So long, and thanks for all the fish

Discussion in 'Staff Goodbyes' started by TnT, Aug 21, 2014.

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    TnT

    With a heavy heart, I must say goodbye to Bukkit. Bukkit has been a huge part of my life for the past 3 and a half years, and one chapter I am sad to close. My start with Bukkit was as a regular community member seeking out a server mod to use to replace hMod, so I could run my own small private server (I think all I wanted was Teleportation at the time, which hMod allowed). This evolved into writing tutorials on running a CraftBukkit server (as there were very few at the time), and spending countless hours in Bukkit Help spreading my knowledge to those Server Admins who needed support getting their server running, or diagnosing their problems. Bukkit Help became my personal stomping ground as I became intimately aware of all changes going on with CraftBukkit from a Server Admin point of view. Those interactions led me to want to take a more active role in assisting the community, eventually leading up to being approached by EvilSeph to take on a moderator role.

    Fast forward a year, and I can proudly call all the Bukkit Staff, including EvilSeph, friends. When Mojang hired the original team, the question was posed about who should be project lead should EvilSeph step down, as a succession plan is very important to sustaining any project, Bukkit included. The question was put to a vote, and my name was presented as the candidate of choice. I’ll admit, this completely blew me away, but I was honored to be chosen. Luckily, EvilSeph continued to remain on as the primary lead of the project, while I proceeded to handle the day to day tasks. Bukkit Help matured along with the project, requiring less personal attention, so I branched out into every aspect of Bukkit, with the exception of handling any development (I think I made a javadoc update once though). I am proud to say I had a hand in creating the PR Handling process, managing BukkitDev, managing forum staff and making sure I was available in every aspect of the project - from helping to write our announcements, to bringing on new staff members when needed and so much more.

    What is often misunderstood about Bukkit was how the organization was ran. There has never been a decision made that was not made via a committee. There has always been a group consensus on all aspects - from handling BukkitDev approvals to forum rules and finally, yes, shutting down the project. This was truly a community run project. The core team was all formed from the existing community. The forum staff was all made up of community members. BukkitDev approvals were all handled by community members. Volunteers ran the project in every aspect, and as a team, we decided how to best proceed with decisions. As for Mojang’s involvement, not once in my time as a Bukkit Administrator did I hear from Mojang, or felt I could reach out to them for assistance when required and it came as a complete surprise that Mojang was willing to step up and help out. In the over two years that Mojang has claimed to own Bukkit, the original core developers hired by Mojang and Mojang itself was not present when we needed them most with the exception of EvilSeph himself continuing to pour countless hours into the project, at risk to his own personal health. Perhaps Bukkit wouldn’t have been shut down, or had such a difficult time maintaining the project had we known we could work closer with Mojang, as well as avoiding this whole EULA confusion.

    The decision to keep the acquisition of the Bukkit codebase a secret was made between Mojang and Curse, which only recently came to light. I was completely unaware that I had spent the last two years of my life as a Bukkit Administrator, and successor to the project lead, under the illusion that the project was independently ran. Had I known back then perhaps my choice would have been different, perhaps not. It’s easy to speculate on what might have been, but unless faced head on with the choice, the decision is not always clear.

    What I do know is the recent events has not changed the inevitable decision I have came to today, and its one that has been long coming. I am now the proud father of a beautiful 4 month old baby girl, who lights up my life, while also consuming my free time. I no longer have the countless evenings and weekends available to spend working on new processes, smoothing out issues, and responding to forum posts. I hung on this long only because I couldn’t leave knowing the project was hurting for volunteers, and I couldn’t just walk away given the current state. Bukkit has grown to be an extremely large project, and is incredibly time consuming to manage. I felt that I was abandoning the community of which I have grown so fond, as well as EvilSeph himself. I could not come to make that decision, it didn’t feel right.

    Now that Mojang has assumed control of all aspects of Bukkit, that gut wrenching decision is more palatable. Not because I harbor any ill will toward Mojang or the Bukkit community, but because I know Mojang has the resources available to really improve Bukkit. They can work with Curse to ensure BukkitDev has adequate staffing to handle the rigorous approval process - which has an incredible track record for keeping the community safe from those less savory elements of human nature. They can help when we have bugs that should be fixed in Minecraft itself. They can ensure whatever community contributions added to Bukkit can be taken into the Minecraft codebase itself. Now, more than ever, our community can actively contribute to Minecraft in a very real, direct way. You should submit your PR’s now, your code may very well contribute to the base game itself, an aspect which makes me want to dust off my 13 year old Java books and start developing again. In any event, should Mojang want any help in transitioning over the project to their control, I will gladly provide assistance where I can.

    I would personally like to thank all the volunteers who have contributed to Bukkit over the years. Our forum moderators have done wonders keeping this a welcoming, warm community. Our developers who repeatedly spend hours updating Minecraft, adding API and improving the codebase. Our many other unsung volunteers handling aspects from PR handling, to advice. Last but definitely not least, our BukkitDev staff who have spent countless hours keeping the community safe, as one of the most thankless tasks we have.

    I am extremely excited to see what Mojang can do with their vast resources to help the very community where some of its most prominent developers had their roots. This is exciting news for the Minecraft community in general, and perhaps when my daughter is old enough to play, I will meet up with you again on one of your fantastic servers, enjoying the features of one of your cool plugins. For now though, my family and my daughter comes first for my attention, as well as my heart.
     
  2. Offline

    Garris0n

    The TnT has been defused :(
     
    AnorZaken, MrSparkzz, Techno and 10 others like this.
  3. Garris0n
    I've got a spare flint & steel just in case :)
     
    codex01, TnT and Garris0n like this.
  4. Offline

    Gamecube762

    "Counter-Terrorist win!"
    a.k.a. Mojang
     
    codex01, TnT, BensDaMan and 3 others like this.
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    Jake6177

    Goodbye, TnT. We had some differences, but I will miss your presence here on the Bukkit forums.
     
    TnT likes this.
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    caseif

    This is saddening, but we'll miss you. <3
     
    codex01 and TnT like this.
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    s0f4r

    TnT can see you are on your way to become a fantastic husband and father. Your wife and daughter are lucky to have you.
     
    TnT likes this.
  8. Offline

    lDucks

    What.
     
    TnT likes this.
  9. Offline

    hatstand

    Truly, these are the end times.
     
    TnT likes this.
  10. Offline

    drtshock

    quack*
     
    TnT, BensDaMan, TigerHix and 3 others like this.
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    MysteryManX

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    JBoss925

    The feels. They're here.

    But seriously, you've done wonders for this community and you are a somewhat of a keystone in this project. Without you, it wouldn't be what it is. I guess someone else will have to start locking threads using spigot:D.
     
    TnT likes this.
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    EmpowerGaming

    Somebody give me a blanket, a cup of coffee and some tissues, i am going to cry i think.
     
    TnT likes this.
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    MostFunGuy

    Well, your entire post hasn't been crossed out by any disrespectful staff members yet, so there's that
     
    codex01 and TnT like this.
  15. Offline

    AmiT177

    im not good in goodbyes
    so i will just say it
    thanks for all,
    we love you
    "Dont cry because its over, happy because it happened."
     
    TnT likes this.
  16. Offline

    avery1227

    It was a good run Bukkit Team. Now we watch as Minecraft digs its own grave.


    -=={RIP BUKKIT}==-
     
  17. Offline

    xXMaTTHDXx

    TnT, we have had our issues in the past but this community is the reason I had become a Java programmer. I started about 2-3 years ago, I asked so many questions and this community was here to help me grow, to make me a better person, better programmer.

    (This part gets sappy/person but whatever)

    When things in my life got tuff I would come on bukkit, learn a bit, code to get rid of whatever had been going on. No matter what was going on, this community, the one you helped shape was there to talk to. To me bukkit has been a second family to me, I can honestly say my life would be much different without this community.

    I wish you great luck in raising your daughter, I do hope you have time to say hello again in the future, for old time sake, farewell TnT, you will be greatly missed, by me, and others of this community.

    - Matt

    *Goes and Crys*
     
    codex01 and TnT like this.
  18. Offline

    iMurder

    You'll be missed, thanks for all you have done for us!
     
    TnT likes this.
  19. This feeling, It hurts very badly....

    TnT, we will always miss you! Sometimes, we will read a thread and we see your comment, we will always think back of this sad day. Sometimes, I though you was an ass, just for closing my threads. You were probably right, but I still was a bit pissed.

    I joined Bukkit (I think) 1,5 to 2 years ago, so I didn't see you grow from just a helping hand for the other forum users, to a Bukkit Admin. When I joined, I immediately saw a post of you on the Main page(bukkit.org) and I though that you were very important. You proved me something else. You did proved me how important you were, but also that we can't miss you in the Bukkit team, without you, it would probably be a big mess!

    We have to continue, although we don't really want to. We will have to let you go, but we will never forget you and your contribution to Bukkit. Without you, Bukkit wasn't like this awesome at all!

    I hope you have a great time with your little daughter and with your wife!

    Bye TnT!

    While typing this, I though back of all the moments I saw your comments. They were most of the time really serious, but I can remember one with a really big burn you made. While thinking of this, a little smile appeared on my face. Than I realized that you where leaving, and the smile immediately changes to eyes full of tears...
     
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  20. Offline

    tastybento

    If you're reading this TnT, stop. You can go now safe in the knowledge that others will carry the torch. Enjoy your rest. You've earned it.
     
    TnT likes this.
  21. Offline

    timtower Administrator Administrator Moderator

    Sad to see you go
     
    TnT likes this.
  22. Offline

    daboross

    It has been a pleasure working with you, and your contributions to the community are endless.

    I wish you luck in whatever you do next!
     
    TnT likes this.
  23. Offline

    Rexel

    made me lol.... they can barely do there own bugtesting
     
    AnorZaken, TnT and BensDaMan like this.
  24. What I am feeling is hard to put into words. I wish you the best of luck moving forward. Who knows, maybe you'll return one day and we'll all look back on this and laugh.

    I've been using bukkit for 2+ years now, running multiple servers (on and off), and seeing iconic figures leave the project is saddening

    Someone make a plugin that brings TnT back please...
     
    TnT likes this.
  25. Offline

    Skye

    If you asked me two years ago, I would have agreed that Mojang owning Bukkit is a desirable thing. However, everyone should have the right to know who they're working for and to what end, so I think it's a pretty low thing Mojang did by keeping its acquisition of the Bukkit project a secret.

    TnT, many have invested a part of their lives in Bukkit, but few so much as you have. I don't know how you've had the strength to respond to the posts that you do—day after day—without canned responses, but I appreciate the work you've done here.
     
    TnT, InstanceLabs and Necrodoom like this.
  26. Offline

    Rexel

    mojang are assholes what did you expect.
     
  27. Offline

    W&L-Craft

    Thank you for all your time and effort! You will be missed be the whole Bukkit community including me! :(
     
    TnT likes this.
  28. Offline

    _LB

    We will miss you, hope you enjoyed your fish!
     
    TnT likes this.
  29. Offline

    TheHandfish

    TnT, Best of luck out there.

    EDIT: Was the fish thing somehow a reference to me? I just felt like we made a connection there. ;)
     
    TnT likes this.
  30. Offline

    RandomV0x3L

    Farewell TnT! The Bukkit community will not be the same without people like you. I wish you and your family the best and hope the future for you is bright.
     
    TnT likes this.
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    Necrodoom

    Garris0n likes this.
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