Not sure @Tzk. I wont be using a Premium Currency, just in case I am breaking the EULA as I wouldn’t exactly know. So I think Patreon is the best way for my server to go in the future, and I heard you are NOT allowed to restrict areas or gameplay from users by rank, so your idea about creative plots would break the EULA, but if it was a separate server which you charge access to, in order to use the creative plots, it is all fine.
That’s exactly what it’s meant to avoid - but as always, it’s the wording that’s important. It says you can’t get a soft currency for a hard currency, no exceptions.
For what it’s worth - I doubt that having a premium currency for the purpose of buying EULA compatible items is going to cause a problem with Mojang, but you never know…
I think i’ll reread the EULA again myself. Last time i read it was a long, loooong time ago 
but mojang doesn’t enforce their EULA. I see plenty of servers all the time that are pay-to-win or give you tons of OP stuff if you “donate”
I also report servers all the time on PMC and minecraft forums and nothing happens to them :S
@Coakie You can report violations of the EULA at https://help.mojang.com/customer/portal/articles/1647288-servers-that-violate-commercial-use-guidelines
Limiting access of parts of a server is not allowed - it’s quite clear cut here. You can only do this if you have two separately (note, not BungeeCorded) accessed servers. From https://mojang.com/2014/06/lets-talk-server-monetisation/
What counts as a server? Are proxies one big server, or lots of smaller ones?
A server is something a user connects to with their client. The user is on a different server when they leave one and manually join another (in the multiplayer screen). Virtual servers and proxies make no difference; to the client it’s the same server.
Can I charge access to a specific part of my server, such as a minigame or world?
No, you cannot charge for any part of a server. Only the access. Once on a server, all players must have the same gameplay privileges. You may make a different server which features “premium” areas, and charge for access to that server instead, but the benefits cannot carry between servers.
If you wanted a donator only plot world, it would have to be its own server, potentially pushing costs UP, not down.
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I run a small Forge server for my friends and their friends. I pay $30 a month for a dedicated box that runs my ts server, web server, shoutcast server, minecraft server, as well as any other server-related projects I want to work on. Here’s something to consider.
Are you in it just to make money or are you in it for the enjoyment? Me–I’m in it for the enjoyment. I could care less about the $30/month I spend on the dedicated box. To me (someone who lives off $600-$1000 per month) considers that to be entertainment money well spent.
Just my two cents, but run the server for you and your friends. If they want to chip in to help, then they will! Trying to make the ends justify the means will only stress you out and in the end, scare away all of your friends and users that stop by on a regular basis.
Consider just running your server with a ‘tip jar’ or donation link instead. Trying to run it as a business from the start will only doom it to fail, as that will be your only focus–the money. Instead, work at trying to make it something unique and fun for folks to want to come back. As they play, they will want to help you out with money, staffing, and services of their own.
I’ve worked on a few different Minecraft server projects where the owners were in it for the money. The owners lost sight of what they created the server for in the first place. The fun.
TL;DR–do it for the fun, not the money. The latter will come sooner than you think. 
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As far as I know you can’t get dedicated boxes for $30/month. What you are likely getting is a virtual machine of some sort. What host are you with? I’m pretty interested in the deal you have.
Our team and myself and 110% in it for the enjoyment, we haven’t spent all of this time, nearly 2 years developing something to just throw it away the second we release it. I DO NOT want to run it as a business, although I would like some supporters along side in time, not straight away but some just to support the costs of running a server. I already have a few people who agree to pay a couple of pounds a month through Patreon to support the server.
I am very slightly confused where you got the idea I was in it for the money, but whatever it makes, will support the funding towards the server. @zhivotnoya
Don’t sell anything (NO BUYCRAFT!) and you have the chance of attracting players who like to donate to servers that aren’t designed to profit. They’re out there.
My community ran our Minecraft server for years based off that.
Ok, just Patreon. I was thinking of that @mbaxter! I have decided to just stick with Patreon and no Buycraft, if anything changes in regards to my decision, as its also the head admins job to help out too, but she is in Florida at the moment, I will let you all know! 
Thank for clearing this up!
As already said i wasn’t sure on that topic.
@Coakie
For now they don’t… But i’d try to stay legal as much as possible.
I used to be involved in large servers before I burnt out of server management. Donations are not usually that hard to do. It’s a simple matter of if you build it, they will come.
My advice would be to grow as you need to, you don’t need a 4GB server for 5 players.
Here’s my personal recommendations for community building tools:
- Hosting: Exodus Hosting are the best quality for money I find.
Before people start head butting me over it, I have stopped giving
them my business due to strife I had with them and would strongly not
recommend using their dedicated hosting. But if you’re starting off
with a small server then their rates are fairly good and they are
somewhat professional. - Website/Donations: Enjin are quite good at community websites and take away most of your heavy lifting, they already have modules that are able to take donations and automate rewards (prefixes, sparkles, ranks, etc). Keep in mind though that once you choose a platform to build your community on, it is stuck on there, you can’t easily switch players from enjin to a custom bootstrap website and vise versa.
- Domain Rental: Namecheap are a really good domain name service provider. They will only charge you the cost of the domain (+$2 for whoisguard and like +$5 for ssl) and the rest is free. Yes people, they do DNS hosting for free because the a DNS server is cheap as chips to actually run.
Using those options, you could easily start a community on $9 (USD) a month. If you shop around you can drop these costs.
I haven’t used patreon before as I use enjin’s donation methods, but if you offer people to pay $5 once off for a prefix, custom nickname/name colour, cosmetic stuff etc. You’ll find the server will start paying for itself as people don’t mind paying $5 for that stuff and helping the server provided that it’s a good community.
Hope that advice helps.
Thank you @mrfrase3! I am going t use Patreon and I have found a somehwat professional hosting service, Shockbyte, here. As for that Namecheap site, I am definitely going to use that, best cost effective option in my opinion. Thank you so, so much!
Selling kits works since you know mineplex.
Giving away access to a command that gives you items.
The EULA has very dumb reasons on why we cant sell access to items on a server. If it’s an rp server, it makes sense to limit specific items to specific people.
Selling kits works since you know mineplex.
Giving away access to a command that gives you items.
Both things are selling items for real money and are in no way a loophole of the EULA.
If it’s an rp server, it makes sense to limit specific items to specific people.
Yes, it does, but not for real money, it doesnt.
Thats your opinion entirely. If I need to make money to keep the server up I’ll just mod the server to nuke the eula.txt 
Thats not how it works. By using the server you agreed to it. ‘I edited the software to remove mentions of EULA’ does not exempt you from the EULA.