Can be a Minetest server shutdown by Minetest staff?

[Hume2]

Today I heard that Minetest staff has the right to remotely shutdown any Minetest server. I can't imagine how this can even happen. Does Minetest code contain a hole by which it can be shutdown? And what if I patch it? And is it all even true?

[rubenwardy]

This isn't correct, no such feature exists. We can, however, ban servers from the public server list

[CalebJ]

We heard so on the server Frost Factions. There were two players there that weren't in the /status, in other words, they were playing there but could not be seen, and they were talking about shutting down a server. Then the admin said that "Minetest server #5023 has been shutdown permenantly". We asked some questions about how this works, and why he did it, and they said it was because the server was spamming the forum, and the players were making fun of Minetest staff. He said, that there is a button in the servers.minetest.net for staff to shut down a server, and that IP can never make another server again.

Anyway, thank you for the fast response. I guess, we were being lied to all along, as we had suspected :)
However, how those players were able to be there, and not be there, I'll never know. That was the thing that kept me intrigued :D

[rubenwardy]

However, how those players were able to be there, and not be there, I'll never know. That was the thing that kept me intrigued :D

Sounds like the admin was using //lua to fake chat messages

[texmex]

Sounds like there are some vivid myths being concocted out in the voxel wild xD

[talamh]

We can, however, ban servers from the public server list

Out of interest has this ever actually been done?

[PolySaken]

We can, however, ban servers from the public server list

Out of interest has this ever actually been done?

And what are the rules around this? Why would a server get banned?

[GreenDimond]

We can, however, ban servers from the public server list

Out of interest has this ever actually been done?

Yes.

[Festus1965]

And what are the rules around this? Why would a server get banned?

I guess when a server is proofed on adv inside open game, then sure ...

[FreeGamers]

And what are the rules around this? Why would a server get banned?

It seems like a very good question to ask. I would hope this functionality not be used unless absolutely necessary for some reason. I can't envision a scenario in which censoring the server list is healthy for a community unless user-safety or system-security was unquestionably at risk. I can imagine situations for such a thing to be abused easily. There are disagreements and dramas that can flare up within communities and having the power to hide servers can affect server-communities substantially (effectively terminating their user-base instantly or gradually, which would be a central point of having such a control being in present in the first place, aside from moderation of the list obviously). In principle, options to filter and hide servers per user preference or other parameters would be preferential, in my standards and beliefs, to having the main server list subject to censorship without precedent by select individuals. (I don't say this with any prejudice towards the coredevs or whoever maintains the current list by the way).

Regardless, It's an interesting topic that could be explored or expounded upon a bit more.

[rubenwardy]

Server owners are free to run their servers how they wish. Servers are only banned from the list when they abuse it or we believe that they are breaking the law. When server-sent client-side mods are implemented, servers will probably also be banned for doing things are legally a grey area, such as running cryptominers on clients.

I only know of one person ever having their servers banned from the server list.

[PolySaken]

Server owners are free to run their servers how they wish. Servers are only banned from the list when they abuse it or we believe that they are breaking the law. When server-sent client-side mods are implemented, servers will probably also be banned for doing things are legally a grey area, such as running cryptominers on clients.

I only know of one person ever having their servers banned from the server list.

Can we know who, or is it a secret? lel

[Linuxdirk]

Can we know who, or is it a secret? lel

Can't be non-Minetest servers, because those are explicitly allowed and welcomed by the devs. I guess we all have an idea, whose server(s) that could be. But we're not talking about this specific situation here.

[redblade7]

running cryptominers on clients.

Interesting. Has that ever happened? I do remember once seeing a server name refer to cryptocurrency, but never joined it.

[rubenwardy]

Interesting. Has that ever happened? I do remember once seeing a server name refer to cryptocurrency, but never joined it.

It's not currently possible, so no