Bukkit: It's time to say ...

Discussion in 'Community News and Announcements' started by EvilSeph, Aug 21, 2014.

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  1. Offline

    EvilSeph

    [​IMG]


    When we first set out to add our personal touch to what hMod offered the community 3 and a half years ago, none of us foresaw the success the Bukkit project would end up having. From a rocky start that wasn't of our own making (hMod suddenly disappeared without warning while we were just starting up the project, leaving us ill-prepared to fill the void left over), we stepped up to the challenge and managed to put together a usable, respectable alternative to other server mods. We even went so far as to improve on the Minecraft server itself. I can proudly and confidently say that Bukkit was and is a success: not only were we able to provide a platform for hundreds of thousands of Developers to build upon and make use of, we were also frequently providing our Server Admins with peace of mind knowing that the latest exploits and security holes were addressed in a timely and responsible manner.

    From the get go we were plagued with issues and obstacles we needed to overcome, one of which we were sadly unable to tackle despite our best efforts: the legal barrier of licensing and permission. When starting the Bukkit project and even getting involved with hMod before that, we all knew that our work - no matter how well-intentioned - fell into a dangerous legal grey area. As such, my first priority at the start was to do things right: contact Mojang to try and get permission to continue on with the project and discuss our licensing. Unfortunately, while we did get into contact with Mojang and managed to have a chat with Notch and Jeb themselves (who have said that they don't like our methods but understand that there isn't any alternative and are thus fine with what we were and are doing), we never did get an official meeting with their business side to get legally sound permission to continue as we were and were unable to sort out our licensing issues. To this day we find our project in limbo with a half-applied license some could argue is invalid and little power on our end to do anything about the situation.

    With that realisation came a nagging unease at the back of our minds that at any point in time Mojang could decide they didn't like what we were doing and shut us down - something we were all expecting for the first year or so of the project's life but, to our surprise, never occurred. Naturally, Mojang's conscious decision to not take action on our project gave us the confidence to continue on (something which I'm sure Server Admins out there can relate to given the recent, sudden and unexpected EULA enforcement) and we even later got further confirmation from Notch himself that we were and are allowed to keep proceeding as we always had.

    Fast forward to more recent times and Mojang have made the abrupt and sudden decision to start enforcing their EULA in an effort to quell the outlook of Minecraft being pay to win. While I can completely understand where they are coming from and support their mission to shut down pay to win servers, it's difficult to be supportive of their abrupt turn-around with enforcing rules they consciously decided not to enforce since the start of Minecraft. On top of this, there are also clauses - which it would be irresponsible of us not to be aware of - within the now suddenly enforced EULA that directly affect the Bukkit project.

    Most notably: "The one major rule is that you must not distribute anything we've made". While the EULA does go on to try and clarify what is meant by "anything we've made", I feel that it only serves to confuse the situation even more so. At the end of the day, it seems that Mojang can determine what is a "mod, plugin or hack" of their game on the fly and their recent abrupt turn-around on enforcing the EULA has us understandably worried. Couple this with the fact that it isn't legally viable or acceptable to enforce the EULA piecemeal and our future is clear.

    At this point in time, I think it's safe to say that it's no longer worth it for us to put up a fight when it comes to keeping Bukkit and modding alive. With large and significant changes coming in Minecraft 1.8 that we'll be hard pressed to provide support for and the lack of support from Mojang with updates since acquiring our original core team (Mojang used to provide us with mappings to speed up the update process), there is little motivation for us to continue limping on across various aspects of the project. From a project management standpoint, it's become increasingly difficult to find willing and able individuals to help out the project on a purely voluntary basis due to people losing interest in Minecraft or people looking for something more. Simply put, this was ultimately the final nail in the coffin.

    Nonetheless, no one can deny that we've had a fantastic run as a project. This is due in no small part to the support we received and continue to receive from both the Minecraft community and the many companies and organisations that have graciously chosen to support us with a ridiculous amount of resources, infrastructure and backing - far more than we could have ever asked for. No amount of words can adequately express the gratitude we have for all our sponsors who have supported us through our journey and ensured Bukkit had the infrastructure required to be the vast success it is today. To list all of what these sponsors have done for us would be a post equal in length to this one, so we will unfortunately need to keep it brief. We want to give huge shout-outs and thanks to: eXophase.com for getting us off our feet and hosting us at the start; Multiplay and Curse for swooping in and providing us with (emergency) hosting we continue to use to this day including dl.bukkit.org and our BukkitDev service; as well as AllGamer for providing us test servers whenever we needed a server to certify update and promoted builds or attempt to reproduce a bug report.

    Last, but definitely not least, we'd like to thank the many staff, both past and present, that have volunteered countless hours over the years. I am at a loss for words to express just how much these people have meant to the project and to myself. The core team who have constantly worked hard to update to every new Minecraft version, while adding in new API and improving the server itself. The BukkitDev staff who spend countless hours checking over the fantastic plugins our community creates. Our moderation staff keeping our forums orderly and safe for all people seeking out a great community to be a part of. Additionally, the many unsung people who have helped in various ways despite having no official title, simply because there was work to do. Finally, my administrators, who have tirelessly helped me keep the project functioning as a whole. I would especially like to thank TnT and mbaxter for sticking through it with me to the end, always ready to discuss an issue and provide me with advice.

    It's been a fantastic 3 and a half years of providing what we believe to be the absolute best modding platform for the wonderful Minecraft community to use. We really enjoyed seeing the amazing feats our many Developers and Server Admins achieved with the product we provided and continue to be amazed every day at the ingenuity our community shows. Thanks for everyone's continued support! It has and will continue to mean the world to us. Together we were able to provide a Minecraft server used by hundreds of thousands of servers out there (with our last Recommended Build having over 2.6 million downloads!), which is certainly something to be proud of and a great note to end on.

    This is the end, it's time to say goodbye. It's been an amazing run and we achieved much more than anyone thought was possible, even ultimately culminating in Mojang hiring our original core team. Unfortunately, all good things come to an end and the Bukkit project has run its course, leaving me to make one final - incredibly difficult - decision to shut down the project I’ve poured 3 and a half years of my life into which means so much to me. We're no longer able to confidently distribute our modified versions of the Minecraft server and it is no longer smart for us to continue with our update process. Sadly, this means we will NOT be updating Bukkit nor CraftBukkit for Minecraft 1.8 and, since Minecraft 1.7.10 introduced the EULA enforcement, we will be placing the project under a code freeze for the foreseeable future. Furthermore, due to obvious legal reasons we will not be helping anyone else complete any updates nor sharing our methods despite any desire to the contrary. Although the project itself will essentially be no more, we'll continue to support our community, the forums, IRC and BukkitDev as long as we are able and as long as our partners support us with the resources and infrastructure to do so.

    As for us? Well, who knows? Maybe we'll find another game, program or project to be passionate about and we'll be back with a vengeance? Only time will tell, but I hope that we'll see you around the next passion-project of ours when it happens :)


    [lukegb]There's more to come on this. Please read this for more information about where we stand.[/lukegb]
     
  2. Offline

    feildmaster

    At this point and time I have no intentions of being involved with MineCraft anymore.
     
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    kyle939

    So will we still have Bukkit for Minecraft releases or no?

    Just so we know so I could stop using now and port all to other software if need be because I've not played Minecraft in a long time because of waiting for Bukkit.
     
  4. Offline

    robotnikthingy

    Probably not
     
  5. Offline

    astroroxy

  6. Offline

    Skye

    You may want to look through the listed synonyms to get a better feel for the phrase, or look up alternative definitions elsewhere. As a native speaker, I can assure you that it is most often used with negative connotation, implying ignominy brought about by ineptitude. If you look at the poster's later reponse, you can clearly see that is exactly what he was implying.

    It's great that you're ready to rise up to prevent the "spread of misinformation," but you really dropped the ball on this one.
     
    Sketaful likes this.
  7. Offline

    Rexel

    The worlds biggest tech industry exploiters, tax evaders, monopolistic thieves and legal schmucks, want to buy the worlds biggest multimillion dollar slacker studio that still treats its cashcow game on indie development shoe string budget, that practically prints money from sales generated from the community ... interesting, perfect match.
     
    Rachel2560 likes this.
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    HoneyBadgerHFS

    Good Bye Bukkit ;( You were the best software for a minecraft server
     
    Cliffordlittle likes this.
  9. Offline

    Cliffordlittle

    Too bad... Minecraft will be no more... JOIN MY SERVER!! What server?! Exactly...
     
  10. Offline

    VesperOne

    Well, where to begin, Bukkit is one of the most influential things that have kept me on the internet (second only to Minecraft itself and my YouTube channel). I have spent countless hours of my years of playing Minecraft on multiplayer servers in awe over some of the custom plug-ins I have seen. And even though I am on my fourth attempt to create my own server (my only problem being my internet provider), and if Bukkit and it's amazing community didn't exist, I would probably still be looking up tutorials on how to make a server. Every time I am on Bukkit's home page, I am either browsing through tons of awesome plug-ins created by the community or seeing all the posts from EvilSeph about all the new versions of Bukkit (he still makes me wonder how him and the team update it so fast...). I have tried to learn programming myself and have been lousy at it, always wanting to make plug-ins for Bukkit. But it looks like my window of opportunity has come and passed. If any other revolutionary server APIs are out there, please come forward now. It is with a heavy heart that I end my last forum post, with a good-bye and a good luck for the future to the entire BukkitDev team. Thanks for all the amazing work.

    Stay on the lookout, [creeper]

    ~VesperOne
     
  11. Offline

    robotnikthingy

    Microsoft to buy Minecraft

    Plot twist!
    http://mobile.nytimes.com/blogs/dea...-be-in-advanced-talks-to-buy-minecraft-maker/

    Not sure how this will affect the current situation with bukkit, but I wouldn't be surprised if Microsoft kills the official modding API, and makes you pay for skins...

    Or they use all that money for a hostile takeover of bukkit and bulldozer over the DMCA with an army of lawyers

    I don't like how this might turn out
     
  12. Offline

    uvbeenzaned

    Who on earth is going to approve plugins on dev.bukkit.org? Plugins have not been approved since the 2nd of this month. This is not good for the remainder of 1.7 servers that need plugins updated.
     
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    nollcraft

    I am very confused! Is craftbukkit over? Are We getting a 1.8? also if craftbukkit is over what are we doing now for a plugin server 1.8 and beyond? Would really like to know. I see a lot of server already have 1.8 update and use plugins not sure how they are doing it? Thank You!
     
  14. Offline

    uvbeenzaned

    Yes. The original team left and Mojang said they would update but we are not sure. Spigot is how most other servers are able to accept 1.8 clients.
     
  15. Offline

    DHLF

    nollcraft
    As usual some server owners use modified versions of bukkit("clones") which accept joining of *newer version clients* while they are still running an earlier version.
    For example due to the many changes(again -.-) in 1.8 it would have taken some months to throw a "working" server out.
    You will be able to join all of them with the latest client but dont expect to see any of the new stuff on those servers ..
     
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    JWhy

    Well it's not like any servers would be forced-halted due to the DMCA complaint
     
  17. Offline

    Chevels

    Or how one man killed a community... I am so disgusted by this situation :(

    Anyway thank you to all the team who worked hard for the community! Thanks to you my server has become what it is today, four years after its creation, although now it will not be the same...
     
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    GAMER1232012

    Love you guys. Thanks so much for working on the Bukkit Project. It really helped my small server become big.
    We'll miss you
     
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    hitshot

    Join spigot! its better
     
  20. Offline

    David_B

    Are sure at this point that Bukkit has reached its demise or is it still possible that Mojang could dispute the DMCA report?
     
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    robotnikthingy

    Curse has its staff members right now running bukkitdev and approving plugins. Though they seem to only be approving updates to existing plugins, and haven't been approving brand new ones.

    I'
    m still waiting for my plugin to be approved
     
  22. Offline

    uvbeenzaned

    OK. I wasn't sure about that. Geez, I wanna cry right now. Everything is falling apart. :'( Bukkit was my life. It's soon to run out...
     
  23. Offline

    Kezza

    Can you all please stay together??
    You are brilliant developers; PLEASE, help each other make a new game! This is not as absurd as it sounds. Your ideas should not even be used by Minecraft (Microsoft) now; they belong to you. Only the component that was derived from Minecraft belongs to them; any ideas you had in creating plugins belong to the creator; particularly in this case, because none of you were employed! I feel like I'm screaming into a vacuum here; I tried to say the same over at FTB and Spigot; I'm trying REALLY HARD to get this message to this ENORMOUS community, which if it worked together as it has in the past, could create the most ASTONISHING GAME, and keep it democratic and free to be modified, as Minecraft soon will stop being.
    You could easily use the ideas that you have; all the Towny and Mypet and McMMO and Factions and on and on; all these fabulous concepts; Microsoft would be breaching copyright if it produced copies of those ideas for Minecraft, as you have published those ideas publicly. Seriously, you could sue the rotters!
    But why not create a new game based on the best of those ideas? Minecraft does not own the rights to a mining/crafting/farming game! There are thousands of those! It was not even the first cubey-blocky game out; there have been others before it. So you are TOTALLY WITHIN YOUR RIGHTS to create a new game! Just think of the market here that you have ready to take it up and support you! And the pool of resources, the size of this think tank is staggering! Notch never had this to rely on.
    Come on people! Don't roll over and die and let Microsoft take your ideas as its own! Put them together, use your own code, call on me for artwork if you need. Draw up an agreement as to who is to own the game (all main contributors), with clause that will only allow sale of it if all are agreed, then it's safe. Please! Put your energies into a new direction; it can legally be similar to Minecraft, they cannot stop that. But your ideas, just look at them! All these plugins, loaded with ideas! Let's see something better!

    For goodness sake, spigot is in the same boat. It's a fork of bukkit, there will be not more updates there either if this goes down the tube.

    EDIT by Moderator: merged posts, please use the edit button instead of double posting.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jun 9, 2016
  24. Offline

    Gamecube762

    Kezza Bukkit is dead, Spigot is going to continue receiving troubles from Bukkit. Sponge is a new project that many devs from many server platforms are banding together to create. Its coded from scratch, has a different license, and is cautious about the mistakes made in older server platforms.

    Info about sponge can be found by the sponge in my signature.
     
  25. Offline

    RedKnightHD

    Grr! I accidently deleted my server folder and didn't notice it was in the recycle bin!

    And i noticed it when i cleared it!
     
  26. Offline

    Chevels

    Arcana computing will always be stronger than the law. And that's fine!

    thousands of servers may find themselves in trouble because of the pride of a man. I hope this alternative will save a community, because whatever they say, it's "us" the players and servers administrators who pay the cost of such childish quarrels :/
     
  27. Offline

    Kezza

    Thanks for that. I shall go there now to warn them too. They must move away from Minecraft and create their own game; it's the only safe thing to do.
     
  28. i guess i'll step up to the plate and join the Bukkit team i can code pretty well :)

    anyone thats dropping out of bukkit for poor reasons because THE EULA watch this video beofre the hit's you on the way out.
     
  29. Offline

    Gamecube762

    Your punctuation, capitalization, and maturity shows you are more than qualified for the job. With your level of skill, I expect Bukkit to be updated before the day ends. Have fun!
     
  30. Offline

    bluexephos500

    no this is not happening stop mojang we can fight back we can i dont want bukkit to come to an end oh notch i hate you now ban me from minecraft i dont care just stop this EULA or you will go out of busniss ok you are making the minecraft comunity end and it will if you dont make changes
     
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