Bukkit (Minecraft Server Software/API) is Over (RIP)

[xrex64]

"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 Cursefor 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 "

 

 

Source: http://forums.bukkit.org/threads/bukkit-its-time-to-say.305106/

 

This could be the end of a lot. Nearly every Minecraft server out there uses Bukkit. Bukkit makes having a modded server possibly, without it, many of us are lost. 

 

 

Sorry about the text format; let me know if you know how to fix it. 

 

 

UPDATE:

 

 

One man is going to have trouble doing it by himself. He will need help. 

 

https://twitter.com/Dinnerbone/status/502381093731831808

[EChondo]

Wait, what!?

 

Well, back to vanilla Minecraft!

 

*Edit, so it appears that we'll be stuck with Bukkit for 1.6/1.7 for a while until Mr. Adams can get a team together for 1.8 and on.

 

I wonder if Mojang intends to make server plugins easier to implement with their server API?

 

I'm really surprised about this, didn't even see this coming.

[Polyvalent]

Is it just me or did the whole minecraft thing die out a long time ago.  The only fun servers left are the servers like shotbow.

[xrex64]

Is it just me or did the whole minecraft thing die out a long time ago.  The only fun servers left are the servers like shotbow.

A lot of people still have a lot of fun with it. I average a server with 15-25 players and they don't usually get bored. Bukkit allowed many good things to happen. 

[Guest]

I guess that's kinda sad but I stopped caring about mine craft ever since the server I played on for 1.5 years went down

[XTankSlayerX]

they way I met my best friend was on a server running bukkit. Hope it dosnt die.

 

this runs deep for some reason

[Wferr]

Its not over, the main devs just Quit.

 

TIS THE TIME OF SPIGOT TO RUEL THE WORRRRLLLDDDD

 

#bukkitdrama irc.spi.gt

 

 

 

 

Spagt

[flibberdipper]

That stinks. Also, change all of the fonts to automatic. Please.

[xrex64]

Its not over, the main devs just Quit.

 

TIS THE TIME OF SPIGOT TO RUEL THE WORRRRLLLDDDD

 

#bukkitdrama irc.spi.gt

 

 

 

 

Spagt

GunfighterJ hates me. Don't tell him I said so.

[TheKDub]

Well looks like minecraft is committing suicide.

[DoubleY]

Update: EvilSeph was hired by Mojang.

So I guess not ALL the lead devs quit.

[DoubleY]

Is it just me or did the whole minecraft thing die out a long time ago.  The only fun servers left are the servers like shotbow.

Just you. Minecraft is still HUGE. It may not be hyped anymore, but the modded community is still growing. 

[ZacDaMan72]

I'm gonna miss Bukkit even though I didn't really play as much as I did when MC went all Dungeons and Dragons and shit.

[connorpiper]

I stopped at 1.6.4, but as a server Admin/Host/S Admin/Dev/Owner/Moderator it is sad to see Bukkit slowly die.

I always loved Bukkit. But, most people on the servers annoy me anyways.

I might come back later for a classic game in 1.5.2 survival LAN with some friends. 

[connorpiper]

Just you. Minecraft is still HUGE. It may not be hyped anymore, but the modded community is still growing. 

 

I find it to have hit it's high about 1-2 years ago. Around the 1.6.4 times.

The age range seems to be getting lower for minecraft.

[xrex64]

I find it to have hit it's high about 1-2 years ago. Around the 1.6.4 times.

The age range seems to be getting lower for minecraft.

Or maybe you just grew out of it? 

[connorpiper]

Or maybe you just grew out of it? 

 

I have, but when I played I was 12-14 (and my friends) and now I see 8-10 yr. olds playing it.

[APrettyCoolWalrus]

Are you saying that the only Minecraft servers worth playing are gone now? Ultra Hardcore Mode, Survival Games, Sticky Piston, and Mini Games? NOOOOOOOOOOO!

 

Two Michael Scotts for effect.

[xrex64]

Are you saying that the only Minecraft servers worth playing are gone now? Ultra Hardcore Mode, Survival Games, Sticky Piston, and Mini Games? NOOOOOOOOOOO!

 

Two Michael Scotts for effect.

Probably not, maybe... 

[gastew15]

I find it to have hit it's high about 1-2 years ago. Around the 1.6.4 times.

The age range seems to be getting lower for minecraft.

Indeed... I remember modding around with it for quite a while back in the good ol' mod loader days when more than just 8 year olds played it still and the game was still fun to work with. I think I quit modding after 1.7.3 became obsolete and there were massive changes. ( I started back wit the original and Alpha and played all the way up until 1.8 something or so and then played FTB stuff for a while after much less..)

[TopWargamer]

Wow, I never saw this coming. Such a shame.

[NoctHorn]

I see this as the beginning of the end for minecraft.  It doesn't seem like a wise decision for Mojang to suddenly start enforcing the EULA without warning.  If bukkit disappears, so do most big minecraft servers and with it, the people still playing minecraft.

[ExDreamer]

I guess OP forget to update his post. Mojang confirmed that bukkit is not in any danger for shutdown. The initial post at bukkit since then have been updated with the message 'to be continued'. Meaning that this project would be progress as usual.

 

 

Yet as it turns out, Loo overlooked one rather important factor. "Warren over at bukkit seems to have forgotten that the project was bought by Mojang over two years ago, and isn't his to discontinue," Jens Bergensten of Mojang tweeted shortly after the announcement went up. "That means bukkit always had a special relationship in regards to things such as the EULA, and if Warren is bored, we need to do something."

Bergensten confirmed that he was being entirely serious—"We dug up the receipt to be sure," he said—and Loo quickly acknowledged that Bergensten was in the right. "Yes, Mojang does own Bukkit. Them acquiring us was a condition to being hired," he tweeted. "If Mojang want to continue Bukkit, I'm all for it. :)"

 

https://twitter.com/jeb_/status/502380571600121856

https://twitter.com/jeb_/status/502380018216206336

https://twitter.com/EvilSeph/status/502384952944885760

 

http://www.pcgamer.com/2014/08/21/minecraft-bukkit-team-lead-tries-to-end-development-but-mojang-steps-in/

[PillowSmoke]

I guess OP forget to update his post. Mojang confirmed that bukkit is not in any danger for shutdown. The initial post at bukkit since then have been updated with the message 'to be continued'. Meaning that this project would be progress as usual.

 

 

 

http://www.pcgamer.com/2014/08/21/minecraft-bukkit-team-lead-tries-to-end-development-but-mojang-steps-in/

 

yay! saved!

[Hawx]

I guess OP forget to update his post. Mojang confirmed that bukkit is not in any danger for shutdown. The initial post at bukkit since then have been updated with the message 'to be continued'. Meaning that this project would be progress as usual.

 

 

 

http://www.pcgamer.com/2014/08/21/minecraft-bukkit-team-lead-tries-to-end-development-but-mojang-steps-in/

OP forgot to stay up to date after he saw the original post and didn't bother looking anywhere else. When he posted this, the other information was already well known.