[Server] Tunnelers' Abyss

[LMD]

Lovely, another nice fellow who thinks they have found a loophole.

Smartass me feels the need to point out that this is not a "man in the middle" attack since you're never actually in the middle, you're just injecting packets. Something like "man on the side" would better fit this, but applying this terminology (calling it an "attack") is very silly in the first place, given that you are effectively manipulating the incoming network traffic of your own Minetest client because you believe to have found a loophole in the rules.

The "What no cracking!" book at the spawn disallows things like fly or noclip
without having the privileges.
Since it does not exactly define what having the privileges means,
we can assume that we have the privileges because a packet arriving a the
Minetest client grants them to us.

No, w_laenger, if you read this, you can not assume that. It is clear that "having the privileges" means having the server grant them to you.

[CalebJ]

Lovely, another nice fellow who thinks they have found a loophole.

I'm almost 100% sure this was just a joke, w_laenger creates many such joke books.

[pups]

We would like to bring to your attention a short review of a building digtron.

This model is meant to build towers.
Using such a model a player can build identical towers in any number very quickly.
Only hurry up to load building materials into the digtron storages:)

The author of the digtron construction is Tiler.
The author of the screenshots is nakama.
Your humble narrator is pups:)

The digtron poses a complex disc that climbs higher and higher placing blocks.

Note that the machine places different types of amphibolite stone blocks while running.
You can see cobble, smooth and brick types, being arranged by way of helix.




Here you can see the digtron halted on the top of a tower.
Also a twin tower is seen nearby. This tower was built some time earlier by this neat machine.

[pups]

2024-01-16 by pups

It is time to draw a conclusion.

[content violating forum rules removed by LMD]

Now, I do not want to think about ill things.

I would like to say "Thank you very much" for all good people of the server.
Of course, I will always remember you and miss you, if I lose the access to the server.
Also I want to note that a server is not "fuhrer" admins, clumsy developers, faulty modules, and long lines of program code.
Only players can form a server. Common players' discussing, arguing, co-operating, playing, joking, and having fun:) Exactly that is a real server.

[CalebJ]

I am more than disappointed at how quickly this developed; pups has been a longtime, helpful player of the server, and although we have had our disagreements, we always mutually respected each other and had a great time playing TA together. I hope this isn't the end of that.

I want to put this out there - l will never ban someone for criticizing my work or my merits alone. If it really was to escalate so far, they would at least get many warnings beforehand. That's just simply not a reason to ban a player, in my opinion. The community will always punish that player much harder than admins ever could.

In this case, pups was not given any former warnings or reprovals for his criticism against the bugs / developers that create bugs (including me :-)) on the server which had gone on for many years - some of it very helpful, while some of it could have been more constructive - and suddenly, his behaviour was addressed in a very rash way. And when he fought back, he threw oil on the fire, leading to eventual implosion. I'm totally downtrodden by how this played out and although I don't agree with everything pups has written here, because Hume2 is definitely not how pups has described him, I understand what led him to write all this and I don't believe justice was served. Given pups' history on the server, he deserved to be treated with respect and entreated to change his behaviour - he got anything but that, and he reacted in an unbridled way that wasn't like him.

[pups]

"[content violating forum rules removed by LMD]"
Very nice:)
We may not criticize server admins:) We may not describe server problems:)
What a wonderful world:)
Only pictures with flowers allowed:)
Thank you, that you reminded me about this:))

[LMD]

"[content violating forum rules removed by LMD]"
Very nice:)
We may not criticize server admins:) We may not describe server problems:)
What a wonderful world:)
Only pictures with flowers allowed:)
Thank you, that you reminded me about this:))

You may very well criticize server admins or describe server problems, but you have to do so in a respectful manner (as CalebJ did in his post).

Throwing around Nazi comparisons is not respectful in the slightest. There are rules on this forum you have to follow irrespective of what your quarrels are; I couldn't care less as long as you follow the forum rules.

Consider this a second warning.

[Blockhead]

Hey there.

I logged into TA today to notice the transparency on Advtrains tracks is broken on here for clients above a certain version. This leaves a big black line above the track and two cuboids inside the tracks for all tracks, which is quite ugly. I think it was 5.7 or 5.8 that the transparency for nodes had the old boolean deprecated and moved to string format only. This means mods need to be updated on the server or they will look wrong on newer clients. Here is a screenshot from spawn showing the problem:

ta_advtrains_transparency.jpeg (190.97 KiB) Viewed 6489 times

I know you have an Advtrains fork, but you should apply the patch from mainline. It's a one-line change: https://git.bananach.space/advtrains.gi ... ba074abeec

[sorcerykid]

I was always under the impression that breaking changes in Minetest like this wouldn't occur within a major version (i.e. 5.x) as backwards compatibility is always guaranteed, even if features are deprecated. Has this guideline changed?

[Desour]

I was always under the impression that breaking changes in Minetest like this wouldn't occur within a major version (i.e. 5.x) as backwards compatibility is always guaranteed, even if features are deprecated. Has this guideline changed?

I used to think the same. But apparently the policy is that we can change some stuff if there was a long enough period with deprecation warnings.

I'd like if there was a warning + new behavior in one release.

Anyway, this is the wrong place to discuss this.

See also: https://github.com/minetest/minetest/pull/13929

[Blockhead]

I was always under the impression that breaking changes in Minetest like this wouldn't occur within a major version (i.e. 5.x) as backwards compatibility is always guaranteed, even if features are deprecated. Has this guideline changed?

In this case, newer client versions require data from the server for transparent pixels to show as transparent correctly, when transparency enabled use to be the default I think. It meets the definition of breaking only for visual consistency and only then when the client version is too high compared to the server.

As Desour noted, this should be further discussed on GitHub. I will say it is pretty important for servers to apply this fix to Advtrains though since it's pretty ugly without it. Whether server management like new versions or not, newer clients are very much in use (pragmatism vs principles).

[Hume2]

Thanks for report. I know about this issue and it will take a lot of time to find all these textures in 200+ mods. Unfortunately, there is an issue which makes Minetest 5.8+ unuseable on my computer, so I can't help much here. I first need to fix the client or at least report the issue properly. If you are interested in what the issue is, it is camera rotating very fast and in odd directions (I call it drunk mode, as it really looks like if the player was drunk :D).

[CalebJ]

Tunnelers' Abyss celebrates it's 5th birthday today! Thank you to the great users which have made this server what it is!! :)

(And of course thanks to Hume2, Coram, pseudonyme, and the rest of the staff team - without all of you, we probably would not have made it to 5 years :) Long live TA!)

[livphi]

Do NOT join this server if you are LGBTQ+.
One of the admins, CalebJ, privately told me that LGBTQ people shouldn't be discussed or acknowledged that they exist because this is a "kid friendly" server. He basically told me that knowing that we exist is "sexual content". I was a long time player but after he said that to me (in private) I decided to quit and move on to better servers. I put up signs around my city explaining why I was leaving (One of the admins told me that LGBTQ people shouldn't be open about it on the server), and saying things like "Protect Trans Kids!", "Anyone can be LGBTQ", and guess what? Almost all the signs were removed. See the attached image. Don't believe me? Go to the travelnet hub, travelnet number 291. Check out my public factory, city hall, and la pasa apartments. You will see these 2m tall glass pillars with no signs on them.

I got banned for "bringing on sexual topics". I attached a screenshot of the ban. What exactly did I say? Was I talking about sex positions or hookups or fetishes? No, I said that trans kids exist, queer kids exist, and that I'm leaving the server because of CalebJ's anti-lgbtq stance. No mention of sexual acts or topics. I didn't spam the chat, I didn't make personal threats or attacks against anyone. I didn't even name-drop CalebJ on my signs. I followed the servers rules and got banned. This is a terrible and reckless way to manage a server. And a good way to isolate future players and make them bite their tongue around the admins.

Valid and Loved Server

If you're looking for a server similar to Tunneler's Abyss but with more inclusive admins and also family friendly, check out validandloved.life port 30000. We have a lot of overlap with the mods on Tunneler's Abyss. We are a newer server so finding bugs is welcome! We are a little buggy right now but we're making a lot of progress. I've personally fixed like 5 dupe glitches. I'm developing for them now instead of Tunneler's Abyss.

Elements

I was keeping this a secret (haha secretz) because I wanted more time to reverse engineer Tunneler's Abyss's `elements` mod, a closed source mod that is to my knowledge only on TA. But now that I'm banned, I might as well tell you. I'm working on an improved, more functional, and more cohesive elements mod! We have it on the Valid And Loved server. The mod is open source and you can publicly see the source code. If you would like to help me, please create issues on the gitlab repository. If you could give me a list of the elements mod recipes, or just any information about the TA elements mod, that would be greatly appreciated! The mod basically does nothing right now. I'm working on building the framework before adding all the features. We have aspirin though, check us out in the server tab!

Repository: https://gitlab.com/validandloved/elements

The Nazi Grow Staff

This is less serious but there's something weird with the super grow staff from the staffs mod (link: https://content.minetest.net/packages/CalebJ/staffs/ ), made by CalebJ. When you hold it, it has a very obvious swastika on it. Now, I'm not accusing CalebJ of being a Nazi, don't get me wrong. I just think its a little weird how dismissive he was when I and others brought that up to him. We have a better texture for the grow staff (thank you LadyK) on Valid and Loved, please check us out!

tldr
Tunneler's Abyss has at least one homophobic and transphobic admin, but, they do have pretty good minetest mods. Check out the Valid and Loved server (IP: validandloved.life) instead for a more inclusive (and also kid friendly) experience.

Edit: This is not a personal attack on CalebJ. I wish the best for him and I don't want him to be harassed. He is just the admin I had the most contact with. I'm just criticizing his actions towards me and the things he said to me. I've discussed the topic of LGBTQ people with him privately and he is not going to change or accept criticism.

[FloraMae]

Do NOT join this server if you are LGBTQ+.
One of the admins, CalebJ, is a huge bigot who privately told me that LGBTQ people shouldn't be discussed or acknowledged that they exist because this is a "kid friendly" server. He believes that knowing that we exist is "sexual content". I was a long time player but after he said that to me (in private) I decided to quit and move on to better servers. I put up signs around my city explaining why I was leaving (One of the admins told me that LGBTQ people shouldn't be open about it on the server), and saying things like "Protect Trans Kids!", "Anyone can be LGBTQ", and guess what? Almost all the signs were removed. See the attached image. Don't believe me? Go to the travelnet hub, travelnet number 291. Check out my public factory, city hall, and la pasa apartments. You will see these 2m tall glass pillars with no signs on them.

I got banned for "bringing on sexual topics". I attached a screenshot of the ban. What exactly did I say? Was I talking about sex positions or hookups or fetishes? No, I said that trans kids exist, queer kids exist, and that I'm leaving the server because of CalebJ's anti-lgbtq stance. No mention of sexual acts or topics. I didn't spam the chat, I didn't make personal threats or attacks against anyone. I didn't even name-drop CalebJ on my signs. I followed the servers rules and got banned. This is a terrible and reckless way to manage a server. And a good way to isolate future players and make them bite their tongue around the admins.

Valid and Loved Server

If you're looking for a server similar to Tunneler's Abyss but with more inclusive admins and also family friendly, check out validandloved.life port 30000. We have a lot of overlap with the mods on Tunneler's Abyss. We are a newer server so finding bugs is welcome! We are a little buggy right now but we're making a lot of progress. I've personally fixed like 5 dupe glitches. I'm developing for them now instead of Tunneler's Abyss.

Elements

I was keeping this a secret (haha secretz) because I wanted more time to reverse engineer Tunneler's Abyss's `elements` mod, a closed source mod that is to my knowledge only on TA. But now that I'm banned, I might as well tell you. I'm working on an improved, more functional, and more cohesive elements mod! We have it on the Valid And Loved server. The mod is open source and you can publicly see the source code. If you would like to help me, please create issues on the gitlab repository. If you could give me a list of the elements mod recipes, or just any information about the TA elements mod, that would be greatly appreciated! The mod basically does nothing right now. I'm working on building the framework before adding all the features. We have aspirin though, check us out in the server tab!

Repository: https://gitlab.com/validandloved/elements

The Nazi Grow Staff

This is less serious but there's something weird with the super grow staff from the staffs mod (link: https://content.minetest.net/packages/CalebJ/staffs/ ), made by CalebJ. When you hold it, it has a very obvious swastika on it. Now, I'm not accusing CalebJ of being a Nazi, don't get me wrong. I just think its a little weird how dismissive he was when I and others brought that up to him. We have a better texture for the grow staff (thank you LadyK) on Valid and Loved, please check us out!

tldr
Tunneler's Abyss has at least one homophobic and transphobic admin, but, they do have pretty good minetest mods. Check out the Valid and Loved server (IP: validandloved.life) instead for a more inclusive (and also kid friendly) experience.

Edit: This is not a personal attack on CalebJ. I wish the best for him and I don't want him to be harassed. He is just the admin I had the most contact with. I'm just criticizing his actions towards me and the things he said to me. I've discussed the topic of LGBTQ people with him privately and he is not going to change or accept criticism.

Hi, I'm FloraMae and I figured I should chime in on what I've seen and witnessed concerning all this.

I am the owner of the mentioned Valid and Loved server. Tunnelers Abyss sort of got me to make it due to my experience playing on their server. Around the same time, it seems livphi had similar ideas to create a server like mine, we met, and decided to join teams instead of compete.

What drove me away from TA was the "grow staff" mixed with the admins attitude towards getting it fixed and they came off as possibly anti-LGBT. I have not personally witnessed them being such, but if you look at all the signs combined, they probably are.

For me, a member of the LGBTQ+ community, that is a problem. I ended up wanting to be sure I played on an inclusive server and not finding any that were "for sure" inclusive, I made my own. The goal being a minetest server where someone can come and play and feel safe and loved regardless of if they are LGBTQ+ or not. There is a lot of hate going around in the USA (and world) and I know from personal experience how playing on a nice game server can be a refreshing thing for someone who lives in a world where they feel half of everyone hates them.

The grow staff on the TA server looks innocent enough in the inventory, but when held and viewed from outside, it looks very, umm, suspect. So much so that we retextured it on my server (thank you LadyK).

livphi was talking to me about "what they did" on the TA server, so I got curious and went there (on a new made up account, of course) just so I could see for myself what they did. I saw nothing sexual anywhere in their town or on any of their signs. What I did see is that they put so much time and effort into their town and for them to be willing to just give it up on principle shows to me they are a strong individual.

So, taken all together, I don't personally need to hear them (the admin at TA) say they're anti-LGBTQ+, their actions speak for them. I will leave this reply at that.


EDIT: So it seems they found my brand new account and banned me too despite that account literally doing nothing but logging in and viewing a town.

"Access denied. Reason: Banned: Expires: Mon 23 Sep 2024 08:35:20 PM UTC, Reason: bringing on sexual topics"

[GoldFireUn]

I don't believe I've ever played on Tunneler's Abyss. I have my own server and it's a lot of work. However, someone who plays here as well as on mine has brought this to my attention, and --- by pure chance --- the night before I had opened up the ContentDB and seen this:



So when FloraMae wrote this:

What drove me away from TA was the "grow staff" mixed with the admins attitude towards getting it fixed and they came off as possibly anti-LGBT.

... I can only assume they want to obfuscate the real reason for why this most likely started. That is, it seems (to me) that someone requested a particular mod, which would in my view (and knowing other things about the Tunneler's Abyss server) have been been a clear violation of rule #3 as written in the first post here: "Perverts will not be tolerated." Now, that language might offend some people, but I want to point out that it is the natural right of a person to chose NOT to associate, or be associated with, anyone they don't wish to be. The operators of this server clearly do not want to promote certain lifestyles. That is their right; I support them, and their decision in this regard is clearly in the interest of families and children.

Regarding the super grow staff: this is a textbook example of seeing what you want to see. I, for example, rarely think about a particular mustachioed man from Austria, and I would never have seen in those few pixels what you seem to see. Given the 4x4 resolution, the probability that any pattern whatsoever could be confused with an <unmentionable> is extremely high. And without knowing the modder's intention, no remark should have been made about it whatsoever.

[livphi]

I don't believe I've ever played on Tunneler's Abyss. I have my own server and it's a lot of work. However, someone who plays here as well as on mine has brought this to my attention, and --- by pure chance --- the night before I had opened up the ContentDB and seen this:



So when FloraMae wrote this:

What drove me away from TA was the "grow staff" mixed with the admins attitude towards getting it fixed and they came off as possibly anti-LGBT.

... I can only assume they want to obfuscate the real reason for why this most likely started. That is, it seems (to me) that someone requested a particular mod, which would in my view (and knowing other things about the Tunneler's Abyss server) have been been a clear violation of rule #3 as written in the first post here: "Perverts will not be tolerated." Now, that language might offend some people, but I want to point out that it is the natural right of a person to chose NOT to associate, or be associated with, anyone they don't wish to be. The operators of this server clearly do not want to promote certain lifestyles. That is their right; I support them, and their decision in this regard is clearly in the interest of families and children.

Regarding the super grow staff: this is a textbook example of seeing what you want to see. I, for example, rarely think about a particular mustachioed man from Austria, and I would never have seen in those few pixels what you seem to see. Given the 4x4 resolution, the probability that any pattern whatsoever could be confused with an <unmentionable> is extremely high. And without knowing the modder's intention, no remark should have been made about it whatsoever.

1. It's not a lifestyle. It's not a choice. You can't choose to be gay or trans.
2. Its okay to not want to be associated to someone. Its not okay to say that LBGTQ+ people shouldn't exist openly around children.
3. There are families with 2 moms, 2 dads, with a trans parent, and there are trans and queer children. There are bisexual parents. How can you say that their decision is in the interest in families when they are excluding children and families?
4. We did originally made a request to add the pride flags mod to TA. The admins told me they couldn't and I was okay with that. They've turned down my ideas before so I assumed they had a good reason for it (node count, etc.) But then CalebJ told me that his reason was that the flags aren't kid friendly and that's what isn't okay.
5. Just because someone has the right to do something, doesn't mean that it should be seen as okay, or not be criticized. I have the right to think all puppies should go in meat grinders (i guess? just an example) but that doesn't make it okay. Are you gonna say that to someone who wants to grind puppies?
6. The grow staff wasn't very serious. It was just an observation.
7. If you don't play TA, why are you here? You just wanted to make a comment on something you know nothing about?

Here's some constructive criticism. Please learn more about human sexuality. Learn more about trans people. Learn more about queer families. Go to LGBTQ+ awareness groups and learn more about them there. It will make you more knowledgeable about these issues. I'm very disappointed that you have the view that pride flags fall under the "no perverts" rule. That is a terrible and harmful belief. Please do better. If I had a child that believed that I would feel very embarrassed.

[GoldFireUn]

1. It's not a lifestyle. It's not a choice. You can't choose to be gay or trans.

Not relevant.

2. Its okay to not want to be associated to someone. Its not okay to say that LBGTQ+ people shouldn't exist openly around children.

Self-contradictory. Also, see server rules.

3. There are families with 2 moms, 2 dads, with a trans parent, and there are trans and queer children. There are bisexual parents. How can you say that their decision is in the interest in families when they are excluding children and families?

This is your ideology, but not others'. Hard pass.

4. We did originally made a request to add the pride flags mod to TA.

Glad to have this officially confirmed.

But then CalebJ told me that his reason was that the flags aren't kid friendly and that's what isn't okay.

The fact that CalebJ told you the truth in a matter like this is highly surprising and a mark of a strong character. Most admins I am sure, would be radio-silent to avoid being persecuted, or simply make up an innocuous reason and stick to it.

5. Just because someone has the right to do something, doesn't mean that it should be seen as okay, or not be criticized. I have the right to think all puppies should go in meat grinders (i guess? just an example) but that doesn't make it okay. Are you gonna say that to someone who wants to grind puppies?

To the extent that this makes any sense at all (it actually doesn't), this is self-contradictory.

6. The grow staff wasn't very serious. It was just an observation.

You and FloraMae both brought it up, and you both wrote about it in such a way as to cause an inattentive reader to pass judgement on CalebJ in their own mind, without you having to actually say it. Sorry, but this is a smear tactic, not some kind of off-the-cuff observation.

7. If you don't play TA, why are you here? You just wanted to make a comment on something you know nothing about?

I thought it was pretty clear, but to reiterate: I saw that contradictory information had been posted to the ContentDB, and when I was made aware of this issue on the Tunnelers' Abyss page, I realized the information was important and needed to be shared. There's something else I could share too, but I'll hold off unless I get stronger evidence.

[Eris]

Do NOT join this server if you are LGBTQ+. ...

Meh, I always disapprove of transphobes, but here is my opinion: I am firmly of the idea that you and FloraMae both wanted a popularity boost for their server by starting petty drama around TA.
There has been a very nuanced, sneaky influx of petty trolls trying to pester and bring chaos to Minetest for more than a year now.
So judging by your mannerism and tone, I have a vague idea who is the behind this latest attempt at annoying us...

A butthurt troll.

I would advise people to think twice before giving a chance to the new server, seems like nothing good will come of it...

[DragonsVolcanoDance]

Hello everyone,

I just wanted to say that as a person who has played on Tunneler's Abyss off and on for over two years, that this is a beautiful, well-thought out server with an awesome community of people involved in it. It is clear that the developers of it have put in real time, effort, and dedication to make TA a really fun place. I especially love the developments of paleotest, and the cave mapgen.

That said,

Please don't let the posts of livphi and FloraMae dissuade you from checking this server out. It is truly a unique server in an endless sea of cookie-cutter servers. I think it is highly dishonest of both these characters to shame and criticize TA, but in the same post on TA's server thread promote their own server, including mentioning it has many of the same mods as TA. It seems they are trying to make a copy, and put TA down in the process.

To FloraMae: I highly suggest you include "18+ MATURE CONTENT" in the description of your server, as minetest is heavily populated by children, and children, under no circumstances, should be subjected to such content as LGBTQIA+. It is extremely inappropriate and shows a great lapse in your judgement.

There is no way to honestly say that LGBTQIA+ is not sexual content. The acronym stands for different sexual identities and preferences, and it is completely fair and within CalebJ's right that he does not want to promote it on his family friendly server.

[Nininik]

Hello everyone,

I just wanted to say that as a person who has played on Tunneler's Abyss off and on for over two years, that this is a beautiful, well-thought out server with an awesome community of people involved in it. It is clear that the developers of it have put in real time, effort, and dedication to make TA a really fun place. I especially love the developments of paleotest, and the cave mapgen.

That said,

Please don't let the posts of livphi and FloraMae dissuade you from checking this server out. It is truly a unique server in an endless sea of cookie-cutter servers. I think it is highly dishonest of both these characters to shame and criticize TA, but in the same post on TA's server thread promote their own server, including mentioning it has many of the same mods as TA. It seems they are trying to make a copy, and put TA down in the process.

To FloraMae: I highly suggest you include "18+ MATURE CONTENT" in the description of your server, as minetest is heavily populated by children, and children, under no circumstances, should be subjected to such content as LGBTQIA+. It is extremely inappropriate and shows a great lapse in your judgement.

There is no way to honestly say that LGBTQIA+ is not sexual content. The acronym stands for different sexual identities and preferences, and it is completely fair and within CalebJ's right that he does not want to promote it on his family friendly server.

Totally agree.

[pups]

I consider the TA server to be the best technical server among public servers.
Many machines, automation, nuclear power, many different ores, a rich underground world, Digtrons, an excellent flora (many various trees), dinosaurs, the unique module Elements, many diverse building materials.

Yes, if we speak of the gaming side, the server is very interesting.
But when we look at the managing side, we see the worst server ever, I think.
Because we have to deal with inadequate admins/owners, unfortunately.
Players are waste, admins are Gods. This approach never works of course, and conflicts become an inevitable attribute of such servers.

This server is a didactic example demonstrating that some persons must not have authority at all:)

Personally, I was driven out of the server for I dared to discuss bugs of the server:)
The Freedom of Speech and Opinion? No, no, it is disallowed for puny players:)
I was considered to be waste after three years of my playing, contribution and just friendly behaviour.
A kick in my back was the only justice for me after three years.
I lost my buildings, friends, future plans and ideas, habitual in-game society.
The owner of this server does not understand how to use authority, when and why.

----------
livphi

"If you could give me a list of the elements mod recipes, or just any information about the TA elements mod, that would be greatly appreciated!"

I would recommend to read this message from "flux" ("rheo"). Maybe it will help.
https://forum.minetest.net/viewtopic.php?p=411598#p411598
(Board index -> User-contributed Content -> Mods -> Modding Discussion -> Elements Mod)

The first discussion about problems of the Elements module arose several years ago.
As I understand, CalebJ is the main developer of this module.
This is a very interesting module, and any technical server should have such a module.
The point of this module is to get players to search for needed elements in the game world around.
That is why the phrase "a list of the elements mod recipes" is not correct.
An owner of a server should invent their own "recipes" for such a module.

I am not a developer, I am just a mediocre player, a former player of the TA server:)
Of course the minetest world should have an open source Elements module.
But creating such a module is a great labour!

The module should consist of two parts - a program part, and a database.
The former should be an open source code, have pictures, etc.
And the latter should be a list/database of "recipes" that can be changed at any time depending on fantasy and ideas of a server owner.

Also I want to note that this module is tied to the machines of the Technic module!
And most people do not like these machines because of the electric net glitches:)
That is why people often choose say the TechAge module to play and develop.

----------
FloraMae

"What drove me away from TA was the "grow staff" mixed with the admins attitude towards getting it fixed"

Indeed, it is very difficult to take part in developing on the TA server.
Even in order to improve a simple png-image on the server you have to bear a lot of disputes.
A player has to beg for loading their obvious improvements on the server from admins/owners.
This disgusting way of contribution deletes all the zeal of concerned players.
The admins/owners did not replace even simple textures of the sugar block after I had given them the ready new textures.
On the other hand, such clumsy "developers" as "pseudonyme" are allowed to add any buggy trash on the server any time.

[FloraMae]

I don't believe I've ever played on Tunneler's Abyss. I have my own server and it's a lot of work. However, someone who plays here as well as on mine has brought this to my attention, and --- by pure chance --- the night before I had opened up the ContentDB and seen this:



So when FloraMae wrote this:

What drove me away from TA was the "grow staff" mixed with the admins attitude towards getting it fixed and they came off as possibly anti-LGBT.

... I can only assume they want to obfuscate the real reason for why this most likely started. That is, it seems (to me) that someone requested a particular mod, which would in my view (and knowing other things about the Tunneler's Abyss server) have been been a clear violation of rule #3 as written in the first post here: "Perverts will not be tolerated." Now, that language might offend some people, but I want to point out that it is the natural right of a person to chose NOT to associate, or be associated with, anyone they don't wish to be. The operators of this server clearly do not want to promote certain lifestyles. That is their right; I support them, and their decision in this regard is clearly in the interest of families and children.

Regarding the super grow staff: this is a textbook example of seeing what you want to see. I, for example, rarely think about a particular mustachioed man from Austria, and I would never have seen in those few pixels what you seem to see. Given the 4x4 resolution, the probability that any pattern whatsoever could be confused with an <unmentionable> is extremely high. And without knowing the modder's intention, no remark should have been made about it whatsoever.

Yes I had made a mod request on TA, after I noticed the staff issue. Why? At that point I still wasn't convinced the admin was anti-lgbt. I figured I'd made some mod suggestions, one of which was that pride flag mod. Their denial made me take the extra time to post a review showing my support for the mod. livphi apparent saw my review and made their own. They are their own individual, I do not control them.

The grow staff is very suspect and the fact that the request to change the texture, which would have taken as little as five minutes, went entirely ignored, is also suspect.

After the staff issue and then the mod request refusal, then I became more suspect.

I have done no advertising of my server anywhere except a couple of discord servers. Again, I don't control what other people do, I only control what I do. If I wanted a "boost" to players, I wouldn't try to bring about drama to do it.

We (the LGBTQ+ community) live in a hostile world where there is daily discrimination and harassment. Why would anyone want more? The goal of my server is to be inclusive. TA just helped push me into making me by the actions of their admin.

[FloraMae]

Hello everyone,

I just wanted to say that as a person who has played on Tunneler's Abyss off and on for over two years, that this is a beautiful, well-thought out server with an awesome community of people involved in it. It is clear that the developers of it have put in real time, effort, and dedication to make TA a really fun place. I especially love the developments of paleotest, and the cave mapgen.

That said,

Please don't let the posts of livphi and FloraMae dissuade you from checking this server out. It is truly a unique server in an endless sea of cookie-cutter servers. I think it is highly dishonest of both these characters to shame and criticize TA, but in the same post on TA's server thread promote their own server, including mentioning it has many of the same mods as TA. It seems they are trying to make a copy, and put TA down in the process.

To FloraMae: I highly suggest you include "18+ MATURE CONTENT" in the description of your server, as minetest is heavily populated by children, and children, under no circumstances, should be subjected to such content as LGBTQIA+. It is extremely inappropriate and shows a great lapse in your judgement.

There is no way to honestly say that LGBTQIA+ is not sexual content. The acronym stands for different sexual identities and preferences, and it is completely fair and within CalebJ's right that he does not want to promote it on his family friendly server.

LGBTQ+ topics are not inherently sexual anymore than heterosexual topics. If it's fine for a kid to learn about heterosexual relationships, it's fine for them to learn about LGBTQ+ relationships. Simple really. Nobody is making laws to "shield" children from heterosexual topics. Only LGBTQ+.

[FloraMae]

Do NOT join this server if you are LGBTQ+. ...

Meh, I always disapprove of transphobes, but here is my opinion: I am firmly of the idea that you and FloraMae both wanted a popularity boost for their server by starting petty drama around TA.
There has been a very nuanced, sneaky influx of petty trolls trying to pester and bring chaos to Minetest for more than a year now.
So judging by your mannerism and tone, I have a vague idea who is the behind this latest attempt at annoying us...

A butthurt troll.

I would advise people to think twice before giving a chance to the new server, seems like nothing good will come of it...

If you paid attention, you will see I have not advertised my server anywhere outside of a couple of discord servers. I didn't even create a forum account until livphi brought to my attention that they made a reply to this thread.

Livphi is like me in a way, they get wound up when people discriminate against an unchangeable part of who they are. I have a lot more years on me and am a bit slower to react, but once I get going, I don't back down.

Livphi is allowed to voice their objections of this server due to the obviously discriminatory nature of at least one admin. They are allowed to voice their support for another server. They are free to make their own decisions and live their own life. I welcome them to my server because they remind me a lot of me when I was their age and they are genuinely a nice person from what I can tell.

My server was ultimately a response to everything that has been going on in the USA over the past "few years". There was no openly supportive server, so, I made one. My decision was made to go through with it due to my experiences on TA. Simple as that.