Would it be possible to make something for Sponge/SpongeForge that works like ViaVersion, which lets 1.9 clients connect to 1.8 servers?
Why should one not up/downgrade his client?
I think the plugin is impossible without NMS and it would be very hacky.
Having to change versions could keep new players who are undecided about a server from taking the effort to check it out.
Why not just use a multi client like MultiMC? I have numerous versions of Minecraft for various reasons. This seems like a lot of effort for little payoff
I agree, it’s not that big of a deal. I guess it’s mainly helpful for big servers (such as minigame servers) that want it to be as low-friction as possible for as many people as possible to join. Although another solution could be Bungeecord redirecting players to the correct version of server if the server has multiple instances behind it.
Currently working on ViaVersion to be ported to sponge with modules so there would be a bukkit/spigot version and a sponge version. Don’t get your hopes up, possibility to be hacky is high and will require lots of effort.
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Apologies to bump an old post,
In relation to this if there was enough want for this we would consider it officially. But this kind of thing would take at least 10-15 hours of time to test and do initially possibly more. So I don’t see it worth it unless there is enough want. 
We’re also always welcome to official improvements, to abstract our stuff to allow this.
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