cmosiermh

also, in case you thought this update would stop adbotting: ...yet another aspect in which the update did less than nothing.

hi guys ! for context, i'd like to start this thread with who i am. this thread was written from the perspective of a ~3-year player who spends their time on MH creating niche servers, with a passionate dislike for unoriginal servers. what's more relevant is that i bought VIP with voted credits during one of those insane sales. i have not used lobby advertising ever since they mandated chat reporting in the lobby, and, update or not, i have no intention of ever using it again; so all the following is from somebody who isn't trying to personally gain anything from this post. to summarise the update in question: - all ranked players lose their old ranks (which, understandably, set the discord on fire) - ranks are now subscription based services (average "we need more money" minecraft server owner) - ads are now monthly, based on rank, and oh my GOODNESS gracious these figures are insane the reasoning we got for the update: 1. "the old ranks created endless spam in the lobbies" 2. "Chat Ads (aka /ad) were increasingly ineffective" 3. "there was no way to choose which rank you wanted to equip" let's dissect these points, because... well, yikes. 1. i fully, 100% agree with the basis of this point: the old advertisement system gave too much advertising power to ranks compared to defaults. previous to the update, defaults could advertise every 16 minutes - patrons every 2. (or maybe every 5, i was told that but never knew so i'll be using the 2m figure). that's an 8x increase!! in no world is it fair to defaults to be eight times less effective than patrons. (and no, "patron costs a lot tho" isn't an excuse- classic example of power creep.) but like, wait a second. the update DID NOT help this problem at all. defaults get 4 ads a month, and patrons get... two thousand?? that's not an 8x increase in ads, that's a 250x increase. this reasoning for the update probably couldn't get any farther from the truth. it's only true in a raw, nearsighted view: yes, technically, 2,000 ads a month is less than a patron could get back in the day (ignoring the fact that that's probably more advertising than most patrons actually did). but when you look at the big picture, this point is just completely wrong; comparatively, the new ranks create more spam than before. 2. this mostly ties in to my last point, so this'll be quicker. once again, yes, advertisements were becoming less and less effective (even with the 2x cooldown nerf some months back). but for most people, this update won't increase the value of ads significantly or at all. this is mostly from the perspective of a default/low-ranked player, because not only are they the vast majority, but they also got beaten up a lot by the old system so i have some sympathy for them. anyway, these players will absolutely not have it better in terms of per-ad capita. they're going to be drowned out by even more legends and patrons who get even more comparative ads than before. 3. this was a problem??? like, since when has somebody actually asked for this feature? and why would it be large enough of a problem to be worth upheaving the entire ranks system like this? so it's pretty clear that all, or at least most, of these points are completely bogus. so for educational purposes, let's stop thinking about what this update could bring to the community; let's think about how it can benefit minehut as a money-hungry company! 1. subscription-based ranks are a more frequent and profitable source of income 2. this update adds more methods to wring money out of players through alternative sources of advertising !! (source:) so yeah. if minehut really does have a good reason for this update that isn't for the sake of cash, i'd love to hear it, backed up with something more substantial than this disappointment of an announcement. until we do get that, i have no reason not to assume the update was solely money-motivated. and as a final morsel of food for thought: the ONLY thing that minehut has going for it compared to other free server hosts is its advertising capabilities. in every other regard- server specs, panel ui design, availability- you'll find a dozen other free server hosts that do it better. minehut was unique, and useful, because it allowed people new to server making to reach a wide audience quickly and for free. and now that that's basically gone, i don't see any reason for new players to bother with minehut. (please don't spam replies with #reverttheupdate or anything. going off history, heedless spamming clearly won't cut it. if we want something to be improved, it's up to us to be civilised and non-combative about it.)