DO NOT ASK FOR SOMEONE TO PAY FOR YOUR SERVER AND EXPECT TO STILL OWN IT
(If you can't afford one, don't bother. You aren't ready. I'm sick of seeing threads where people want others to throw money at a server just so they can have a rank without applying to another server.)
My goal with this is to make the Server Recruitment section great again,
and to become the most in-depth guide on these forums.
On the subject of Staff Members
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
I am going to start on the subject of Finding Staff Members
First off, you are going to want to figure out the staff ranks you want to have, this can be very interesting to setup. You are going to need to think about the permissions each rank will have and what each rank is required to do.
For example:
Administrator: The Administrator role is reliable to keeping the server running, replying to reports of cheaters etc.
Moderator: The Moderator role is reliable for keeping chat clean, replying to reports of cheaters etc.
Helper: The Helper role is reliable for helping people in chat and muting innapropriate users.
Please note a developer is someone who codes plugins, they are not someone that configures plugins.
A plugin configurator is called a "Plugin Specialist" please keep this in mind when recruiting.
(Remember never give anyone console or FTP access)
Try to avoid promoting staff members to higher ranks unless they are fully trustworthy, they are usually given more permissions which could potentially destroy your community.
Now lets move on to actually finding staff members,
Finding staff can be very easy, though finding good staff members is very hard. Splitting the good ones from the bad ones can often be a daunting task.
Applications are a great way of filtering people out, but doing it right is a difficult task. (I am in no way a master of applications, I am just suggesting ways to help you out)
Generally having a longer application will stop younger people from filling it, but this could be an issue as you may allow a younger audience to become staff on your server. Trying to balance this could be a huge issue for you.
Try to go for roughly 5-8 questions if you want a younger age group of staff members, and roughly 9-16 questions for a more "mature" age group. Don't get me wrong, some younger people are mature. I have worked with younger people and they were very mature about it.
Though more questions could be useful for filtering even more people out, you are limiting who will apply. I myself would never apply for a server/network with more than 15 questions, this varies from person to person.
If you would like a template for an application here you go:
(The first four questions can generally be considered as one question, (under the title of "Basic Information or "Personal Information") its totally up to you, in this situation they are seperate questions)
Minecraft Username: (You will usually need this for whitelisting and just knowing it helps)
Timezone: (Its always nice to what area of the world your staff members are at)
Twitter/Youtube Link: (Time to find out what type of person they really are, look at all previous posts and find out if they have the personality you are after)
How old are you?:(This would be to filter out any age group you don't want for whatever reason)
How much time are you able to contribute to this role?: (Finding out someones availability will help in a tremendous way, usually 2-3 hours a day is a good start, any less I would never personally consider. Its really up to you on this one)
Have you ever been banned or punished on any servers? If so include details: (Its great to get someones background before hiring them, you can at least keep an eye on them and see if they continue on with their habits)
Have you had any experience as a staff member on past servers?:
(Instead of just stopping on this question, elaborate on it, this is a really good question, if you want experienced staff this is the way to go.)
If so, what servers have you been a staff member on?: (You will find a few people may say they have been staff on servers like Hypixel and Mineplex, half the time this isn't true. This can be consider a bad question but combined with the next question this works perfectly fine)
Do you have evidence of being a staff member on them servers?: (Getting evidence for anything, is the greatest thing possible. This will help with trust. Don't always believe browser related evidence in screenshots. They can easily be edited.)
Contact methods:(Always give the applicant an option for more contact methods than the ones you require, you may find this useful if one way doesn't work)
Do not limit people to what they can put into their application. The amount of times I have seen people ask for a minimum word limit is rediculous. This could make people put in extra information that really isn't needed.
Lets move on to Choosing the Right Person
Choosing the right person from applications can be very hard, I would not recommend choosing the first person that applies. Yes they applied the fastest which probably shows they are interested, but they may not be the right person.
I recommend trying to find another person to help you with this process, if you can't find someone just send me a message with the following format and I will help you out the best I can:
Depending on the amount of messages I get, I may not be able to help you.
Server Name:
Link to where I can view applications:
Discord or Teamspeak 3 (I would prefer to verbally talk to you about applications):
What to do After the Application
Sometimes people just accept an application and invite the person to the server. DO NOT do this.
You may be thinking to yourself "but they passed the application stage why wouldn't I let them on the server?" You are right, they passed the application stage. That was to filter out the people you didn't want. Now its time to filter even more people out. Welcome to the interview stage, the hardest stage of all (for me that is). If you find it difficult to talk to strangers, why are you running a Minecraft Server in the first place? You will be doing it all the with your newly recruited staff members so don't worry too much.
The most difficult part of this stage is coming up with questions, NEVER go to an interview unprepared. If you are unprepared, the person you are interviewing may not want to join anymore and they could've been a really good candidate for your server. I recommend writing down questions beforehand, or even opening up notepad and putting your questions in there and saving them for multiple uses. It may be a good idea to mix up questions every now and then as you may find friends of friends will apply and try to copy answers.
I recommend writing down the answers the person gives you, or making a yes or no sheet to each question (If they don't answer the question correctly write no next to it. If they do answer it correctly, write yes.) You can then figure out if they are a good candidate from there.
If you need some questions to ask, I will give you a couple. You will most definetely need more.
You've muted a popular person, they have notified their friends and now they are spamming you to ask to unmute them. What would you do in this situation and why?
Why have you chosen this server? Why not another one?(Not always a great question)
When to Promote Staff Members
This is a very hard thing to figure out when you're first starting, when do you promote staff members?
There is a simple answer to this and a complicated answer. The simple one is, When you feel they are ready. This will be a horrible mistake though for about 80% of the time. Never promote a staff member at the beginning of their start. I've seen this happen too often, and its happened to me, I was promoted straight to Admin within 5 minutes just because I knew how to configure plugins. While yes, that could be a huge advantage for the server, anyone could say they can configure plugins when they actually can't.
You may think you know when someone is ready to be promoted, but you need to remember, You're better off talking with other Admins/Owners about the person and see if they have any disagreements. This is a really important step to take when promoting staff members. If they have done something wrong in the past few days, that should hinder their chances of being promoted.
Never promote someone that breaks rules, even if its really minor and only one time. The reason for this is it would feel like you are congratulating them on breaking a rule and they would probably continue to do so, and you would possibly lose a lot of players from this.
Do not promote staff members when there is very little players on the server. There is no reason to. Unless you see that your current higher ranking staff members can't deal with it. (You can promote them, but its not recommended)
When to Demote Staff Members
This is very easy to do compared to promoting, its as simple as if they break a rules demote them.
I only recommend demoting if they have done a serious rule break (Hacking or going off in chat etc).
You should also demote staff members when they start slacking off too much. They need to be kept on their toes at all times.
On the subject of Choosing a Gamemode
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
First things first, please do not create a normal factions server (Unless you have something new and innovative). There are plenty of factions servers already out there that will always be better than yours. You don't want something that is already out there, to get players you need something new.
A lot of people say "Oh my factions server is unique because it has custom enchants and crates and bosses etc". NO its not unique, how many servers out there already have all that? Hundreds. Don't expect many players if you do this. I recommend choosing another popular gamemode like Skywars, Bedwars or HCF (Hardcore Factions), they are currently trending and are huge gamemodes that can be super fun. If you don't like PvP maybe go for the Roleplay sort of server, they seem to be blooming at the moment as well. BUT, like I said before... don't do this if you don't have anything new or innovative.
On the subject of Spending/Starting Up
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
I'm going to teach you an effective way of managing your money and starting up your server
First things first though, please do not go ahead and buy a server without looking into things. This is a huge mistake a lot of server owners make.
Never buy a server first without having a game plan. You're now probably thinking what do you mean by "game plan".
You're going to need to plan everything out about the server,
What is your budget? (ex. $100 maximum per month)
Are you able to maintain your budget? (ex. If you have a budget of $100/month will you be able to keep paying that?)
What type of hosting will you use? (Slot Server, Dedicated Server, VPS etc)
Which host will you go with (MCProhosting, Shockbyte etc)
Do you want to become a network or solo server? (A network is multiple servers connect via bungeecord)
What gamemode are you choosing? (Skywars, Bedwars, Skyblock, TNT Run etc)
How are you going to make your gamemodes different? (List down ideas for each gamemode)
What ranks do you want? (VIP, MVP etc)
What permissions for each rank? (Just a general outline like "Jr.Moderator is a chat mod and will have mute/kick perms")
Why should players join your server? (What makes your server unique?)
What communication platform will you use? (Discord, Skype, Teamspeak 3 etc)
What website platform will you use? (Enjin, Xenforo, Nameless etc)
What donation platform will you use? (Buycraft, MinecraftMarket, Enjin etc)
Whats your expected player count? (ex. It doesn't have to be concurrent players, could just be a goal like "50")
How are you planning to advertise? (Are you going to pay youtubers? Hope to be seen on server lists?)
What server jar will you use? (Information listed below)
Here is some information on server jars:
When creating your server, you are going to want to choose a jar type.
Obviously, like everything else, this depends on what type of server you are creating.
For a vanilla server with no plugins, you will want to use the default jar file provided by minecraft.net.
For a server with plugins, you will want to use either Bukkit, Spigot or PaperSpigot
> Bukkit is now an outdated way of using plugins.
> Spigot is an optimised version of bukkit.
> PaperSpigot is an optimised and overall highly more configurable way than Spigot. (Some plugins may not work)
For a modded server without plugins, you will want to use Forge.
For a modded server with plugins, you will want to use Sponge.
Here is a link to some of the things I have listed:
Please feel free to suggest more, I will most likely add them.
Now, once you have planned everything out you will want to start hiring some builders. If you can get a build team that has their own server, don't worry about buying a server yet! Home host a server for a little bit if you want to setup plugins and just FTP transfer the files at a later date. DO NOT buy a server until all the builds are done. Why you ask? Having an empty server is not worth your time. If the builds fail, at least you know you haven't really wasted your money. Unless you paid the build team of course.
Now once the builds are done, put all of them on the appropriate server(s) and begin working on plugins, if you had done so before on your home hosted computer transfer them now. Setup any minigames arenas, spawns etc.
Want an effective way to manage your money?
Put aside 2 months worth of payments towards the server as a backup, if you have to wait 2 months to even begin working on a server do so anyways. This is a huge advantage for yourself, you'll know if you can't afford the server for a month or two you are safe! If you don't want to, thats completely up to you, but thats just a safe way of managing server money.
Money for a website is a whole different story, are you going to be hosting a platform like Xenforo? You're going to require a web server. If you're going to go with a platform like Enjin, feel free to put money away for the premium version as well. Enjin premium is a little pricy though and you may be better off in the long run to go with a platform like Xenforo. Yes the license is expensive but its worth it, not only is it lifetime but you can reuse it for multiple game servers if you want, or if you start a hosting company or something in the future you can use it for that community.
On the subject of Permissions Systems
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Choosing the right permissions system is honestly an easy task that people make mistakes on.
Every permissions system has its advantages and disadvantages, its just a matter of what you require.
Some people feel like they shouldn't use a MYSQL based permission system because they only have one server, where in reality it has much better performance than a file-based permission system.
It has basically all the features a Network will ever need. All servers would be interlinked.
I do not recommend using outdated permissions system like Group Manager and PEX.
If you want to swap to Luck Perms from another permissions system you may be able to! Luck Perms has an integrated way of doing this.
You may feel like Luck Perms is really just for Networks, its not. It will work perfectly fine on single servers as well. Its just a matter of setting it up properly. I will not be teaching you how to setup permissions. Though if you would like to learn, there are plenty of tutorials on youtube and on these forums.
More Helpful Information Coming Soon!
Please suggest ideas/fixes to this thread. I am open to anything.
Hopefully this guide has helped people already! Thanks to Nacht, I may be starting a series on Youtube to help people starting a Minecraft Server and hopefully stop griefings and/or failing servers.
Changelog: Added Promoting and Demoting Staff Members
You should really add in that if you do not have a large budget you are going to fail. Nowadays it is mainly about advertising because there are so many servers that cover basically anything you could think of. If you don't have a large budget then you won't be able to advertise, therefore, meaning no players.
You should really add in that if you do not have a large budget you are going to fail. Nowadays it is mainly about advertising because there are so many servers that cover basically anything you could think of. If you don't have a large budget then you won't be able to advertise, therefore, meaning no players.
Thanks for your input, but I believe any server can succeed no matter the budget! They just need something unique and fun and players will flock to it like no tomorrow! For a general server like factions, yeah they need a larger budget purely because its not unique.
Thanks for your input, but I believe any server can succeed no matter the budget! They just need something unique and fun and players will flock to it like no tomorrow! For a general server like factions, yeah they need a larger budget purely because its not unique.
No, you're wrong. You clearly aren't aware of the servers in 2017. If you do not have a substantial budget to get your server out there, you will get nowhere.
No, you're wrong. You clearly aren't aware of the servers in 2017. If you do not have a substantial budget to get your server out there, you will get nowhere.
I have stated my opinion and will not argue with you.
For a free, good Minecraft server site software, I think that "Nameless" Minecraft Website Software ( https://www.spigotmc.org/threads/nameless-minecraft-website-software.34810/ ) is a good choice, it is a bit young (feature-wise), but with some minor edits, you could easily make it look better, and since its bootstrap its responsive and is great for on a budget. Especially since it can integrate in to the server.
For a free, good Minecraft server site software, I think that "Nameless" Minecraft Website Software ( https://www.spigotmc.org/threads/nameless-minecraft-website-software.34810/ ) is a good choice, it is a bit young (feature-wise), but with some minor edits, you could easily make it look better, and since its bootstrap its responsive and is great for on a budget. Especially since it can integrate in to the server.
Thanks for your input, I will add that to the list of "website platforms".
Another really popular gamemode at the moment is HCF. It's one of the most profitable and can get the a ton of players on SOTW. Also if you have the budget to spend on a youtuber don't pay a youtuber that has under 5k to upload videos for you, always go with youtubers over 5k! (Just dm on twitter most will respond!) As for web hosting look for cheap but reliable web hosting such as Fluctis or Bisect hosting. Instead of enjin I would recommend hiring a web developer to make a theme to go along with XenForo for your website. Another thing to do is make sure that your builds are custom! Players don't want to come onto a server that has pre-built builds! Another piece of advice would be to have a small but effective staff team. I see so many servers nowadays that have staff teams ranging from 15-40 members! That's just absurd due to the fact that your entire player base will be staff and it'll be to much chaos.
As for MineCraft hosting I wouldn't recommend MCPro or any of those really big hosting servers due to the fact that they are wayyyyyy over priced. I'd either recommend AnvilNode, they have amazing support time, 99% uptime and just amazing servers, or you could go with Bisect Hosting or an underground/upcoming host service. If you have the money though definitely buy a dedicated server or a vps from SoYouStart.com or OVH.com, they will make your server so much better!
A great website/forums for finding builders, gfx artists, setup specialists, or anything you can possible think of is; https://www.mc-market.org they have just about anything you could ask for!
Other than that it's a good guide Boxfinate!
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Director of the specialist team Turbo! If you need development, management, gfx, etc. then join us https://discord.gg/cXdvF49
I completely forgot about HCF, though you can probably see my hate towards factions servers, I will add this in anyways.
I will be adding in more information about Youtubers very shortely, I personally go for Youtubers with 25k+ subscribers. This is fully dependent on the budget though.
Thanks for the extra hosting websites, I will add them in very shortely.
I never will throw Enjin off the board just because some people can't afford a license straight up, which is completely understandable. I will add recommendations to hiring a web developer and how to hire one.
Custom builds is where I was sort of getting at in the Starting Up section, I might need to be a bit more clear about this. I definetely agree though pre-built servers aren't great at all.
I completely agree with starting out with a smaller staff team, it makes it way easier to communicate and manage. Newer servers definetely don't need 10+ staff members from the get-go.
The reason why I recommend MCProhosting is not because its just a good provider, but because I will be recommending every hosting company that gets suggested. Yes it may be expensive for some, but if they have the budget they are definetely a worthwhile host.
I will be adding MC-Market very shortely, they have some great services on there!
Thanks for all your input on this guide, you are contriibuting to making this section of the forums great again! Cheers.
Changelog: I added links to resources I have listed.
Would you mind sharing some things you disagree with? I wouldn't mind recieving other peoples feedback, I would rather do this guide right than wrong. I don't won't to lead people in the wrong direction.
I'm thankful you have taken your own route with your server. Its great to always have your own way of doing things.
The guide is more pointed towards beginners though who don't really know where to begin, other methods would also work fine. (I may even add some extra methods in the future)
I feel the current method I have posted is efficient enough for beginners.
I would've suggested, concerning administrative roles on a server (eg Admin, Mod etc..) to keep it simple to begin with. Having many ranks, Jr. Mod, Mod, Jr. Admin, Admin, Co Owner etc.. is not worth the hassle in the beginning. Selecting all the permissions for each rank is waste of time, it's worth adding the ranks when you've built up a decent player base - where it becomes hard to offer support at all times.
Well, your "would've suggested" is now a suggested. I will be updating the post very shortely with more information. I'm currently working on a Youtube video, as soon as that is complete I will update this post.
Another really popular gamemode at the moment is HCF. It's one of the most profitable and can get the a ton of players on SOTW. Also if you have the budget to spend on a youtuber don't pay a youtuber that has under 5k to upload videos for you, always go with youtubers over 5k! (Just dm on twitter most will respond!) As for web hosting look for cheap but reliable web hosting such as Fluctis or Bisect hosting. Instead of enjin I would recommend hiring a web developer to make a theme to go along with XenForo for your website. Another thing to do is make sure that your builds are custom! Players don't want to come onto a server that has pre-built builds! Another piece of advice would be to have a small but effective staff team. I see so many servers nowadays that have staff teams ranging from 15-40 members! That's just absurd due to the fact that your entire player base will be staff and it'll be to much chaos.
As for MineCraft hosting I wouldn't recommend MCPro or any of those really big hosting servers due to the fact that they are wayyyyyy over priced. I'd either recommend AnvilNode, they have amazing support time, 99% uptime and just amazing servers, or you could go with Bisect Hosting or an underground/upcoming host service. If you have the money though definitely buy a dedicated server or a vps from SoYouStart.com or OVH.com, they will make your server so much better!
A great website/forums for finding builders, gfx artists, setup specialists, or anything you can possible think of is; https://www.mc-market.org they have just about anything you could ask for!
Other than that it's a good guide Boxfinate!
A cheap VPS I would recommend is Contabo ( http://contabo.com ), they are in europe, so the ping may be too high if you don't have good internet (for me in Texas, on contabo servers, I normally get 100ms max), they are lower ish quality, but they are immensely cheaper than OVH and great for starting out, as its only 15 euros a month for 24gb ram ssd, which is plenty for a small network. I agree about OVH though, cheapest in north america, and great quality for the price!
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Developer, server management, system admin. You want it, I do it!
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
I am going to start on the subject of Finding Staff Members
First off, you are going to want to figure out the staff ranks you want to have, this can be very interesting to setup. You are going to need to think about the permissions each rank will have and what each rank is required to do.
For example:
Administrator: The Administrator role is reliable to keeping the server running, replying to reports of cheaters etc.
Moderator: The Moderator role is reliable for keeping chat clean, replying to reports of cheaters etc.
Helper: The Helper role is reliable for helping people in chat and muting innapropriate users.
Please note a developer is someone who codes plugins, they are not someone that configures plugins.
A plugin configurator is called a "Plugin Specialist" please keep this in mind when recruiting.
(Remember never give anyone console or FTP access)
Try to avoid promoting staff members to higher ranks unless they are fully trustworthy, they are usually given more permissions which could potentially destroy your community.
Now lets move on to actually finding staff members,
Finding staff can be very easy, though finding good staff members is very hard. Splitting the good ones from the bad ones can often be a daunting task.
Applications are a great way of filtering people out, but doing it right is a difficult task. (I am in no way a master of applications, I am just suggesting ways to help you out)
Generally having a longer application will stop younger people from filling it, but this could be an issue as you may allow a younger audience to become staff on your server. Trying to balance this could be a huge issue for you.
Try to go for roughly 5-8 questions if you want a younger age group of staff members, and roughly 9-16 questions for a more "mature" age group. Don't get me wrong, some younger people are mature. I have worked with younger people and they were very mature about it.
Though more questions could be useful for filtering even more people out, you are limiting who will apply. I myself would never apply for a server/network with more than 15 questions, this varies from person to person.
If you would like a template for an application here you go:
(The first four questions can generally be considered as one question, (under the title of "Basic Information or "Personal Information") its totally up to you, in this situation they are seperate questions)
Minecraft Username: (You will usually need this for whitelisting and just knowing it helps)
Timezone: (Its always nice to what area of the world your staff members are at)
Twitter/Youtube Link: (Time to find out what type of person they really are, look at all previous posts and find out if they have the personality you are after)
How old are you?: (This would be to filter out any age group you don't want for whatever reason)
How much time are you able to contribute to this role?: (Finding out someones availability will help in a tremendous way, usually 2-3 hours a day is a good start, any less I would never personally consider. Its really up to you on this one)
Have you ever been banned or punished on any servers? If so include details: (Its great to get someones background before hiring them, you can at least keep an eye on them and see if they continue on with their habits)
Have you had any experience as a staff member on past servers?:
(Instead of just stopping on this question, elaborate on it, this is a really good question, if you want experienced staff this is the way to go.)
If so, what servers have you been a staff member on?: (You will find a few people may say they have been staff on servers like Hypixel and Mineplex, half the time this isn't true. This can be consider a bad question but combined with the next question this works perfectly fine)
Do you have evidence of being a staff member on them servers?: (Getting evidence for anything, is the greatest thing possible. This will help with trust. Don't always believe browser related evidence in screenshots. They can easily be edited.)
Contact methods: (Always give the applicant an option for more contact methods than the ones you require, you may find this useful if one way doesn't work)
Do not limit people to what they can put into their application. The amount of times I have seen people ask for a minimum word limit is rediculous. This could make people put in extra information that really isn't needed.
Lets move on to Choosing the Right Person
Choosing the right person from applications can be very hard, I would not recommend choosing the first person that applies. Yes they applied the fastest which probably shows they are interested, but they may not be the right person.
I recommend trying to find another person to help you with this process, if you can't find someone just send me a message with the following format and I will help you out the best I can:
Depending on the amount of messages I get, I may not be able to help you.
Server Name:
Link to where I can view applications:
Discord or Teamspeak 3 (I would prefer to verbally talk to you about applications):
What to do After the Application
Sometimes people just accept an application and invite the person to the server. DO NOT do this.
You may be thinking to yourself "but they passed the application stage why wouldn't I let them on the server?" You are right, they passed the application stage. That was to filter out the people you didn't want. Now its time to filter even more people out. Welcome to the interview stage, the hardest stage of all (for me that is). If you find it difficult to talk to strangers, why are you running a Minecraft Server in the first place? You will be doing it all the with your newly recruited staff members so don't worry too much.
The most difficult part of this stage is coming up with questions, NEVER go to an interview unprepared. If you are unprepared, the person you are interviewing may not want to join anymore and they could've been a really good candidate for your server. I recommend writing down questions beforehand, or even opening up notepad and putting your questions in there and saving them for multiple uses. It may be a good idea to mix up questions every now and then as you may find friends of friends will apply and try to copy answers.
I recommend writing down the answers the person gives you, or making a yes or no sheet to each question (If they don't answer the question correctly write no next to it. If they do answer it correctly, write yes.) You can then figure out if they are a good candidate from there.
If you need some questions to ask, I will give you a couple. You will most definetely need more.
You've muted a popular person, they have notified their friends and now they are spamming you to ask to unmute them. What would you do in this situation and why?
Why have you chosen this server? Why not another one? (Not always a great question)
First things first, please do not create a normal factions server (Unless you have something new and innovative). There are plenty of factions servers already out there that will always be better than yours. You don't want something that is already out there, to get players you need something new.
A lot of people say "Oh my factions server is unique because it has custom enchants and crates and bosses etc". NO its not unique, how many servers out there already have all that? Hundreds. Don't expect many players if you do this. I recommend choosing another popular gamemode like Skywars, Bedwars or HCF (Hardcore Factions), they are currently trending and are huge gamemodes that can be super fun. If you don't like PvP maybe go for the Roleplay sort of server, they seem to be blooming at the moment as well. BUT, like I said before... don't do this if you don't have anything new or innovative.
I'm going to teach you an effective way of managing your money and starting up your server
First things first though, please do not go ahead and buy a server without looking into things. This is a huge mistake a lot of server owners make.
Never buy a server first without having a game plan. You're now probably thinking what do you mean by "game plan".
You're going to need to plan everything out about the server,
Here is some information on server jars:
When creating your server, you are going to want to choose a jar type.
Obviously, like everything else, this depends on what type of server you are creating.
For a vanilla server with no plugins, you will want to use the default jar file provided by minecraft.net.
For a server with plugins, you will want to use either Bukkit, Spigot or PaperSpigot
> Bukkit is now an outdated way of using plugins.
> Spigot is an optimised version of bukkit.
> PaperSpigot is an optimised and overall highly more configurable way than Spigot. (Some plugins may not work)
For a modded server without plugins, you will want to use Forge.
For a modded server with plugins, you will want to use Sponge.
Here is a link to some of the things I have listed:
Minecraft Hosting
MCProhosting: https://mcprohosting.com/
Shockbyte: https://shockbyte.com/
AnvilNode: https://www.anvilnode.com/
Fluctis Hosting: https://fluctishosting.com/
Bisect Hosting: https://www.bisecthosting.com/
Aquatis: https://aquatis.host/
Dedicated/VPS Hosting
OVH: https://www.ovh.com
AnvilNode: https://www.anvilnode.com/
So You Start: https://www.soyoustart.com
Contabo: https://contabo.com/
Communication
Discord: https://discordapp.com/
Skype: https://www.skype.com
Teamspeak 3: https://www.teamspeak.com/en/teamspeak3
Website Platforms
Enjin: https://www.enjin.com/
Xenforo: https://xenforo.com/
Nameless: https://www.spigotmc.org/threads/nameless-minecraft-website-software.34810/
Store Platforms
Buycraft: https://www.buycraft.net/
MinecraftMarket: https://www.minecraftmarket.com/
Enjin: https://www.enjin.com/
For Hiring Staff
Minecraft Forums: http://www.minecraftforum.net/forums/servers-java-edition/server-recruitment
MC-Market: http://www.mc-market.org/forums/recruitment-staff/
Please feel free to suggest more, I will most likely add them.
Now, once you have planned everything out you will want to start hiring some builders. If you can get a build team that has their own server, don't worry about buying a server yet! Home host a server for a little bit if you want to setup plugins and just FTP transfer the files at a later date. DO NOT buy a server until all the builds are done. Why you ask? Having an empty server is not worth your time. If the builds fail, at least you know you haven't really wasted your money. Unless you paid the build team of course.
Now once the builds are done, put all of them on the appropriate server(s) and begin working on plugins, if you had done so before on your home hosted computer transfer them now. Setup any minigames arenas, spawns etc.
Want an effective way to manage your money?
Put aside 2 months worth of payments towards the server as a backup, if you have to wait 2 months to even begin working on a server do so anyways. This is a huge advantage for yourself, you'll know if you can't afford the server for a month or two you are safe! If you don't want to, thats completely up to you, but thats just a safe way of managing server money.
Money for a website is a whole different story, are you going to be hosting a platform like Xenforo? You're going to require a web server. If you're going to go with a platform like Enjin, feel free to put money away for the premium version as well. Enjin premium is a little pricy though and you may be better off in the long run to go with a platform like Xenforo. Yes the license is expensive but its worth it, not only is it lifetime but you can reuse it for multiple game servers if you want, or if you start a hosting company or something in the future you can use it for that community.
Credits:
To a previous thread from 2013, I got the idea of creating a guide from this one. http://www.minecraftforum.net/forums/servers-java-edition/server-recruitment/630502-tips-and-tricks-on-finding-good-staff-for-your
To Hypixel's staff application format, I have used and modified some questions from there in this guide. https://hypixel.net/threads/guide-helper-application-format.345440/
To VoidPlayzz for giving me the suggestion to add budget/spending.
To NachtMC for the endless suggestions.
To Acurix for the hosting companys, gamemode, and just some other general input.
Hopefully this guide has helped people already! Thanks to Nacht, I may be starting a series on Youtube to help people starting a Minecraft Server and hopefully stop griefings and/or failing servers.
Changelog: Added Promoting and Demoting Staff Members
I love how you comment on every single thread, you're actually a useful person.
Thank you very much I'm trying to make this section of Minecraft Forums somewhat a better place.
You should probably add a little bit about budget usage / spending.
Thanks for the input, I was planning to add this very soon.
Is there anything in particular that you would love to have added about budgeting?
Changelog: Added Spending & Starting Up
Thanks to VoidPlayzz for the suggestion.
You should really add in that if you do not have a large budget you are going to fail. Nowadays it is mainly about advertising because there are so many servers that cover basically anything you could think of. If you don't have a large budget then you won't be able to advertise, therefore, meaning no players.
Thanks for your input, but I believe any server can succeed no matter the budget! They just need something unique and fun and players will flock to it like no tomorrow! For a general server like factions, yeah they need a larger budget purely because its not unique.
No, you're wrong. You clearly aren't aware of the servers in 2017. If you do not have a substantial budget to get your server out there, you will get nowhere.
I have stated my opinion and will not argue with you.
For a free, good Minecraft server site software, I think that "Nameless" Minecraft Website Software ( https://www.spigotmc.org/threads/nameless-minecraft-website-software.34810/ ) is a good choice, it is a bit young (feature-wise), but with some minor edits, you could easily make it look better, and since its bootstrap its responsive and is great for on a budget. Especially since it can integrate in to the server.
Developer, server management, system admin. You want it, I do it!
Thanks for your input, I will add that to the list of "website platforms".
Another really popular gamemode at the moment is HCF. It's one of the most profitable and can get the a ton of players on SOTW. Also if you have the budget to spend on a youtuber don't pay a youtuber that has under 5k to upload videos for you, always go with youtubers over 5k! (Just dm on twitter most will respond!) As for web hosting look for cheap but reliable web hosting such as Fluctis or Bisect hosting. Instead of enjin I would recommend hiring a web developer to make a theme to go along with XenForo for your website. Another thing to do is make sure that your builds are custom! Players don't want to come onto a server that has pre-built builds! Another piece of advice would be to have a small but effective staff team. I see so many servers nowadays that have staff teams ranging from 15-40 members! That's just absurd due to the fact that your entire player base will be staff and it'll be to much chaos.
As for MineCraft hosting I wouldn't recommend MCPro or any of those really big hosting servers due to the fact that they are wayyyyyy over priced. I'd either recommend AnvilNode, they have amazing support time, 99% uptime and just amazing servers, or you could go with Bisect Hosting or an underground/upcoming host service. If you have the money though definitely buy a dedicated server or a vps from SoYouStart.com or OVH.com, they will make your server so much better!
A great website/forums for finding builders, gfx artists, setup specialists, or anything you can possible think of is; https://www.mc-market.org they have just about anything you could ask for!
Other than that it's a good guide Boxfinate!
Director of the specialist team Turbo! If you need development, management, gfx, etc. then join us https://discord.gg/cXdvF49
Thank you Acurix for your input!
I completely forgot about HCF, though you can probably see my hate towards factions servers, I will add this in anyways.
I will be adding in more information about Youtubers very shortely, I personally go for Youtubers with 25k+ subscribers. This is fully dependent on the budget though.
Thanks for the extra hosting websites, I will add them in very shortely.
I never will throw Enjin off the board just because some people can't afford a license straight up, which is completely understandable. I will add recommendations to hiring a web developer and how to hire one.
Custom builds is where I was sort of getting at in the Starting Up section, I might need to be a bit more clear about this. I definetely agree though pre-built servers aren't great at all.
I completely agree with starting out with a smaller staff team, it makes it way easier to communicate and manage. Newer servers definetely don't need 10+ staff members from the get-go.
The reason why I recommend MCProhosting is not because its just a good provider, but because I will be recommending every hosting company that gets suggested. Yes it may be expensive for some, but if they have the budget they are definetely a worthwhile host.
I will be adding MC-Market very shortely, they have some great services on there!
Thanks for all your input on this guide, you are contriibuting to making this section of the forums great again! Cheers.
Changelog: I added links to resources I have listed.
Thanks for replying to my guide.
Would you mind sharing some things you disagree with? I wouldn't mind recieving other peoples feedback, I would rather do this guide right than wrong. I don't won't to lead people in the wrong direction.
Thanks for clarifying that for me.
I'm thankful you have taken your own route with your server. Its great to always have your own way of doing things.
The guide is more pointed towards beginners though who don't really know where to begin, other methods would also work fine. (I may even add some extra methods in the future)
I feel the current method I have posted is efficient enough for beginners.
Well, your "would've suggested" is now a suggested. I will be updating the post very shortely with more information. I'm currently working on a Youtube video, as soon as that is complete I will update this post.
I've decided to cancel the Youtube Series idea, I've figured out I just won't have the time for it.
I will continue to update this guide.
A cheap VPS I would recommend is Contabo ( http://contabo.com ), they are in europe, so the ping may be too high if you don't have good internet (for me in Texas, on contabo servers, I normally get 100ms max), they are lower ish quality, but they are immensely cheaper than OVH and great for starting out, as its only 15 euros a month for 24gb ram ssd, which is plenty for a small network. I agree about OVH though, cheapest in north america, and great quality for the price!
Developer, server management, system admin. You want it, I do it!