Flag that marks a server as private

I wanna start a discussion about this. Because I noticed that there are a lot of private servers on the list. And i personally think that maybe they should not be allowed there. I mean the list is meant for public servers right? The private ones end up filling the list with servers that people can't join. One person in particular has like 10 different private servers spamming the list. The server list in the minetest UI is labeled "Public Servers". i think that should be enforced somehow.

[nerzhul]

i pretty agree that private must be private, like in all games :)

[sfan5]

There are numerous problems I see with this, in three categories:

(1) What exactly does "private" mean?

• a server with a default password (even if written in the description)?
• a server with a whitelist?
• a server with a whitelist and it's not open to random people?
• a server that is normally open but temporarily closed to new people?
• a server with an interview process to join?
• a server with some sort of user limit and the limit is reached?
• a server that lets anyone join but confines them to a jail?

(2) Who is going to put in the work to enforce this?
There are 390 servers on the list right now. Let's say you ignore the ones that are consistently (almost) empty that leaves 80 or so.

• Does someone need to manually try to connect to each of these servers and check if they accept new people?
• If not, how does the enforcement work?
• How often is this re-checked (since servers can obviously change their behavior/rules)?
• What are the sanctions? Delisting?
• What is the appeal process?
• How do you ensure the server owner is appropriately informed of what happened?

(3) Reasons for private servers to be on the list
Announcing to the public list is currently the only way to appear with player count, name and description on clients.
It would be unfair to deny them these features.

One person in particular has like 10 different private servers spamming the list.

Honestly there are so many servers on the list I can't tell which group of servers you are referring to.

i guess clear rules would need to be put in place. and perhaps a report system. #54 already proposes the rules at least. and a RP exists for that.

to answer your questions about what i think a private server is, i'd say the following qualify.

• a server with a whitelist?
• a server with a whitelist and it's not open to random people?
• a server that is normally open but temporarily closed to new people?
• a server with an interview process to join?
• a server that lets anyone join but confines them to a jail?

but i guess thats something that would need to be clarified in the rules if #54 is implemented.

Announcing to the public list is currently the only way to appear with player count, name and description on clients.
It would be unfair to deny them these features

IMO private servers should use a private server list. If i am gonna be held to that standard for my server then its only fair they be held to it as well.

Honestly there are so many servers on the list I can't tell which group of servers you are referring to.

i'd tell you who but they'd probably start harassing me again.

edit: forgot to mention

How do you ensure the server owner is appropriately informed of what happened?

if this luanti-org/luanti#13461 gets implemented then there would be a contact method for that. then they could reply as a way of appealing.

[sfan5]

By the way I think a reasonable solution is to add a flag server owners can set that says "this server is private".
It would be displayed appropriately in the list and they would also be sorted to stay at the very bottom.
We would publish some guidelines what constitutes private and be done with it.

sure. works i guess. maybe should also have a icon or something to indicate its private. like a 🔒.