After having quite a lengthy discussion with @b14ck5n0w and @oxwood2 in the shoutbox, I would like to make this thread to express my opinions.

I would like all negative things to stay out of this thread, as it's not its purpose. Any negative comments/flame baiting and I will have it dealt with accordingly.

I'm glad I was finally able to express my feeling about the situation with others, as well as them express theirs, without a bunch of immature, childish behavior. I don't want this to be locked, as I'm not confirming any false speculations/theories.

There has been a lot of talk, both recently and in the long past, that Andrew makes a tone of money off of the server and it would be foolish for him to get of it. Now I'm not saying this is how it is, because I honestly have no idea, but just a personal opinion that seems to be common with a few other users. The fact of the matter is, it's none of our business if Andrew made money off of ECC. However, there is some comparisons that should be made, to disprove the "Andrew makes bank off of ECC," theory. (Again, a theory that has been made, and a speculation at the least)

When you compare ECC with other ECC mock-ups, there's vast differences. ECC has been around for three and a half years, while the mock-ups don't usually make it a year. I will explain this later on.

ECC has an amazing community, and I feel it is because of the way things are run. Sure, you're going to have some nay-sayers, but you have those in every aspect of life. Andrew has said many times that he has sacrificed his own personal life for ECC, and honestly, it makes sense. Andrew puts a ton of time into the server, in-game or not. ECC is always up to date with the latest hardware and plugins, and this is mainly because of what Andrew does. A lot of servers out there require a lot of money to rank up, and Andrew has made it possible for people to do the same things as donators without spending their own money.

Going back to the "Andrew makes bank off ECC," you must realize that the equipment needed to run ECC and the cost of plugins, Andrew simply can't afford to pay it all out of pocket. So, he accepts "donations" in which he uses to provide the best technology has to offer. He also has put a lot of money into saving just for ECC. Why would he do this if it was all just for profit anyway?

Andrew handled a lot of things manually, which takes an insane amount of time. Just donations alone would be an unimaginable workload for a single person who is juggling a real life job and running a Minecraft server. I personally think this is the biggest thing for Andrew. Everything he does for the server isn't to benefit him in the slightest, it is for the community. (He once sold his iPhone to keep the server running when he had no job) Yes, he did make a joke, that was very ill-received by many, but you need to see where he was coming from.

Andrew made a joke hoping people would laugh it off. After all, he is the server owner, and the staff team is his staff team, so to him playing a prank on them was nothing. Andrew has spent many years making ECC what it is today, and all for the community.

To be honest, I don't think all that is going on was just an ill-rationed decisioned made by Andrew because he was angry. You don't just give ownership of a server to ECC. ECC is a very complicated system to just throw someone into to figure out. People want information, I understand that, and I do agree it would help calm things up a bit, but it's just not a wise decision right now. To be honest, I think Andrew is giving this new guy a chance, and has been working on it for a long time. With all of ECC's plugins, it's hard to get acclimated to, which is why it is taking so long to get settled. If you just throw someone into this position and say "good luck," you're going to be playing hot potato with the new owners. For Andrew come out immediately and say "this is what is happening," is extremely unlikely. For instance:
it's like telling a kid what he is going to get for his birthday early. Something may come up and he doesnt get it. Then the kid is devastated. I think that is what Andrew is trying to do. If you keep switching owners, information is lost, forgotten, or altered during transfer.

I think what happened is that users noticed too many rapid changes and panicked. They attacked Andrew personally, people started to lose faith and flee,. I understand the fact that people didn't know what was going on, but their responses should have been handled differently, rather than hanging Andrew up and burning him at the stake. People need to remember that every action has an equal and opposite reaction. There were 2 ways to handle it: positive and negative, and the consensus chose a negative reaction.

How do you think this made Andrew feel? After all he has done for and sacrificed for the server, his community acted like this and immediately started demanding things and behaving irrationally. So, I think Andrew is trying to get some help with running the server. He wants a life outside of ECC, and I don't blame him. It's a lot for one person, and after three and a half years of running it, I think it got to him (the reaction to his joke may have finalized his decision). Andrew knows what he is doing, which is why ECC is so successful and has lasted so long.

Instead of forming a mob and rioting, we all need to show everyone what kind of server we are. A loving and understanding one who follows and supports our leader. After all he has done for us, expecting nothing in return but gratitude and appreciation, we owe it to him. He knows what he is doing, so just sit back and relax, and show him some support. The information is coming soon enough, and when it gets here, it will more than likely settle a lot of disgust and panic, we just have to be patient. Give them all a chance and let them get things working and settled, then the information will come.

TL;DR
Andrew didn't just give up ECC, he is just getting help, and we as a community need to support him and help him by being calm and not starting any rumors or speculating information.

Thank you for reading, and happy hunting.

 

Looking at who has rated it thus far, and who I went to before posting, as long as it stays clean it will stay open.

 

To be honest, after the discussion in shoutbox, and then 45 minutes writing this to ensure it doesn't get locked, my brain was fried, so I really don't remember, lol.

 

The reason I posted this is because I have been where Andrew is (though not as large scale, and not Minecraft server related). I didn't make it for the ratings (as it's obviously received a lot).

Before I played Minecraft, I owned a gaming team. It had 300+ members spread across several games. There was one person who handled mostly everything, and that was me. I was the one who handled anything requiring money, similar to Andrew's position just not as large scale. For me, just with the 300 people I had to manage alone, it was hard getting tons of messages every day. I don't know how Andrew did so many manual things alone. Sometimes you just have to take a little walk in the other person's shoes to truly understand. And that is why I am so laid back about all that's going on. I know what it's like to be in his position.