Following the recent questions, and confusion, in game about warps, who owns a warp and the ability (or not) to rent them, here’s the official position on this. Take a cup of your favorite (non-alcoholic if you’re a minor!) drink and have fun reading…
I always allowed donators to set their warp at another island than the one they’re member of, provided the island owner agrees.
If the donator asks for some compensation for doing so (as in renting) it’s their own problem as long as they’re in game benefits (i.e. he can’t rent it for real money) and generally we (moderator team or myself) don’t get involved in this other than setting the warp when asked to.
At the same time to protect our moderators time to help players I set a cool-down of 2 real calendar weeks (not in-game time) on warp location changes. At the discretion of the moderators that can set warps or myself we can move it even if the cool-down has not passed, but what we “guarantee” is we’ll always move it once every 2 weeks if they ask. Personally, I didn’t keep track on this and unless someone asks me to move their warp daily, I generally do it but I don’t ask the moderators to do the same. Up to them.
Third point to keep in mind… the warps, as well as all other donator perks, are their own and not transferable for the lifetime of the server and as long as they comply with the rules and don’t get banned. From an administrative point of view no agreement they do with other players can override this. It’s up to each donator if they temporary allow other players to use their warp but from my point of view no other player can “own” these rights.
The right to /fly, access to their rank commands (/kit, etc) and the in-game forum color associated with their donator rank can never be transferred to another player (there is only an allowed exception to this, but it has been requested and done only once, and not worth mentioning here as it’s not specific to warps)
Here’s the second part, and sometimes it goes hand in hand with the above…
What always separated us from other Minecraft servers out there is that we care for the player, and more specifically the person behind the in game character. I’ve always went the extra mile to provide a safe and enjoyable experience on this skyblock server. Treat everyone equally, fair and with respect, and the way I’d like to be treated back.
That’s why I’ve written custom plugins such as the Animal Protect, World Protector, safe trade, best anti-grief and anti-theft rollbacks and so forth.
From this point of view, when I hear of a player treating another player unfairly I’ve moderated this, be it abusive behavior, taking advantage of another player trust and so forth. When the incident is minor, I let the players sort it themselves.
Now, back to warp “renting…” If there’s an in game agreement that a donator allows temporary access to their own warp, and receive in game items or virtual currency for this, and if the agreement is breached by one of the parties I step in.
It’s the donator right, and always be, as warp owner to set it wherever she wants (with a few restrictions mentioned already). If there was an agreement and the donator received in game items or currency and later on decides to break the agreement, she must return the in game payment or items received. If she does not of her own will, I will step in and return them to the payee myself. I do the same for other agreements of large (perceived) in game value, not just for warps.
Important: for me to be able to protect both parties of an agreement, the agreement terms must be mentioned in public chat and agreed by both parties (no private /msg) and there must be some sort of log of the items or currency being transferred from one player to the other. All /pay transactions are automatically logged, for items of large value, either the receiver says in public chat that she received the items or use a trusted mediator (one of the moderators or myself).
TL;DR: The donator always owns the warp, and no in-game agreement can give the right to transfer ownership. We will move the warp when the owner asks us to, provided certain restrictions are met (cooldown and agreement to set it, if not on their own island). If that donator received in game items or virtual currency to leave the warp set for a period of time (or indefinitely) and later changes his mind the donator must return the items or currency of their own will or I will return them just like with any other transaction of high value (provided we have clear logs of the agreement happening, and items/currency being transferred) that due to technical limitations cannot be done through the safe trade.
Hope this clarifies the subject of warp owning and rentals for everyone.
