If so, please be aware that sometime in the last day or two Adam accidentally deleted all the subdivisions, so you might need to go and subdivide your claims again.

On the saving-us-from-overload side, they did turn off the thing that warns you that you're building outside your GriefPrevention claim every 15 blocks, and the server back-up announcement. Not bad.

I'm exploring and making maps for the big map wall at spawn, and I've not seen anything utterly breath-taking yet but I have seen a couple of floating mini-islands...

I thought this one looked like a pointing hand, but maybe not...

x = -2171, z = 151

This one is just really dark. I wish I had stayed until sun-up. I feel so unhelpful.

x = 647, z = 652

So I was roaming about on the high (well, sea-level) seas, and I spotted these mysterious cubey things in the water. I'm neither a Minecraft veteran nor particularly observant, so I've never seen anything like this before. Does anyone know what they might be? The co-ordinates are in the screenshot if you want to go and investigate.

In other news, me and Adam are fans of clarity and openness, so we're trying to hatch a plot to open up the waiting lists without violating anyone's confidentiality. We're considering a private Google Doc, with a list of people who've been accepted, people who've applied and people who've been whitelisted. Here's the catch: in order to view it, you have to consent to your IGN being on the list. You could see how many people are ahead of you on the waiting-to-be-whitelisted list, but so can everyone else who's given their consent to have their IGN viewable. Does anyone have any strong feelings about this? Would you opt in? Are you curious about where you are on the list? This informal survey is open to all readers, not just whitelisted players; leave a comment to share your thoughts.

--Cassian

I asked Cassian if I could have a development blog so I could keep people (players/applicants/onlookers) in the loop.

Last night I looked into setting up a Bukkit test server on my home computer so that I can experiment more freely without interrupting anyone. It was surprisingly easy and I'm now kicking myself for not doing that first (before getting a hosted server). The current hosted server was initially just an experiment; it still is really.

Some changes I've made to the main server:

• tweaked the config for grief-prevention so that it doesn't interfere with vanilla gameplay unless you're actually trying to do something in someone else's claim. Although, I think it's still set so that creepers don't make holes everywhere. If anyone encounters problems with the environment behaving unvanillary (that's totally a word), please let me know.
• installed the new verison of AutismChat that fixes the "own username" bug and the bug with private messages not automatically activating /white <player>.
  

• reconfigured some of the messages to make it clear that a crossed out playername means that player isn't viewing global chat.

Things I've been playing with on my test server:

• learning how to edit the help.yml file so that I can properly configure the bukkit help (/help) system with regards to autismchat. Currently (on the main server) when you type "/help autismchat" it isn't very helpful.
  
  

Things I haven't been working on:

• AutismChat 2.0
  

• port forwarding for the test server so that people who aren't in my house can help me test things.

• attempt to reproduce, isolate, and ultimately fix the bug where 'grief-prevented' maps are knocked out of frames by creeper explosions.
  
  

Things I may never do:

• actually play minecraft.

Things I have been thinking about:

• One day, someone else can be the Tyrant and I can just be the one that does experiments on my test server to come up with new and better server configurations.
  

--Adam, Server Tyrant

Hey, Cassian here.

The latest news is, since I blogged about the server and this website on my Tumblr we've had a few applicants. You all seem like great new members, but we're operating on a slow and gradual introduction so it's not too overwhelming for everyone.

As I type this, Adam is playing with /help and various other message configs, to make things as easy to understand as possible. They try them out in a server on their computer, and then when they're sure it's all working they change it on the live server.

Adam also has some ideas in the pipeline for AutismChat 2.0, and they're discussing all the tech stuff with our plugin-wizard, Maxim.

I feel this post has been pretty dull. ;) I guess I just wanted to get it started, and to let you all know what's going on behind-the-scenes, since it must seem pretty obscure from where you're standing!

Thanks all. I'll post again soon when I have more news.