How to request components in the workshop

The workshop allows you to easily browse and install third party content from various marketplaces. As precaution, the free tier only allows the installation of approved third party content. Due to this, you may have to request components, if the components that you are interested in have not yet been approved.

How to request components in the workshop

By default, in the free tier, the workshop will only show content that is approved for the free tier. To disable this, uncheck "Free tier available". The workshop will now also show content that is not yet approved.

Now search for the component that you are interested in and click on it to view the details. If you can't find the component that you are looking for, then it may not be listed on one of the supported marketplaces.

On the component detail page you will find an alert with "Request component" if the component is not yet approved. Click on the "Request component" button to request the component. This will add the component to the review queue. Once we receive enough requests, we will review the component.

How are components reviewed?

When we review components, there are several factors that we take into account. These factors may include:

• Is the component still being updated, or is it inactive?
• Is the author reputable?
• Is the component popular enough?
• Has the component only recently been published?
• Does the component contain suspicious code?

Which components will not be approved?

With the review system we try to prevent malicious component from being installed. Besides malicious components, there are also components that we will not approve, as they do not align with our free tier or due to technical reasons.

World pre-generation plugins

Plugins that facilitate pre-generating a world (e.g. Chunky) are not approved, because pre-generation utilizes a lot of CPU resources. Pre-generating a world also results in increased disk usage, which is not a good fit for our platform, due to increased storage costs. Our platform also regularly optimizes worlds, by removing unused chunks, which may delete pre-generated chunks.

Backup plugins

Backup plugins won't be approved, as we don't want backups to be stored locally, which consumes additional disk space. Most backups plugins also first write all the files to an archive (e.g. ZIP, TAR), before uploading it to a remote location. This results in unnecessary writes to the local disks, which reduces the life expectancy of flash memory (e.g. SSD).

Our platform already has an integrated backup solution, that is optimized for our platform.

• Backups are smartly scheduled, during periods of low activity, to increase system stability
• Backups are performed in a streaming manner, by immediately uploading the stream without storing it locally first, resulting in zero additional writes to the local disks
• Backups are performed incrementally most of the time, resulting in lower storage consumption and less data that needs to traverse the network, compared to full backups

As alternative, you can download all the server files to your device.

Premium plugins

Premium plugins won't be approved, as they aren't publicly available for us to download. This means we can't download and review the plugin, without having to purchase the plugin ourselves. With most marketplaces, we are also unable to verify that you have bought the plugin.

Custom plugins

Custom plugins won't be approved, as they aren't publicly available. We are also not wasting resources on reviewing a custom plugin that can only be used by you. The only chance for custom plugins to be approved, is if you publicly released the plugin on one of the supported marketplaces.

FAQ

When are components reviewed?

We try to review the most requested components every few weeks. There is however no guaranteed time as to when components are reviewed, if at all. The more interest there is in a component, the higher up it is in the review queue and the sooner it will be reviewed.

Which marketplaces are supported?

We currently support the Hangar and Modrinth marketplaces.

Why is the approval system only for the free tier?

The free tier has a low barrier of entry, as it is completely free and requires little personal information or verification. This sadly attracts people with malicious intent, that want to misuse this free compute for their own financial gain or criminal acts. Due to the low barrier of entry, it is simple to stay anonymous, which makes litigation impossible.

Paid tiers on the other hand cost money, so there is a financial barrier. This generally solves the problem of crypto mining, as it is not financially lucrative to mine cryptocurrency on a paid tier, as the costs are greater than the rewards. It is also harder to stay anonymous on a paid service, as digital payments can be linked to a person, which makes litigation an option.