I thought this thread would make for some useful discussion. The next update will include a new ore which will only be found in the nether. This ore, nether quartz, will be integral to the production of daylight sensors and comparators, which are also new in the update. Because we just added two new nethers, only previously unloaded chunks from these nethers will produce the highly valuable ore. Thoughts?

Link to snapshot 13w01a:
http://www.mojang.com/2013/01/minecraft-snapshot-13w01a/

Please relate (in as much detail as you feel comfortable giving) your most embarrassing moment. I'll start.

The events you are about to bear witness to occured a little under a decade ago. It all started with the wires. The wires are curious little things, they run all around the stage powering lights and microphones and speakers and things. The particular wires that I am interested in, however, are the ones that were meticulously placed on the stairs in front of the stage. Though I had been forewarned about said wires and had been, up to this point, successful in identifying and avoiding them, my feet chose at this time to become mysteriously attracted to the wires in order that they might remove the burden of one of my loosely attached shoes. Successful in their mission, my feet then had an argument because one was shod and the other was unshod. It was during the climax of this argument that a most peculiar event occured. It is the only time that I have heard five hundred people gasp at the exact same moment. It was a truly fascinating sound. After settling their differences my feet submitted themselves again to my will. I picked myself up from off the floor, retrieved my shoe, and proceeded quietly to my seat.

Condensed version:

When I first joined the server several months ago, I was immediately struck by the cheapness of diamonds because of the voting system. I will admit, I don't mind getting free diamonds as opposed to nothing at all, but it takes away that wonderful feeling you get when you find a good vein but you know that you already have a couple stacks of blocks back home.

I believe I understand, (I actually tried using my brain for once), why it was set up this way, and the rebuttal is simple, "if we give away cash, the entire server would end up covered in protection stones." And that statement is true considering the current value of diamonds. But say instead of a diamond, we gave people a cash value of $50, or $25, or even $10. This would reward loyalty without having the whole server ending up protected and yet give people the freedom to choose how they spent the reward they earned.

They could still buy diamonds if they wished, though maybe not at the same rate as they were recieving them before. And they would have to accept that the price of freedom is high. This would probably be the most difficult part as the sense of entitlement in today's world is exceedingly strong.

Now let me make this clear. I am NOT advocating that diamonds be added as an item to sell at the market NOR am I advocating that we decrease their purchase value. This would cause the undesirable result of serverwide protection stones and it would also create a nightmare for opti and the admins as they tried to balance prices out.

I must reiterate that I am happy and thankful that we are rewarded for voting, I just don't want to sacrifice the value of diamonds in order to achieve that goal. Thank you for your time.