Minecraft Forums

It's kind of sad that so many pay to win servers have mutated the word donation so badly that people like OP equate donator to a dirty word. No OP I don't hate donators but TBH I don't know what you mean by the term anymore. If Donator means "Pay 2 win" then yeah I detest them out of a sense of unfairness and perhaps a dash of jealousy. If that's what donator means these days then yeah I hate their guts and everything they touch.

Also, I seriously don't know how this hasn't become a legal issue. I guess calling it a "Donation" kind of negates that. But pay to win servers are essentially selling Mojangs IP under the pretense of a donation for a server.

That being said, I've "ran" a server before, depending on your region and where you want to base your server. For a server that can handle 20-30 people you sometimes have to spend 100+ dollars. It really depends on the hosting service though and region (Aussi based hosts gouge the ­ out of you). Servers are not cheap and some servers that have donation systems only get enough to mitigate cost a little. And those cheap servers tend to lagg a fair bit, the optional extras server hosts provide that allow the game to be pleasantly playable can stack up. There are ways if you are savvy enough to make the cost negligible but there's still a cost.

It is really sad too that servers that have reasonable dignified non OP perks end up punished becasue the player base won't donate unless they get their god powers. IMO I think the best and most reasonable donator perk servers should be entitled to give is land claim space.
If I was to run a proper large scale public server I'd lease protected claim space under the pretense that they are buying the right to use a parcel of space on the physical server. If the server was a home they'd be a roommate entitled to an agreed to lot with it's terms and conditions. I mean they are helping you pay the bills they should have a secure indestructible (by players) it's only fair.

Aside from security and titles/ ranks (I never understood their appeal) anything outside of those things people have no justification to sell, even if it's OK by law due to some donator loophole. To me OP donator perks are a symptom of an ailing server that shouldn't be running or wont be running for long. It means people find your server that boring that they need godmode to even stay interested. Then again that might not be your fault, I mean it really seems like two thirds of the player base has ADD. You might NEED to give out unlimited diamonds to even keep them playing let alone paying.
This emerging corporate donations culture and their dependent market that has spawned from SMP hosting scene is starting to sicken me. Money makes the world generate but that's no excuse for some of the pathetic donator revenue models I've seen...