Hey, everyone - we've got an exciting announcement for those of you who play (or wish to play) on our Beta 1.7.3 server!
The registration requirement has been removed - all users now default to Member! If you logged in previously and find yourself in the old Guest spawn, just do /spawn to start playing!
If you happen to experience any grief, be sure to let a Moderator or above know as soon as possible so we can get it rolled back - we've got proper backup and rollback plugins in place now, ensuring that any damage done by griefers can be properly rolled back.
For those of you curious as to why we had this system in place - and why it took so long to finally deal with it, keep reading. Otherwise, feel free to stop here and hop on the server!
We had initially implemented this system due to repeated griefs that kept happening on our Beta 1.7.3 server. This normally wouldn't be a big deal - in theory, undoing the damage would be as simple as rolling things back. Unfortunately, the plugin we were using for rollback, HawkEye, was having a great deal of trouble - and would often fail to roll things back properly. As such, virtually every rollback had to be done, at least in part, by hand.
Eventually, we decided to implement forced registration as a temporary stop-gap, to limit grief damage going forward. This was supposed to be a relatively brief solution, while we sought out a replacement rollback plugin. At the time, it seemed that the best option would've been LogBlock - but we were unable to locate a compatible version for Beta 1.7.3. As such, we left the registration system in place for a while yet.
Recently, however, we decided to look again - and while we did locate a proper jar for LogBlock, it wasn't able to connect to our database server. Despite this, we now at least know a version of the plugin that could work - and as a result, we were able to locate the original source code, get it patched up to work with our database server, and get it running.
Along with this, we've recently implemented daily backups - adding another layer of protection to the server. As such, we feel confident now that we can, at long last, lift this admittedly awful system from the server. It's hard to say what this system has cost us in terms of getting folks to stick around - but hey, better late than never, right?
At any rate - if you're looking to hop on, you can do so now at b173.chaoticunited.net - no registration necessary!