Advice on running a Minecraft server?

[MonkeySage]

I run a small server for friends, and I allow access to someone else (redstoner) because the guy helped me out with some redstoning a while back. He liked the server and asked if he could come back, so I let him.

Trouble is, in the past I've run servers and kept myself op'd. I pretty much never left creative mode because i was constantly working on projects for my friends- building dungeons for them and what not. It was fun- for them. Eventually, though, I wasn't the only one who grew sick of it. I had also developed a habit of just using creative to give my friends random gifts, and this removed any tension or challenge from the game for them.

When I made this new server, I made a promise to myself and to them that I would remain deopped, and that I would not use creative mode at all. I've done pretty well to keep that promise... mostly. The redstoner i mentioned earlier one day asked me to teleport him and his mule, because they were on the other side of the world and across an ocean- they were stuck. After wrestling with the problem for too long, I decided to try an experiment with the teleport commands- and accidentally teleported every mob, including him and myself, our pets, mounts, livestock, and over a hundred creepers to one location. Totally wrecked the server, luckily I had a back up of the world that was only a few days old. I restored the server, reimbursed my friends for whatever they lost, and doubled down on my promise to never use op for stuff like that again. I have done well to avoid using op at all for the past several weeks- save to change the mobgriefing rule for villager breeding (we all hate cleaning up after creepers enough to just disable mobgriefing). No creative, no commands, no op whatsoever....

Occasionally, though, the redstoner will still beg me for items that can currently only be acquired through creative mode (the nether is disabled pending update), and he has also asked me to use creative to bypass the enchantment limit on his gear that's already enchanted to the max. I feel like crap for having to constantly say no to him, especially since with the nether disabled he has literally no (legitimate) way to obtain certain items he needs. I also feel like I must say no, because I made a promise.

What are your thoughts?

[Wraith]

You're doing the right thing.

The teleporting incident was an accident - hopefully you'll look back on that and laugh because... well, it is kind of funny

But refusing to give gear or bypass limits for one guy? That's absolutely sensible, because if you do it for that one person then EVERYONE will expect you to do it for them too, lest you be accused of playing favourites. It would only get worse if the player takes that advantage and decides, for example, to start PvPing other players with his Op-given advantage. That sort of thing can kill a community.

Continue being consistent - tell everyone the same thing, tell them your reasoning for it, and stick to it until you are ready. I don't think that sounds at all unfair; It's your server, and you set the rules. It's not a lot to ask that people abide by them, because if they don't like it then there are plenty of other servers to go and play on.

That sounds harsh, but.... Well, tough luck, I guess? You clearly have a vision of what you want for your server, and you have the experience that proves what happens when you let other people sway you to what they want, and whining at you to compromise that again feels both ungrateful and misguided.

Besides, the only thing in the Nether that anyone actually *needs* is blaze powder for Eyes of Ender - everything else is just stuff that they *want*, while the game is completely playable without them. *Maybe* if you were feeling very generous you could spawn in a couple of Blaze Rods and hold a competition - a PvP event, or a scavenger hunt, maybe - to let people pool their resources and earn them, just enough to get the End opened up and let them progress a little bit further.

But you don't *have* to, if you don't want to. Overworld-only Survival has plenty of stuff to do for ~1 month before the update drops, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

Besides, it sounds like you want to play Survival for a bit too, and not having to be responsible for everyone else's fun. Again; it's your world, and you need to have fun however you want, that's the whole point of the game. If you're not having fun with something, don't do it - and give the same advice to redstoner, too