gnawmonThe oldest Minecraft server, MinecraftOnline, is being shut down by Microsoft
AtroposI’m confused - how can Microsoft enforce this? Aren’t individually hosted Minecraft servers outside of Microsoft’s direct control?
If this server is hosted on azure or something they would have control over, then yeah, I suppose they have to comply with Microsoft’s rules.
candyman337Several actions on a server ping Microsoft’s servers for authentication, I couldn’t login to my self hosted server because of the azure outages yesterday
Interesting, I gotta look into that more.
I’d prefer if my server for my friends didn’t phone home
cecilkorikThat’s called offline mode. It’s a setting you can choose in the server configuration. The drawback is that there is no official account validation (because of course there can’t be, since it’s not reaching out to the authentication servers), meaning you have to basically “bring your own security”, installing a client whitelist or some other authentication method otherwise it’s open season to trolls, and that’s why it’s not as common as you might imagine it would be.
FlaxEvery Minecraft server uses Mojang’s authentication servers, so every login attempt has to go through Mojang. That’s how they can enforce these things.
I’d imagine disabling authentication prevents this - but also makes a whitelist probably impossible
you can still use the whitelist, technically, but I’m pretty sure anyone could just spoof an account id in that case.
so if your server is on the open web, that’s a bad idea.
if you’re running on a private network via VPN or something similar it doesn’t matter, since authentication is handled by joining the network instead of the server.
we just use zero tier for our servers; nice and hassle-free, private connection, no mojang servers necessary! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
(technically the server doesn’t even need an internet connection, just the VPN interface)
Lucy :3
dual_sport_dork 🐧🗡️You’re technically bound by the Minecraft/Microsoft EULA. As others have noted, the game phones home for authentication, so Microsoft can control that.
That said, if they’re hosting the Java edition it is absolutely trivial to defeat the authentication. This is technically a license violation, but if I were these guys I would just become a pirate server and build Microsoft a nice 128 block tall obsidian and sea lantern middle finger.
The biggest issue here is the server using the trademark “Minecraft”. This feels like a threat to take actions for using that name if they don’t align with what Microsoft wants. Which is reasonable, the server calls itself “MinecraftOnline”. Microsoft does have a reasonable right to put a stop to that usage if it reflects badly on their branding.
Once the server stops using their branding, then Microsoft loses a lot of it’s teeth, especially outside of the game itself (like on discord). Even in the game, if it is java edition and requires a direct IP connection Microsoft has very little ground to stand on, but they could kick them off Realms, if they are present.
That’s one thing I miss about old games. Anyone could run a game server, and you could always directly connect to them even if they weren’t listed on the server list, or gamespy was down.
Did Microsoft mention their branding though? I could understand if they just said “please stop using our branding” but it seems different than that
Your right, that’s not mentioned here, but that is pretty much their only legal tool to enforce this request. If I were the server in question, I’d drop the Minecraft branding off my server name real fast.
So what I gathered:
Microsoft told them they were a partner server (they aren’t)
Microsoft said they disobeyed community guidelines (Which were for users only. They were also written after the server not only released, but it’s running 1.12, which was released before these “guidelines”)
The server has been using the term “Minecraftonline” before Minecraft was even trademarked
Someone asked someone on Microsoft’s moderation team and they cited a screenshot of a message from a banned player talking about masturbating in the shower.
Source: youtu.be/7R7toMRMz3s
Mojang is killing Minecraft servers... again.
I have no idea how MC is handling it. Some people are talking about phoning home. That might be the only method. However, it could also be baked into the client to not connect to certain banned IPs. It wouldn’t be hard to remove this, but it would prevent any unmodified clients from connecting to them.
MinecraftOnline has held steadfast to its libertarian principles, and remained an oasis of freedom and openness in an increasingly closed and controlled internet.
Huh, can’t imagine what sort of harmful content was being shared!
Rainbows.
Any examples of what Mojang are talking about? There's free speech and then there's hate speech. If the latter is the problem, then I can understand their position and desire to take the server offline.
I imagine, from the constant mention of free speech, that the server is just rampant with hate and slurs more than anything. Which in that case, fuck them, take the server down.
Chloé 🥕well, idk if there’s examples, but their server has an “anything goes” policy with regards to chat. they explicitly mention racial slurs as a thing you are allowed to say.
so yea, fuck that. archive the map for it’s historical value and close the server. it’s been unplayably laggy for years anyway, we’re not losing much.
EarMasterMinecraft Servers are run independently of Mojang. All that mojang does is verify the Minecraft account is legitimate. I don’t even know if they can block servers in 1.12.2
None of these chat messages would have ever run through Mojang’s servers or infrastructure.
benI get why people are having trouble defending them but it’s really not cool that Mojang is pushing to enforce their own personal requirements on self-hosted servers. It’s one thing if it was an official server or hosted on realms or something, but this is just a bit too far in my opinion.
And given the recent pivots by tech companies in the US there’s very little reason to think this same set of rules couldn’t be applied to groups like trans people in the future.
It’s better to push back on this sort of stuff early, instead of waiting for it to personally impact you once it’s already built up momentum.
We can push back on it once it effects an innocent server, which this isn't.
They can still run the server cracked if they really wanted. They just won't be allowed to use Mojang's authentication servers.
But at the end of the day, it's still their IP, they can do what they want and we can choose to play Minecraft or not when that happens.
Try not to choke on the boot.
Ah yes, just regurgitate phrases you have heard.
I couldn't give a shit about Microsoft at all, I hope the company folds. I also couldn't give a shit about a hate harboring Minecraft server, so I'm not going to defend it, even remotely.
So I was just laying out the facts of the situation, they can legally do what they want in this regard, the server owner agreed to this when starting the server in the first place.
Don't just dismiss facts because they don't immediately align with your point of view, that's very dangerous.
Really goes to show how much a headline can sway the narrative.
Oh no, the oldest minecraft server? How could Microsoft do this? Microshit bad!
I didn’t even need to read anything from Mojang or Microsoft. As soon as I saw the Owners statement I knew this was bigots complaining about not being allowed to be shit humans wherever they like.
“Free speech under attack”, “ultimatum”, “libertarian principles”. “Oasis of Freedom and openness”? Really? These guys are sad that Microsoft won’t let them use official channels to say the n-word anymore.
Looks like they are allowed to continue being bigots, they just can’t use Microsoft’s official systems to do it.
The malignment of anyone supportive of free-speech with ‘obviously they’re bigots’ is a really dumb take that plays into the hands of oppressive governments.
Considering their examples of ‘free speech under attack’ being the UK and Germany - places that have absolutely stomped on Palestine-support protesters over the last few years, I think your assumptions could be completely off base.
They are not using Microsoft’s official systems at all - this is an expensive self-hosted services that they run, so maybe, instead of jumping to comment and saying “I don’t even need to read Mojangs statement” you probably should next time.
Free speech doesnt mean you can selfishly say anything you feel like. Humans are social creatures, words are real and have meaning and impact. Clearly the admins of this server can’t tell the nuance of that, and are just petulant children upset someone told them they were hurting other people and should stop.
Free speech doesnt mean you can selfishly say anything you feel like.
It pretty much does, actually. I doubt your understanding of free speech.
Expression that merely offends isn’t harm.
So, you don’t understand straw man fallacy either and felt like letting everyone know.
Really felt like you attacked a point I didnt make, but surely I’m just an idiot. Have a nice day!
You were directly quoted & added
words are real and have meaning and impact
someone told them they were hurting other people
What impact? Hurting with words means offend. The only credible objection is harm or you’re rejecting free speech for even lesser reasons.
So, point acknowledged as written. This doesn’t bode well with your implication:
Really felt like you attacked a point I didnt make, but surely I’m just an idiot.
I’ve been playing on this server for several years and have posted about it on here before. They have no claims system but do have a strong anti-griefing policy that allows builds from more than a decade ago to remain untouched (map). You can go exploring, and you will find builds from 2010 and new builds from a couple of months ago. It’s pretty cool seeing how building styles developed from back in Minecraft Alpha to now.
The “free speech” chat policy isn’t entirely unrestricted. The servers are hosted at Hetzner in Germany and are therefore bound to their laws. This means things such as swastikas are not allowed (neither as builds nor in chat). There have been cases where people use the n- or f-word, but it’s not common, and will not be appreciated by most players.
The owner (SlowRiot) is an interesting character. He runs a game studio and is a former director of Mensa UK with whom he had a legal fight a couple years back. He is not that active but checks on the server every so often. (SlowRiot’s MCO wiki page)
The server has been having several technical issues for a while. It is still stuck on version 1.12.2. It has various custom Sponge plugins which are still being ported over. Furthermore, it also has issues with lag, comparable to a heavily modded minecraft server.
EDIT: This is the mail in question
And the followup mails
You can click on it to zoom in. I don’t think I can change the size it renders as by default.
Accessibility means text: some people can’t read images of text.
Text is a better technology for text content: reflowable to varied screen sizes, adaptable to different renderings & sizes for those with dyslexia or vision issues, multimodal (can be read by computer, rendered in braille, etc), searchable & indexable by semantic content.
An image of text does none of that.
Blackmist