This post is written as an informative post, to inform people about a decision that affects them as well as to provide an alternative side to some comments about me, and about a mutual deal that was reached between a user. This is an explanation and a response to these extremely distasteful and unsavory comments, as well as very unfair in nature.
The Lolnet Economy
The economy forms both one of the key backbones of Lolnet and is one of the things that offers an attraction to users, to keep them interested in the game and give them goals and things to achieve. We take pride in being one of the New Zealand servers that runs a very successful economy model (For instance, 72 people online for the opening of Buymore), unlike some other New Zealand servers, where an economy doesn't exist in a server run basis, or where they charge you for the privilege of being able to change your hard work and effort for money. An economy done rightly offers people a challenge and adds an exciting experience to Minecraft gameplay. A poorly designed economy does none of this, instead allowing money to flow freely and for the game to become un-challenging and losing an aspect of what makes Minecraft, well Minecraft.
As the Admin who primarily takes responsibility for this area of gameplay, I take pride in knowing that I try to build an economy where people have to work, and work hard for what they earn, they have to pump endless hours into activities so that they produce a worthwhile profit at the end of the day. As hopefully you recognize, a well designed, well controlled and police economy not only makes the game fun, but keeps it fair for everyone.
Some rules are needed to make this happen, like ensuring Donators act properly, and that people are not given unfair advantages from staff to enable them to make a profit.
Here we arrive at the crux of the matter. A well respected member of Lolnet who has worked hard to build a farm that earns him a passive income of $70,000 a day. Conservatively, that equates to roughly $200,000 a week, or around $800,000 a month. Under the new economy these are large sums of money, because most people have to work hard to achieve a profit.
Whats the issue here? Well to get this passive income, he received special assistance from Staff, who did wanding of an area of around 4 million blocks, approximately half of this requiring the removal of around 2 million blocks. Ever tried asking a staff member to do this for you? I imagine no would be the response. This is why this is considered unfair and a privilege entitled to him, but not regular users.
This user is being entitled to money, totaling over $200,000 a week, which work for was not done solely by himself. The user has been entitled to money that other users would not be able to be earned because he is a friend of staff members and so he got something done from them.
What precedent is there for this? User who have built farms in creative previously have had those removed, as well as a standard no wanding rule for farms has been typically enforced since this issues originally occurred around the middle of last year.
With all of the above facts in mind, I reached the conclusion that the only thing fair to do was to remove the advantage that had been unfairly granted to him, leaving his farm in tact but otherwise returning the area around it into its natural state. The user bulked at that suggestion, under the pretense that he believe that this is an injustice, and something that is unfair to him.
After heated discussion a compromise solution was forged, offering him options for either a 70% tax rate, or to pay for the wanding at $0.50 each, totalling approximately 1 million dollars within 14 days (This originally started at 7). I believe that I made a genuine concession in light of the users work and effort as well as his contribution to the server.
However despite this, charge, being for work done by staff to him, to make it fair, the users continues to claim he has received an injustice34. I beg to differ. I believe the user by taking his stance is unfair to all the hardworking people of Lolnet who work hard to earn their money and get no special favours done by staff. Instead the response by this user is to complain about this and then say that he is being unfairly treated.
What I am doing is standing up for balance and fairness in the economy. Ensuring that all users are treated fairly. Allowing $200,000 a week to enter the economy that is not legitimately gained I feel is unfair, and I would not be a responsible Admin to stop this from occurring. This user feels outraged at his treatment, for reasons unbeknown to me, where other users would be treated the same, or even more harshly than he has been. I find his actions and his respect for the effort, work that people in the community put in to be very poor, as he at the same time, whinges about the situation he finds himself in, being asked to pay for unfair treatment provided to him.
This situation is not driven out of some ill-conceived hate for the user, but my attempts to protect the time and effort people invest on the server, and respecting those who put in significant time and effort, also known as all law-abiding users of Lolnet.
I find these users attempts to discredit me, my decision and his view of my decision as an injustice to be very poor to the standard I had held this person to.
This is my way of presenting my view of the case, and to provide an alternative view for people to consider when they make this decision for this case. I ask that people carefully consider the impact of $200,000 a week entering the economy, and ask users to consider how this devalues the hard work and effort that the people of Lolnet commit to, inside the server that we provide.
This is not an injustice against the user, but his reckless regard reflects a lack of respect for the community of Lolnet as a whole.
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Usually I would never say this in a post, but for those of you that took the time to read and consider this, I thank you for your time and patience for reading such a lengthy piece of writing. I feel I need to clearly justify my decision and outline it, so that users can see there is clear reasoning for any decision being made.
The Lolnet Economy
The economy forms both one of the key backbones of Lolnet and is one of the things that offers an attraction to users, to keep them interested in the game and give them goals and things to achieve. We take pride in being one of the New Zealand servers that runs a very successful economy model (For instance, 72 people online for the opening of Buymore), unlike some other New Zealand servers, where an economy doesn't exist in a server run basis, or where they charge you for the privilege of being able to change your hard work and effort for money. An economy done rightly offers people a challenge and adds an exciting experience to Minecraft gameplay. A poorly designed economy does none of this, instead allowing money to flow freely and for the game to become un-challenging and losing an aspect of what makes Minecraft, well Minecraft.
As the Admin who primarily takes responsibility for this area of gameplay, I take pride in knowing that I try to build an economy where people have to work, and work hard for what they earn, they have to pump endless hours into activities so that they produce a worthwhile profit at the end of the day. As hopefully you recognize, a well designed, well controlled and police economy not only makes the game fun, but keeps it fair for everyone.
Some rules are needed to make this happen, like ensuring Donators act properly, and that people are not given unfair advantages from staff to enable them to make a profit.
Here we arrive at the crux of the matter. A well respected member of Lolnet who has worked hard to build a farm that earns him a passive income of $70,000 a day. Conservatively, that equates to roughly $200,000 a week, or around $800,000 a month. Under the new economy these are large sums of money, because most people have to work hard to achieve a profit.
Whats the issue here? Well to get this passive income, he received special assistance from Staff, who did wanding of an area of around 4 million blocks, approximately half of this requiring the removal of around 2 million blocks. Ever tried asking a staff member to do this for you? I imagine no would be the response. This is why this is considered unfair and a privilege entitled to him, but not regular users.
This user is being entitled to money, totaling over $200,000 a week, which work for was not done solely by himself. The user has been entitled to money that other users would not be able to be earned because he is a friend of staff members and so he got something done from them.
What precedent is there for this? User who have built farms in creative previously have had those removed, as well as a standard no wanding rule for farms has been typically enforced since this issues originally occurred around the middle of last year.
With all of the above facts in mind, I reached the conclusion that the only thing fair to do was to remove the advantage that had been unfairly granted to him, leaving his farm in tact but otherwise returning the area around it into its natural state. The user bulked at that suggestion, under the pretense that he believe that this is an injustice, and something that is unfair to him.
After heated discussion a compromise solution was forged, offering him options for either a 70% tax rate, or to pay for the wanding at $0.50 each, totalling approximately 1 million dollars within 14 days (This originally started at 7). I believe that I made a genuine concession in light of the users work and effort as well as his contribution to the server.
However despite this, charge, being for work done by staff to him, to make it fair, the users continues to claim he has received an injustice34. I beg to differ. I believe the user by taking his stance is unfair to all the hardworking people of Lolnet who work hard to earn their money and get no special favours done by staff. Instead the response by this user is to complain about this and then say that he is being unfairly treated.
What I am doing is standing up for balance and fairness in the economy. Ensuring that all users are treated fairly. Allowing $200,000 a week to enter the economy that is not legitimately gained I feel is unfair, and I would not be a responsible Admin to stop this from occurring. This user feels outraged at his treatment, for reasons unbeknown to me, where other users would be treated the same, or even more harshly than he has been. I find his actions and his respect for the effort, work that people in the community put in to be very poor, as he at the same time, whinges about the situation he finds himself in, being asked to pay for unfair treatment provided to him.
This situation is not driven out of some ill-conceived hate for the user, but my attempts to protect the time and effort people invest on the server, and respecting those who put in significant time and effort, also known as all law-abiding users of Lolnet.
I find these users attempts to discredit me, my decision and his view of my decision as an injustice to be very poor to the standard I had held this person to.
This is my way of presenting my view of the case, and to provide an alternative view for people to consider when they make this decision for this case. I ask that people carefully consider the impact of $200,000 a week entering the economy, and ask users to consider how this devalues the hard work and effort that the people of Lolnet commit to, inside the server that we provide.
This is not an injustice against the user, but his reckless regard reflects a lack of respect for the community of Lolnet as a whole.
---
Usually I would never say this in a post, but for those of you that took the time to read and consider this, I thank you for your time and patience for reading such a lengthy piece of writing. I feel I need to clearly justify my decision and outline it, so that users can see there is clear reasoning for any decision being made.
