@SharpSerac As I'm not home, I typed this out very quickly and posted immediately. I encourage everyone to add their own grievances to this thread (before staff lock it) to share your side as well.

There's literally no reason to add grievances when every single time threads like these are made the thread gets locked, the 2 only active staff members say "who are you? you don't even play, get buhhlocked and deleted." I've aired my grievances already multiple times and just get told off because I don't play on this server anymore, it's almost like I don't play precisely because of the grievances I'm literally explaining in the post.

This server has been in a complete downward spiral ever since Dawn resigned.

@ThePhoenix I think its kinda hard to listen to old players when they don't even play on the server is all I'm saying. Like why should people who haven't joined the server in years think they are knowledgeable enough to know what the server needs when they have yet to join the server? To me that doesn't make sense. You would want to hear from the current playerbase to see what could be made better.. I guess yall can't see that.

I know, it's crazy right that the old players don't play anymore, they shouldn't get a say at all in the current community. Now please apply your reasoning back to 2018 and 2019 when the old players actually were active all the time, and we were complaining about shit like ocean generation crashing the server every single minute, villagers constantly disappearing due to lag, or constant lag when the server goes above 10 players.

Can you understand why we don't play anymore now, or do I need to break it down?

@j____a____r____d I know, it's crazy right that the old players don't play anymore, they shouldn't get a say at all in the current community. Now please apply your reasoning back to 2018 and 2019 when the old players actually were active all the time, and we were complaining about shit like ocean generation crashing the server every single minute, villagers constantly disappearing due to lag, or constant lag when the server goes above 10 players.

Can you understand why we don't play anymore now, or do I need to break it down?

I understand that because I played back then too. But that wasnt something they could control. You can't help Mojangs shit game code. But to add to what Ive already said. Minecraft constantly is changing, and well frankly I guess is TRYING to get better despite all their fuckups, but the entirety of the point is because its changing some of yall havent even come on to see the changes. all of those problems are problems anymore. Lag is still and issue but thats vanilla for you. Nothing can be done except installing spigot or some other QOL mod and thats Craftys decision. I talked to him the otehr day about it and he said hes been hard thinking about it. Its not fallen on deaf ears but yeah..

@ThePhoenix You can't help Mojangs shit game code.

Yes you can, I have already said the solution was to go semi vanilla in the past, there are community polls where many active players have agreed with the change to semi vanilla because the game was genuinely turning to pure dogwater performance-wise, they have been ignored and brushed aside with the response "it's too much work, I have to fix boats."

I have made the case to use a Fabric server which is exactly one-to-one with the vanilla server software by design when no mods are installed, meaning that in principle Crafty could switch to a Fabric jar in a single day and still use the existing command block/panel systems, forego the "pure vanilla status," and install optimization mods later which increase the performance of lighting updates on the server, mob AI, etc... "fixing Mojang's shit game code" so to speak. The response was "it's too much work."

In the times that Crafty has responded to requests for semi vanilla he has stated "it is too much work to switch to semi vanilla, I have done it before and everything breaks," which again it shouldn't break command blocks, panel systems, etc if he used Fabric, as it's specifically engineered to not patch the vanilla server any more than is required by its installed mods. As in, if there are no Fabric mods installed on the Fabric server (especially the Fabric API), it performs no patches to the vanilla server, and functions identically to it. He has never addressed that point in particular.

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Regardless, I quit playing because I felt like the staff wasn't listening to my listed grievances. I've watched CM stumble since then, and reach horrible lows of 1-2 active players, with coping excuses like "it's a school weekday, kids won't be playing" or "everyone moved on from Minecraft." The fact is that everyone in the past has moved on from CM.

This could have been fixed if there was a more active involvement from staff in the direction of this server. I still don't see any sign of activity that signifies anyone actually seizing the helm of the server and bringing it somewhere new, it has mostly been minor things like "let's pardon everyone who used minimaps or Lunar client," or "we're going to approve a bunch of QoL mods and turn the server into a weird optional plugin-like modded vanilla experience" or "let's make 3 new channels in the Discord and delete the other random ones."

These things all benefit an existing community, not one that has hemorrhaged players for years and years, and suddenly was revived due to a Minecraft update. Considering that Mojang is now planning to do tiny "drops" of like 1-2 features instead of huge overhauls like before, this does not spell out good for the future of the community.

Other things that heavily persuade me that the server isn't heading in the right direction are the incredibly strange staff decisions being made like... you know... banning pie chart for its use as an xray yet allowing Litematica despite its potential use as an xray. I've used the pie chart in my own modded servers specifically to debug rendering issues and low FPS in order to triage things to a single thing or mod, it has legitimate use as a profiling tool if you know how to use it. So then why is having the pie chart up bannable, but having Litematica isn't?

Or that in the 10th anniversary post, Crafty basically directly admits the server doesn't pull in enough donations for him to not pay for it out of pocket, i.e. it's financially infeasible:

@CraftyMyner Over the past few years I couldn't bring myself to joke around as the topic just seemed too real. The numbers were down and I was paying out of pocket for the majority of the server. When I saw the 10th birthday coming up, it all caught up with me, I realized I can't keep doing this forever.

Then proceeds to start a store-wide sale ushering the existing players to buy ranks -- the subtext and optics there aren't great.

@SharpSerac Some of you may know who I am. I've been a player on the server since about 1.8, longer than many of the people that have even stuck around. I've been a part of the community longer than even some admins. I'll be the first to say, things have really gone to shit. Inconsistent rules about mods and vanilla features, staff abusing their powers for their own gain, and a declining player base are all plaguing this server.

To start off, I was the one named "wiz" in the discord server that CommanderCat banned. He did so because he didn't like what I had to say about him abusing his power to kick me for pretty much no reason.

It's not hard to imagine that a server where staff kick/ban people who do/say things that they PERSONALLY don't like would be struggling, but this is where things are at.

The server is raiding/griefing, yet ban someone for lavacasting an unprotected area. Makes sense.

Cheating isn't allowed, yet allow a mod that is essentially x-ray. Makes sense.

Oh no, you can't use a vanilla client feature because that's basically x-ray. Makes sense.

Don't you dare call out a staff member for anything, including posting a transphobic gif, or you WILL be punished. Makes sense. Hell, you'll even get kicked for talking about Ben 10, the animated show (thanks Tez).

I took it to the forums, CommanderCat. Are you going to lock this thread? Delete it? Ban my forum account? I'm just doing what you said to do.

It's a Minecraft server at the end of the day, so I really don't care. But CraftyMynes used to be something special to me. And it looks like it's going to die a slow and painful death the way things are going right now. Incredibly unfortunate that this is the state of the server.

Firstly, thanks for changing the title of this post from "Corrupt staff" to "Unfair staff and inconsistent rules" You're entitled to your opinion but the server has not "gone to shit" We have had the highest most consistent player numbers this map in years. "staff absuing powers for their own gain" is a pretty large accusation with absolutely 0 foundation. A player gets banned. And that benefits the staff in what way? In discord I kicked you and told you to stop the conversation. You continued to troll and disobey that so you got banned. I don't see how that is in any way an abuse of power. You were told to stop. You didn't and then were punished for it. I literally cannot word it any simpler for you. It has nothing to do with what staff PERSONALLY do or don't like it is what the rules dictate. You have been here long enough to know the rules and cannot feign ignorance in that regard. Raiding and Greifing is allowed. But when areas in survival were griefed with the purpose of disrupting server operations that is an issue. When massive casts bombing out the server TPS are made repeatedly after requests to stop, that is an issue. You are not giving proper context. Issues with pieray and litematica are discussed thoroughly among staff you incessantly arguing about it and making a scene on the discord is not helping that matter in any way. The gif had 20 words flashing in a second I apologize for not seeing every word within that gif from just looking up cope gifs. It was deleted immediately after I was made aware. Taking it to the forums is what you are supposed to do. I don't know why you seem to think I'm mad that you posted on forums when it's what I asked you to do in the first place, several times in fact. You seem to have a very biased opinion of me. I have just followed the rules as they're written and upheld them with the best interest of the server in mind. I don't understand your feelings against me as we have barely spoken to eachother over the past 4 years. I told you to make this post as a discussion why would I lock it or ban your forum account? I'm not going to say that even though you haven't had any interaction with the server in many years that you don't have a right to have an opinion on it, but if you look at the stats, the server is not dying. It has had the best player retention, interaction and overall numbers in years. This is the direction the server has taken and I am sorry that you do not agree but it certainly isn't killing the userbase. This server is also incredibly special to me. That is why I have been an active member for many years and a part of the staff team for the past 4. You should maybe hop on the server and play for a bit instead of posting pessimistic forum posts every few months about how the server is dying while it continues to do well in spite of you.

ThePhoenix definitely doesn't help the issue of every thread getting locked by replying to every single thread with a million little comments, most of the time irrelevant to what was even said, just for the sake of arguing. It clogs nearly every thread that gets posted, and dilutes the original conversation into something childish and unproductive, but I digress.

After spending 10 years playing this server off and on, it hurts me to think of how little my opinion matters. It appears to me the current staff team tends to care little for anybody's point of view but their own. They value being right above enforcing the rules in an unbiased and fair way. Perhaps it is only a couple of the mods/admins who behave in this manner, but they seem to always get their way so as far as I'm concerned they are all culpable.

One example specifically is CommanderCat, who I believe is not only biased, but borderline hypocritical.

When he wants to start an argument, or throw shots in main chat its all fine and well, but say anything unfavorable about him and receive a staff warning. This is just one example of what I believe to be a toxic pattern emerging in this most recent wave of future admins. They value rules only when it is convenient to them, and when it allows them to push an agenda. Players have been using pieray for years, with no issues whatsoever, but conveniently when a player CommanderCat does not like uses it it's now a bannable offense. I will not speak on the lavacasting event as obviously I am biased in the matter, but if you think for yourself about it I am sure we will reach many of the same conclusions. He issues mutes, kicks, and bans not when it is fair and deserved, but when he disagrees with what has been done/said. Sometimes these such actions align with the rules of the server, other times not so much. He has strayed so far from the rules with his antics that CraftyMyner has had to implement a new rule allowing moderators to create and enforce their own rules at any given whim. Answer me these two questions; How are we supposed to follow every rule when so many are unwritten, created and enforced by one mod? How are other mods supposed to enforce rules created by other mods that they may not agree with, or even have any knowledge of existence?

Though advertised as a vanilla pvp/grief server, it seems as though the staff team is attempting to steer the server away from all three of these labels. Players are being punished for griefing, moderators are private messaging players telling them who/who not to trust, and mods are being approved for use that completely alter the vanilla gameplay. My team and I have been told to stop interacting with new players, and to stop griefing people, because they are afraid they might quit. They are worried that we will steer new players away with our antics, and as the old players slowly quit playing, eventually there will be nobody left. What they do not understand is there is no peace and prosperity without conflict. No new player wants to join a dead server, where nobody talks in chat and everybody keeps to themselves. At that point they may as well play singleplayer. The server is advertised as pvp and grief friendly, if new players join and see the opposite they will not stay long. Perhaps it's nothing but anecdotal evidence, but during the past little while I have been active on the server again I have seen many new players come and go, and I have noticed a pattern. The players we interacted with, whether in a positive or negative way stayed much more frequently than the ones we left alone. Obvious as it may sound, people watch drama tv shows for one reason: The drama. Drama, and conflict as a whole is inherently entertaining. Of course people form friendships, and build beautiful things, but at its core this server has always centered around the fact that all of that could be taken from you at any second. Thus, you must remain vigilant. I truly believe without these aspects this server is nothing. And yet the staff push constantly to move away from that, and shun raiders, insult pvpers, and do everything in their power to make sure anybody with that playstyle stays far away from the server.

CommanderCat may think the server is doing exceptionally well, but this is all comparative. He has not seen the player counts we have seen previous to his arrival to this server. Sure, maybe 13 players online during peak hours is good compared to when there was 2, but not compared to when there was 40. At one point in time you would be hard-pressed to find any less than 20 people on at any given time. The fact of the matter is the server is dying. The staff act as they have been, and it continues to die. Obviously, something isn't working. The issue is they refuse to even consider any stance other than the one they have so adamantly taken, so nothing will change, and the numbers will continue to dwindle until there is nobody left.

@outshOtz ThePhoenix definitely doesn't help the issue of every thread getting locked by replying to every single thread with a million little comments, most of the time irrelevant to what was even said, just for the sake of arguing. It clogs nearly every thread that gets posted, and dilutes the original conversation into something childish and unproductive, but I digress.

After spending 10 years playing this server off and on, it hurts me to think of how little my opinion matters. It appears to me the current staff team tends to care little for anybody's point of view but their own. They value being right above enforcing the rules in an unbiased and fair way. Perhaps it is only a couple of the mods/admins who behave in this manner, but they seem to always get their way so as far as I'm concerned they are all culpable.

One example specifically is CommanderCat, who I believe is not only biased, but borderline hypocritical.

When he wants to start an argument, or throw shots in main chat its all fine and well, but say anything unfavorable about him and receive a staff warning. This is just one example of what I believe to be a toxic pattern emerging in this most recent wave of future admins. They value rules only when it is convenient to them, and when it allows them to push an agenda. Players have been using pieray for years, with no issues whatsoever, but conveniently when a player CommanderCat does not like uses it it's now a bannable offense. I will not speak on the lavacasting event as obviously I am biased in the matter, but if you think for yourself about it I am sure we will reach many of the same conclusions. He issues mutes, kicks, and bans not when it is fair and deserved, but when he disagrees with what has been done/said. Sometimes these such actions align with the rules of the server, other times not so much. He has strayed so far from the rules with his antics that CraftyMyner has had to implement a new rule allowing moderators to create and enforce their own rules at any given whim. Answer me these two questions; How are we supposed to follow every rule when so many are unwritten, created and enforced by one mod? How are other mods supposed to enforce rules created by other mods that they may not agree with, or even have any knowledge of existence?

Though advertised as a vanilla pvp/grief server, it seems as though the staff team is attempting to steer the server away from all three of these labels. Players are being punished for griefing, moderators are private messaging players telling them who/who not to trust, and mods are being approved for use that completely alter the vanilla gameplay. My team and I have been told to stop interacting with new players, and to stop griefing people, because they are afraid they might quit. They are worried that we will steer new players away with our antics, and as the old players slowly quit playing, eventually there will be nobody left. What they do not understand is there is no peace and prosperity without conflict. No new player wants to join a dead server, where nobody talks in chat and everybody keeps to themselves. At that point they may as well play singleplayer. The server is advertised as pvp and grief friendly, if new players join and see the opposite they will not stay long. Perhaps it's nothing but anecdotal evidence, but during the past little while I have been active on the server again I have seen many new players come and go, and I have noticed a pattern. The players we interacted with, whether in a positive or negative way stayed much more frequently than the ones we left alone. Obvious as it may sound, people watch drama tv shows for one reason: The drama. Drama, and conflict as a whole is inherently entertaining. Of course people form friendships, and build beautiful things, but at its core this server has always centered around the fact that all of that could be taken from you at any second. Thus, you must remain vigilant. I truly believe without these aspects this server is nothing. And yet the staff push constantly to move away from that, and shun raiders, insult pvpers, and do everything in their power to make sure anybody with that playstyle stays far away from the server.

CommanderCat may think the server is doing exceptionally well, but this is all comparative. He has not seen the player counts we have seen previous to his arrival to this server. Sure, maybe 13 players online during peak hours is good compared to when there was 2, but not compared to when there was 40. At one point in time you would be hard-pressed to find any less than 20 people on at any given time. The fact of the matter is the server is dying. The staff act as they have been, and it continues to die. Obviously, something isn't working. The issue is they refuse to even consider any stance other than the one they have so adamantly taken, so nothing will change, and the numbers will continue to dwindle until there is nobody left.

Wow. Okay your opinion matters, it always has and always will. There are just better ways to share your opinion than rants on discord that quickly resort into 300+ message arguments between many players that just turns into slinging insults at one another. There are so many blatant lies and misconstructions in this post it is unreal. You are neglecting to post context on purpose. The context for the first image is here: You went and sent Konzee a trick tp after I sent him a teleport request in an underhanded attempt to get to our base in order to get coords and raid it. I think that is a perfectly reasonable reason to call you an ass. It was a dick move and you know it.

The second image is my opinion. I'm allowed to have that. That was a response to a player who got insided and raided by one of your teamates, who'm was in his own words "Was super cool and trustworthy. He would never raid me." Your group responds on "faction" posts on forums and talk to new players in game with the sole purpose of insiding them and ruining their experience on the server. Please prove me wrong.
The third image context is your group shitalking me that entire day over me enforcing the rules, and when you start throwing out baseless accusations attacking my character on the server i've been staffing for over 4 years I'm going to give you a warning for staff disrespect. I can only take so many insults being thrown at me. But heavens I use the warning feature!1!!!11!! truly deplorable behavior. Tyrannical even.

Pieray was used for years. It came into the spotlight after I banned VIP for x-ray after he was using pieray in an uninformed way so that looked extremely suspicious. He has since been unbanned and in order to stop any further confusion it was forbidden. Please show me examples of where I have punished one person but let another get away with that same thing. Most people aren't breaking the rules. It isn't a bias for punishing the only people that are breaking the rules who just so happen to be in a group.
And super importantly ****** The rule of staff being able to modify, add, and patch rules has been on the site for YEARS. Showing how little you actually care and that you have not read the rules in quite some time. It wasn't something Crafty threw on there recently to cover my ass or something.
You asked "How are we supposed to follow every rule when so many are unwritten, created and enforced by one mod? How are other mods supposed to enforce rules created by other mods that they may not agree with, or even have any knowledge of existence?" That's super duper simple. YOU DO WHAT THEY SAY. I told you verbally several times to not cast there and yet you continued again and again. And were punished for it. If you simply do what is asked then you're fine. And as for other mods knowing what "modified" rules to enforce do you think we are nomads? That we don't communicate at all? This is such a weird point to make as though the staff team does not communicate amongst themselves.
Again. you are misconstruing things to abhorrent levels. Punishments for griefing were made for casts that severely impacted the servers TPs. Not just for the sake of griefing. You know this. If I pm a player that I see you actively grooming with the intent to inside and raid, bedtrap, and/or fuck with them until they leave the server I'm going to warn them. You're not mad because my warnings are untrue. You're mad because you don't get the chance to fuck with them. That says a lot more about you than myself.
You seem hardset on believing that old players are going to leave no matter what, so why bully new players off the server in order to kill the server faster? It makes no sense. Your actions do cause new players to quit and you know this. You want to know positive player interaction that keeps players playing? Actually helping them and being kind. Sure maybe some stay longer because the get killed and drama or whatever, but I'd wager a LOT more would stay a LOT longer if they weren't bullied. Goes to say its not like that's not allowed, but I have the server interest in mind and player retention is the top of that list. You bullying new players negatively effects player retention.
You have used these same "server is dying" talking points for years. The server is going to continue to do well no matter how much pessimism you want to shed towards the situation. It's true that we're not at 40 players on constantly, but do you honestly believe that your antics are going to somehow attract more players? "The future is now old man" It isn't the same server it was 10 years ago. You have to accept that. The moment you do that you can start enjoying the server like everyone has been this entire time.