Sister Server Manifesto – a Roadmap for the Future

Hello all.

As many of you know, I am a big proponent of communication.  Our Big Sister server was born out of a time of widespread miscommunication, when we were all dazed and confused as to why Main had been done for so long (or certainly at least most of us were).  It was a dark time of rumor and conjecture, indifference, apathy, and ultimately abandonment.  I worry that had the Big Sister server not been set up as a mirror site for Main, chances are we could have lost the last remaining public Gulliver service in existence at that time.

So if miscommunication can lead to disaster, then it stands to reason that the reverse can lead to great things.  Therefore, I make it a point to communicate everything I do with my staff (and publicly to the players) and hence I want to detail for you, openly and honestly, my hopes and dreams for what I wish to do with the Big Sister server in 2014.  For although Cay and I own it and pay for it, we need your help to make it grow and prosper, so all of you will play an integral part to its future!

Without further ado, I present to you my future plans for the Big Sister server – subject to change and feedback, of course, but a good indication of what's to come.

• We will be establishing a Minecraft Forum thread exclusively for the Big Sister server, for information and application processing.
• My Bread-A-Lot blog will be the official news site for the Big Sister server, that part if self-evident.  ;)
• We may be acquiring our own forum [not through webs.com], again for information, discussion and application processing.
• We will be creating a new whitelist application process that will be a slightly-stricter version of the current Gunia application.
• Whitelist application approvers will be provided a grading guide to facilitate approval.
• We will discontinue the practice of Moderator applications to elect new staff members.
• Staff members will be chosen using a new parliamentary-style election process.  An Owner will nominate a player (based on personal observation and player/staff feedback), and then the rest of the staff will vote on the nominee.  Only a 4/5ths approval majority of the vote is needed to elect the new staff member.  Elections themselves are currently to be held only on-demand, though we may explore the use of quarterly or half-year staff elections.
• The central Spawnington Transit Hub will be finished, offering access to all major and minor towns/areas throughout the server, including custom-teleports.
• A system to purchase Command Block vouchers will be created. These vouchers will be used to request personal Command Block contraptions that can be requested to be built, by appointment, by me or a qualified staff technician.  Contraptions include personal teleporters and cheese shops.
• The reinstatement of dye resizing will be postponed conditionally, since the purchase of Command Block contraptions (and other future developments outlined below) could render this problematic feature obsolete.  
• PvP rules will also be retained conditionally, pending the possibility of creating PVP-free zones, or vice-versa.
• On January 10th, we will transition the Big Sister server to a Forge Build.  Please be sure to switch to Gulliver Forged before then.
• On January 10th, we will also switch our IP address to bigsister.mcserver.ws.
• Around the same date, I will make a prepayment to cover a full year of operation for the Big Sister server, to ensure we are guaranteed a lasting presence.
• Once on the Forge Build, we will begin a period of mod assessment where we can evaluate Forge Essentials, NBTEdit, server-side All-u-Want, server-side NEI, and/or any other non-destructive mods that can enhance the creative experience of the server while adding minimal overhead.
  Non-destructive mods are described as Minecraft mods that do not add new blocks or items, which could otherwise break/disappear if accidentally moved to a non-modded environment (e.g., LittleBlocks).
• We will investigate the possibility of setting up a Dynamap page for the Big Sister server, which will allow all players to chat in-game without needing to log into Minecraft.
• The implementation of Protection mods will be a high priority.  Though this may render the use of SDBs obsolete, we will continue to provide these as a public service for other purposes
• Cheese will continue to be our server currency.  However, new methods to acquire Cheese (aside from XP and Cheese Block exchange) will appear overtime.  This includes investing in a personal Cheese shop for slow and steady income.  
• More public cheese shops will be added to the server, including those purchased by users.  And until we can migrate to 1.7, a means to purchase custom NBT-Edited items will be proliferated using a Dispenser+Hopper shop system.
• We will make use of new Permissions mods to create new positions beyond just the vanilla breakout of players and opped-players.  
• A distinction will be made between novice Survival players and veteran Survival players.  Novice players will have rights identical to vanilla Survival player rights, and Veteran players may gain access a limited subset of server commands (such as Home and Back), as well as access to an SDB.
• New classes of law enforcement Survival players will be created to assist staff with day-to-day moderation activities on the server.  These high level Survival classes are to be provided to trustworthy players who may not fulfill all the requirements needed to become a staff member (or may simply not want to), but can still offer an invaluable service to the community even without the use of Creative or full server commands.
• The Deputy class Survival player will be given authority to use high-level custom items, such as NBT-edited armor and weapons, as well as some additional server commands to manipulate weather and teleportation.  Deputies are nominated by individual staff member (no more than 3 per staff member), and only require staff validation using only minimal selection requirements.  Deputies are free from communication requirements or other responsibilities off-game, but should maintain a good work ethic to ensure the potential for future growth.  Deputies can be provided chat logs for law enforcement purposes, but this is not mandatory, so they are encouraged to create their own chat log recordings [using TabbyChat], screenshots or video recordings to provide evidence of criminal activity.
• Commissioner class Survival players hold the highest pre-staff member rank available on our server.  On top of being authorized to use higher-level custom items, Commissioners are also authorized the use of the /give command and other high level building tools that can help them participate in ambitious building projects.  This class will also be allowed the use of stick resizing, mutes and kicks for higher-level enforcement capabilities. Commissioners are chosen using a slighty-less strict parliamentary election process as with staff member selection; however, off-game requirements are only voluntary, but are encouraged to make the Commissioner feel more like a staff member.  Commissioners can only appoint one Deputy (or rather, Deputy Constable) for themselves -- however, they can still [and are encouraged to] work with other Deputies in law enforcement, disaster recovery, or building activities.
• Deputy Constables are a variant of the Deputy class appointed by a Commissioner rather than a Moderator.  They are functionally the same as standard Deputies, but are equipped and managed by their Commissioner primarily.  There can only be one Deputy Constable per Commissioner.
• With the addition of the law enforcement Survival classes, the staff member class will mainly serve as the kind of “military wing” for the server, assisting with high level enforcement (such as bans), disaster relief, and advanced-scale building projects.  
  Staff members are not meant to act as personal butlers for players (Deputies are allowed to do this within reason), but they can assist players, Deputies and Commissioners with unique tasks at their own discretion.  However, staff members are encouraged to delegate minor tasks (such as item repair, teleports, resizing, and touring) to Deputies and Commissioners as much as possible, to enhance teamwork.  In addition to their pre-existing powers, all staff members will be granted at least chat access in Console, which should prove more feasible on a mobile device than Dynamap.  Staff members will also be allowed exclusive access to chat logs, map downloads and building schematics, though the latter can still be offered to Survival players as a paid service.  Due to the greater powers, staff will have to abide by stricter requirements of participation and communication – if a staff member neither participates nor communicates his or her whereabouts within a 3-month span, he or she can be demoted to a Survival player status (and require re-application to regain staff staff status).
• The base staff member class is the Moderator class, which encompasses the powers and responsibilities traditional to Opped players in vanilla Minecraft (minus some administrative powers such as /stop).  In addition to these powers, Moderators are allowed to appoint Deputy players (again, up to a maximum of 3), and can create custom NBT-edited items for distribution to Deputies and Commissioners, games, shops, and quests (though the maximum attribute power level should not exceed 25, unless otherwise exempted).  Moderators are also the first class of players who are allowed Command Block editing access – however, participation in Command Block Contraption building is purely voluntary.  Via Console, Moderators will have permission to the chat window, but nothing else (including FTP access) – but they can still request chat logs on request, or through a scheduled archival dump (to be determined).
• The new higher-level staff member class is called the Field Moderator class, and is closer to the definition of a Minecraft Admin on other servers.  Field Moderators are allowed the use of all in-game commands, and are allowed access to Chat, Command and FTP access in Console.  Field Moderators are by and large more technically-capable, builder-centric and motivated than Moderators, and as such are entrusted to assist with the day-to-day “geekery” of server administration.  As such, participation in Command Block Contraption building is even more voluntary, and Field Moderators will also be expected to assist with the setup and testing of new mod capabilities.  In exchange, Field Moderators will also be allowed the most in-game and off-game perks of all server players.
• Finally, we have the server Owners (Cayfie and myself, Ciabatta), who have all Field Moderator abilities, plus all technical capabilities on Console, including the ability to perform MCEdit maintenance updates.  Owners will also be chiefly responsible for maintaining external resource sites such as the forums, the blog and documentation, although of course in-game Moderators will continue to have a hand in their operation as well.  An Owner’s participation in daily server activities is purely voluntarily, but likely much appreciated by players and staff alike.  :)
  
• To assist with transitioning efforts, almost all current staff members will retain their Moderator positions in this new setup, and will simply be asked to abide by new communication requirements (to be determined) and hopefully elect new Deputies.  Those that will be purged from the roster include legacy opped-players that have never joined the Sister Server, or have not actively participated in or communicated with any of the staff in months, thus forfeiting their positions.  New staff members will be nominated and voted on to take their place, either as new active staff members or Commissioners.
• Depending on the success of the Big Sister server over the course of the year, we may get a new backup server called the “Little Brother” server that will serve as the new experimental test build for new builds, mods and technology.  This server will be hosted on a different site, and will not be expensive as this will not be intended for mass-use (at best, emergency use during the occasional server outage).
• No donations will be necessary to maintain the server operation (either Big Sister or Little Brother). However, a tip-jar style favor system may be implemented if players would like to express their appreciation for my work.  Only tips below $2 USD per player per month will be allowed (if possible) – however, we can look into the possibility of having this translate to an in-game perk, such as additional cheese, or an off-game good such as a digital artwork download.
• And finally, a polling will be done to attempt to create a new server Anime-style mascot, one for the Big Sister server, and another for a potential Little Brother server.  This is to assist me in branding documentation and giving players a lovable, memorable and permanent symbol to associate our server(s) with.

If you have any other questions, please email me primarily (ciabatta.sylvia@gmail.com) -- or contact me in-game, on the forums, on the blog or via Steam if that is available to you.  

Thank you!