Newsletter #47 for May 23rd, 2023

Howdy folks!

It’s Tommy time! Community Liaison ThatTommyBoii reporting for newsletter duty!

Forgive me for not getting this newsletter out to you sooner, I had an internet outage yesterday and didn’t get wifi back until about 3:40pm eastern. Such is life, but it worked out for the better this way, as now I get to report DS9 petitions to you as well!

Let’s not get too far ahead  in this intro, here’s the news!

Minecraft Servers

One week before Deep Slate Nine server downtime!

As a reminder to folks, the DS9 server has expected downtime from May 30th-31st. This is so Joe can upgrade the hardware and thus give the players a better experience.

Joe will also be utilizing that time to reset B’hala, so players will have that to look forward to. If you have any major projects or tasks you were working on, you have the next week to finish or get them in a stable state! Thanks!

DS9 May Petitions

We held asynchronous petitions for DS9 on the 22nd! Folks submitted their requests in writing and had them reviewed live on stream!

You can find the VOD and minutes from the petition here.

DS9 event schedule

  • DS9 Server downtime
    • Tuesday May 30th to Wednesday May 31st.
  • Pride Parade, hosted by Team Gaymers
    • Sunday, June 11th, 2pm US Central Time
  • DS9 Petitions
    • Saturday, June 17th, 1pm US Central Time
  • Summer Solstice Parade, hosted by Team SCP
    • Saturday, June 17th, 2pm US Central Time
  • DS9 Map Art Build Contest
    • Ongoing until judging on Saturday, July 15th

Everstorm obituaries

No obituaries to report, phew!

Modded SMP

An update has come in from server operator ToxxicGlitter! The modded server’s restart is aimed to be on June 13th! It will run for about 3(ish) months, and will be a more serious modpack, specifics still to be determined.

You can make suggestions over in SMP: Modded 1.19 by ToxxicGlitter > #modded-feature-request

Vanillish

Petitions for Vanillish happened on May 16th! Server operator Yirggzmb has two updates! The full details can be found in SMP: Vanillish by Yirggzmb > #vanillish-petitions. I will provide a summary for you here:

  • Request for voice mod for the server
    • The request has been green lit and given to Joe, this change will not be immediate, and will require the server to stay on one specific game version as opposed to updating to the newest version, as DS9 does.
  • Other Stuff
    • Now that we are on 1.19.4, Yirggzmb has added chairs to Vanillish!
      • Name a minecart “chair” (all lowercase, no quotes) and hold it in your main hand. This will transform into a special item you can place down to create a “seat”. It is an invisible item you can see by turning on hitboxes (f3+b). You sit with right click and break it with a left click. These are entities, so caution is advised in terms of lag.

Pinball FX3 Weekly Tournament

Oops! Firstly, let me apologize for me dropping the ball and not noticing this slip up. We have been off with the count of the pinball tournament weeks! This week’s tournament is actually Week 20, sorry for the confusion!

I’d also like to apologize to Mr. Hardluck. I falsely announced last week that he had won 4 weeks in a row, but this was not correct! My count was off by one.

Week 19: The Party Zone

Congratulations to Mr. Hardluck for winning this week as well, as that means his win streak is now, accurately, 6 wins in a row! Be sure to celebrate!

1st: Mr_Hardluck. 2nd: DarkHorseAsh. 3rd: JoeHills. 4th: Laxmi13. 5th: fgluckman.

Week 20: High Speed II, the Getaway

Race to win this week’s tournament!

If you’re interested in joining the pinball tournaments you can find information under activity-sign-ups > #weekly-pinball-challenges.

Streams

Upcoming Streams

Due to the chaotic end of school year events and Joe’s lack of confidence in predicting his availability we are unable to present a stream schedule to you at this time, sorry!

With the holiday next week there will be no newsletter, so you can expect a stream schedule on June 5th!

If it will provide any benefit, here is a list of streams that are CANCELLED. There will NOT be any streams on these dates:

  • Evening of Friday, May 26th.
  • All times on Memorial day, Monday, May 29th.
  • Evening of Thursday, June 1st.
  • Morning of Friday, June 2nd.

Notable streams

Though this VOD starts with the DS9 petitions, Joe says there’s an intense TCG match worth viewing, check it out!

Upcoming conventions

Music City Multi Con tickets sales have still not opened. In the meantime, keep your calendar clear, we have tentative dates for Fall and Spring TGD! Again, the dates are NOT final, as the hotel contract has not yet been signed!

So long for now…

Thanks as always for reading the newsletter! Your support helps keep this going, and I appreciate you for taking the time to read! Thank you!

This has been TommyBoii reporting for newsletter duty.

See you around!

Newsletter #46 for May 15th, 2023

Howdy folks!

It’s Tommy time! Community Liaison ThatTommyBoii reporting for newsletter duty!

We’ve got some updates for you, let’s begin right away!

Minecraft Servers

The DS9 petition date has changed!!

Due to scheduling conflicts, Joe will need to cancel the upcoming DS9 petitions. But worry not! We’re just gonna do things a little bit differently this time!

We will be doing asynchronous petitions reviewed live on Joe’s stream! Folks can submit their petition request in our new channel, S9 Vanilla SMP: Deep Slate Nine > #ds9-asyncronous-may-petitions.

Then, on Monday, May 22nd at 8:30pm US Central Time, Joe will review the requests live on stream! Folks can still attend the petition of course, this method just ensures folks who can’t attend on a weekday can still submit items.

If you have any questions, please let us know in the channel!

DS9 event schedule

  • DS9 Petitions
    • Monday, May 22nd, 8:30pm US Central
  • DS9 Server downtime
    • Tuesday May 30th to Wednesday May 31st.
  • Pride Parade, hosted by Team Gaymers
    • Sunday, June 11th, 2pm US Central Time
  • DS9 Petitions
    • Saturday, June 17th, 1pm US Central Time
  • Summer Solstice Parade, hosted by Team SCP
    • Saturday, June 17th, 2pm US Central Time
  • DS9 Map Art Build Contest
    • Ongoing until judging on Saturday, July 15th

April Everstorm closes

The survivors of last month’s Everstorm share these final reports:

  • Void killed four withers, one dragon, and then flew out to explore all corners of the world before retiring
  • Kindalas joined the world to ride on Void’s coat tails.

May Everstorm opens

Does anybody else hear maniacal laughter? Oh, it’s just our server operator ToxxicGlitter! How have our players fared so far with his Everstorm this month?

  • ChefNutmeg started to chop a tree, a Skelly fell when leaves decayed and shot her in the face. Total time on server before death <2 minutes.
  • fancytoy drowned in an attempt to make an underwater staircase

Pinball FX3 Weekly Tournament

We have 4 weeks left of our Pinball FX3 tournaments, cause Pinball FX has released! We will be switching over to Pinball FX to open the tournament to more folks, as now Mac support is available, awesome!

The launch of the next tournament, utilizing Pinball FX,  will be on June 18th. We will also be using a new scoring system! Joe is working on the fine details, but it will feature weekly winners as well as a long standing rankings for the tournaments as a whole!

Week 17: Funhouse

Congrats again to Mr.Hardluck for the win! That makes 4 in a row, incredible!

1stL Mr_Hardluck, 2nd: @JoeHills, 3rd: Laxmi13, 4th: Parker, 5th: DarkHorseAsh

Week 18: The Party Zone

Come join our pinball party ptournament!

If you’re interested in joining the pinball tournaments you can find information under activity-sign-ups > #weekly-pinball-challenges.

Streams

Upcoming Streams

All times are in US Central

  • Monday, May 15th
    • 1pm: HHH stream
    • 8:30pm: HermitCraft 9 Live!
  • Tuesday, May 16th
    • 8:30am: HermitCraft coffee stream
  • Wednesday, May 17th
    • 8:30am: Crafts with Cleo
  • Thursday, May 18th
  • Friday, May 19th
    • 8:30am Hermitcraft 9 Live! (special early show)
  • Saturday, May 20th
    • Off due to family commitments
  • Sunday, May 21st
    • 8:30pm: HermitCraft 9 Live!
  • Monday, May 22nd
    • 8:30am: Coffee and Correspondence on HermitCraft 9
    • 1pm: HHH Stream
    • 8:30pm: DS9 petitions and HermitCraft 9 Live!

Notable streams

Want to see Joe and Quinn play Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom? Have I got the VOD for you! It features my favorite, the pizza cam!

And as always, the fantastic crafts with Cleo stream VOD!

Upcoming conventions

Music City Multi Con has been announced! You can expect to see Joe there, though tickets are not yet available. Stay tuned for that!

So long for now…

I hope you found this newsletter fun and informative! Funformative? Either way, have a wonderful week!

This has been TommyBoii reporting for newsletter duty.

See you around!

Newsletter #45 for May 8th, 2023

Howdy folks!

It’s Tommy time! Community Liaison ThatTommyBoii reporting for newsletter duty!

It’s time to get into some news, I hope you’re ready, cause here we go!

Hermitcraft TCG

There’s only one week left for you to pre-order the HermitCraft trading card game! You check out the game over here.

Pre-orders close May 15th, so be sure to get them while you still can!

Minecraft Servers

DS9 event schedule

  • DS9 Petitions
    • Saturday, May 20th, 1pm US Central Time
  • DS9 Server downtime
    • Tuesday May 30th to Wednesday May 31st.
  • Pride Parade, hosted by Team Gaymers
    • Sunday, June 11th, 2pm US Central Time
  • DS9 Petitions
    • Saturday, June 17th, 1pm US Central Time
  • Summer Solstice Parade, hosted by Team SCP
    • Saturday, June 17th, 2pm US Central Time
  • DS9 Map Art Build Contest
    • Ongoing until judging on Saturday, July 15th

Everstorm obituaries

No obituaries to report, phew!

The next reset is tomorrow, Tuesday May 9th. Tragically I can’t share all the details I’ve seen from server operator ToxxicGlitter but I can share this!

When describing this iteration, Toxxic said “Laughs maniacally
Get ready for some datapack nonsense fun.”

There will be modified world generation as well as crafting. To see it all you’ll have to join tomorrow and find out! Who will live, and who will die in a Toxxic world?!

In the meantime, enjoy the last day of the current version, try to get a cool death for the obituary, or you can submit a survivor’s message if you make it to the end! I hope to include yours!

Vanillish

Server operator Yirggzmb has overseen the update, and all seems well! The Vanillish server is now on 1.19.4!

If you’ve yet to join us on our minecraft servers and feel like it is too late to join our flagship server, Deep Slate Nine, Vanillish may be the one for you! No need to install any mods, though the vanilla tweaks datapacks give it a fresh spin on that classic minecraft SMP feel!

Petitions for Vanillish will be on Tuesday, May 16th, These are asynchronous, so just drop your petition request in #vanillish-petitions before the 16th and Yirggzmb will review it!

Pinball FX3 Weekly Tournament

Week 16: Dr Dude and his Excellent Ray

Another victory goes to Mr. Hardluck, congrats! That makes 3 weeks in a row! Who, if anyone, can break this streak?!

1st: Mr_Hardluck. 2nd: Laxmi13. 3rd: DarkHorseAsh. 4th: JoeHills

Week 17: Funhouse

Step right up and take a crack at wise-cracking Rudy the ventriloquist dummy!

If you’re interested in joining the pinball tournaments you can find information under activity-sign-ups > #weekly-pinball-challenges.

Streams

I’m very excited for a stream this week! Joe will be joined by his sister Quinn Hills on Friday, May 12th at 8:30am US central time for a special 6 hour stream for the launch of the new Zelda game, Tears of the Kingdom! I’m a huge fan of Zelda games, so I’m very excited for this stream!

They’ll be using Joe’s arts and craft stream set up, Quinn will have a whiteboard to help map out things and keep track of quests while Joe runs around saving Hyrule! And surprise! There will be a lunch break featuring a bonus pizza cam!! This is incredible news, very cool, you are on the edge of your seat in excitement like me, right??

Also there will be some sort of donation thermometer with tipping milestones such as $6,000: New guitar for Quinn and a visit with Badger for Joe, $25,000: Pinball machines and rigs to stream the gameplay with, 2 Million: Duplex house with a garage studio, 2 Billion: prestige television network.

The specifics are lost on me, and I know Joe knows that realistic goals like these are maybe not completely viable in a 6 hour stream, but frankly hearing about it felt like I was being hazed.

I guess that’s the Joe Hills difference!

Upcoming Streams

This schedule is tentative, Joe anticipates this week will be a little chaotic on the server, so I recommend subscribing to him on Youtube and Twitch with notifications enabled so you don’t miss anything!

  • Monday, May 8th
    • 1pm: HermitCraft bonus stream
    • 8:30pm: HermitCraft 9 Live!
  • Tuesday, May 9th
    • 8:30am: HermitCraft bonus stream
  • Wednesday, May 10th
    • 8:30am: Crafts with Cleo (prepare artwork for Zelda stream)
  • Thursday, May 11th
    • 8:30am: HermitCraft with Quinn Hills
    • 8:30pm: HermitCraft 9 Live!
  • Friday, May 12th
    • 8:30am: Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2: Tears of the Kingdom (2023) six-hour mega-stream with Quinn Hills
  • Saturday, May 13th
    • Noon: Four hours of TCG!
    • 8:30pm: HermitCraft 9 Live!
  • Sunday, May 14th
    • 8:30pm: HermitCraft 9 Live!

Notable streams

Joe isn’t exactly sure about continuing the Don Quixote streams. If you have thoughts please put them in Joe Hills Meta > #feedback-creative. Thanks!

Upcoming conventions

Music City Multi Con has been announced! You can expect to see Joe there, though tickets are not yet available. Stay tuned for that!

So long for now…

Thanks as always for reading the newsletter! Especially you, yes you! The reader reading this right now! You’re my favorite.

This has been TommyBoii reporting for newsletter duty.

See you around!

Newsletter #44 for May 1st, 2023

Howdy folks!

It’s Tommy time! Community Liaison ThatTommyBoii reporting for newsletter duty!

Welcome in May! If you’re here for some news you’ve come to the right place, let’s get started!

Hermitcraft TCG

The pre-order window for the Hermitcraft TCG is halfway over! If you want to support Joe, Vintage Beef, and the other Hermits, while getting some cool cards in the process, you can check out the game over here!

Pre-orders close May 15th, so be sure to get them while you still can!

Minecraft Servers

DS9 Kentucky Derby parade

Another fun parade! It’s always amazing to see folks building their floats. If you want to see folks horsing around take a look at this VOD! If you’re not already a member and are interested in joining us for our next parade you can join Joe’s patreon to support him and gain access to our minecraft servers. I hope to see you soon!

Thank you to team Blackwater for hosting!

DS9 event schedule

  • DS9 Petitions
    • Saturday, May 20th, 1pm US Central Time
  • DS9 Server downtime
    • Tuesday May 30th to Wednesday May 31st.
  • Pride Parade, hosted by Team Gaymers
    • Sunday, June 11th, 2pm US Central Time
  • DS9 Petitions
    • Saturday, June 17th, 1pm US Central Time
  • Summer Solstice Parade, hosted by Team SCP
    • Saturday, June 17th, 2pm US Central Time
  • DS9 Map Art Build Contest
    • Ongoing until judging on Saturday, July 15th

Our map art contest judging will be held in an in game model of The USS Defiant as featured on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, our version pictured below. Thanks so much to Mantuamaker for being our host!

A minecraft screenshot of the Deep Slate Nine server at night. It is an overhead shot of the spawn town, Spilly, with a spaceship from star trek named The Defiant in the background.

Everstorm obituaries

No obituaries to report, phew!

The next reset is Tuesday, May 9th, there’s only one week left to enjoy this session of Everstorm!

Our server operator ToxxicGlitter already has a world prepared for the next iteration, what could he be planning?? All I have to share is this quote from Toxxic, “basically no armor again”.

Vanillish

The time for Vanillish’s update is here! Or rather, it will be here tomorrow! As per server operator Yirggzmb’s instructions Joe will be updating the server to 1.19.4. If you’re a player on the server be sure to use the right game version in your client!

You can expect Vanillish to go down tomorrow, May 2nd, at noon US Central time for this update.

Q3 Quarterly Meeting

We have a date selected for our next quarterly meeting! It is currently set for August 12th. This date may be changed in the future, in accordance with Joe’s availability. Most likely it would change to the 19th of August. We will give you the finalized date and time as we approach that time of the year.

Pinball FX3 Weekly Tournament

Week 15: Space Station

Congrats again to Mr. Hardluck! Will anybody else be able to take first place??

1st: MrHardluck. 2nd: DarkHorseAsh. 3rd: WrexVerdi. 4th: NJCoffeeJunkie. 5th: ProfessorGallifrey. 6th: JoeHills. 7th: Parker. 8th: Cosmic Goddess.

Week 16: Dr Dude and his Excellent Ray

If you’re interested in joining the pinball tournaments you can find information under activity-sign-ups > #weekly-pinball-challenges.

Streams

Upcoming Streams

  • Monday, May 1st
    • No night stream
  • Tuesday, May 2nd
    • 8:30am: coffee stream
  • Wednesday, May 3rd
    • 8:30am: Crafts with Cleo
  • Thursday, May 4th
    • 8:30am: HermitCraft with Quinn
    • 8:30pm HermitCraft 9 Live
  • Friday, May 5th
    • No morning stream
    • 8:30pm HermitCraft 9 Live
  • Saturday, May 6th
    • 8:30pm HermitCraft 9 Live
  • Sunday, May 7th
    • 8:30pm HermitCraft 9 Live
  • Monday, May 8th
    • 8:30am: coffee stream
    • 8:30pm HermitCraft 9 Live

Notable streams

Upcoming conventions

Music City Multi Con has been announced! You can expect to see Joe there, though tickets are not yet available. Stay tuned for that!

So long for now…

I hope this month is full of new surprises and growth for you. Enjoy the springtime!

This has been TommyBoii reporting for newsletter duty.

See you around!

Newsletter #43 for April 24th, 2023

Howdy folks!

It’s Tommy time! Community Liaison ThatTommyBoii reporting for newsletter duty!

I hope you’re having a good day so far, let’s see what’s new!

Minecraft Servers

DS9 Earth Day parade

The Earth Day parade building contest was filled with amazing builds! So amazing that Joe has decried my puns skills in favor of one of the entrants! Who could possibly make a better pun than me?! You’ll have to watch the VOD and enjoy the floats to find out!

Thank you to team Earth Kingdom Scouts for hosting!

Kentucky Derby Parade

Our next parade is one being celebrated alongside the Kentucky Derby. Team Blackwater is the host, and the representative DahliaM wanted folks to know that the theme for this parade is basically horses. Her intentions were to pick a holiday that has the most relevance to horses, and that she believes in strong and strict reforms in the industry and cannot praise or respect the current practices held.

Folks are allowed to create floats about the derby, the hats and all the extravagance the Kentucky Derby is known for, but Team Blackwater does not condone the racing industry, or the abusive practices of the horse industry.

DS9 event schedule

  • Kentucky Derby Parade, hosted by Team Blackwater
    • Sunday, April 30th, 2pm US Central Time
  • DS9 Petitions
    • Saturday, May 20th, 1pm US Central Time
  • DS9 Server downtime
    • Tuesday May 30th to Wednesday May 31st.
  • Pride Parade, hosted by Team Gaymers
    • Sunday, June 11th, 2pm US Central Time
  • DS9 Petitions
    • Saturday, June 17th, 1pm US Central Time
  • Summer Solstice Parade, hosted by Team SCP
    • Saturday, June 17th, 2pm US Central Time
  • DS9 Map Art Build Contest
    • Ongoing until judging on Saturday, July 15th

Everstorm obituaries

No obituaries to report, phew!

The next reset is Tuesday, May 9th, so be sure to hop on if you haven’t had the chance yet!

Rumor has it that the next iteration may be a little… Toxxic. More information will given as it becomes available!

Pinball FX3 Weekly Tournament

Week 14: Monster Bash

Another win for Mr. Hardluck, congrats!

1st: MrHardluck. 2nd: ProfessorGallifrey. 3rd: Parker. 4th: DarkHorseAsh. 5th: ButterflyGirlKMC. 6th: JoeHills.

Week 15: Space Station

If you’re interested in joining the pinball tournaments you can find information under activity-sign-ups > #weekly-pinball-challenges.

Streams

Upcoming Streams

We have a schedule this week, woohoo!

  • Monday, April 24th
    • 8:30pm: HermitCraft 9 Live!
    • Monday afternoon: off for Hermit recording
  • Tuesday, April 25th
    • 8:30am: Coffee and grinding, HermitCraft bonus stream
  • Wednesday, April 26th
    • 8:30am: Crafts with Cleo
  • Thursday, April 27th
    • 8:30am: Quinn co-hosts HermitCraft 9!
    • Thursday night: HermitCraft 9 Live!
  • Friday, April 28th
    • 8:30am: Coffee and grinding, HermitCraft bonus stream
    • Friday night: off for family time
  • Saturday, April 29th
    • Saturday night: off for family time
  • Sunday, April 30th
    • 2pm: Patreon Kentucky Derby Parade Float build contest
  • Monday, May 1st
    • 8:30am: Coffee and grinding, HermitCraft bonus stream

Notable streams

Upcoming conventions

Music City Multi Con has been announced! You can expect to see Joe there, though tickets are not yet available. Stay tuned for that!

So long for now…

Thanks for reading this newsletter! Enjoy the rest of April, I’ll see you all in May!

This has been TommyBoii reporting for newsletter duty.

See you around!

Newsletter #42 for April 17th, 2023

Howdy folks!

It’s Tommy time! Community Liaison ThatTommyBoii reporting for newsletter duty!

If you’re looking for updates you’ve come to the right place, here’s your weekly news!

Hermitcraft TCG Card Game Live

Have you been watching all the hermits playing the HermitCraft TCG and thought “Wow I wish I could collect and play this in real life!”? Well now you can! VintageBeef and the Hermits have announced a physical edition of the game available for preorder now! You can find that over here! If you’re interested in seeing what Joe’s common card looks like you can take a look at this link here!

The Federal Trade Commission requires that ads and sponsors be disclosed when goods or services are endorsed. Joe does make a small royalty off the sales of the card game, but this is not a true sponsorship as Joe is a Hermit and has been working with the team responsible for having these cards released. Better safe than sorry!

2023 Q2 quarterly meeting VOD and minutes

Thanks to all the folks who attended our quarterly meeting! If you missed it and would like to see the VOD you can do so here!

If you want the minutes of that meeting they are available for folks to read here.

The next quarterly meeting is tentatively set for late July or early August depending on Joe’s availability, we will bring you the final date once we have that ready!

Minecraft Servers

Stay updated on our Minecraft servers!

Deep Slate Nine downtime

DS9 needs to have it’s operating system upgraded! Joe will be taking care of that so you can expect server downtime from May 30th to May 31st.

DS9 Petitions

You can find the VOD and minutes for the April 2023 DS9 petitions at this page: https://joehills.net/petitions-april-2023/

DS9 Yuri’s Night parade

The Yuri’s Night parade building contest was out of this world! Many cool designs were featured by our stellar members of the community, and I’m over the moon with everyone’s creative aspirations! Please be sure to watch the VOD and enjoy the floats!

Thank you to Team Shiny for hosting!

DS9 event schedule

  • Earth Day Parade, hosted by Team Earth Kingdom Scouts
    • Sunday, April 23rd, 2pm US Central Time
  • Kentucky Derby Parade, hosted by Team Blackwater
    • Sunday, April 30th, 2pm US Central Time
  • DS9 Petitions
    • Saturday, May 20th, 1pm US Central Time
  • Pride Parade, hosted by Team Gaymers
    • Sunday, June 11th, 2pm US Central Time
  • DS9 Petitions
    • Saturday, June 17th, 1pm US Central Time
  • Summer Solstice Parade, hosted by Team SCP
    • Saturday, June 17th, 2pm US Central Time
  • DS9 Map Art Build Contest
    • Ongoing until judging on Saturday, July 15th

Everstorm obituaries

  • ChefNutmeg got yeeted into lava by a sad boy

Modded SMP

Server operator ToxxicGlitter is still taking suggestions for the upcoming modded server restart, we’re looking to have that launched in the back half of June. Stay tuned for more details to come!

Pinball FX3 Weekly Tournament

Week 13: Creature from the Black Lagoon

Congrats to Mr. Hardluck for his win!

1st: Mr. Hardluck. 2nd: JoeHills. 3rd: Cosmic Goddess. 4th: Parker. 5th: DarkHorseAsh. 6th: NJCoffeeJunkie

Week 14: Monster Bash

This table has not been started yet as Joe needs to reset the tournament, but you can look forward to that going live early Tuesday evening.

Upcoming conventions

Music City Multi Con has been announced! You can expect to see Joe there, though tickets are not yet available. Stay tuned for that!

Notable streams

So long for now…

Thanks for tuning in, I hope you have a beautiful week and many moments of small joys!

This has been TommyBoii reporting for newsletter duty.

See you around!

Newsletter #41 for April 10th, 2023

Howdy folks!

It’s Tommy time! Community Liaison ThatTommyBoii reporting for newsletter duty!

I hope you’re ready for some modest updates, because here they are!

2023 Q2 quarterly meeting

Final reminder to folks that our quarterly meeting is this Saturday, April 15th, at 1pm US Central time! This is your last chance to suggest agenda items, new channels, new emojis, or submit some feedback to go over, so get that in while you can!

Agenda items go in Joe Hills Meta > #next-quarter-new-business-requests channel. Channel suggestions can go in #feedback-more-channels, and emoji suggestions can go in #feedback-emoji.

Minecraft Server Events

We’ve got a few new items to add to the list, along with reminders of the previously announced events!

Deep Slate Nine

  • Petitions
    • Saturday, April 15th, 10:30am US Central time.
  • Yuri’s Night Parade, hosted by Team Shiny
    • Saturday, April 15th, 11am US Central Time
  • Earth Day Parade, hosted by Team Earth Kingdom Scouts
    • Sunday, April 23rd, 2pm US Central Time
  • Kentucky Derby Parade, hosted by Team Blackwater
    • Sunday, April 30th, 2pm US Central Time
  • Pride Parade, hosted by Team Gaymers
    • Sunday, June 11th, 2pm US Central Time
  • Summer Solstice Parade, hosted by Team SCP
    • Saturday, June 17th, 2pm US Central Time
  • DS9 Map Art Build Contest
    • Ongoing until judging on Saturday, July 15th

Lenten Everstorm closes

Survivors of last month’s everstorm have shared their final reports:

  • MJ went exploring beyond the safe glow of torchlight. At nightfall he began pillaring up and watched the sunset. It was a good world.
  • Laxmi13 survived because apparently her real body doesn’t understand 2D movement anymore.
  • SuperStone developed new and exciting ways of not dying, then stopped playing before actually needing them.
  • samihiggins helped create a commune below spawn. She leaves behind many farms and many more hours in her pursuit of perfectly enchanted bows for all.
  • Magenta spent more time landscaping that she did caving and she build her first double-spawner mob grinder.
  • Phali successfully defended Voids’ legacy, then took Deliverance and some supplies on his back and headed for the sunrise in search of new adventures.

April Everstorm opens

A new iteration of Everstorm is here! The reset is planned for May 9th, so come be the first to die! Or rather the next, as we already have our first obituary!

  • MJ was shot in the back by a skeleton while trying to escape up a staircase.

Pinball FX3 Weekly Tournament

Week 12: Black Rose

Congratulations to Asteri aka Cosmic Goddess for getting first place!

1st: Cosmic Goddess. 2nd: JoeHills. 3rd: Mr. Hardluck. 4th: superstone. 5th: NJCoffeeJunkie. 6th: DarkHorseAsh

Week 13: Creature from the Black Lagoon

If you’re interested in joining the pinball tournaments you can find information under activity-sign-ups > #weekly-pinball-challenges.

Upcoming conventions

PlayOnCon 2023 sales are now open at http://www.playoncon.com/memberships!

  • July 6th–9th in Columbiana, AL: PlayOnCon

Notable streams

So long for now…

I look forward to updating folks with the events of the quarterly meeting this weekend. You’ll be able to enjoy the VOD and minutes as per usual when we can get those available to folks. I hope to see you there!

This has been TommyBoii reporting for newsletter duty.

See you around!

Newsletter #40 for April 3rd, 2023

Screenshot of the HermitCraft Season 9 server. The render distance is very large, bases from Doc's perimeter to False's ice castle are visible with Joe's pinball machine looming in the background.

Howdy folks!

It’s Tommy time! Community Liaison ThatTommyBoii reporting for newsletter duty!

Joe’s live again this weekday morning, so I’ll be bringing you the news again! We’re getting to it right away!

Mercy Road 4 Success!

The weekend has passed and so has the charity event Mercy Road 4 that was benefitting  Child’s Play! Joe was joined by fellow players KrissyInColor, Kay Purcell, Tyranthesaurus, UnderdogAG, and DM Saucefire.

You can check these VODs out to see Joe and the others in action! Do mind the split videos, what’s a charity stream without a few technical difficulties?





The event raised $5,550.00 and is still currently open for donations here, though on stream redemptions have concluded.

2023 Q2 quarterly meeting

As a reminder to folks we have our quarterly meeting coming up! That’s gonna be on Saturday, April 15th, at 1pm US Central time. If you have any agenda item requests please submit them in the Joe Hills Meta > #next-quarter-new-business-requests channel. Channel suggestions can go in #feedback-more-channels, and emoji suggestions can go in #feedback-emoji.

I recommend checking out the feedback channels and letting us know how we’re doing! We strongly encourage it as it helps us know how the community is feeling and what changes we can make to help folks.

Minecraft Server Events

Lots of events being scheduled on the server! Let’s take a look!

Deep Slate Nine

Parades, petitions,  and even more parades! When you plan to have 12 parades in a year you’d think it would be spaced out to about 1 parade a month, but that’s not how holidays work! Let’s see what celebrations and build contests folks have to look forward to so far!

  • Petitions
    • Saturday, April 15th, 10:30am US Central time.
  • Yuri’s Night, hosted by Team Shiny
    • Saturday, April 15th, 11am US Central Time
  • Earth Day, hosted by Team Earth Kingdom Scouts
    • Sunday, April 23rd, 2pm US Central Time
  • Pride Parade, hosted by Team Gaymers
    • Sunday, June 11th, 2pm US Central Time
  • DS9 Map Art Build Contest
    • Ongoing until judging on Saturday, July 15th

Sign ups are open for the parades, you can find those under Activity-sign-ups each in their own respective channels.

Everstorm

No obituaries to report, phew!

Last chance to play this iteration! The server will reset on Thursday, April 6, 2023.

Pinball FX3 Weekly Tournament

Week 11: Attack From Mars

Joe takes another pinball victory this week!

1st: JoeHills. 2nd: forgantly. 3rd: Mr_Hardluck. 4th: Drewbacca. 5th: CosmicGoddess. 6th: WrexVerdi. 7th: Superstone. 8th: kindalas

9th: DarkHorseAsh, 10th: R1X5.13

Week 12: Black Rose

Apparently this is the pirate one, so ahoy mateys! I ‘ope ye enjoy the table this here week!

If you’re interested in joining the pinball tournaments you can find information under activity-sign-ups > #weekly-pinball-challenges.

Upcoming conventions

PlayOnCon 2023 sales are now open at http://www.playoncon.com/memberships!

  • July 6th–9th in Columbiana, AL: PlayOnCon

HermitCraft 9 Videos

Notable streams

Upcoming Streams

Joe and I would again like to apologize for the lack of a stream schedule, things are a little chaotic in Tennessee, and Joe doesn’t want to give a timeline he’s not certain he can commit to. I look forward to when we can confidently give that to y’all!

So long for now…

Thanks for reading the newsletter! I’m excited for our upcoming quarterly meeting, and I hope y’all have a beautiful week!

This has been TommyBoii reporting for newsletter duty.

See you around!

Newsletter #39 for March 27th, 2023

Howdy folks!

It’s Tommy time! Community Liaison ThatTommyBoii reporting for newsletter duty!

I’m writing you this newsletter as Joe is currently live from the HermitCraft server! I hope y’all are enjoying the stream, let’s dive into the news!

Important Tweets

Mercy Road 4

Last reminder! This Saturday, April 1st, Joe will be playing in one of the charity D&D games benefitting Child’s Play hosted by talented dungeon master Saucefire. His session will be at 5pm US Central time!

Minecraft Server Events

Deep Slate Nine

We have a few things to announce for DS9!

Petitions

Monthly petitions will be held Saturday, April 15th, at 10:30am US Central time.

Yuri’s Night Parade Float Build Contest

This parade will celebrate Yuri’s Night. If you haven’t heard of it before like me, Yuri’s Night is an international celebration held every April 12 to commemorate milestones in space exploration. It is named for the first human to launch into space, Yuri Gagarin, who flew the Vostok 1 spaceship on April 12, 1961.

The parade float contest will be Saturday, April 15th, at 11am US Central time.

Map Art Build Contest

DS9 will also be having an extended build contest for map art! There will be three categories, and judging will be based off solo entrants as well at teamed, so there are a total of six evaluations.

The categories are

  • Retro
    Limited to a 1×1 map using only wool on a flat plane
  • Refined
    Unlimited block palette and techniques may be used for up to five maps that compose a single work
  • Really big
    Unlimited block palette and techniques may be used for six or more maps maps that compose a single work

Entrants may begin as of 8:30am Central, March 27th, 2023, and should be completed and on display in the judging area by midnight US central time July 14th for judging on stream the following day.

More information is available under Activity-Sign-Ups > #july-15th-ds9-map-art-build-contest

Modded SMP

Server operator ToxxicGlitter is still looking for suggestions and feedback for the new modded server coming this summer! If you have any ideas or would like to see what folks have suggested already you can find the place to do that under SMP: Modded 1.19 By ToxxicGlitter > #modded-feature-request

Vanillish SMP

Server operator Yirggzmb is preparing to have the server update to 1.19.4! Stay tuned for when that update happens, you can find the info under SMP: Vanillish By Yirggzmb > #vanillish-general

Everstorm

No obituaries to report, phew!

As a reminder, the server will reset on Thursday, April 6, 2023.

Pinball FX3 Weekly Tournament

Week 10: Junkyard

The winner this week is Joe, but congrats to all of our players!

1st: JoeHills. 2nd: Cosmic Goddess. 3rd: Forgantly. 4th: Mr_Hardluck. 5th: Superstone. 6th: DarkHorseAsh. 7th: NJCoffeeJunkie. 8th: WrexVerdi.

Week 11: Attack From Mars

If you’re interested in joining the pinball tournaments you can find information under activity-sign-ups > #weekly-pinball-challenges.

Upcoming conventions

PlayOnCon 2023 sales are now open at http://www.playoncon.com/memberships!

  • July 6th–9th in Columbiana, AL: PlayOnCon

HermitCraft 9 Videos

Notable streams

Upcoming Streams

Another week without a schedule, sorry about that! Joe will be having someone over this week to hopefully get that repaired. Thanks for your continued patience!

So long for now…

Thanks for reading the newsletter! I hope you enjoy the rest of your day and week!

This has been TommyBoii reporting for newsletter duty.

See you around!

Newsletter #38 for March 20th, 2023

Howdy folks!

It’s Tommy time! Community Liaison ThatTommyBoii reporting for newsletter duty!

Joe’s back from his social visit to London but it looks like his internet has yet to return! I’ll be your faithful reporter as always, so let’s get into the news!

2023 Q2 quarterly meeting

A not so brief overview

We are approaching that quarterly time of year! Folks joked around last meeting that I live for these meetings and that it’s what I look forward to all year. While highly exaggerated there is some truth to those jokes!

One of my biggest focuses as Community Liaison is making sure folks feel like they are connected to each other in this community, and for Joe to be connected to y’all as well.

For those who are new, every quarter year (or every 3 months) we hold a quarterly meeting to reflect on past changes, review current changes, and suggest upcoming changes.  Change can be a scary thing so we’ll go through it together as a community!

The meetings are available to join for all Patreon discord members and are livestreamed as well by myself. Minutes and a VOD are provided for folks who may miss it, and proxies are allowed to be sent in on behalf of other members.

We follow an agenda during these meetings to stay on topic and not stray too far from the point. If you would like to submit an agenda item request you may do so in Joe Hills Meta > #next-quarter-new-business-requests.  We also are still accepting requests in the #feedback-emoji and #feedback-more-channels channels to be considered at our next meeting.

Current 2023Q2 Agenda

  • Patreon tiers and community goals
  • Minecraft servers reset schedule and launches
  • Discord
    • Additional channels
    • Additional emotes

Great, but when is the meeting?!

Saturday, April 15th, at 1pm US Central time.

Mercy Road 4

Joe will be playing in one of the charity D&D games benefitting Child’s Play hosted by talented dungeon master Saucefire. His session will be Saturday April 1st, at 5pm US Central time!

Minecraft Server Events

Deep Slate Nine

Our March Van Gogh parade building contest was wonderful! The builds were gorgeous and I highly recommend checking out the VOD to see what the creative folks on our server built!

There was also our usual monthly petitions, Joe has written a summary and provided a VOD for folks over here.

Modded SMP

Server operator ToxxicGlitter held petitions as well, though we don’t have a VOD or any notes on it.

We would like to announce that Toxxic plans on restarting the Modded SMP!  We don’t have any official details on that yet, but the current plans are for a shorter term, higher intensity server that would run for 3-6 months.

Don’t worry about losing the current iteration just yet! The restart won’t come until the summer, likely around June. Toxxic is very open to feedback and suggestions, folks can put those in the #modded-feature-request channel. More details on this restart will come as it becomes available.

Vanillish SMP

Vanillish petitions are tomorrow, March 21st! Server operator Yirggzmb uses an asynchronous timing, so if you have a request submit it now in the #vanillish-petitions channel!

Everstorm Obituaries

No obituaries to report, phew!

As a reminder, the server will reset on Thursday, April 6, 2023.

Pinball FX3 Weekly Tournament

Week 8: No Good Gofers

Congrats to DarkHorseAsh!

1st: DarkHorseAsh 2nd: Mr_Hardluck. 3rd: Laxmi13. 4th: @JoeHills. 5th: NJCoffeeJunkie

Week 9: Medieval Madness

Congrats to Mr. Hardluck!

1st: Mr.Hardluck. 2nd: JoeHills. 3rd: DarkHorseAsh. 4th: Superstone. 5th: WrexVerdi. 6th: Forgantly. 7th: Drewbacca81

Week 10: Junkyard

If you’re interested in joining the pinball tournaments you can find information under activity-sign-ups > #weekly-pinball-challenges.

The pinball packs we play in FX3 are on sale on Steam until March 23rd, so now is a great time to hop in! I hope to see more folks claim their spot on the leaderboard!

Upcoming conventions

PlayOnCon 2023 sales are now open at http://www.playoncon.com/memberships!

  • July 6th–9th in Columbiana, AL: PlayOnCon

HermitCraft 9 Videos!

Check out Joe’s most recent episode if you want to see him talk about his trip to London!

Upcoming Streams

With Joe’s internet still working hard at hardly working, we don’t feel confident posting a stream schedule for this week, sorry about that!

So long for now…

Thanks for reading the newsletter! I look forward to bringing you more updates in the future, and I hope you have a great rest of your day!

This has been TommyBoii reporting for newsletter duty.

See you around!