I found you guys through the magic of google. I haven't decided on town or frontier yet, but I plan to eventually make an awesome wizard tower, wear a cow head, and become the greatest bovine wizard the world has ever seen.
Well, alrighty then. Now to find a settlement of some sort to join. If you know any that are medieval-themed and preferably not too huge, that would be cool.
Or... why not consider starting your own? You probably know this already but since you're new I kinda feel obligated to point this out: Town is fully protected against griefing. It is 60x60 (so limited in space) but unless you don't come back often enough (or vote) nothing will happen to it unless you make it happen. The Frontier doesn't provide these safety measures. You have much more space to build, but it isn't protected. So do make sure that you put some good distance from any EMC outposts so that random wanderer won't easily find your builds / outposts as there is a risk attached to it. Note: obviously griefing isn't allowed on the Empire and if someone does then be sure to contact a staff member (the guys in green, use /staff to find 'm in-game) so they can take care of things. Also; some players also try to get your back should you ever run into a griefer (which fortunately doesn't happen too often in general). This is also the reason why many established outposts are a little careful with letting other people join them. Some are a little cautious when it comes to newer players. So yeah... Town vs. Frontier in a nutshell Hope you're going to enjoy it here, EMC should be able to give you all the freedom you need 8)
The problem with making my own is that the whole point of multiplayer is that there are other people, and making my own little settlement ends up making me a hermit.
I think you greatly underestimate the Empire here Some players are already trying to lure you to SMP8, so why shouldn't you be able to do the same? The main problem, as always, is getting trusted members onboard. But if you look around then I'm sure you'll find more players to join you 8)