Figured I’d make a suggestion thread on this. No rush for anything to be done yet, worry about getting a 1.8 version out first.
Do you think it appropriate to have a group (formed of server owners) that would help server owners find their way around and provide some basic guidelines to follow? I see way too many “new” owners making the exact same mistakes that could have been avoided, asking the same questions that have been answered, or just generally looking for a mentor to help guide them through this mess.
Overall I think it’ll help the Minecraft player base appreciate the effort the owner puts into their servers, help other server owners feel they have a team with them, and help alleviate the stress sometimes put on plugin devs and perhaps shield them so they are free to work on their plugin.
when taking a look at Bukkit (I know, I know, this is Sponge), they didn’t had such a section and there were A LOT of pointless error reports such as YAML parse errors or invalid character errors at certain plguins. Anyways, I would not support every server owner who’s too lazy to have a look on some functions / plugins! Creating an external support section for server owners might be a good idea, but I personally think, that it’ll definitely get abused in some way.
However, I really like your idea so how about a “Have you seen?” or “Starting and customizing your server?” - documentation where you can find all the important processes including detailed information?
That I feel more comfortable with anyway, hence the suggestion.
I didn’t mean another support section for server owners. What I meant by “shielding plugin devs” was preventing only certain nonsense I’ve seen. Not all of the nonsense, just some of it that other server owners can easily explain.
Probably plugin developers would be able to concentrate a lot more at their plugins! But how would you find out if the problem which is being reported is a pointless question? I’ll recommend good documentation and the possibility to allow everyone to help others at plugin threads (like it was at Bukkit). In this way, server owners would have the possibility to have a look and help others if they want to! Anyways, there should be a “mark post as report” checkbox so others could get informed that there is a problem or something like that…
People should be able to “report-subscribe” certain plugins so they get a message from those plugins where they want to help. However, I think this is very specific and would be a lot of work…
This is a wonderful idea. Having some sort of guide for new server owners would definitely help spread Sponge around and get people interested. In this day and age, people can’t be bothered to figure things out on their own. At least the younger generations. Please don’t take offense to that. I didn’t mean it to offend anyone; that’s just my perspective. But with that being said, I fully agree and would like to aid in this effort.
Cool. Well as you can see a documentation, wiki and faq section have been suggested. What do you think it would need to make it feasible, from your point of view?
Ooh, yes. I support the idea. I see people making silly mistakes all the time, and they often pay the price for it too.
A wiki would be great in this case, from what to look for in a server host (And what type of server to look for), through setting it up, recommended plugins and all. The MCForums has a “Server Administration” section where people often go to for help, once things get rolling here a similar category could really help others out.
I support this idea wholeheartedly. I’m planning on starting a server using Sponge as soon as possible, and as a first-time server owner (I’ve admined and moderated servers in the past, but this would be the first time I would actually own the server) I’d really appreciate a group that aids new server admins/owners in server administration. I’d also like to be a part of this group if it came into existence.
