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How many donor ranks would you consider too little? What about too much?
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What are the advantages of subscription-based ranks over lifetime, and vice versa?
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In your opinion, what’s the maximum amount a rank should cost?
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I would say a good number for donor ranks is around 3 or so. Anything more than 5 would just be like those servers going into ranks like God, Titan, Lord, and others generally for just a couple new things and 10 - 15 more dollars.
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Advantages of subscription ranks would be making more money off the same people over time (should they donate again) while of course this system generally will turn off people who might be willing to donate.
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A donation in my mind should cost no more than the game they are playing on. So in this case, MC is roughly 25$, so 25$.
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3 ranks is what I would consider a maximum. Nothing wrong with 0.
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Subscription based is just an easier way to get payment from the same people. Nothing wrong with using, nothing wrong with not.
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Maximum? It depends on the server, I suppose. I personally think @BitByte’s rule about not making a rank cost more than the game itself a bit arbitrary. Each server is going to have a different purpose, niche, donor system, and therefore prices.
As a rule of thumb, there should always be a positive, proactive way to receive any rank that a paying donor can receive.
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This. This is important. People should not be discouraged to participate just because they can’t donate and, therefore, “shine”.
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No pay-to-win, Those servers suck
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3 or 4 depending on the server type. Anymore than 5 is overdoing it I think.
I’ve in the past did a combination of subscription and lifetime, where depending on how much you donate will depend on how much time you receive. The more you donate in one shout, the more time you get for less, I’ve always given an option for a lifetime donation at a reasonable price. I kept prices within reason so people who felt like they may stick around for a while had no problems donating for a lifetime subscription, while others that like to bounce around may just donate a dollar of two to receive short term perks.
But as stated it really all depends on what type of server you’re running. I’ve seen some ridiculous price ranges in the past where it’s pretty obvious someone is just trying to make a profit. As running a server is supposed to be a part time hobby, I believe donations should be enough to cover server and maintenance costs and nothing more. That being said I never charged more than $30 for a rank. Stealing from children (or their parents in some cases) is wrong.
That’s the kind of server that I donate to(doesn’t mean I don’t have a no refunds/all payments are final policy )
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For you, maybe. 
For larger servers, it can become quite time consuming.
Hmmm, Let me say it like this. Their are some rich fags out their. That totaly don’t care how mutch it costs, if they only have the most expensive rank its all that counts. On my server we have a godly rank for 100$. Believe it or not we have like 17 godly’s in 5 months 
. (We upgraded our network with it ofc 
)
I’m vehemently against pay-to-win - our server has been running for three years now without us ever having to give players extra perks for their donations (although we do have a Hall of Fame for donators) - if we get low on cash, we just throw a nice fundraiser event for the community, which usually covers our costs for the next few months 
We do have a VIP-rank, but that is strictly earned by being an active and nice member of the community.
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I agree with you, but sadly enough I am not the only one that is involved with this server :/. We can’t keep up without donation ranks that give stuff. Although we don’t fall under the eula because 1.4.7 is before the eula and we only give solar panels (non vanilla item) to donators
Sure, about three ranks is good but you should also have some “extra goodies”. Some selected things out of those ranks that players could buy separately.
If you’re getting something in return its not a donation its a purchase 
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I don’t consider there to be a ‘to little’ amount of ranks. In really depends on the individual circumstances of the server. As for a limit I would expect to see no more that something in single digits
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Last I was running a server a subscription (something small like $5 per month) was a lot more popular than one of things. The constant flow of income was nice
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~$20, If it costs more than the game you’re doing it wrong
That’s not how the EULA works…
The End-User-License-Agreement is a standard script of understanding for playing or owning a Minecraft server, and is not dependent on what version of Minecraft you play. I’m not sure who told you, or what made you think that you could avoid a binding contract by playing an older version of the game.
Minecraft EULA doesn’t permit ranks to give anything more than cosmetic stuff like colored names, hats, etc. Furthermore, it doesn’t permit you to sell (or give) for any amount of money anything that is in the base game or anything that may affect the gameplay in any way.
Here’s a link to the Mojang blog.
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You do realize that even if this was true your server would fall under the old EULA which basically means you can’t sell anything?
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This!
People seem to miss that the old EULA was even more restrictive than the new one.
Before the change selling anything was forbidden…
The new (“bad”) EULA grants rights to sell cosmetic stuff to players. Fees to be able to play on a server are fine too. Purchases to get gameplay elements (weapons, blocks etc) are not.
To everyone talking about the EULA , I do plan on being completely compliant.
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Not entirely true. It depends on what those items are used for.
For larger servers: One donor rank - donate at least 5$ to get it for one month. Maybe give them a Donor chat prefix or other cosmetic stuff, but not too much (so normal players don’t get jealous)
On my (small) server there were always adult players willing to donate because they loved the server. I suggest you to focus on adults. They will understand the importance of donations, and they will donate more than the required amount.
Also publish a “Financial Status update” every month (forum, ingame, email): List up all the donations and costs to make everything transparent.
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