2016, the First Year

Starting from May 2016 (or August 2015) to December 31, 2016

The Server's Founding

Initial Setup

Previous Attempts

Technically, it can be said that the First Server was really established on 2015-08-16, as there exist log files showing that on the 16th and 28th of August, attempts were made to make a server with no success.

However, many years before this was even tried, a Minecraft Forum post was made on August 1, 2012 here posting an invalid IP. It's likely that the IP was taken from an Open to LAN chat message, which was just recently introduced at the time the post was made.

Factors leading up to the Server's Start

In the first quarter of 2016, a NAS server was constructed for the family to use. With this experience gave insight on Linux and networking, two skills that would prove instrumental to the server's success.

One of the biggest hurdles to overcome historically was port forwarding, a process in which a rule is made in the house network's router firewall in order to allow incoming connections to be redirected to a device on the network. However, it turned out that the house network had 2 routers chained together, meaning the majority of port-forwarding tutorials did not directly apply.

One day, specifically 2016-05-13, it was finally figured out that port forwarding with two routers chained together just involves forwarding the port twice. After 6 failed tests of starting the server, it was finally tested using a OnePlus One with the MineChat app installed, connected over cellular data. The chat logs show the following:

[08:09:33] Noorquacker[/X_IP_HIDDEN] logged in with entity id [X_COORDS_HIDDEN]
[08:09:37] <Noorquacker> connected with a oneplus a0001 using MineChat
[08:09:43] <Noorquacker> Hi
[08:10:13] Noorquacker lost connection: Internal Exception: java.io.IOException: An existing connection was forcibly closed by the remote host
[08:10:13] Noorquacker left the game.
[08:11:57] Noorquacker[/X_IP_HIDDEN] logged in with entity id [X_COORDS_HIDDEN]
[08:12:03] <Noorquacker> connected with a oneplus a0001 using MineChat
[08:12:12] <Noorquacker> oh my good Lord

As you can see, it was quite a shock seeing a player successfully join.

The First Join

Having returned from a camping trip, it was time to see if someone else can join the server. A friend was contacted and successfully joined:

[20:00:57] gamer_girl45[/X_IP_HIDDEN] logged in with entity id [X_COORDS_HIDDEN]
[20:01:04] Noorquacker has just earned the achievement [Taking Inventory]
[20:01:07] <Noorquacker> YES
[20:01:08] <gamer_girl45> panics
[20:01:14] <Noorquacker> IT WORKS
[20:01:26] <gamer_girl45> i havnt played this is years
[20:01:29] <Noorquacker> AFTER ALL THESE YEARS

It was an amazement to see the server working, considering only failed attempt after failed attempt happened for nearly 4 years.

While it is true that the server was confirmed working on 2016-05-13, we officially use 2016-05-15 as the date the server was founded, as this is the day we were truly convinced that running a server is possible from my house.

Choosing Spigot

At the time, the choice was clear on how to run my server:

The day after the server's founding, Spigot was set up as the server software, with the plugins BSwear and DrugsXL installed, with more possibly installed.

It should be noted that the second external player also unexpectedly joined, but never said a word:

[13:53:25] word_girl[/X_IP_HIDDEN] logged in with entity id [X_COORDS_HIDDEN]
[13:53:32] word_girl has just earned the achievement [Taking Inventory]
[13:56:27] <Noorquacker> What?
[13:56:29] word_girl lost connection: Disconnected
[13:56:29] word_girl left the game.

Conclusion

At this point, we were convinced that the server is worth getting into, as other players were finally confirmed to reliably join, even when no one expects them to join.

Summer Explosion

World Management

Because the server was still in its infancy, there was only one main world at the time, named PublicWorld. Today, this world is accessible under the warp name trusty_creative, and all original builds are still intact.

Multiworld access was just recently being tested, thanks to the Multiverse plugin. Because new players would spawn in PublicWorld by default, they were restricted from building thanks to PermissionsEx and other protection plugins.

Player Activity

Shortly after the server was started, player Leafpool10120, another friend known in real life, joined the server.

Leafpool was responsible for many builds on the server, such as her house, the city hall, and a bakery.

IJWTB Joins the Server

The server was heavily influenced by the Garry's Mod server I Just Want to Build, which is why many rank names are cloned after IJWTB ranks.

Because Noor played heavily on IJWTB, he had many friends on there that were willing to join, including samoo21, geniusface1234, and InkSansy. They all built houses in PublicWorld, with all of them having their own personal worlds as well, but genuisface and samoo had relatively empty worlds. InkSansy, however, made an entire amusement park in her world with the help of SebCake. This world is known as TaleDark, and while there is a bus to TaleDark in PublicWorld, it does not function since TaleDark is not loaded in the server by default. However, it may be loaded on request.

Many IJWTB players played on the server, including but not limit to:

At the time, most of these players were the only players on the server, with the exceptions being gamer_girl45 (aka Kami3d2y), word_girl, and of course, Noor.

Cryotheum

If you recognize the name Cryrotheum, congrats, you're old enough to remember icri!

On 2016-07-12, a player nicknamed Cry logged into the server for the first time. Friends with PiguBones, Cry was also technically skilled enough to host his own server. Noor and Cry instantly became friends over this, and Cry helped around on the server.

The next day, he was promoted to Moderator. 2 days after that, he was promoted to Developer, the same status as Noor, with full control over the server. He was trusted incredibly quickly and helped tremendously later on in the server, polishing it up and making it scalable.

Conclusion

The server had acquired its second (and to this date, last) developer thanks to the connections made on IJWTB. Many people joined and had fun, but nothing significant other than Cry's developer promotion happened. Since the server was still young, it was still using IJWTB to bring in new players and establish activity and history. Critics may say that the server hadn't formed its own identity yet, and that it was feeding off IJWTB in order to survive.

Fall and the End of the Year

Beginning of the End

At this stage, we only have IJWTB players on the server, being active from June to July. However, as August rolled around, players had school starting up.

The Void of Fall 2016

Very few players joined during this time, with one exception being coolwhip810, a player Noor knew in real life. While Xandertron5000 and Cry were occasionally on, more often than not, we had days with zero activity. This persisted until December. As a result, Noor cared about the server less, leading to less maintenance, less advertising, and less players, onwards until no one was playing.

Christmas Time

Starting in early December, Xandertron, PiguBones (now Zipra), and Cry started playing again, restarting activity. Kami and word_girl also started playing as well, becoming daily players along with the aforementioned core IJWTB players.

Conclusion

The server had started solidifying a more loyal playerbase, where players play because they want, and not because Noor asks them to join. At this point, the server had started to establish its own culture.