Stability, User Groups, Chat, Rule Changes, and Statistics

Welcome To MCTrades

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Thank you for being valued members of the MCTrades community. This month, we've had some ups and downs, in fact, we've had nearly a day of downtime, but we remain resilient. On March 5th, we executed an unplanned maintenance period due to such downtime. During this, we quarantined the MCTrades installation from other MCTrades services such as Discord bots, providing better security and reliability for both installations.

Over the past month, we've been working to address multiple of our community members’ suggestions and concerns to make a better marketplace.

To help our community members trade safely and better, we've also included statistics regarding the community.

Spotlight Interesting and Helpful News

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Underused and widely unknown features that shouldn't be. Brought up by the will to help members better utilize our services.

• Plain BB Code
  • Quite possibly the plainest BB code, the plain BB code makes your text plain. For example, say you wanted to show your friend how to use the plain BB code but it keeps disappearing, why not put it inside of plain BB codes? [plain][plain][/plain][/plain] produces [plain][/plain]. It also works on smilies, helping make those combinations less smiley. "[plain]:)[/plain]" produces ":)".
• FontAwesome BB Code
  • The Font Awesome BB code is simple to use and can improve your thread. Font Awesome icons can be customized using BB codes such as color and bold. To use Font Awesome in your post, simply place the desired icon name into the text field of the BB code, for example, “[fa]font-awesome[/fa]” produces “”. Maybe you like to add a little twist to your icon, quite literally! Simply add a spin. "[fa=spin]font-awesome[/fa]" produces "".
• User Groups
  • User groups are community run groups which have their own section of the forum, a banner, and username color. Group owners control who gets access to such perks.
  • Comparable to cryptocurrency, additional groups will never be added to MCTrades, however, they may be disabled if the group's owner decides to do so.
  • User groups can be considered an investment. Originally, they were sold at $15 and others were given away. Now, group owners cashing out are expecting returns of around $200.
• Discord Server
  • If you haven't joined our new Discord server yet, you can get an invite from our Discord page. We've set up a custom system to filter members to make sure you know who you're dealing with over Discord. Fairly recently, we've hit the 100 member milestone.

Team Members Those Who Serve to Protect

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A good business requires a good team to back it up. We regularly check in on our staff members to ensure standards are being met.

• Munchie <3 has been demoted from the staff team.
• We welcomed Jerry to our chat moderation team on March 27th, 2018.

Functionality Programs in The Back

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Features added and adjusted to improve the MCTrades experience. Powered by our will to assist our members on their journeys.

• Usernames may now be reused. Please note that we may block some usernames as to protect our rules.
• The resource manager, attachments, and tickets now support 100 file extensions.
• 9 currencies are now accepted through the resource manager.
  • United States Dollar; Euro; Japanese Yen; British Pound; Swiss Franc; Canadian Dollar; Australian Dollar; New Zealand Dollar; South African Rand
• Users may now add a GitHub username to their account in contact details. Our systems will automatically check username validity.
• Improved username validity checking for Discord.
• Due to a lack of usage, thread ratings (star ratings) have been removed.
• Added /shrug, /tableflip, /unflip, and /easy commands to the shoutbox. These commands add a little meme to the end of your message.
• Added back the leave room button to the chat.
• The appraisals section now only has the agree and disagree post ratings.
• Added a "button" BB code. This allows you to set the text of the button and the link. Example: "[button="https://mctrades.org/"]MCTrades[/button]"
• Removed the member search system in which searched for usernames containing a string.
• Threads may also now be accessed through the "/dispute" route.

Patches Typing Up Fixes

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We admit, we aren't perfect. We shall continue to innovate, invent, fix what we get wrong and strive for flawlessness, but shall never be such.

• Fixed a bug causing some users to be unable to create business accounts.
• An issue allowing users to place an unlimited amount of characters in chat message edits has been fixed. [Bug Report By Zipline]
• Removed the ability to set a link requirement to download resources due to it preventing resource downloading all together. Only 5 resources were impacted.

Cosmetic User Interface and Experience Design

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Making things not only look nicer, but also helping you navigate and utilize our features.

• Repaired broken Minecraft avatars on profile tabs, profile sidebars, and thread posts.
• Attachments in which are images now open a lightbox when clicked instead of expanding.
• The "Resource Threads" section has been removed from the forum list.
• Thread drafts have been relocated to https://mctrades.org/drafts/ .
• Moved the groups parent forum to https://mctrades.org/groups/forum/list .
• For those whom have not posted their first message yet, the "Introduce Myself" button now simply goes to the main page and scrolls down to the "MCTrades Discussion" section instead of directly taking clickers to the thread create page. This is to reduce the amount of threads and messages made in the wrong section.
• Added a sidebar to the Minecraft association page.
• Changed the Minecraft association page to have a title with an uppercase "A" in "association".
• Moved the member search from the members page to the forum list to make searching members easier.

Security, Stability, and Reporting Keeping MCTrades Available For You To Enjoy

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Security is what we try to perfect the most, keeping up to date to guard against new and potential threats.

• We've quarantined the MCTrades forum installation from our other systems such as Discord robots as we work to improve stability and security of our services.
• Our user groups system has been replaced with a new framework providing better stability and reliability.
• Community members may now report groups in case of malicious activity.
• We've added a minor post farming blocking system.
• Reinforced email validation systems.
• Our RSS feed now requires additional authentication to access. Contact our management team for information on how to gain access.

Rules Ensuring A Safe Environment

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Because moderation is what upholds justice.

• Added rule 1.12: "Vouch copies (VCs) may only be requested through private messages if and only if the thread creator has specified they are providing them. VCs requested on a thread are considered low-quality posting and will be deleted."

Finances, Upgrades, and Advertising Affordable so Both Your and Our Business Can Grow

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We envision a marketplace for both new and experienced traders alike and set prices accordingly.

• Sticky thread prices have been adjusted and are now per month and now have a reduced price to make it affordable for businesses both big and small.
• Users with the Emerald upgrade may now, once again, create their own private chat room.
• Users who do not have access to the color selector in chat may also no longer utilize the [COLOR] BB code in chat.
• Users with the Emerald upgrade may now utilize the [FONT] BB code.
• The footer banner's location has been adjusted slightly to interfere less with newer additions.

User Groups Community Managed Groups

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Socialism, leadership, diligence, traits of some of the best, here we train with such and a hint of political spirit.

• We've implemented a brand new backend and frontend to manage groups.
• Due to the complete backend change and how our former system functioned, all members of groups prior to the new system going public have been kicked from their group. This came as a vote between group owners.
• Group owners may now set a group logo, displayed on the group list and on their member's profiles.
• Groups now have their own homepage where currently, group owners may display a Twitter, Discord, and/or Facebook widget.
• An activity stream has been added to document users joining and leaving groups along with changes to the group itself.
• Groups now have a dedicated "Members" tab where all of a group's members are listed. From this list, group owners may also kick members. This page also displays a member's group join date.
• There is now a dedicated "Member Requests" tab where group owners can approve and/or deny members.
• Group owners may create rosters with their own captain. Group owners and captains may manage users and put them into specific rosters for easier user management. From this page, users may also be kicked by the group owner. This also shows a member's roster join date.
• Group owners may specify a thread ID and the thread will be linked within a "Discussion" tab.
• After dismissing a member, they no longer stay in your member list.

Discord Server Instant Communication | Public Robot Client ID: 413903625400877071

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Instant messaging has never been more available in the world, allow us to keep up to date.

• Official Discord Server
  • Commands
    • [+] guess: A simple, yet addicting challenge to think of the same number as our robot. When a user guesses right, it's broadcasted with a special message in the general discussion.
    • [+] choose: A quick way to settle an argument with a randomized choice system.
    • [+] myid: Quickly provides your Discord member identification number.
  • Security and Management
    • Improved word filters to keep things clean and enforce both MCTrades' and Discord's rules.
    • Users with the Emerald upgrade may now post up to three advertisements per day in the advertising channel.
  • Cosmetic
    • Prettified punishment messages.
    • Modified the activity message to "Watching The Chat."
    • Changed the MCTrades Verified role's color to the Discord default role color.
• Public Robot
  • Commands
    • [] lookup: The lookup command now supports Discord member identification numbers, usernames/nicknames in the server you're within, and username-discriminator pairs in the server you're within.
  • Cosmetic
    • Changed the activity message to "Listening to Commands."

The Community in Statistics Get To Know The Marketplace

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See the virtual world of MCTrades in statistics. All statistics provided have been rounded up.

Members Rising Entrepreneurs

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Get to know the general trend and how to protect yourself from potential threats.

• Gender:
  • Registered as Male - ~65.7770%;
  • Registered as Female - ~4.2413%;
  • Registered as Unspecified - ~29.9817%;
• As of March 2018, ~10.6998% of all members since MCTrades' creation have been banned.
  • Eternity Ban Rates of Total:
    • Obsidian Member - ~1.8182%;
    • Diamond or Emerald Upgrade - ~6.8182%;
    • Paid Account Upgrade - ~9.8864%;
    • Over 15 Messages - 19.3182%;
    • Registered as Male - ~67.6136%;
    • Registered as Female - ~8.8636%;
    • Registered as Unspecified - ~23.4091%;
    • Email Validation Failure - ~6.0227%;
  • Eternity Ban Rates of Specified:
    • Banned of Account Upgraded - ~17.0923%;
    • Banned of Diamond Upgrade - ~17.1617%;
    • Banned of Emerald Upgrade - ~12.2222%;
    • Banned of Diamond Without Emerald - ~17.9245%;
    • Banned of Emerald Without Diamond - ~8.9887%;
    • Banned of Obsidian Members - ~14.4144%;
    • Banned of Registered as Male - ~11.0246%;
    • Banned of Registered as Female - ~22.4138%;
    • Banned of Registered as Unspecified - ~8.3740%;
  • Ban Rate Breakdown
    • Members which upgraded directly to emerald are less likely to be banned than those who started with diamond.
    • Members with paid account upgrades have a low chance of getting banned.
    • A member's forum activity can be a sign of a bad deal with members with over 15 messages being less likely to be banned.
    • Users registering as unspecified, as of current data, are least likely to be banned. While males and females go above their percentage of forum membership, those with unspecified genders are about 6% under. In addition to this, unspecified members have the lowest ban rate.
    • 6% of bans occurred before the member could actually do anything on our forum for their email was not validated. This was likely due to being flagged as an alternative account.
  • Eternity Ban Reasons:
    • Alternative Account or Evading Punishment - 65.4152%;
    • Scamming - ~22.7431%;
    • Spam Account - ~6.3709%;
    • Attempted Scamming - ~3.0717%;
    • Charging Back Against MCTrades - ~1.0239%;
    • Impersonation - ~0.9101%;
    • Underage - ~0.4551%;
  • Ban Reason Breakdown
    • A majority of all bans made on MCTrades are made for being an alternative account or evading a punishment.
    • After alternative accounts and evading punishments comes scamming and spam accounts. Since the start of 2018, we've nearly eliminated spam account registrations.
• In March of 2018, ~93 members were banned.
  • March of 2018 Ban Reasons:
    • Alternative Account or Evading Punishment - ~69.8926%;
    • Scamming - ~26.8817%;
    • Impersonation - ~1.0753%;
    • Under The Age of 13 - ~1.0753%;

Resources Autonomous Software Distribution

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Easily sell your software with MCTrades' resource manager.

• 9 resources were published or updated within the month of March, excluding those in which were deleted.
• 3 purchases were made with an average gross of $3.67 USD and an average net income of $3.23 USD.

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Limited Giveaway/Sale For You To Enjoy

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Here is one find you better rush to use.

[DROP 1 - Dropped] Dollar Off An Account Upgrade

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Get $1 USD off any account upgrade using promotional code "HATCHLING", limited to just one member. Use it quick!

Account Upgrade Coupon Redeemed by BetaNyan

[DROP 2 - Dropped] 25% Off Account Upgrades

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Get 25% off any account upgrade using promotional code "CRACKED", limited to just one member. Use it quick!

Account Upgrade Coupon Redeemed by Avery

[DROP 3 - Dropped] 10% Off Advertisements and 20% Off Account Upgrades

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Use promotional code "APRIL2018" at checkout for 10% off all advertisements. Limited to 3 users, once per user. Valid until April 3rd at 23:55 EST. Use promotional code "DROPPED" for 20% off any account upgrade, limited to just one member. Use it quick!

Account Upgrade Coupon Redeemed by Tyler
Advertisement Promotion Not Redeemed


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