Like it or not. Running a cracked (Minecraft) server is worse than using cracked clients. (I'll only be talking about Minecraft and Minecraft Servers, etc. in this post. While most principles will apply to all or most games, I'm only talking about Minecraft here.) Before you rush to your keyboard and leave comments like "Itz no elligal HURRR DURR" or "You worng and stupied", let me point out that this post is meant to represent my personal opinion. Nothing more and nothing less. Now let's get started, shall we? You might have been running a cracked server and have been thinking that there's nothing wrong with that. You're likely not using a cracked client yourself, so you're fine. Legally speaking that might be the case. And I honestly don't know if it's illegal or not, but it certainly breaks the EULA, so there's that. But even if it were perfectly legal, there's still a big issue there. And that is that you are actively encouraging people to keep using their cracked clients. A good comparison would be hosting a car show where you explicity (or even exclusively) allow stolen cars. While it may not be illegal, it's certainly immoral, because it promotes using cracked clients. And if you can't see why encouraging people to pirate a game you presumively like is bad, then I wish for nothing more than that all your hard work will be stolen or pirated. A point I've come across many times is that cracking/pirating something is not that bad. In the sense that most people that pirate a game just want to check it out without having to pay. And while I certainly agree that that is a fair point, running servers specifically for cracked clients actively promotes continuing to use the crack, as you can just use it fine since there are plenty of servers available. The next issue with running cracked servers is security. Running a server for cracked clients is nothing that should be underestimated. You essentially remove the built in security feature of knowing that the same player/account will always have the same UUID. That means you can reliably ban people. They can't just change their username and be back 2 minues later. I mean that's just an example. Having players being able to use any username whenever they like without having a way of reliably identifying players is huge security risk. I'm aware of plugins that attempt to reduce the risks by having identity checks with passwords or PINs, but that only eliminates the risk partially. So in essence you are willingly compromising the security of your server and players to promote pirating. Good job Rant over
- BrainStone
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I've come across many many servers (especially Bukkit/Spigot servers) that keep their plugin list more secure than The Coca-Cola Company keeps the recipe for Coca-Cola. Though to this date I have yet to understand what's the point of this. The best reasons I've heard so far are:
Well, let me go over every single one of these: "Not letting the players know that the plugins are not self made": There are so many missconceptions here at play that I barely know where to start! But first things first. I don't know where the notion came from that a good server only uses custom plugins. Or that custom plugins equal good plugins. This notion is so wrong it hurts. I mean what do you think which plugin will be better: A plugin written by plugin dev with years of experience and the motivation to help people out with their plugin or plugin dev that writes it to a custom standard, most likely is not as experienced as the other dev and has not nearly as much chance to debug the plugins. In 95% of cases the publically available plugin is just as good, if not better. And the other 5% account for the cases the plugin devs of the public plugins have no idea what they're doing or the server dev really know what they're doing. In short in many, if not most, cases custom plugins are actually lower quality. The next thing that is a big issue is the time it takes to develop these plugins. It typically takes far less time to configure an existing plugin the way you want than having a custom plugin that does the same developed. In summary insiting on custom plugins is bad. You are usually far better off using existing plugins in most cases. Especially the standards like permissions. "Preventing the competion from copying your server": I though for the longest time that was some kind of joke or lame excuse, however I'm shocked that many server owners/admins actually belive that. Well, if your server can be copied by using the same plugins, then your server is actually shit. The value of a server comes from what has been done with the plugins. You'll definately notice a massive difference between two servers using the same plugins where one has spent ~10h setting up everything and building etc. and one that has spent ~1000h. So if you belive you need to hide your plugins from your competion, you probably should spend more time working on your server. "Prevent players from abusing bugs in plugins": From all three of the reasons this is in fact the most sensible one. But it's still a terrible reason. Let me explain: While it is true that some plugins have exploits and bugs and a potential attacker could exploit them, hiding the plugin will barely do anything. If an attacker knows an exploit of a certain plugin, they can try it anyways. Not knowing if the vulenerable plugin is on the server has hardley stopped anyone. Testing it out usually doesn't take very long. So even if you hide that you are using a vulnerable plugin, you just as vulnerable. Another thing is that users can actually be helped knowing what plugins you use. If they know that you are using plugin X they can actually look it up themselves and find out neat things. It's true that not that many will do it, but the players that do are the ones you want on your server. They will generate the least amount of need for support and you can rely on them reading info you provide. So encouraging them to play on your server by allowing them to do their own research is something you want. Lastly I'd like to point out that it's also a dick move towards the developers of the plugins you are using. They spent countless hours creating a plugin you use and you won't even let remain the tiniest bit of credit. So to conculde, be nice to the devs of your plugins and your players and stop hiding that info. Rant over
- BrainStone |