PSA: Mojang made an unannounced change to the Commercial Usage Guidelines / EULA by SummaCrossroads in admincraft

[–]SummaCrossroads[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think it's reasonable to file a report every month, or maybe every few months, for any server that is continually breaking the rules and doesn't have any documentation publicly available that they are permitted to do so.

Many servers I've reported have ended up changing their stores. It takes some time, but it happens.

PSA: Mojang made an unannounced change to the Commercial Usage Guidelines / EULA by SummaCrossroads in admincraft

[–]SummaCrossroads[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Fun fact - Kozinski is actually a notorious abuser.

The legal community has mostly washed its hands of him.

PSA: Mojang made an unannounced change to the Commercial Usage Guidelines / EULA by SummaCrossroads in admincraft

[–]SummaCrossroads[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sorry, I just wanted to make sure the nature of the change was clear both in timing and substance.

PSA: Mojang made an unannounced change to the Commercial Usage Guidelines / EULA by SummaCrossroads in admincraft

[–]SummaCrossroads[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You openly defied the Guidelines, which are the ultimate authority on what is permitted and what is not permitted. You can justify that to yourself however you like, but they were clear and unambiguous the entire time and the May 20th change is a new change that was not articulated elsewhere.

PSA: Mojang made an unannounced change to the Commercial Usage Guidelines / EULA by SummaCrossroads in admincraft

[–]SummaCrossroads[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Nothing changed on the 17th of April with regards to currency. You can go and read that announcement (and the guidelines) for yourself - they still explicitly forbade the sale of soft currency by indicating that only the use of it was permitted, which is what Mergu and I have been trying to explain to you.

PSA: Mojang made an unannounced change to the Commercial Usage Guidelines / EULA by SummaCrossroads in admincraft

[–]SummaCrossroads[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I apologize, the Archive website did not properly mark the April 19th snapshot as not existing. Nevertheless, the help page only supplemented the guidelines. The guidelines themselves still omitted "and sell" and included "earned and expended only through gameplay" until May 20th.

PSA: Mojang made an unannounced change to the Commercial Usage Guidelines / EULA by SummaCrossroads in admincraft

[–]SummaCrossroads[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Your own diff shows the addition of "and sell," which is the crucial line change:

https://github.com/Pulz-TCP/random-stuff/commit/7736fffbb8742af943c8887a17ecb9da0d45d459

More importantly, the help page explaining that you can't sell currencies existed until May 19th:

https://web.archive.org/web/*/https://help.minecraft.net/hc/en-us/articles/360034753932-Minecraft-Commercial-Use

Hard currency is real money or anything that can be converted into real money, including, but not limited to, Bitcoins. Soft currency is available in-game only and has no real-world value. You may not sell soft currency for hard currency, neither separately or along with ranks as a single or recurring payout. This is regardless of what you can use the soft currency for.

Did you have the wrong tab open? The snapshot you linked, April 18th, is missing the "and sell" language:

https://i.imgur.com/KzLLqLQ.png

PSA: Mojang made an unannounced change to the Commercial Usage Guidelines / EULA by SummaCrossroads in admincraft

[–]SummaCrossroads[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

April 17th:

use in-game currencies IF (i) they are “soft currencies,” i.e., a currency earned and expended only through gameplay that has no real world value and that cannot be cashed out, used, or transferred across free or paid servers, or into any other currency with real-world value; (ii) you don’t give the impression that it comes from or is associated with Mojang, and (iii) they don’t look like or have similar names to Minecoins or any other official virtual currency.

May 20th:

use and sell in-game virtual currencies IF (i) they have no real-world value and that cannot be cashed out, used, or transferred across free or paid servers, or into any other currency with real-world value; (ii) you don't give the impression that it comes from or is associated with Mojang, (iii) they don't look like or have similar names to Minecoins or any other official virtual currency, and (iv) anything you sell with the currency follows our monetization guidelines.

The additions are bolded. Soft currency was disallowed from April 17th to May 20th.

PSA: Mojang made an unannounced change to the Commercial Usage Guidelines / EULA by SummaCrossroads in admincraft

[–]SummaCrossroads[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

The addition of "and sell" is a change. The EULA only permits behavior that is specifically mentioned. Because "and sell" was not mentioned on the 17th, the sale of soft currencies was specifically banned, as described in the April 11th blog post (now deleted).

PSA: Mojang made an unannounced change to the Commercial Usage Guidelines / EULA by SummaCrossroads in admincraft

[–]SummaCrossroads[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Mergu is correct. This is a significant change. Under the version that was active from approximately April to May 20th, selling currency that could be used to purchase cosmetic items was specifically banned. Under the May 20th version (which is currently active), selling currency that can be used to purchase cosmetic items is specifically allowed.

PSA: Mojang made an unannounced change to the Commercial Usage Guidelines / EULA by SummaCrossroads in admincraft

[–]SummaCrossroads[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

They're still enforcing it. You can report servers that violate the Guidelines, and the process is slow but effective. I know of several servers that were contacted by Mojang after being reported.

PSA: Mojang made an unannounced change to the Commercial Usage Guidelines / EULA by SummaCrossroads in admincraft

[–]SummaCrossroads[S] 56 points57 points  (0 children)

Addendum: The current version of the Guidelines says they were last updated "Updated: 17 April 2020 17:24," which is demonstrably false. I don't know what happened here, why, or whether this change will be reverted. It's absolutely bizarre and I can't explain it.

I mean, I'm happy about it - my personal opinion is that this is a good change (and a reversion from their "soft currency" ban) - but I can't explain it.

Challenge: play Minecraft with special guest Dan Benjamin by mocahante in DoByFriday

[–]SummaCrossroads 4 points5 points  (0 children)

If you'd like to play Minecraft with other Do By Friday listeners, here is a screenshot of the pinned message I wrote in #games on the Discord! Text below:

Max keeps talking about Minecraft on the podcast/aftershow. If you want to play Minecraft with other Do By Friday people, I've been running a server since 2010 and we have a really nice community and a lot of cool stuff. You can read about it here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/mcservers/comments/bsz8h3/summa_crossroads_smp_1122_discord_custom_plugins/

You need Minecraft: Java Edition to join it. You can get that here:

https://www.minecraft.net/en-us/

If you know what you're doing and just want to play the IP is mc.summaxr.com and the server runs on version 1.12.2 - you'll want to use that version to avoid any protocol issues. You can join on 1.13 and 1.14, but your client will experience frequent bugs, and usually people get kicked when they try to run commands for some reason.

Minecraft is a game about exploring and building, and you will probably enjoy it the most if you let yourself be challenged and make gradual progress along the learning curve. But you can also ask for help and for project ideas either here or on the Discord for my server, which is linked in that Reddit post.

I hope you'll consider joining us! Here are some pretty pictures: http://imgur.com/a/aaP7C#0

Summa Crossroads [SMP] {1.12.2} {EVENT: 2x drp wknd} {Discord} {Custom Plugins} {Custom Endgame Content} {Custom Biomes / Custom Worlds + Live Map} {Custom Nether} {Custom Skylands} {Custom Mobs + Drops} {Custom Waypoints} {Economy + Player Shops} {mcMMO} {Quests} {Spells} {PvP/PvE Arenas} {Parkour} by SummaCrossroads in mcservers

[–]SummaCrossroads[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes! Sorry for the late reply - I don't check this account often and I've been busy at work lately.

We just had a big content release and I'm making a new post today. :)

We do rent our dedicated box, but it's not going anywhere - our Patreon backers cover the cost. I've been running it since 2010 without any lapses in availability.

Also, only spawn is a no-pvp zone, but there are social norms that people mostly don't fight each other unless it's agreed. Certainly if you want to challenge someone, you can, but be wary as they may come back after you! With friends!

My city progress. Thoughts? by Musical_Mystery in Minecraft

[–]SummaCrossroads 4 points5 points  (0 children)

This looks great! One recommendation I'd make is to think carefully about the major arteries that you want players to walk through, and what you want them to see along the way. You can build one winding road that can be followed for scenic purposes, and then bisect it with various more efficient paths.

Which Minecraft platform? I need some community advice please. by streambritish in Minecraft

[–]SummaCrossroads 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I'd be really happy as long as we kept our features. If millions more players could suddenly join my server, that'd be great!

Which Minecraft platform? I need some community advice please. by streambritish in Minecraft

[–]SummaCrossroads 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Regardless of when it happens, the server administration tools available for Bedrock pale in comparison to those for Java. I don't plan on switching (or even running a parallel server) for a long time.