I hate writing about this stuff. Trust me...I wish we could just keep this website full of pictures of people building blocky penises and stuff, but let's drop it down to real talk.

The server isn't super expensive, but it is costly. Way way back when we were hosted by a company called Servercraft, who by and large had 8/10 service, with like 3/10 management tools. The lag wasn't too bad and we had a ton of storage...it's just our hands were tied a lot to fix things due to their limited interface. That cost us $45 a month. While we got donations, and we "get" ad revenue from here (they only pay out $100 at a time...we're at like $65 for all time), for the first long time IMGArY ate all the costs, and since then I did. And for sure, I don't mind it, to be fully honest my wife and I are getting ready to sell our house and buy a new one so I'd love to cut costs, but I'm not starving paying for this now.

So we looked into some ways to cut costs. When servercraft finally crapped out for the last time, I hosted it from my house for a while. It ran fine, was hosted more purely (we had fine-tuned control of things), but it lagged for some people. Also, comcast started throttling me so netflix got slow...so it was not a long term solution.

We decided to switch to a VPS (a blank server hosted by someone else) and brought cncr04s in as owner, since he has tons of experience with VPS's. And the one we chose meets the minimum specs we use, for $30 bucks a month, which is great.

But it isn't that great. We get what we pay for...this server lags a lot. Cnc has diagnosed it as a combination of RAM problems, CPU time problems, and network problems. Basically, this server doesn't perform fully up to the specs it was advertised as all the time. It's pretty good, and the price can't be beat, but it's really not great.

I think everyone would agree we would be better served moving to a better server package, possibly with some other host. But it's not that easy. Let's say for SOLID guaranteed hosting...we should budget for like $60 a month. Great...I can't do that right now. And the problem with moving to more expensive hosting is, I would be eating the cost and just hoping donations rolled in to offset that cost. Do that math...it would be like $720 a year.

IMGArY and I will never recoup the back costs of running this server...and I can't speak for him, but I don't want to, I love playing and it was worth it. But, if we wanna up our hosting plan, I can't eat that cost myself. So here's what I'm asking...Playing will always be free and donations will NEVER be required, but if we set up $5 recurring paypal donations, would you sign up for that? If we knew we had, say, 12 people willing to do that a month...that covers a $60/month plan. I wanna get a feeler out there to see what our options would be moving forward and what we could possibly do.

If you take this poll, please direct other ppl here to take it too!

For some time now our member lvdarkwolf has been making an epic castle, its being constructed stone by stone with inspiration from the original Castle Estel created by Revolve.
She feels its time to show it off to the rest of the world.

Click read more, for more pictures, Its best to view the video in a new window. "Watch on Youtube"
Images and video captured by cncr04s.

Read more »

Hey guys! If you don't mind, I need everyone who has become something other than noob on the server to fill out this form. It should take too long. (At least, I hope it doesn't.) Thanks! (In case you were wondering, I'm making a database of all teh3l3m3nts users.)

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dE1iQWM4NGl2WHZyMzJiTVVfb0J2OVE6MQ#gid=0

UPDATE: Here's who has entered their data so far:

cncr04s
sbrough10
surfrock66
Baseaball536
merijnwouda
Morate
Overjoyed_Worm
pigeonsnackwrap
pirate06
potpourri
ThatGuy2780
tubbellebunk
petrispier
shelbie8

Thanks guys! Unfortunately, this means that only 14 people who play on the server have entered their data in to the form. If you see anyone who hasn't done it yet, tell them that if they don't, I will be unhappy. And when I'm unhappy, everyone is unhappy.

Update:  so im back as pirate06 again, dont know what the hell happned still but at least i have it back :D yay back to 6 accounts :D

ok so here is the lowdown,

i tried logging on today as pirate06 as usual, however something odd happned, i couldnt log on, so i went to minecraft.net to see what was happeneing and its says that account has migrated. i am majorly pissed at the moment, i dont know what the hells going on. So apparently pirate06 doesnt exist anymore and ive used that profile for well over a year, ill be playing as surfrock666 or velvet_winter for the time being until this is sorted, i am so angry at the moment arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

2012-01-23 12:25:14 [INFO] rtkermit: SURF!
2012-01-23 12:25:20 [INFO] rtkermit: what have u been doing?
2012-01-23 12:25:28 [INFO] wilson: stabing himeself
2012-01-23 12:25:31 [INFO] AmateurProctologistOfSurfs_Surf: I'm home with a severe eye injury :(
2012-01-23 12:25:33 [INFO] Zeeco: yh, lol
2012-01-23 12:25:48 [INFO] Zeeco: how did you manage to do that?
2012-01-23 12:25:57 [INFO] rtkermit: what u do to your eye? i always told u to watch those cum shots
2012-01-23 12:25:59 [INFO] Zeeco: a wire into your eye
2012-01-23 12:26:01 [INFO] AmateurProctologistOfSurfs_Surf: lol
2012-01-23 12:26:13 [INFO] AmateurProctologistOfSurfs_Surf: poked it with ai wire I was pulling out of a drawer that snapped at me
2012-01-23 12:26:21 [INFO] MushroomKing_Premium: ow :(
2012-01-23 12:26:27 [INFO] Zeeco: ouch
2012-01-23 12:26:32 [INFO] rtkermit: are u able to see?
2012-01-23 12:26:35 [INFO] AmateurProctologistOfSurfs_Surf: had to go to the ER
2012-01-23 12:26:39 [INFO] Zeeco: he's blind
2012-01-23 12:26:41 [INFO] wilson: no he cant see anything
2012-01-23 12:26:42 [INFO] AmateurProctologistOfSurfs_Surf: almost punctured the eye
2012-01-23 12:26:44 [INFO] Zeeco: :D
2012-01-23 12:26:52 [INFO] Zeeco: sheet
2012-01-23 12:26:55 [INFO] rtkermit: wait your blind?
2012-01-23 12:26:57 [INFO] Zeeco: that gotta hurt
2012-01-23 12:26:59 [INFO] wilson: yep
2012-01-23 12:27:01 [INFO] MushroomKing_Premium: that sound sounds nasty
2012-01-23 12:27:02 [INFO] Zeeco: yh
2012-01-23 12:27:03 [INFO] AmateurProctologistOfSurfs_Surf: in one eye for 3 days :/
2012-01-23 12:27:10 [INFO] wilson: no in both eyes
2012-01-23 12:27:10 [INFO] rtkermit: o only 3 days
2012-01-23 12:27:21 [INFO] Zeeco: yh, like wilson said
2012-01-23 12:27:21 [INFO] AmateurProctologistOfSurfs_Surf: I'm blind and deaf actually
2012-01-23 12:27:23 [INFO] AmateurProctologistOfSurfs_Surf: completely
2012-01-23 12:27:32 [INFO] rtkermit: HELLEN KELLER
2012-01-23 12:27:32 [INFO] AmateurProctologistOfSurfs_Surf: I'm playing minecraft with the hot new hellen keller interface
2012-01-23 12:27:38 [INFO] rtkermit: :D
2012-01-23 12:27:39 [INFO] Zeeco: Siri
2012-01-23 12:27:39 [INFO] wilson: he has his wife writing in brail for him
2012-01-23 12:27:43 [INFO] Zeeco: for iPhone
2012-01-23 12:27:44 [INFO] AmateurProctologistOfSurfs_Surf: I just say "wah wah" and things go
2012-01-23 12:27:48 [INFO] wilson: of what we are saying
2012-01-23 12:27:49 [INFO] AmateurProctologistOfSurfs_Surf: I have no idea what I'm doing