Empire Minecraft News: September 2015

Discussion in 'Empire News' started by Krysyy, Sep 21, 2015.



  1. Contest: Supporter Page Drawings!
    As seen here:
    http://empireminecraft.com/threads/contest-image-creations-for-the-website.55491/ we had an awesome contest running for some cool graphic designs. Well, the results are in! Aikar has to still put them in place, but our winners are as follows:
    1st: Catacacalysm (https://gyazo.com/61467f4a575e2123c8f4aee9b14a8918, https://gyazo.com/34857928c82d73966bc7bf207ea88e07, https://gyazo.com/4c6b8c9aac7a9443796b23a6ba4041bf)
    2nd: Evvz (https://i.imgur.com/SazhRaU.png, https://i.imgur.com/6YZAwYv.png, https://i.imgur.com/Fk50CFy.png)
    3rd: Jay2a (https://i.imgur.com/TnnRExf.png, https://i.imgur.com/I2SHW1e.png, https://i.imgur.com/u0bQcAS.png)

    Referral Contest Results
    Most clicks (receive Referral Blocks of Clickyness):
    1st: OmegaDustMC
    2nd: Erektus
    3rd: salesman200

    Player referrals (receive supporter vouchers):
    3 way tie, all receive gold vouchers.
    FDNY21, salesman200, Erektus

    Derelict Changes
    THESE CHANGES ARE ACTIVE!!!
    They are VERY IMPORTANT if you do not want to lose your res. We decided to postpone it two more weeks to allow for those that did not see the message the first time around, but the changes are in effect. If you have friends that only log in every now and then and only vote to protect their residences, please let them know.
    http://empireminecraft.com/threads/important-upcoming-derelict-timer-changes.55492/

    Chisel Me This Contest Reminder
    The deadline is fast approaching for this reverse building contest.
    Builds turn to stone at (or very close to) midnight on October 3rd!
    http://empireminecraft.com/threads/contest-chisel-me-this.56473/

    New Moderators
    We've added some more green to our team. These awesome new staff are in training for the next few weeks, but feel free to ask them for help when you need it. They've shown incredible effort in putting the community first when they play on EMC as regular players and we can't wait for them to show us what they can do as Staff to inspire this great community.

    A very hearty welcome to:
    -Zion_Moyer
    -carolmoss
    -MercenaryCrow

    If you think you have what it takes to join our Staff team, APPLY at staffapp.emc.gs today!

    The Blog Makeover
    Many of you know that Aikar was recently in Texas for some good visiting fun, but as always, we also did a lot of work for EMC. Most of these changes are more on the marketing side of things, but one major cosmetic change has to do with our Blog.

    We felt the one of the primary issues with the blog was the disconnection it had from the site. While that was the primary goal in the beginning to present an Empire Blog that wasn't exactly all EMC all the time, we realized over time that we can still attain that goal and make things a bit more seamless between the site and the blog (for 'pretty' points I suppose). The Blog has a new logo and new formatting to better fit with our site color scheme.

    Our awesome Contribution Team is working on some posts to fill up the blog. They've been a bit on the back burner, focusing on the Wiki and doing a great job getting it up to date as soon as we release something new, but we are looking to release some cool Blog content on a regular schedule here shortly.

    If you have an idea for a post or want to to share some cool content for us to post that you wrote yourself, then share it to emc.gs/submitblog today!

    New Landing Page Design
    This isn't something that you guys see a lot of, but we figured we'd share some of the things we have been up to in the background for those that just want to know. The landing page that a new player goes to upon visiting our website from search engines and advertisements has undergone a major rehaul. We felt the old layout was a bit outdated and hopefully the new design piques the interest of more players on first glance, as it represents a theme more becoming of this generation and quickly highlights the best aspects of the Empire.
    Krysyy is working on updating more aspects of that whole landing page system (so that links go to the correct pages, etc =P) and the end result will hopefully be something that grabs the interest of people that are looking for a new server to play on.

    YouTuber Team Changes/Renaming
    The YouTuber team has done a great job putting together some good videos for our use in the tutorial, wiki, etc. However, we've noticed that there are tons more players that have reputations for being some great streamers and the YouTuber team needs some help. Whether the streams be on YouTube, Twitch, or other sites, we feel that it would be better to change up things a bit to allow for more participation and loosen the reigns a bit to allow for for more variable content.

    So what exactly is changing? Well, the name for starters. Stream Team covers all aspects of what the new team will be doing (and it sounds cool) so we're going with that. AlexChance is stepping down (not from Moderator, just YouTube Team Leader) so that he can focus a little bit more on school and the new team won't be so directly monitored, due to its focus.

    If you are interested in being a member of our newly named Stream Team, then please pm Krysyy (pmcm.emc.gs) with what type of streaming you do/what sites you work with and she can talk you through what we are looking for and what you can do to help the Empire as an official member of the Stream Team.
  2. Reminder about Loans and Staff Uninvolvement
    It's come to the Staff's attention recently that more and more people are loaning their items to each other, for display purposes, etc. However, there is a MAJOR misconception going around. I want to be perfectly clear when I remind the community that if you willingly loan your item(s) to another player and that player does not give them back, is banned, etc, then the items are gone. As soon as you hand an item over to another player out of your own free will, it is theirs to do with as they wish. Contracts, etc are great if you want to have a small peace of mind, but they DO NOT do anything in the Staff's eyes.
    Loans have been ill-advised for a very long time now and we simply wanted to remind everyone that Staff cannot get involved with if something goes wrong, due to them being a high risk action.

    Events on the Empire
    Dramanya is working on some pretty cool things coming soon, but I won't spoil them. This is a reminder that if you want to know what is going on in the Empire, then check out the Empire Events Calendar. We do our best to get all Staff-run events on there, but you can also get information about some great community run events.
    On that note, we are changing up how some things run with regards to front page posts. A contest that has community deciding the winners may receive a front page posting, but Krysyy has to have access to see the votes so she can ensure nothing is modified.

    For all front page posts, please contact Krysyy (pmcm.emc.gs) with the details/forum post for the event at least a week prior to when you want the post on the front page. It helps to have a header of some sort designed to draw attention.

    In addition, keep in mind that the front page spotlights are not for player birthday parties, random giveaways, disorganized events, etc. If you want to be on the front page, then the event/contest needs to be well thought out and a clear plan in place. Last minute planning will not end with good results.

    Redeeming Vouchers and Exchanging Vouchers
    Each of these google forms is now embedded in the associated wiki page.

    If you need a shortcut though, remember the following:
    emc.gs/redeemvoucher
    emc.gs/exchangevoucher

    Suggestions for Mobs and Promos
    I know that a lot of you already know at least one of these, but I wanted to extend a reminder to the rest of you, If you have an idea for a cool mob for EMC or a neat promotional item we should release, then please let us know with these forms. We may not always see the posts on the website due to the sheer amount, or you may not want to share them with everyone.
    Promos: emc.gs/suggestpromo
    Mobs: emc.gs/suggestmob

    The Reason Staff Ask For Reports
    As Staff Members, we see a lot of things daily that could be considered borderline. However, we maintain a policy of not taking action without a report in order to limit the chance that we overreact to a joke. If your content/status is removed by a staff member, then that means that someone was upset enough to report it. Staff does not go through and delete things without reason.

    Now the other reason for reports...If you go to a Staff member and say that you've had repetitive issues with a certain player, we can look into their/your notes and see clearly that you have had multiple reports filed against them for various things. However, if there are no reports and what is posted isn't way over the line, then we don't have anything to go off of and it's difficult to handle player disputes.

    Do us a favor and if something bothers you and you want staff informed and/or the post removed, then please REPORT IT! Otherwise, we're going to assume everything is okay and go about our day, monitoring other posts. I'm hoping this is the last time we need to remind the community of this.

    Reminder:
    Report = Action
    No Report = Possibly No Action
  3. I see...
    Ultimamaxx likes this.
  4. Wow, big newsletter. I can see why it came late. Congrats to the new staff members. Stream Team is completely replacing the YouTube Team?

    Does the report policy go for in-game reports or just forum reports?

    Edit: If anyone's interested, the new landing page can be found at http://emc.gs/lp. :)
  5. It's the new name of the YouTube Team, with some new focuses.
    And all reports.
    Penguinub likes this.
  6. Congrats to everyone! :D
    Even you, carrot
    tuqueque likes this.
  7. You disappoint me Ethan, that's what you get for not bumping your threads enough.
  8. Who are you again?

    Also, #StreamTeam
    Now for the #BuildGuild
    No? Build Guild is too much? Ok.
  9. Gonna try YouTube team as I am good with media.
  10. You mean Stream Team =P
  11. News!
    jsdoesmc likes this.
  12. Streams are cool and all, but I don't see a reason to rename the YouTube Team the Stream Team.
  13. Fun stuff knowing how contracts are not honored.. Even when written with the best intentions in mind.. Its like a loan-in-trust with an "honorable" player means nothing..
  14. Caden likes this. :) Thanks for the newsletter, Krysyy. Congratulations to the new staff members as well.
    ShelLuser likes this.
  15. Awesome! Thanks for taking the time to make this, Krysyy, it is greatly appreciated.
  16. An honorable player can just as soon be banned as any other player. There are too many issues with loans to allow them and govern contracts between players. They've been disallowed for a long time. We're reminding players that if you go and loan items or rupees out, even though we say not to, then Staff cannot get involved if something goes wrong.
    DWmom, Dramanya, MistyLou and 2 others like this.
  17. *cries*