I made the legit generator that dedly is talking about.  There was a small lava pit near my village, coincidentally where I wanted to build a factory as part of my village setting.  I decided to make the cobble generator not because it was efficient, but because I wanted some working machinery in the factory.  It's really only for show.

It's FAR more efficient to collect cobble by digging it out of the ground.  My generator doesn't lose any cobble to lava (it uses 3 pistons to 'snake' the cobble around to a point where it can be busted one at a time) but the speed isn't very fast.  You have to time the pistons to allow the cobble to be created.  This delay is slower than just moving from block to block in a mine.

If you insist that a cobble generator is somehow easier or faster than just digging it up, you're welcome to try out the Cobblegen 3000™ and see for yourself.

imp and muh have competition!

I wouldn't go that far, lol.  I'm still a total noob 

I'm not terribly concerned about rewards, I just want to support the SMP server to help make sure it's successful 

Yeah, since I'm the only one who worked on my village, I could control where things were built and how.  Regarding help, I got a few melon seeds and 2 sugar cane from the farms in Doom's village.  Doom also dug the tunnel between our villages, and we both laid the tracks.  Everything in the village itself was built by my hand.

I originally started the village just to have a nice view from the tower of the castle (and my house at the top), and it kind of got out of control.