On Thu, 23 Nov 2006, William Balcerski wrote: > Below is the new metaserver policy as posted to > http://metaserver.us.netrek.org/ > > "Metaserver Restrictions > A restriction has been placed on the metaserver.us.netrek.org that will > avoid listing spare servers until the preferred server has at least 12 > players. > > At the moment, the spare servers are netrek.warped.us, netrek.hwy.com.au > and netrek.pulsar-zone.net, and the preferred server is > continuum.us.netrek.org." > > I would like to know how others feel about this. I'm not running a server nor do I have any say on what happens with the metaservers, but I'll say my piece anyway even though it may not hold much weight. Personally I'm for everything that will get players back to our major bronco servers (continuum, maybe pickled), even if it includes hiding or shutting down your server. It's clear the existence of your server has struck a deep wound in the netrek community. Before your server we had t-mode on continuum almost every night and then when you got your server up, the newbies went there to play and the non-newbies didn't feel like waiting on continuum for more people to show up and then we never got bronco t-mode. When they hid your server on the metaserver we suddenly got t-mode back on continuum. I think it's all great. You might of course argue that you're entitled to run your own server and that you have certain rights, but in my mind I'd like to see your server shut down. I don't see that it does the netrek community any good what so ever. I think it's more about keeping the game alive than "being fair" to all the potential servers gods out there. If we go back to the times when we had no problems at all with getting t-mode (like back when we had both pickled and continuum full on any given night) I think it would be okay to get a "Bill's version of sturgeon" server back on the metaserver. But now we just can't afford it. Make a "Bill's version of sturgeon" website where you can tell newbies how to connect with the -h switch so they can reach your server even without it being on the metaserver. Or you can distribute a shortcut with your client... This is nothing personal. I like you as a person and we've been good team mates on the world's best team for ages (8-10 years?), but I really think your server is killing netrek as we know it. I know you've been working hard on your server and it much suck when people stop playing there because they no longer can find it when it was removed from the metaserver. It must seem very unfair. Maybe there are things you can do to your server so that it won't kill bronco (and maybe hiding it from the metaserver is one of those things) but I really don't think it should be brought back to the metaserver. Sorry Bill but that's my opinion. -- Niclas