REINTRODUCTION. Thoughts on EMC after a 6 year absence.

Hello all. A quick re-introduction, followed by some observations, and potentially other thoughts - because, well, I just can't help myself.

I started playing Minecraft, and found EMC in November of 2011. Yeah. It's been a bit. I served as staff, starting just before Aikar purchased the server from Justin, for maybe 2 more years. Something like that. In 2013, a handful of us attended Minecon in Orlando. (Aikar and Max, Kryssy and ignoramoose, biteme, and gamekribjim swung by. I gifted Jim my pass so he could attend the 2nd day - there really wasn't too much to see.)

Anyway, I can't recall when I actually stopped playing, but I'd guess that it was around the end of 2014. Around that time I had gone back to school to finish my degree. My mom was diagnosed with a brain aneurysm, and she had brain surgery. She's totally fine now, 6 years later, but things were busy that year. I also quit drinking, as I had a bit of a problem.

Since then, my wife and I have had a daughter; I finished school and got back on my original career path - currently serving as a Senior Engineer for EHR software. Oh yeah, and I quit smoking. This minecraft account was compromised - and it took 6 months to get Mojang to respond. I scripted some python to open tickets. They answered 1 out of about 10,000.

...and here we are. Well, alright, there's been quite a bit more than that in 6 or 7 years - but this post can't go on forever.

I am excited to see some old names are still around. I suppose, though, that it's actually exciting to see that the server is still here. A near decade is an achievement.

That said, because I can't help myself, I decided to poke around the community. I poked a thread that was old, which pissed some people off. I have a lot I could say about the response, but it's not really worth it. I bring it up only for cohesion in the story. The closure post referenced another post, about staff closing threads. Naturally, my response was to go find that thread. And, it was every bit as intriguing as I thought it would be.

All of the negativity here is astounding. There are posts critiquing everything. My first response to the closed thread was anger and annoyance. Then I saw the rest of the community. And now I wonder, should I even stick around?

There used to be leadership by example, now most of the staff appear as police. Closing auctions for silly reasons, making posts justifying every action taken, and a page of rules called "Extra Rules." In my day there were 10. And they were all pretty simple - "be nice to others." The 10th one was, "have fun." What happened to that?

I have some very fond memories of this place. But, what's happened? Am I missing something? Do the servers ever get into double digits? I've been logging in daily for a week, at what used to be the prime time - 7 to 11 pm EST, and the servers have a handful of people on.

I really hope that I'm not seeing the whole picture here - or am otherwise missing something.

Yeah, regular activity isn't really a thing any more. Individual servers don't hit double-digits any more aside from during events (See: Moople's firefloor), which is probably the main reason why global chat was added. It really didn't help that EMC wasn't updated to the current version for two years - I understand 1.13-1.15 was a nightmare code wise, but if you have to downgrade your MC version every time you want to play on EMC, you're not going to stick around for too long.

I have changed my name since we last met. I used to go by Southpark347 if you can recall. A lot has changed. Some for better, some for worse. I myself left for a long long while when the server was stuck in 1.12.2 hell for YEARS. As of recently it updated to 1.15.2 about a month-ish or 2 ago. I do remember the good times as you mention them when the last rule was FUN. As stated above by Sprhyngtime, there was a lack of activity and nobody really wanted to play 1.12.2 anymore so they all left. The server is sort of a shell of its former self on what it used to be.

Maybe things can turn around? I'm not so hopeful because I don't want to be disappointed. I wish people would come back but there wouldn't be much other than Mojang's official content updates aka vanilla play.

I remember seeing you around back when you were staff all that time ago. Welcome back .

yea sorry about the few bad apples. I also am a longtime member joining in 2013. Things are different with fewer players, however the universal chat is a huge improvement and makes it feel like there's more people, even if they are all spread out.

I get that life gets in the way sometimes, I have two kids to take care of so play time can be scarce. Im not going anywhere, though, and will always welcome players to come hang out with me in the wild.

Don’t worry about that, you just discovered our resident “This thread should be closed because its old even if the bump is relevant”/“this thread should be closed because it’s gone slightly off topic even if that’s relevant”/“oh no things are getting slightly heated in here and I don’t know how conflict resolution works STAFF PLEASE CLOSE THE THREd” people. They annoy the rest of us as well and they’re a tiny minority. I promise that making posts on this website isn’t like having the Stasi breathing down your neck, and I’ve seen a lot of people bend the rules as far as they possibly can without consequence so the police aspect is definitely limited to necro-ing.

Welcome you back with open arms bonzd, I’ve missed seeing that name around

After the mass ban-wave of '59, they removed the 10th 'have fun' rule. Those were dark times. The empire lost 95% of its population and martial law was declared. Even today we are under martial law. I don't know what martial law means, but if I saw martial law a lot in vague ways, people will think I know what martial law means.

Hey, welcome back! I recently returned from my own personal hiatus of a year off this server, though I joined EMC at least a year after you originally left

Congrats on the steps you've taken irl though! Life is challenging and it's great that you've been able to make your way in it and create a family in the process

Definitely! I know I'm not alone in saying that I'm glad EMC is still around, even if the server is kind of dead by comparison to historical activity levels.

Oh, dangerous choice there, poking around all those threads You were around long enough on even old EMC to know that drama is a common occurrence on this server, lol

I can't speak for others here. But I'll speak for myself in regards to the role I've played in where EMC is today.

I 100% agree that negativity is more common on EMC today than it used to be. It saddens me to see, but I have noticed people have been jumping the gun a bit quicker than usual when they go out as "forum knights" to either defend EMC or attack the people who are posting in said thread. I'm going to also own my own piece of that and say that I have been just as guilty of that behavior. Part of why I left EMC when I did a year ago was because I recognized that I was becoming kind of bitter and I didn't want that affecting the way I acted on here. So I took a break for as long as I needed to get my life in order, and recently decided to return.

I have many fond memories on this server too, and I hope that you stick around maybe to make new ones. However, the EMC you are logging into today is not the same one you left in 2014. For better or worse, EMC has changed a lot over the past 6 years. You happened to see a series of threads that had a bit of a negative tone to them with your return to EMC, which is unfortunate.

For every negative thread though, there is an active forum game or event thread where people are having fun and being the great community EMC is. For every moment where a staff member has to be the bad police guy, there are also similar moments where staff get to goof off and just hang out with players, creating fun experiences. Heck, go find the Funny Staff Moments thread, I can guarantee you will get a kick out of some of the posts in there!

I'll end by saying this: I don't disagree with the perspective you have of EMC, atm. In fact, I think that anybody reading your post should really take a hard look at it and see that this is how some new players will see our forums if they were to have joined at the same time you came back. This isn't something that is just staff, though. I posted on the thread you're talking about as well and commented how negative it got, and so quickly. We are responsible as a community for the way we are seen to new and returning players. If we are coming off as negative or rude in our interactions, then people won't stick around. EMC's community is what always made this place amazing, so if the community isn't working, then EMC won't work either.

Ideally, the answer from staff should be a nice way of saying, "click the unwatch thread button." You'll note that, if you attempt to make a report on facebook - their application returns a very similar message. There's a reason for that. Once you, as a representative of the organization, cater to one - you'll need to continue that. It's a total waste of time and energy, and what realistically amounts to money. Even here.

Spot on. Sums it up completely. Not even joking.

AmusedStew, mattias171, and southpark347 - I definitely recognize your names. Soulpunisher as well.

Since I've made the post, I've been contemplating... it may have sounded a bit like an attack. It's not meant for that. If I was actually pissed off, I'd just text Krys.

This. Yes. Another first thought of mine, on day 1 of re-joining the server, was how horrible the messages about server lag look to a newcomer. Someone logs on and sees discussion of lag, and a message to "watch your farms." To me, it sounds like an aikar thing. But a new visitor isn't going to know that. Whoever cooked that one up, well, gotta say - bad idea.

Welcome back bonz, I wasn't around as long as you have been, but here's my opinion.
Like other people said, EMC constantly lagged behind the MC updates for almost two years I believe and I didn't really share motivation to play 1.12 MC. Since the 1.15 update, I've found the community to be really excited about trying new blocks and exploring some more of the 1.15 interactions with the servers. smp3 is still thriving and sometimes I have to log onto a different smp because I feel like there's too many people lagging the server lol.

I did take a break last year and there was a huge horde of negative threads near the end of the year which I've read recently to catchup on the drama. I did notice some members calling staff to close discussions because it was too heated or the threads became off-topic a little. :/
But recently, I think EMC is improving.. The staff teams are thriving, the servers are busier than my memories of the 1.12 period, and some older members have rejoined in the past weeks. Or maybe thats just corona forcing everyone to play Minecraft again - who knows.

Welcome back man! It’s so good to see another familiar face returning. Oh yes my good sir, we have sustained our shares of gains and losses since then. I remember seeing you around as a greenie. You were my neighbor at one point. I think I blasted you with chicken eggs at one point or another... If that was you, sorry 😐. We have had many updates since you saw us last. I would recommend, reading over them to familiarize yourself so you don’t get caught off guard.

That is great that your mother is doing fine now! That’s awesome that you broke those habits. That is no easy feat.👊 Congrats on your daughter too!

I was recruited in early 2013, and I got to know EMC in much of the ways you remember it. Like the rules - It was the Ten Commandments when I joined. Drama was a thing, but it was either handled quietly, or there was just less of it altogether. There were events, but nowhere near as wide a selection as now. I think MobArena was most popular. I miss it to be honest. Fond memories of those. Times change and so things follow.


As JD worded it

This is where I rest my case. Yes. If we really do care, we try our hardest to patch things up. We have failures. We have days where we turn on each other. If only you flip your perspectives, to find out, we’re not totally bad. We can cooperate and support each other. We can rebuild friendships. We can laugh and hang out together. Not a single one of us is without faults. We try to do better. That’s life for ya!

I don’t know what all these references are about. I missed something, but I don’t need to know. So many of us try to keep incidents from gaining traction because that comes at the price of our new guys. They don’t need to see that. That’s not right. Our negative actions cost them their enjoyment. Why should that be okay? Go vent privately. Don’t get me wrong, venting can be okay. It’s how you choose to do it that can make it a problem.


I don’t know if it’s just you, or how long you can play for, but since EMC updated to 1.15, I have seen a lot more interest in the servers from staff and players alike. It’s not as high as records from 2014, but we’re definitely bustling with action again. We have been in a hole for awhile so it’s going to take time to resurface. Keep a steady eye on it.👀 It’s changing.

Anyway, brushes dust off welcome back sir! Feel free to reach out to any of us if you wanna hang out sometime. Peace ✌️

Hi bonszd67, who cold forget you smp6 mod and your smp6 town base. I started playing on EMC a few months after you and chose smp6 as my resident server. I am still there, shop still at 13131 but spend most of my time on smp8 at my wild base.

Welcome back for as long as that may last, life and all its woe's

ps, have fun

Have you played Minecraft since 1.6? In the current official launcher and the previous one you can select what version to play, and even set up profiles so you can switch between versions with two clicks.

Anyway, welcome back, bonzd! I've got to admit, it was kind of strange to see your first (and for a few days, only) new posts be in a thread you necrobumped.
I'm glad to hear of your improvements!

I have a nice list that can be summarized in 3 points which already has been chatted about once before

1. The server being very slow on updating to 1.15 (Papa bless Chicken's heart into that)
2. Constant tps drops making the game unplayable in moments
3. A lack of economy within the server (Been slowed down due to lack of numbers)

I've joined in 2011 as well. This was my middle school server that I had after school. Now 22, just aged like fine wine I guess. Great memories, I missed the whole Justin to Aikar shift so I will take your word on that time.

I'll give you a more of a response after my morning job

sadly i don't know who you are or what you want but hiii!

Personally I like to think that the server is going to make a comeback, but the main problem in my eyes is that the tutorial is not very new-player-friendly.
Although, that is another can of worms that should be opened on a different thread.

But you've come a long way since the beginning and as a complete stranger I am happy for you! Welcome back to EMC, and even if you decide not to stick around, it's nice to see a few "new" veterans every once in a while.

More often than not, when I have to do this, I've already launched the game on the wrong version and have to close and reopen Minecraft with the correct version. Sometimes, I just decide it's not worth the effort and I go do something else on the first version.