Was feeling pretty nostalgic, and had nothing better to do (laptop is gone for repairs) so I felt like writing a few things down off the top of my head in terms of how things used to be in the earlier stages of CF|UK.. Hope you find some of this stuff interesting, and enjoy reading

• The first few maps we had on CF|UK were deleted on a weekly basis
  
  
• Broonie started CF|UK as a hobby to put the things he learned at school into action
  
  
• Broonie always had a sick fetish for TNT and blowing stuff up
  
  
• Being banned meant you were gone forever
  
  
• As such, ban appeals didn't exist back then
  
  
• In the beginning, the server/game had to restarted hourly via a remote website and password.
  
  
• Aconan, Schrapnel, Conathan and Flightster have been here since, almost, day 1
  
  
• Minecarts, railways, buckets and furnaces were banned items at one point, due to them being so buggy it crashed the server
  
  
• Lit furnaces could be requested from mods, who would place them for you
  
  
• The first few spawns were nothing more but a spot in the wilderness and had nothing built near them, at all
  
  
• In the very early stages of CF|UK, you were given a "starter pack" that consisted of a full set of diamond tools
  
  
• CF|UK was actually completely shut down at one point due to Broonie losing access to the server he used to host on
  
  
• It came back after several weeks of waiting, when Broonie found a suitable new host
  
  
• The first, big, thing that happened on CF|UK was christmas 2010 when Broonie made a plugin that had "real" christmas trees, "snowmen" that had presents inside of them, ice and snow that would spread when you tried to destroy it and actual presents the users could make with a block of wool and redstone ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Joka36hnVxw )
  
  
• Some of these presents could turn out to be ignited TNT, which explains the 3rd point above
  
  
• 404thread started the first, and only, succesful shop in CF|UK history called "ASTA"
  
  
• Which also turned into the main reason for bans, due to people griefing it
  
  
• The server used to be run on the hey0 server plugin, which was discontinued by it's creator which led to no server plugins being available (pre-bukkit)
  
  
• Due to this, CF|UK turned into a pure vanilla server for several months and had only 3 people with any form of power (Broonie, Aconan and Schrapnel)
  
  
• CF|UK once had "VIP islands", which were off limits to anyone but VIP's
  
  
• CF|UK was so busy at one point that people could only join once someone else called it a night, we only had 25-40 (?) user slots
  
  
• This caused Broonie to have to make mods be able to log in, regardless of wether the server was full or not, and led to "afk checks" being done by the mods where not responding for 1minute would lead to a kick to make room for others
  
  
• This, in turn, led to the user slots being increased
  
  
• Helpers used to have no commands, at all and were only there to call mods when there was an issue
  
  
• CF|UK had no logs in the past, and griefing was very hard to track - let alone finding out who did it and most bans happened due to people being caught in the act (hence why some mods tend to "stalk" new users)
  
  
• This was somewhat fixed by Broonie creating a "Honeypot" plugin, which consisted of "rigged" chests around the map that would ban anyone who tried to steal from it or break the chest
  
  
• The original "ship spawn" was the first spawn that had a "building code"
  
  
• Broonie's brother occasionally plays on the server (who it is, is for you to try and find out)
  
  
• Only 2 people have ever been given the rank of "head moderator", a seat wich is currently empty
  
  
• The CF|UK staff has a whole "file cabinet" filled with reports on every user that has ever done something wrong (hidden away deep within the website)
  
  
• This was done after Aconan built a "bunker" surrounded by bedrock on one of the old maps, containing walls and walls of grief related notes (signs), under "Staff Castle"
  
  
• We once tried the idea of having a "prison" where new users would spawn, and be stuck, until they linked their accounts.. This only lasted for 2days, due to it scaring people off
  
  
• CF|UK used to be a "free join" server, where anyone could join and start playing instantly
  
  
• CF|UK was once in uproar when several users were involved in a "duping scandal", which lead to the confiscation and destruction of several thousand diamonds (lots of lava buckets were used)
  
  
• Mods used to be able to warp users to any warp that was available, which led to some creative ways of "punishing" users who didn't behave as they should.. I, personally, used to have one called "/warp [username] surprise", which dropped who ever unfortunate enough to receive it from ground level to bedrock.

Oh, wow.
I remember when CF|UK had 25 player slots.

You can only ranked to a VIP when u achieve top poster on the forum last time.

Love reading the points ... bring back such good memories .... ;D

Broonie started CF|UK as a school project

Was more of a hobby project to put skills learned from school into use.

Nice though! Buckets were banned too at one point, and furnaces I -think-.

In the beginning, the server/game had to restarted hourly via a remote website and password.

The duping scandal was the removal of around 100000 diamonds in a week, if I recall.

I remember sitting for 5-20 minutes trying to get on the server when it was full .
I also remember blowing up my house when i opened my first present...

I blew up Frozen Peaks (My first ever resort) when i opened my first present. I was going to give up building the resort but then roll back kicked in.

Speaking of roll back ... It used to happened frequently xD Hate it alot haha

wow all of this is before my time.
i joined back in the days of the first ship spawn and was just massively impressed by it all.

Back in the days when minecarts were banned and warps did not exist, you had to walk everywhere so very few people ever lived far from spawn. Most people lived in cities.

Here is the map from November 2010
clicky

I was granted special permission by Broonie to fly over the map with a home-made mapping program to gather the terrain data, as we didn't have server plugins for that back then.

Zoom in and the orange dots are images. May take a little while to load after clicking.

I remember "Awesome Points". And, to this day, I still don't know what they were for at the time.

They've always been for the same purpose.. A means for the staff and users to know which users have been awesome (haven't gotten any warnings or temp / perm bans) and which have not.

They've always been for the same purpose.. A means for the staff and users to know which users have been awesome (haven't gotten any warnings or temp / perm bans) and which have not.

Flightster

Awesome

I believe the first "rule wall" was just a small wooden shack at spawn.

We used to be 1# on the old server list before the hosting problems happened.


Also, a past server issue due to some...toys Discharge made started a problem with a rogue user aquiring and abusing them heavily, which nearly got Discharge perma-banned as a result.

Instead, Discharge lent his skills to help Broonie solve the problem, from then aiding and improving the server and website many times since then, later becoming the Mod we have today. Quite an interesting past.

404 also made a militaristic clan called ASA, which used to be the terror of the server for ill-equipped people.

Speaking of discharge...
A ways back, Discharge built a reliable calculator the size of a small town with only redstone, pressure pads, and redstone torches.

I remember the "Redstone Dojo", I think it was made by Discharge.

Wow this is some pretty cool stuff to remember off the top of ya head!

I miss C-Boosters, What a way to power your mine cart !!

Back in the day the server had better towns. Most people wanted to join towns instead of going off on their own. For some reason that has changed.

When I first started, there were no mobs, and no health. A friend named funylilman helped me get started. Spawn was Broonie's house (with no way to enter), surrounded in water, and a obsidian sign (might have been bedrock).

The first year I was playing, in November, there was the Haloween Update which included the nether (no way to get there in multiplayer though).

You could store things in your 2x2 crafting square, great for extra inventory space

I can vouch for needing a lit furnace to smelt (Things disappeared if you didn't watch it as well).

Without health, if you fell into the void, you fell forever.

I think mobs were invulnerable when they were first introduced.

The 2nd map was one I was more involved in. We had minecity, towercity (my brother ran that one). I built underwater, and had a house near the water. There was a giant piramid that took a long time to build (I was not part of that effort, but I visited).

*nostalgic tear*

I still remember my lava/obby hypercube and cake <3

Very interesting stories. I wish I had been here from Day 1 to see all of these changes. Its amazing the plugins/updates we have now. The game has sure changed a lot.

Wow. I remember when I joined, there was the old spawn with the glass thingy on top

Added one of my personal favourites to the (bottom of the) list.

my memories on this server start with christmas 2010. i remember the presents used to clear my balance xD

The balance clearing was 2011, there was no such thing as an economy plugin back then