server used to always have at least 3-4 players online, and when the nights were equally as busy as during the day. People will always come and go from the server, though there are always those of us who have stayed long term.

I've made some amazing friends during my time on YAMS, some just on the server, and some irl

I think it would be a great shame if our little community were to end, and we'd eventually lose ties with each other. I should be going to university next year, so my time on the server will be reduced even further than it is now. It would be great knowing that the server is still there, for when I have free time on my hands.

For as long as cost isn't an issue, I think we should try to maintain our community and keep the server running. We seem to have a little stream of whitelist applications on the forums, and perhaps new people would be more inclined to come on if they saw more players online.

-Nick

nams cupcake · March 25, 2014

I would love for you to keep YAMS running. It was the first multiplayer server I joined, just about buying mine craft and the only one I have enjoyed playing on. I have made a lot of new friends, and that was because of YAMS. I know I haven't been on a lot lately, but it's got to a time where I need to focus on my studies a lot more then I used to. This has taken up quite a lot of my time, not being able to play games as much as I used to. I would love to see YAMS keep going, but I fully understand where you are coming from.

Kolayhe2 · March 25, 2014

Yams was the first ever multi player server I went on and as soon as I did it was a warm friendly welcome and I have enjoyed it so much! It would be a dissapointment to see yams go but I can see where you are coming from, I know I've been caught up in a lot of studies ready for my BTECS and GCSE but i do try and get on even if it's not for long. I fully understand of your choice to close yams of it comes to that, and I know I have made some amazing friends from the time I have been playing and I want to thank you Darren for making my time great no matter what happens

darrenstraight · April 8, 2014

Hello everyone,

Big thank you to everyone who has posted here, I've been thinking long and hard on what to do and have discussed the whole issue of whether to renew or not with both Minecraft and non Minecraft friends.

It's been very hard deciding because while I have previously said that the cost isn't an issue if people come on, this month:

I have more than expected to pay out in other bills, have had to cancel/downgraded some of my own personal subscriptions.
8 days into the month and the most players that have been on at any one time is 5 players, do I really want to pay so much money (I could go on holiday for this amount) when there's only ever been 5 players on at one time, most days its only a couple.

I want to renew YAMS but I'm torn between the expense and the community not to mention the fact that I've been running YAMS for over 3 years now and certainly don't want to just see it die or with no big celebration of success!

So what have I decided? I've decided to renew but on some conditions:

I have downgraded from 2GB of RAM to 1.5GB, this shouldn't impact us much in terms of performance as we no way hitting the 2GB mark but will save a huge amount in cost.
I have downgraded the player slot limit from 24 to 16, this isn't a huge cost saving as it would have been by decreasing it to 12 but we had at least 13 players on at one point during the YAMS Anniversary so I certainly don't want to stop anyone from coming on due to a player slot limit. If we ever feel the need to increase I will do so if I can.
You the players of YAMS don't forget about YAMS and continue to come on and enjoy YAMS!
We celebrate our 4th year of YAMS in case there isn't a 5th. That is make YAMS the best there is:
- Play our existing mini games and suggest new ones!
- Enjoy taking part in world challenges and events and suggest new ones!
- Suggest interesting plugin ideas http://dev.bukkit.org/bukkit-plugins even if it's just for an event that day.
- Overall be a part of the community and have fun. Don't think we have enough fun? Just suggest things in the forums and turn up when we do actually do the things you ask for!

If you've been keeping up to date in the forums you will have already seen my efforts to keep things moving:

Back in January I installed the ColorShuffle plugin to bring some more fun into YAMS, it is popular amongst players. You can join by typing /color join
I've been wanting a theme park in YAMS for ages, I decided that in case we were not around for much longer to go ahead and do this, it was very fun world to do and Id certainly like to bring it back again to complete the other areas.
I recently finished the University of YAMS just in case this is our last year, I also added a maze though one ones completed it yet!
I recently finished the fun room house just in case this is our last year.
Did some work on the snowheim castle area so this isn't forgotten about,
I installed Spigot to improve on performance as I knew that I may be downgrading the server specs.
As ColorShuffle was popular I also installed the TNTRun plugin, you need 2 players a minimum to play and you can join by typing: /tr join 1
Today I finally finished the ender dragon statue after spending the past week finishing it off.
I added /warp park amongst other warps!
I am looking to redesign the spawn public build warehouse, madrad has some good ideas for this and I am hoping he can design this for me, the reason it will be moved elsewhere is to improve spawn/sandbox lag / fps. There will be a teleport portal to it and back with a possible warp too.
I notice the acknowledgement room hasn't been updated in a while, I always liked the idea of this but if it's not being updated we may need to change this, please suggest.
I am thinking about about adding a games sign/portal/warp room so you can quickly know what games/events we have and teleport to them, good or bad idea? Some areas could be: ColorShuffle, TNTRun, Battle Arena, Infected, Hide and Seek at the Mansion, The Maze, Oasistadium, Boat Race, The Park and Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots etc...
Looking into more events we can do. If you know any please suggest in the right section and I'll see what i can do.
Making the Adventure of YAMS more known, ever seen the pumpkin monster under spawn? I wonder why hes there.

This is just a start on my part, please do your part to make this a great year of YAMS just in case it is our last, please don't make me regret paying the renewal fee!

Thank you,

Darren

changingtuna88 · April 10, 2014

Don't know where you would have wanted me to put this, but I have a suggestion for the acknowledgment room. We could use written books, each player would write their vote down in the book like a real ballot (without signing of course) and then at the end of the month you could just check the book. It would save space for other acknowledgments if we thought of some to put there

darrenstraight · April 10, 2014

Don't know where you would have wanted me to put this, but I have a suggestion for the acknowledgment room. We could use written books, each player would write their vote down in the book like a real ballot (without signing of course) and then at the end of the month you could just check the book. It would save space for other acknowledgments if we thought of some to put there

Good idea, would also cut down on signs and stop people voting the same just because someone else has!

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