I thought I would take some time to update you all on my road plans and also raise some points that I keep getting asked about.

ROAD UPDATE

So I have not opened many new roads recently, this is because I have had a lot going on in the real world. It is also because maintaining and repairing the roads is taking up a lot of time!

With road maintenance taking more time, new road builds are slowing up! I currently have the following on my to-do list.

• Gerald Road ( , )

• Io Road (Celdecea building)

• Obsidian Plains Road (might be built by members of Obsidian Plains)

• New TGS Road (join up to Augusta better)

• Saga Road

• Immeopolis Road

• Jacks Hold Road

• New nether hub

This is the longest to do list I have had since I started working on the roads. So please all be considerate. I will get round to your road, but it might take a little while.

POINTS FOR DISCUSSION

Reinforce the roads

I am still very frustrated that people can not put two blocks back behind themselves after breaking into the roads. How hard is it really to replace the blocks you break with the same material? Last week I took 3 hours walking the network putting the road back to how it should be. On Monday I walked the roads and it was a mess again. I am starting to consider reinforcing the walls of the roads, which I really do not want to do.

The walls are not currently reinforced as I want to encourage people to join to the roads. Also I do not want to stop people breaking into the roads, but if they can not put things back as they found them, then I will have to reinforce the walls.

Up to now I have only reinforced the base of the roads where it is a bridge. If the road is a tunnel then I do not reinforce the base of the road. Should I reinforce all road bases? The incident at the Rome portal yesterday make me think that I should. This would require a lot more resources. I would need more donations of smothstone to make this possible.

The Hub

I plan to build a new nether hub, probably called "hpoom's hub". It will be near the current location of the Liberty portal. It will be built to align with Central Station in the top nether. The Liberty portal would be moved to this hub, and this hub would also contain a teleport room (glitch room) for people to glitch up to Central Station in the top nether. This will not be built until all the roads on my to do list are done. Also the roads around Liberty will need a slight rework to align to this new hub. The hub will also contain a message board and credits for those that have either worked on the roads, or donated significantly.

Advertising

People keep asking me if they can put up signs advertising their shops on the roads. I was thinking about having an ad wall in the new hub. I would charge for ad space a put the profits back into the roads. How do people feel about this? Should we allow adverts else where on the roads? I don't like the idea of adverts on the roads as signs should be for directions only. I also I never planned to charge for the roads or anything to do with the roads as I want them to be free for all, and I don't want to profit from the roads. Is charging for ad space wrong or acceptable if the profits go back into the roads?

Shops

Same as the ad debate, should we allow shops and shop chests on the roads or ban them? Why should other profit from the roads? Or maybe we charge for people to place shops and put the profits back into the roads. I personally don't like shop chests on the roads, I would rather encourage people to go though portals to access shops in the over world.

Maybe we keep road travel free, but charge those who want to use the roads in a commercial capacity. Charge for ad space and shop space.

Hire workers

One solution two people have proposed to me is to hire people to be "Guardians of the Roads". These people would be expected to fix/repair the roads so that I can focus on building new roads. They would also be expected to spot people griefing the roads and report them. Lastly they would be expected to give players directions and help people out. Lots of people get lost on the roads and ask in global chat, Guardians could help these people out.

I like this idea, but I would need help to pay the wages of these people. Also I am unsure how to monitor they are doing the work they are being paid to do.

So sorry for the very long post. I would love to see discussion on all those points in the comments.