[Spritzo]

Hello everyone. I first want to point out that this will be an extensive suggestion, so I will provide you with a TL;DR version in case you don't feel like reading.
TL;DR At the very least, realm grace periods should start on the day a realm goes public. Or remove the grace period completely because realm owners have 30 whole days to login and keep their realms.

My Scenario
Recently (this past Sunday, the 7th), I bought a few realms that went public over a month ago (the previous owner has not been online since 2/1/2013), so the realms have been public for one month, AND untouched for just over two months. I had VVolfie check the land before I bought it to see if anything had been built recently and VVolfie found no logs. A few of my guild members helped tear down about 95% of the structures in the realms I bought. Jdankk helped tear down these realms and he talked to Rokkr about the rules regarding purchasing realms that other players used to own. Currently the rules say that the 14-day grace period starts as soon as someone buys the newly public realms. So, with that being said, let me present a scenario for you.

Example Scenario
Let's say a realm, or a set of realms, goes public on 1/1/2013, and nobody ever finds those realms, or just doesn't decide to purchase them. Now let's say someone finally decides to buy the realm(s) one year later on 1/1/2014. According to the rule, the grace period starts on that day; the day another player bought those realms. So that means the original owner can come back after ONE YEAR and still get their stuff back. Honestly, I think that is insane. Now I know the example I am providing is quite a stretch, but think about the situation I am in. I bought a realm that has been public for just over a month and the owner hasn't been on in over two months. I still can't do ANYTHING to those realms until the 21st of April. What? That's ridiculous.

Why Change the Rule?
Why do I think there needs to be a change? Well, you have 30 DAYS to keep your realms. All you have to do is login and it resets the 30 day timer. Even if you're banned you can still login to keep your realms. You're telling me you don't have 5 minutes to login to MineRealm to keep your realms?


My Suggestion
I have a few suggestions for this situation. Honestly, I would like to see the grace period removed, but I know that won't happen. But if I had to provide a reasonable suggestion, I would say that the grace period starts on the day the realm goes public, and that it be only 7 days. So the owner is given a full 37 DAYS to keep their stuff, because right now the owner has an infinite number of days (until someone buys their realms) + 14 days to keep their stuff. Finally, I would also suggest that after a realm goes public, a message would appear if you were to enter that realm. The message would say something like "This realm is currently in a grace period and cannot be purchased at this time." I would also say that you couldn't build/edit in this realm until the grace period ends, obviously.



Now I may have heard Jdankk explain this incorrectly to me, or maybe he misunderstood Rokkr, but I also can't seem to find any solid rules on this grace period on the forums anywhere. Maybe I skipped over it while looking through the rules thread, I'm not sure. If you know where these rules are I would like to see them please!

I appreciate you taking the time to read my suggestion. Thanks people!

[Surgeonbsg]

I believe I'm correct in assuming that you can do whatever you want with the realm in regards to destroying builds and/or cleaning it up, it's just that you have to hang onto the old owners stuff for 14 days. Not quite the same thing as being "unable to do anything with the realm".

If you really can't use the realm at all for 14 days then that's news to me.

[ColdF3ar]

Finally, I would also suggest that after a realm goes public, a message would appear if you were to enter that realm. The message would say something like "This realm is currently in a grace period and cannot be purchased at this time."

Essentially it seems like tacking an extra 7 days to the 30 day disban. If you can't purchase the realm, then its still private to the owner. Whats the purpose of having the new message? Also I have never heard of a strict rule saying you can not touch the realm disban you purchase for 2 weeks. I thought that only applied to the items left behind.

[Spritzo]

Yes that is true, you must keep the contents of the realm within the realm, and I just learned that as well when I bought those realms on Sunday after I had already been using the diamond I had found in the realms. But then think about this. If I am allowed to buy the realm and clean it up and leave the contents in chests, I could just buy tons of public realms (that were once owned) and "legally" grief people. I could just buy a realm, tear it down completely, hide their chests somewhere in the realm, sell the realm, GG. All of this would be ok to do as long as I keep everything I tore down in chests in the realms.

Sounds a bit crazy, doesn't it? Well as crazy as it is, it's very possible, so it's not just something you can rule out. With the grace period changed, this couldn't happen.

EDIT: If I can't touch the items, why can I touch the structures? Makes no sense.
EDIT: And as for adding the 7-day grace period at the end, it was just something I considered so that there was still some sort of grace period involved. I would like there to be no grace period at all, but I know that will never happen. I'm sure something else could be considered, I just need to think of something.
EDIT: Slight Revision Instead of preventing someone from being able to buy the realm during the grace period (which I said should happen immediately after a realm goes public), prevent players from being able to use chests that already exist in the realm until the grace period has ended. This ensure that the previous owner cannot lose their items until the grace period ends.

[Surgeonbsg]

Best and easiest suggestion is just eliminate the waiting period outright. The old owner had 30 days. If the server isn't protecting the land and items anymore why should the new owner and staff? Right?

[Spritzo]

Best and easiest suggestion is just eliminate the waiting period outright. The old owner had 30 days. If the server isn't protecting the land and items anymore why should the new owner and staff? Right?

Yes. Don't know why I couldn't word it that simply, haha. Thank you.

[Rokkrwolf]

The rule is there in place for both public/disbanded realms, seeing as there is no way for a "Player" to know if it is disbanded/public.

Example Scenario
Let's say a realm, or a set of realms, goes public on 1/1/2013, and nobody ever finds those realms, or just doesn't decide to purchase them. Now let's say someone finally decides to buy the realm(s) one year later on 1/1/2014. According to the rule, the grace period starts on that day; the day another player bought those realms. So that means the original owner can come back after ONE YEAR and still get their stuff back. Honestly, I think that is insane. Now I know the example I am providing is quite a stretch, but think about the situation I am in. I bought a realm that has been public for just over a month and the owner hasn't been on in over two months. I still can't do ANYTHING to those realms until the 21st of April. What? That's ridiculous.

I think there may be a bit of misinformation/miscommunication regarding the 14 days.

If Staff have given you permission to buy a realm/area, then there is no wait you can do with the area as freely as you feel. In your example you say the grace period started the day you bought it, well it depends if it literally went public and you bought it then the 14 days apply. The main point I am making is "Ask Staff" if they check the area and tell you there is no logs ect, then there is no wait. If there is logs it comes down to staff discretion and they can decide whether the person has moved/stopped playing/banned ect and let you know from there.

As far as the banned players ect being able to login, yes this is true and prevents the realms from disbanding. But what about the players who go on vacation and have no internet? Or their pc breaks and they have no way to get on. I know there is alternatives to these like giving other players their password but that is a security risk and I don't believe they should. The whole reason behind the rule is for people who walk around buying public realms without checking with staff and then players come on complaining because they just built a house and someone bought it ect.

For the comment regarding "If I can't touch the items, why can I touch the structures? Makes no sense."

The reason for this is to allow the players to be able to claim some items to start over with and not just get shafted and have nothing.

Btw BSG "If the server isn't protecting the land and items anymore why should the new owner and staff? Right?" Staff are always protecting the land/items you should know this :p

I will state Staff have already been looking at alternatives/discussing it for awhile now.

[Spritzo]

Alright. Thanks Rokkr, this makes better sense now. One last thing I would suggest then is trying to provide a rules thread or something related to this topic. You know I was once an Admin and I still did not know exactly how this whole grace period thing worked until now. So I guess providing this bit of information somewhere on the forums would be helpful for others in case anyone decides to buy some abandoned realms down the road.

[Rokkrwolf]

Alright. Thanks Rokkr, this makes better sense now. One last thing I would suggest then is trying to provide a rules thread or something related to this topic. You know I was once an Admin and I still did not know exactly how this whole grace period thing worked until now. So I guess providing this bit of information somewhere on the forums would be helpful for others in case anyone decides to buy some abandoned realms down the road.

Yeah I am going to rewrite/update the rules when I can to include such stuff as spamming ect so I will try and pull it in there. The 14 day rule I'm pretty sure came to be after the second time you were staff. So of course you wouldn't know.

As I said it was a rule being discussed/changed which is why it wasn't added to the actual rules yet. But by all means if you guys can think of something better other than just voiding it out please tell us.

[Prodigy9]

I voted yes, as this is the only idea I've seen which tackles those restrictions...

I will state Staff have already been looking at alternatives/discussing it for awhile now.

...but I would certainly be interested in having multiple approaches to consider.