@R4iscool1 Tick lag on the server means both approaches are rather unsuitable, we would be much better of using a day query or something similar.

But the server determines both redstone/block updates and the progression of the day/night cycle. Wouldn't tick lag affect them both equally so they stay in sync?
Or is there something I'm not understanding here?

@HaloNest Unless you meant a clock in spawn, bear in mind any clock that doesn't use daylight sensors is going to go out of sync as soon as the chunks unload.

@R4iscool1
I think it's really great that staff are willing to listen to the players, not to mention entertaining them in long, probably rather boring, discussions :)

We might have to agree to disagree about the game rules.
For me, the default game rules were set as they are because that's how survival minecraft was intended to be played, and changing them detracts from this, regardless of the pros and cons to players. If creepers weren't supposed to destroy blocks, it wouldn't be part of the game.
In my opinion the ability to set game rules is a great tool for adventure maps, but changing any of the default game rules in survival reduces the experience by disabling features.

Notably, in single player survival almost all commands, (including gamerule) only work if cheats are enabled. Do you think this means using commands in survival is illegitimate/cheating?

I totally agree that the server needs to stay competitive, and a part of that is catering to what the players want.

So then shouldn't we vote on other gamerules to see if the players want these features enabled?
As an example I've seen several people in the chat asking if keepinventory is on, of if it can be turned on. If staff want to cater to what most players want, and it cannot be proven what players want without a poll then shouldn't there be polls for other gamerules too?

@R4iscool1 So does the same logic not apply in the inverse with relation to Sethome and such?

I see where you're coming from. Don't forget that the sethome etc. make use of features that exist in the game. Making use of game features, and removing game features aren't really opposites.

About the idea of putting this to a vote if it turns out to be technically feasible.
Although the mob griefing gamerule is vanilla, it disables (essentially removes) numerous features that the developers deliberately added to the game. Should we remove features the developers intended to be used from the game simply because players don't like them?

If so shouldn't we also vote on whether to change other gamerules such as keepinventory, doWeatherCycle, randomTickSpeed etc.?

@R4iscool1 Villager farms scale far better though.

I should have clarified; pumpkin/melon farms are about 4-5 times faster per area than villager farms for getting emeralds. They're always faster regardless of the size. They are harder to make though.

@Cileklim I'm not sure why you think that. The fact that we're having this discussion with staff, and that the server owner himself has said he'll consider it shows the opposite.
R4 has given us a staff perspective on this suggestion and, taken the time to discuss how it might affect the server in more detail. If staff and Crafty didn't want suggestions threads like this wouldn't exist.

Wazzup!

@NutjobBob but I suspect most of the command blocks on the server already run on a clock repeating every tick

I was going by this image: https://forum.craftymynes.com/983-command-block-room/p1#p8942
The purple blocks on the right are repeating command blocks that run every tick.

@R4iscool1 Villager farming is much cheaper than melon farming

True, however because melons/pumpkins only have to go through 1 random update tick to grow rather than 8 for other crops, and because they trade at a rate of 7/8 per emerald, rather than 15, melon/pumpkin farms are 4-5 times faster than villager farms for getting emeralds.

@R4iscool1 Just as a lot would like to play it in a slightly less "Realistic" way.

The big selling point of the sever is that it's vanilla, people come to for an experience like they would get in a single player world, but with other people. The tp's and set home don't really fit into this, but as Crafty has said they're required for the community, and for the server to stay competitive. People join expecting these features and you can see it in the chat.
To most people mob griefing is an aspect of vanilla, whether they like it or not. Quite often you see new people joining asking why creepers don't blow up blocks. In my opinion, if technically possible, mob griefing should be on to keep with the vanilla aspect of the server. Regardless of whether people like it or not.

(and before anyone says gamerules are part of vanilla, should we also have perma-day, keep inventory, and no health regen?)

@R4iscool1 I do believe that /entitydata would work however it suffers from much of the same weaknesses of a mob zapper approach in that for it to be truly effective it would need to run on a loop every few seconds which means server performance could take a hit and corruption is more likely to occur.

I'm not very knowledgeable about commands, but I suspect most of the command blocks on the server already run on a clock repeating every tick. I'm not sure if adding an entitydata clock would actually cause a problem. Regardless, I'm sure the Boss know what he's doing and whether doing something like this is feasible.

@R4iscool1 the server is balanced with mob grief off in mind

I'm not really sure what you mean by this.
If you're talking about using villager farming as a way to get emeralds: Without looking too much into the numbers I'm fairly sure that auto melon/pumpkin farms are a much faster way to get emeralds than villager farms.
If you mean villager breeding you might have a point. Although Baron's post you quoted above can go both ways. Having mob griefing on makes villagers who give you incredible stuff easy to work with, but it's balanced by having the danger of creepers exploding your houseand zombies tearing into your encampment.

@Cileklim A similar idea to what @NutjobBob mentioned, why not enable mob griefing but keep it off around 2k of spawn?

If this is possible, great! I only suggested setting explosion radii to 0 because I didn't think it was possible to change gamerules in a specific area.

Is it possible to use the entitydata command to set the ExplosionRadius of any creeper within 1k of spawn to 0? And also the same for the wither projectiles.
If so you could then have mob griefing on without wasting staff time. Of course you do have an extra clock running in spawn. Not sure how much lag these things cause.

@R4iscool1 Objectively there is plenty of reasons to disable mob griefing if you want to go into it

Besides ruining the spawn area, and items dropped from explosions (which the item clear should take care of), what other reasons are there from the perspective of staff?

@R4iscool1 large large auto farms would ruin the server economy and lead to more lag.

You mean using villagers? If so the entity limit should prevent any more lag right?