How to get more players to join and stay on my server, and even donate?

I would use drupal and phpBB3. If you go to use phpBB3 make sure to harden it. Meaning go through the security settings and disable guest posting for example as this is enabled by default. Also the captcha should be enabled when registering. This makes it a little bit harder for simple registration spammer scripts.

Why not xenforo? Well i like to support open source software and xenforo is anything but not open source.

Also i like to customize it on my own. What i have seen so far is that all xenforo's look alike there is no real difference.

But if you like to get a good looking, good working forum software from the start without doing really much then go for xenforo and pay for it =)

 

You were defending it "I think it's good" etc... You could improve the server with a better website, Enjin isn't the way to go. Never mind that it gets so expensive with the paid packages and handles your donations for you etc... Along with the standard shell of a website. Looks so dull when there all like that. Changeing the website i think would DEFO help in improving it!

 

Like I keep on saying. I'm keeping Enjin for now. It's a good temporary website and I find not that much trouble with it. All I use it for is Forums and DonationCraft. I will change later, when I have the time.

I will give phpBB3 a shot. I've also got another list of Forum software to try.

Would getting free Forum software be any good? Like what type of Forum software should I pick (phpBB, XenForo of whatever is free), for now.

EDIT by Moderator: merged posts, please use the edit button instead of double posting.

 

HazedCube It really depends what you want to do. Do you need all the fancy stuff that xenforo, phpBB offers? Meaning do you plan to create a community? Would a simple comment section be enough?

When you want to create a community then you will need good admin tools and in my opinion phpBB3 has that. XenForo is okay too as you dont only pay for the software you pay for the support too whilst you are most likely on your own when using phpBB3 or any other free software.

Sure they offer support via their own forum but it most likely takes some time to answer and those answers are most likely done by the community which is not bad always but having things answered from a professional has is advantage.

For myself i can say i dont need the support but what about you? What are your plans and targets?

 

Those kinds of people annoy me lol. When I read that, all I hear and see is a character from Revenge of the Nerds saying, in a high pitched voice, "That's illegal!".

As far as keeping people on your server.. it's hard man. No one wants to play minecraft anymore... they either want to play a minigame, cast a spell, shoot a gun, or beg for op or staff.

Good luck with your server!

namecheap.com has really good web hosting prices. I think I paid 36 for the whole year. As far as forums go, phpbb3 is on top... just the themes are really really lacking. One thing to REALLY remember about open source forums, is that they have very very little spam protection. Although; you could use a nulled IPB.... but that's risky. You don't really want to spend HOURS fixing up your nulled IPB with ranks, forums pages, and what not. So that someone can come by and click one one of the link backs to IPB. lol. IPB does check a lot of their link backs, just to see if the forum is legit.

 

Just like you, I don't need support. I just want a simple website/forum for the time-being, and then customize and edit the server to my likings later on. Do you think that phpBB3 would do the job?

 

phpbb would do everything you need it to. If you do use it, pm me and I'll tell you some great tools to fight against spam.

One more thing to point out, if you want to use any mysql with your webhosting company, you HAVE TO ASK if they allow remote connections to mysql. If you buy a shared plan, nearly all will not allow it. Normally, you have to buy a dedicated or private to use remote connections on mysql... just some food for thought.

 

HazedCube well, give it a try. You can always remove it afterwards if you think it does not fit or its too much. Drupal for example has a simple forum included. Maybe you want to start there first and implement phpBB3 later.

Mre30 why would someone need remote mysql access?

EDIT by Moderator: merged posts, please use the edit button instead of double posting.

 

oh, if you need a great theme for your main site, pm me. You can set up a wordpress for your main site and use my theme (KingSize Wordpress) and really make your site easy to update.

If you want to see KingSize in action, just google ganoncraft.

for plugins like Ban Manager or WebAuctionPlus. Ban Manager is a neat plugin. They need write and read access.

EDIT by Moderator: merged posts, please use the edit button instead of double posting.

 

SQL connections should be tunneled through ssh. Never ever allow mysql remote access. Also i guess the website would run on the same machine as the minecraft server.

 

He ain't got access to the machine. Enjin puts me off. They are terrible. Why look at top servers, MineTown, LC and what not. They have a ton of secrets behind their back, especially LC, and the last thing you want to do is mimic them. Being banned off DBO and MCF isn't a good reputation.

Be unique. Look at others for ideas but nothing else. Also, the amount of times you mention donate makes me think minecraft is your way of doing business. Try to attract positive attention.

Concentrating on the OP, all people look for now are minigames. Get a game developed, have an idea, get spammed with players.

 

On the topic of minigames, I've got a few on a list, TempleRun, Spleef (Classic), possiably HungerGames and some others.

 

Most mc hosts, pytohost for example, offer sql, but it's still not on the same machine. Sure, running your mc server on the same machine as your website seems more logical, but it's not always an option.

dude... get off my nuts. This now the second time..... why don't you spend a little less time trying to find reasons to talk smack to others... and start back working on xauth.. oh that's right, they've all went to authme by now.

 

Lets say you make a hunger games server. Here is the real question to ask.

Why will someone go to your server when they could go to {top hoster of server type}?

In this case, why will someone play on your hunger games server when they could play on any of these?

 

Mre30 im not "smack talking to others". Im sorry if you feel attacked by that comment. Im just trying to prevent that others dont fall for those mistakes. I have seen many hosts fucked up since they activated remote access to mysql. This is litarally opening the door for common attacks.

Also it seems that we both share the same interest into the same topic. Can't help you if you feel uncomfortable beeing corrected by me. Maybe trying to think before pressing "Post Reply" could help. Oh right you didn't otherwise you would not try to offend me by saying that ppl use a crappy coded plugin.

 

I was just listing mini games from the top of my head. And I've only seen 1 server that has TempleRun, so that's pretty unique.

 

I don't want to butt in here, but although Mre30's attack on your plugin was uncalled for, I don't think referring to AuthMe as a "crappy coded plugin" was the correct response...

AuthMe (Reloaded) and XAuth's bukkitdev pages were created within a week of each other, and xAuth's downloads are at 285,927 while AuthMe (reloaded)'s downloads are at 466,267... (Almost double). Hate if you want, but numbers don't lie. Other people seem to disagree with your concept of a "crappy coded plugin."

 

Jatoc check the Sourcecode. But true that was not the correct response should have said nothing as his post about that was clearly aming to make me feel bad.

Anyhow let me explain why i said that. AuthMe was a really small plugin when it started to be "reloaded". Since i started working on xAuth i implemented features. Whenever i released something almost a week later AuthMe had it too. And everytime i check the source i see how badly things get implemented. Thats why i said that. Could tell you more but i dont want to start a flamewar here. This is really not the place nor the time.

And if you think download count does matter check my page as soon i release the new version of xAuth.

 

I sent you a skype request. I recommend looking up some YouTube videos about BootStrap and just mess around with it and understand it

Nice site you know more than me lol. Maybe you can help me with some things I am trying to do

EDIT by Moderator: merged posts, please use the edit button instead of double posting.

 

Just message me, and I'll help you out if I have the time.

 

I have to agree here, you have to be willing to invest the time into making your server and website unique, why would a player join YOUR server when you have identical websites and plugins etc as 1,000,000 others? people will come and go but those who stay recognize your hardwork.

 

Sorry guys but i had to be a bit offtopic again but I have to clarify and correct one thing he said in his previous post from Jatoc.

Hope you dont mind.

Also i want to appologize for saying that the AuthMe team did or does copy from xAuth in 2012 this was not the correct response nor the correct impression i want to leave here. I really have to calm down when it comes to this topic.

Anyhow for all who dont like offtopic here is a spoiler tag for you.
If you are an AuthMe-dev read this.
Jatoc you should read this, too.

Show Spoiler Hide Spoiler

I did some numbercrunching today cause he said the following.

First of all there is a flaw in your calculation. You compare overall downloads and assume that both projects have the same release plan.

The first file I ever pushed to DBO was at 16.08.2012 which had only 6.601 downloads. That was because it just moved to bukkitdev from bukkitforums and was marked as dead by the original author on bukkit forums. So it needed some time to get public that its not dead and has a new maintainer.

The original AuthMe was declared dead at around September 2011 where AuthMe Reloaded started continuing the project at around mid to end January 2012. Both AuthMe projects where hosted at DBO long time before xAuth even reached DBO.

On bukkitforums AuthMe first appeared (according to the forum post) at 23.01.2011
On bukkitforums xAuth first appeared (according to the forum post) at 16.03.2011

Lets take this as an overall starting point for both projects. Both had the same idea and both started on it at around the same time also working on the same topic.

Now about "overall dl count". It is true, AuthMe has the higher count but lets go into details. Im only referring now to AuthMe-Reloaded (after a short introduction) and xAuth on DBO. As i dont know what happened before I overtook the project.

AuthMe-Reloaded first uploaded a file to DBO 28.01.2012 with 86.464 downloads.
AuthMe original DBO project had an Average of 54.081 downloads but looking at the partial downloads you can tell it wasn't very used those days. If we remove the latest file from the calculation we get 4.706 avg downloads for the whole project.

AuthMe-Reloaded released their project on DBO they got 84.464 downloads for one upload so you can see they have reached more than the avg of the whole previous project with one file! Wow!

Checking out that number ... the AuthMe is famous no doubt about that. And they even managed to get that count on one file. This tells me that the news about the migration to DBO quickly reached their users.

Note: There was no xAuth at this moment on DBO.

Lets take a deeper look at the numbers:

AuthMe-Reloaded DL Counts since 28.01.2012
Sum (overall): 479.994
Min: 2.058
Max: 87.639
Avg: 22.857

xAuth DL Counts since 16.08.2012
Sum (overall): 237.840
Min: 3.607
Max: 146.953
Avg: 47.568

Min and max can be ignored as they dont tell you that much cause the max value will most likely nearly the same as the last uploaded file (til the next update comes).

Lets ignore the first appearance and the last uploaded file because the first is "i want to use that plugin right now" / "Nice its on DBO now, i want it" and the last is "its the latest version". You always want the latest file available.

Narrowed down:
AuthMe-Reloaded Avg 19.039
xAuth Avg 28.095

Note that I always have a disadvantage here as they released more files over the time but somehow im still ahead in avg.

Flat comparison the same time range of both projects:
Starting from 16.08.2012 to 28.11.2012

AuthMe-Reloaded 09.07.2012 to 04.12.2012
xAuth 16.08.2012 to 28.11.2012

That would be 91.078 vs 237.840. Looks good for me? Well, no!

I might have an advantage here as I included the first and the last uploaded files.

Lets narrow it down a bit. Using only the download counts between last and first.

AuthMe-Reloaded only has one file here 09.07.2012 with 87.639 downloads.
xAuth three files with a total of 84.286

AuthMe ahead now? Well, not really as the next upload after the 09.07. is the 04.12. thats almost five month!

So i can safely assume that this was the last file uploaded which will get more and more counts when new ppl want to find a plugin.

That said we would have to cut some counts from this file. But i guess you get the point.

Both plugins are handling Authentication. And because they both have implemented ways to switch from one to another there will be always a back and forth when it comes to updates or features or what his or her friend does recommend you to use.

If he use AuthMe he will probably say use AuthMe.
If he use xAuth he will probably recommend xAuth.

One free givaway for the AuthMe team ... looking at the numbers they have to think about their release quality and distribution system.

They do release too much in a short period of time and don't test their stuff enough.

Looking at the numbers:

02.01.2013 they got 16k downloads after that at the 16.01 they only reached 7k then it drops at the 24.01. to 2.058 and is starting to increase to 11k to 14.02.

So between two weeks they almost lost half of their users or didn't reached half of it. That would give me a headache!

I hope its now clear that you cant just compare numbers you have to dig a little deeper.

Also i can understand why certain messages that i post may offend you but thats really a matter of looking at it. What i said about the sourcecode is what I feel and what I think about it. Its my personal opinion judged by my coding skills.

Of course the end product "works" but thats not what I "only" want to achive. I want to release quality products that are easy to maintain not just for me but maybe for others too so they can work on it too.

Maybe they ask me then "hey i implemented something, that is really cool! Could you implement it into your branch?"

And if that means that some users have to wait for an update longer then they have to wait.

Of course I would release hotfixes if nothing works but normally I make sure that the latest version works before I make that decision / working on big changes that might take longer than just a week or two.

 

Deleted suggestion of piracy and resulting fight. We do not encourage piracy on this forum.

 

Ok my skype name is winter4w if you got skype