Hi gang, We've all been here before I think: someone in your surroundings isn't really having fun anymore. They try a few things, they do something else but eventually you lose contact a little bit and before you know they're gone derelict! But have no fear because you are here! You decide to take it upon yourself to ensure their safety and you start /vote'ing for them. While your motivation is definitely good, you really want to help out your friend here, you may actually not be doing them a favor at all. Now... before you read on please keep in mind that I'm not saying that "voting for someone else is bad". It's not. And like with so many things: every situation is different. There really isn't a 'right' or 'wrong' here. But there are some things which I think you should really think hard about: 1 - Starting where they left off Your friend(s) left for a reason, most likely because they grew bored with the whole thing and needed something else. If they would have gone derelict then they might have lost their residence(s), which is a bit sad sure! But this also gives them a new challenge. If they do get back online they can more or less start all over. Who knows; maybe this is what they needed to finally decide and move to another SMP. But if we keep their residences around then there is a big chance that we're getting them right back into the same mess they wanted to leave behind in the first place! And that wouldn't be very helpful. 2 - What about your active friends? Voting takes effort, if it didn't then we wouldn't be getting such awesome rewards for it. If you're a bit like me you'll try to get the maximum out of voting like using more than one site. (of course in my situation I also have to vote for someone else ). But getting to the point: you may not be able to vote for too many different friends. So wouldn't you agree that a friend who's going away for a short while and asks you to vote for them could be more deserving of that than a friend who simply ran off? 3 - Is their residence really being used? As rough as this may sound but Empire Minecraft gets tons of new players every week. And they all would like to have their own place on the server. Is it really fair to occupy a residence simply because you're having trouble letting go? Now, don't get me wrong here: sometimes it most definitely is. I'm not saying that keeping a residence around is bad per definition. But I do think it's something to consider nonetheless. Because what would be more fair: having the residence assigned to someone who actually uses it, or someone who doesn't seem to really care either way? It's a dilemma, I know, and not an easy one at all! So we just stand by and let things get disposed of? Well, yes. However, depending on how well your friendship is, or was, there might be more which you can do. For example: if you happen to have the admin or container flag on such a residence, then what's stopping you from grabbing everything which you know would mean something to your friend and keep it in protected storage (your own) for them? If they do get back then they won't have their residences anymore, all the effort they put into their buildings will be gone, but at least they will have something left to help them get restarted. That should account for something as well. If you're a little bit like me then you might not feel comfortable with this at all because... Isn't this somewhat like stealing? I can actually answer that a bit: if your friend didn't want you to access their stuff, then why did they give you permission for that in the first place? And there you have it... Once again I need to stress out that there really isn't a right or wrong here. But I definitely think you should keep these three points in mind before you start voting for someone. Sometimes... There will be times when you're really not helping, even if you think you are. Honest.
I voted for ELLIE_JOHNSON for almost a year because she dissappeared for no reason. One day she came back thou, she could use her items again, well anyway she is long gone now, but i think it is worth it to vote for others.
I agree with tuqueque. It's nice for people that have to leave for a while to be able to come back to their res and items, especially if they left because of real world constraints
I doubt that we have such a resident problem that voting for people needs to stop. I voted for someone for a few months until they came back. They were grateful and were not able to get on.
I have a friend who I vote for as they got busy with work but just left without notice and came back a year later and was sad that his alt's where lost but at least his main was still there.
I see what you're saying here, but as everyone is saying, I've had friends from over a year ago that I've voted for that came back and were overjoyed that all their stuff was still there, and other friends who came back to nothing and were sad because they had irl problems and ended quitting because they lost all their progress.
Perm derelict voucher solves everything. I could log off today and return in 5 years and all my stuff will be where I left it. A bit dusty, but still there.
I think I'm the first person to agree with you Shell, Neither I'm sure... I think it really, really depends on the situation, and I think it all depends on if the person still cares, I mean, if people just are on hollydays or had to go to prison for a month, I don't know, but if a person still wants his/her res, and is sure to come back, voting defenetly is a good thing to do, but if that person is sure he/she can't come back, or just doesn't care anymore, leave it alone. If you don't know, voting once or twice can't be bad, but try if there is a person who knows, and if there isn't, the chances are big that if he/sh doesn't come back in like two months, he/she just doesn't care anymore, and you should leave it alone Oh, it turns out I do have an Idea...
Yep, one of the most touchy subjects of the empire, even more touchy than griefing and pvp because there isn't any real answers to this problem... At least now the 7 days is reasonable compared to that "1 vote = 30 day back", you could save a peep by voting 12 times a year.
Nice! I feel like your opinion on this matter has been changed a bit. Of course voting for friends can be good, and especially if they ask you to. But I think this thread raises important points. I am a bit skeptical about the [GUIDE] tag, though... is this really a guide? Well, it might be. I do agree with it being in the Guides section, but I think the tag's unnecessary. That's obviously not a big deal, but I'd like to make a remark about it anyway.
I think that there should be a limit on voting while away unless you request it from ss. my personal example was a corner res of a player who has not logged on in over 400 days i wanted the corner res because i was building crop and melon towers and wanted them to have minimal impact in terms of lag to other players. But since he was being voted for i could not claim the res (obviously). When i asked the player who was voting for the derelict player why he was voting for him he said and i quote "because i like having 4 extra resses"
Thanks for the input guys. You're all fully right of course: voting for someone else is definitely not always bad and can also really help someone out. Like I said: there's no definite right or wrong here. Very true, this guide does obviously not cover that. If someone asks if you can vote for 'm then yah, saying "no because Shell's guide says so" is probably a good way to end the friendship And well, right now I'm also in the process of helping a friend out to survive the Holiday season (he's with his family and has no Internet access). That's the intend, yes. As others already said: this is a delicate subject, and trust me: I realize as much. That's why I put up the guide tag: to clearly mark that this is simply something to think about, nothing more and nothing less. I was worried that if I didn't use the 'Guide' tag we might head into a (controversial?) discussion, which wasn't my intend here.
One of the people on EMC was really close to me. Best Buds. She left one day and didnt come back until 83 days later. She was lucky she still had her items and residences there but I kinda forgot about her until she rejoined. Not really forgot but a memory at the back of my mind. After that day she left once again and I have yet to see her since but one of her residence's is based on the Warrior Cat series and we would always roleplay there and have fun. We made so many memories there the res is precious to me. I dont know if she will ever come back so I vote for her sometimes just because of that memory. I know your probably thinking well thats a waste of residences that can be used for new players and supporters. But, if you were in my position you might somewhat at least understand. Sometimes I even wonder why I do that and I should stop but I never can :/
No I totally get it. I wasn't friends with this person but they had a wonderful huge Gumball machine as their res two plots over from where i first landed on the server. But they left and it eventually got reset. I didn't want it to go but I also didn't want to vote for them either. You know since I didn't know him and all. Funny thing is he still hasn't returned over a year now.
