Quote from zorrothefoxThis is going to sound kind of simple, but for us it really works.
Just ask for donations. Don't give anything out as a reward except maybe a green name or something, or a designation to show that you donated. The EULA says that kind of thing is OK. Remind people every now and again that if there is no money there will be no server. And send thank you notes to people who do give money.
I realize that this may not work with little children, but I'm not so sure little children should be pestering their parents to donate money to minecraft servers anyway. As players get older, into their teens, they have money, and they need to start thinking about taking responsibility, and that designation or green name is a reminder that some people do take responsibility and maybe you should too. If some of your players are adults, and even kid servers often have some adult players, they will step up and donate if they value the community and the experience. If some of your players are disabled adults who don't have money, well, you shouldn't be trying to get money from them anyway.
This is all we do at our server, we've been doing it for almost three years, and we have money in the bank, over three months ahead. And no, we don't have any big donors. It comes in small pieces.
And if you want to make more than just cover host fees? Well, stop doing it. Get a real job.
I totally agree. If you are trying to make a profit from hosting a server, you are doing it wrong.
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We have been with ProvisionHost for several years and were very happy with them. They do have excellent service. But recently they moved us from Toronto to New York (which is fine, who cares) and our speed went down drastically. On my gaming machine I dropped from 120+ fps to like 75. 75 is fast enough to play the game, but the catch is, most of my players have less energetic hardware, and the speed drop was universal. Everyone went down. (Provision says they are now "offering better performance for all clients!" This has not been our experience!!!) I know one other of their clients, and they have experienced the same drop in speed, at least when I play there, to the extent that I MUST use my gaming computer, my regular computer just will not work. This might be my California location, but there are a lot of people in California.
We need very good service. This is where hosting companies either work or they don't. That means responses to trouble tickets 24/7. I prefer the McMyAdmin control panel (if only because it's the one I'm familiar with). Currently most of my players are in California, but we'd like to be accessible to the whole US. Toronto worked fine for us, so location isn't that important. Not Europe, please. SSD, MySQL, FTP access, and so forth, the usual. I want to log on and see 120+ fps on my gaming computer, not 75 plus excuses.
Money (in reasonable quantities) is not a problem for us.
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Just ask for donations. Don't give anything out as a reward except maybe a green name or something, or a designation to show that you donated. The EULA says that kind of thing is OK. Remind people every now and again that if there is no money there will be no server. And send thank you notes to people who do give money.
I realize that this may not work with little children, but I'm not so sure little children should be pestering their parents to donate money to minecraft servers anyway. As players get older, into their teens, they have money, and they need to start thinking about taking responsibility, and that designation or green name is a reminder that some people do take responsibility and maybe you should too. If some of your players are adults, and even kid servers often have some adult players, they will step up and donate if they value the community and the experience. If some of your players are disabled adults who don't have money, well, you shouldn't be trying to get money from them anyway.
This is all we do at our server, we've been doing it for almost three years, and we have money in the bank, over three months ahead. And no, we don't have any big donors. It comes in small pieces.
And if you want to make more than just cover host fees? Well, stop doing it. Get a real job.
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We have had I think five different hosts, two of whom suddenly vanished without a trace, and the others made massive messes of other kinds. It's a rough world out there in minecrafthost-land, and there are a lot of flakes. ProvisionHost has always been a diamond among cobblestones. Anyone reading this is welcome to PM me if they want to hear more.
I'm glad you guys got the website running again, and I am very reassured.
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You've been a good hosting service and I hope that continues, but you will lose clients unnecessarily over this as people try to reach client support, fail, and draw the wrong conclusions.
And no, I'm not going to chase you all over and follow your Twitter feed. It is yours to keep in touch with us.
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This world has been up since January 2012 and there are no plans to take it down, though we do expand it from time to time. Greylisted. Log on and take a look; you must be authorized by a mod to build.
Griefers and thieves are immediately ejected and the damage repaired via logblock. Grief is almost unheard-of. If you're tired of dealing with immaturity and you're tired of having your builds griefed, this is the place for you. Don't be surprised if everyone runs up and gives you stuff as soon as you are authorized.
mc.digstraightdown.com
Map: mc.digstraightdown.com:8123
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Someone knowledgeable please come to our assistance!!