Bukkit: It's time to say ...

Discussion in 'Community News and Announcements' started by EvilSeph, Aug 21, 2014.

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    EvilSeph

    [​IMG]


    When we first set out to add our personal touch to what hMod offered the community 3 and a half years ago, none of us foresaw the success the Bukkit project would end up having. From a rocky start that wasn't of our own making (hMod suddenly disappeared without warning while we were just starting up the project, leaving us ill-prepared to fill the void left over), we stepped up to the challenge and managed to put together a usable, respectable alternative to other server mods. We even went so far as to improve on the Minecraft server itself. I can proudly and confidently say that Bukkit was and is a success: not only were we able to provide a platform for hundreds of thousands of Developers to build upon and make use of, we were also frequently providing our Server Admins with peace of mind knowing that the latest exploits and security holes were addressed in a timely and responsible manner.

    From the get go we were plagued with issues and obstacles we needed to overcome, one of which we were sadly unable to tackle despite our best efforts: the legal barrier of licensing and permission. When starting the Bukkit project and even getting involved with hMod before that, we all knew that our work - no matter how well-intentioned - fell into a dangerous legal grey area. As such, my first priority at the start was to do things right: contact Mojang to try and get permission to continue on with the project and discuss our licensing. Unfortunately, while we did get into contact with Mojang and managed to have a chat with Notch and Jeb themselves (who have said that they don't like our methods but understand that there isn't any alternative and are thus fine with what we were and are doing), we never did get an official meeting with their business side to get legally sound permission to continue as we were and were unable to sort out our licensing issues. To this day we find our project in limbo with a half-applied license some could argue is invalid and little power on our end to do anything about the situation.

    With that realisation came a nagging unease at the back of our minds that at any point in time Mojang could decide they didn't like what we were doing and shut us down - something we were all expecting for the first year or so of the project's life but, to our surprise, never occurred. Naturally, Mojang's conscious decision to not take action on our project gave us the confidence to continue on (something which I'm sure Server Admins out there can relate to given the recent, sudden and unexpected EULA enforcement) and we even later got further confirmation from Notch himself that we were and are allowed to keep proceeding as we always had.

    Fast forward to more recent times and Mojang have made the abrupt and sudden decision to start enforcing their EULA in an effort to quell the outlook of Minecraft being pay to win. While I can completely understand where they are coming from and support their mission to shut down pay to win servers, it's difficult to be supportive of their abrupt turn-around with enforcing rules they consciously decided not to enforce since the start of Minecraft. On top of this, there are also clauses - which it would be irresponsible of us not to be aware of - within the now suddenly enforced EULA that directly affect the Bukkit project.

    Most notably: "The one major rule is that you must not distribute anything we've made". While the EULA does go on to try and clarify what is meant by "anything we've made", I feel that it only serves to confuse the situation even more so. At the end of the day, it seems that Mojang can determine what is a "mod, plugin or hack" of their game on the fly and their recent abrupt turn-around on enforcing the EULA has us understandably worried. Couple this with the fact that it isn't legally viable or acceptable to enforce the EULA piecemeal and our future is clear.

    At this point in time, I think it's safe to say that it's no longer worth it for us to put up a fight when it comes to keeping Bukkit and modding alive. With large and significant changes coming in Minecraft 1.8 that we'll be hard pressed to provide support for and the lack of support from Mojang with updates since acquiring our original core team (Mojang used to provide us with mappings to speed up the update process), there is little motivation for us to continue limping on across various aspects of the project. From a project management standpoint, it's become increasingly difficult to find willing and able individuals to help out the project on a purely voluntary basis due to people losing interest in Minecraft or people looking for something more. Simply put, this was ultimately the final nail in the coffin.

    Nonetheless, no one can deny that we've had a fantastic run as a project. This is due in no small part to the support we received and continue to receive from both the Minecraft community and the many companies and organisations that have graciously chosen to support us with a ridiculous amount of resources, infrastructure and backing - far more than we could have ever asked for. No amount of words can adequately express the gratitude we have for all our sponsors who have supported us through our journey and ensured Bukkit had the infrastructure required to be the vast success it is today. To list all of what these sponsors have done for us would be a post equal in length to this one, so we will unfortunately need to keep it brief. We want to give huge shout-outs and thanks to: eXophase.com for getting us off our feet and hosting us at the start; Multiplay and Curse for swooping in and providing us with (emergency) hosting we continue to use to this day including dl.bukkit.org and our BukkitDev service; as well as AllGamer for providing us test servers whenever we needed a server to certify update and promoted builds or attempt to reproduce a bug report.

    Last, but definitely not least, we'd like to thank the many staff, both past and present, that have volunteered countless hours over the years. I am at a loss for words to express just how much these people have meant to the project and to myself. The core team who have constantly worked hard to update to every new Minecraft version, while adding in new API and improving the server itself. The BukkitDev staff who spend countless hours checking over the fantastic plugins our community creates. Our moderation staff keeping our forums orderly and safe for all people seeking out a great community to be a part of. Additionally, the many unsung people who have helped in various ways despite having no official title, simply because there was work to do. Finally, my administrators, who have tirelessly helped me keep the project functioning as a whole. I would especially like to thank TnT and mbaxter for sticking through it with me to the end, always ready to discuss an issue and provide me with advice.

    It's been a fantastic 3 and a half years of providing what we believe to be the absolute best modding platform for the wonderful Minecraft community to use. We really enjoyed seeing the amazing feats our many Developers and Server Admins achieved with the product we provided and continue to be amazed every day at the ingenuity our community shows. Thanks for everyone's continued support! It has and will continue to mean the world to us. Together we were able to provide a Minecraft server used by hundreds of thousands of servers out there (with our last Recommended Build having over 2.6 million downloads!), which is certainly something to be proud of and a great note to end on.

    This is the end, it's time to say goodbye. It's been an amazing run and we achieved much more than anyone thought was possible, even ultimately culminating in Mojang hiring our original core team. Unfortunately, all good things come to an end and the Bukkit project has run its course, leaving me to make one final - incredibly difficult - decision to shut down the project I’ve poured 3 and a half years of my life into which means so much to me. We're no longer able to confidently distribute our modified versions of the Minecraft server and it is no longer smart for us to continue with our update process. Sadly, this means we will NOT be updating Bukkit nor CraftBukkit for Minecraft 1.8 and, since Minecraft 1.7.10 introduced the EULA enforcement, we will be placing the project under a code freeze for the foreseeable future. Furthermore, due to obvious legal reasons we will not be helping anyone else complete any updates nor sharing our methods despite any desire to the contrary. Although the project itself will essentially be no more, we'll continue to support our community, the forums, IRC and BukkitDev as long as we are able and as long as our partners support us with the resources and infrastructure to do so.

    As for us? Well, who knows? Maybe we'll find another game, program or project to be passionate about and we'll be back with a vengeance? Only time will tell, but I hope that we'll see you around the next passion-project of ours when it happens :)


    [lukegb]There's more to come on this. Please read this for more information about where we stand.[/lukegb]
     
  2. Offline

    Me4502

    As someone who has been involved in the plugin development community since early 2011, this is quite unsettling news. I understand why this is being done, I just hope a replacement (*COUGH* MC Plugin API *COUGH*) pops up in due time.
     
    Phiwa likes this.
  3. Oh no! :( This is sad... Bukkit has brought me soo much, knowledge, experiences, contacts and much more. It's tragic to see it die...
     
    Novustorious and Phiwa like this.
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    ZodiacTheories

    :(

    Is anyone going to play Minecraft anymore, or is nobody going to update to 1.8?
     
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    matiyarosz

    Wow! I never expected that! It is a bit shocking if we look how many servers are currently running craftbukkit and regarding the fact that nearly every developer uses a bukkit api to develop their plugins. I will not be wrong if I will call it the end of minecraft, because it is only popular because of multiplayer. Lets be serious, not many people care about the single player mode.

    The only rescue for this situation is look what Spigot developers will do, but to be honest they should do what bukkit staff done. There is no point of doing the endless war with Mojang and their stupid rules. They should see that the game was popular mainly because of the modders, bukkit and spigot and obviously players.

    Conclusion? Bring back the old eula! Or at least give bukkit another chance, because it is a ridicules movement to shut the community, who kept the game popular. Anyway, huge thank you to current and retired bukkit staff for keeping this up and for developers who made our servers interesting.

    Cheers guys, we will miss you <3
     
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    lukasmcd14

    I'm going to miss bukkit :'(
     
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    ReaZaaa

    I'm using bukkit since the very beginning. Thanks for all the effort you put in this awesome piece of software! Sad to read that bukkit died :(
     
  8. Offline

    xDeeKay

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    SymbioteCodes

    In the short time I've been using Bukkit I have felt extremely lucky for the opportunity it's given me to progress as a developer, and for that I thank you! It's a shame to see such a great community die, was looking forward to developing plugins in 1.8.

    All the best for your future endeavors.
     
  10. I loved developing plugins using the Bukkit API and it taught me a lot. I have since moved away from Minecraft to other projects, but it is sad to see Bukkit go :(
     
  11. Offline

    frash23

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    niels1189

    What if minecraft become just minecraft...
    What if spigot stops as well? We will lose reality itself.
    No more mods, no more plugins, just vanilla minecraft
     
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    Ruan

    I can't believe you done this
     
    frash23 likes this.
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    john01dav

    ERROR372 and frash23 like this.
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    AoH_Ruthless

    Damn.

    It has been a blast developing with Bukkit API and I have met so many wonderful developers, server admins, and others through these forums and the IRC channel. Bukkit, even in loss, will always hold a special place in my heart.

    RIP Bukkit and Never forget the great times with such an awesome community.
     
  16. Offline

    The Khemist

    So long and thanks for all the fish! =(
     
    daboross and aidan573 like this.
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    hmazon

    Thanks bukkit for the fun that you have given thousands of people all around the world. We will miss you! :'(
    Minecraft wouldn't have been the same without you!
     
    iMurder likes this.
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    niels1189

    No one is updating to the stupid 1.8 this way
     
  19. Offline

    garbagemule

    So long, and thanks for all the EntityType.FISHING_HOOK EntityType.FISH

    Edit: Ninja'd (sort of) :(
     
    drtshock and Lactem like this.
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    Yekllurt

    This is very sad news :(
    Out bukkit Minecraft wouden't be like it is know.
    Bukkit is the best think Minecraft ever got.
    Out Bukkit = Only big Server's, with expensive developer's.
    Throw Bukkit i learned programming Java.
    all the Team member's thank's for making all that work developing Craftbukkit & Bukkit, of course to a bit thanks to all the Moderator's to controll and keep the Forum safe & controll the Bukkit Plugin's before getting released.
    I have a lot of respect on all the People where workt in the Team.
    ~Yekllurt
     
  21. Offline

    FartFails

    I'm so sad.... But will we be able to still post our (Spigot...) plugins on dev.bukkit.org?
     
  22. Offline

    Drew1080

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    rcth

    RIP Bukkit, RIP Minecraft.

    I kinda expected this. The new EULA is b.u.l.l.s.h.i.t. and very unclear. Through, it's a bit shocking to see this ending. 3,5 years is a long while that's being thrown away. The fact that many, many servers are using Craftbukkit and every plugin developer uses the Bukkit API, which both will stop, makes me sad too.

    Hosting compagnies will die out too, because a lot of people probably stop with a server.

    Let's face it. It's the end of Minecraft. Nobody cares about the Singleplayer features anymore. It's all about Multiplayer. With no mods, plugins or whatever, it's just boring. It's like Singleplayer, but with a few people.

    RIP.
     
    Novustorious and Yekllurt like this.
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    KaBob

    The EULA hasn't changed in a very long time, they just decided to start enforcing it against servers that are pay to win. They didn't shut bukkit down, bukkit shut bukkit down because they are worried that Mojang will suddenly turn into an evil company and start going after Bukkit. Personally I don't think Mojang is that stupid.
     
    EnderTroll68 likes this.
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    frash23

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    ERROR372

    It looks like Spigot will at least have a 1.8 build:

    https://twitter.com/md__5/status/502377670210891776


    And to my understanding, Bukkit plugins work just fine on Spigot servers, so there is no need to rework any plugins.
     
  27. Offline

    Syd

  28. Can someone please tell me what the hell I will do with my server? And thanks for the amazing time :D Will miss bukkit so so much.
     
  29. Offline

    ledship

    Just thought Id put this hear for you all to see that it might not be shutting down. [​IMG]
     
    AnorZaken likes this.
  30. Offline

    _LB

    Grey areas... :(

    EDIT: That dinnerbone tweet...I don't even know what to think.

    EDIT: At the below-mentioned tweets...how could this have been forgotten by the entire community?
     
    gzehler likes this.
  31. Offline

    jarroyonaples

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