My Articles

If you’ve spent much time in online gaming or IT related spaces, you’ve likely seen people refer to optimisation. What does this actually mean though?

Offline Mode is a feature of Minecraft servers that allows disabling user authentication. It does, however, come with security risks and less software support.

You have probably heard about shaders in Minecraft, but what actually are they, and is Java or Bedrock better for them?

There has been a fair amount of talk about how upcoming versions of Java will improve Minecraft. What's coming and how will it change things?

I self-published an eBook, and found it to be a complicated process compared to tooling for software engineers. This article goes over the process and my thoughts around it.

Spark is the most popular tool for identifying performance issues on a Minecraft server. It can be difficult to read if you don’t fully understand how it works.

Running a Minecraft Server can be a daunting task. In this article you'll find answers to questions, guides for various systems, and advice on server administration.

Minecraft block lookups have gotten slower over time, but just how much slower have they actually gotten?

Server admins often ask what is the best version of Minecraft for their server to run. This article goes over everything you should consider when choosing.

When running a Minecraft server, having to choose between Forge or Fabric mods, or Bukkit plugin can be a difficult task. Hybrid servers can sound promising, but they do have some downsides that are important to be aware of.

Paper and Spigot are the two leading platforms for Minecraft servers. Which is better? This article goes over the main benefits of using both platforms

If you’re a Minecraft server admin, chances are you’ve heard the term “Bukkit” before. So, what exactly is it?

You may have heard rumblings in the community about a Paper 'hard fork'. This article covers what it is and what it means for Paper and the wider Minecraft server community.

When running a public Minecraft server, it's vital to understand the main security risks. Giving a server too much access to your machine can allow hackers or other malicious actors to do substantially more damage.

A common question amongst Minecraft server administrators is whether WorldGuard, or a similar protection plugin, will work on modded platforms such as Forge, NeoForge or Fabric

Fabric, Forge, and NeoForge are all massively popular modding platforms for Minecraft. So which one should you use?

Malware can be scary, annoying to remove, and extremely disruptive. It’s important to be aware of what it can look like and how to avoid getting it, as well as how to remove it.

Should you run the --forceUpgrade flag when updating your Minecraft server? What are the pros and cons? And ultimately, should you use it?

Over the past year, numerous forks of Paper have popped up. The question, though, is should you use a fork of Paper over Paper itself?

CraftBukkit is Minecraft server software that first started development well over a decade ago. But should you still be using it?

If you run a Minecraft server, you might have come across cryptic errors such as “zip file closed” from various plugins, mods, or even the server itself.

The reload command in Bukkit is fundamentally broken and flawed, here's why, and what you should be doing instead.

You've likely heard of plugin conflicts. But what are they? What issues can they cause? How common are they? How can they be resolved? This article answers all these questions and more!

The Minecraft server community has many misconceptions floating around about using MySQL or other databases with plugins, some of which cause servers to perform significantly worse.

Timezones are confusing and unnecessary. While we likely won't get rid of them in the next few years, getting rid of them in the long term is beneficial and inevitable.

There is a lot of controversy around large plugins being worse than multiple small plugins, but is it true?

Back in Minecraft 1.13, Mojang added a feature to Minecraft called Data Packs. These are becoming increasingly popular over time, but should you use them over plugins for your Minecraft server?

When browsing the internet or social media, you've likely seen some question marks or boxes where an emoji should be. What causes this, and how can you fix it?

Mob or entity stackers are a new craze in the Minecraft server administration space, with claims to massively improve performance. Is this true, though?

Premium plugins are incredibly popular amongst Minecraft servers today, but should you use them instead of free ones?

Minecraft server admins face unexplainable behaviour which they can't track down. Throughout this article, I'll outline some of the best ways to make it easy.

Quite often we get support requests from users where their server host is at fault. Find out common problems with server hosts, and how to solve them.

There are two separate versions of Minecraft, Java Edition and Bedrock Edition. If you're thinking of starting a Minecraft server, this choice can be a daunting one.

A common tool for finding lag on Minecraft servers moment is Timings. But there is more than meets the eye when it comes to Timings report, and they're not always able to tell you what is causing lag.