What's the server control interface like? Does it have one?
What makes you trustable with players' keys?
What provider are you using for the service?
How long do you expect to provide the service?
Do you have a support system?
I'm glad to hear there's potentially a new hosting service up and coming, but there's a lot that goes into this kind of endeavor. Failing to provide this kind of information, and making the official topic while it's still in beta tells me you rushed to put this out here. I personally wouldn't use or invest in a new, rushed, and untrustworthy service. I say untrustworthy, because you have given no reason to be trusted. You are just well known. Whereas, Ephialtes was a forum admin and an admin on Badspot's server as well as long time developer for the game's most extensive and widely used add-on, RTB.
You have some good points and questions right here!
What's the server control interface like? Does it have one?
What provider are you using for the service?
How long do you expect to provide the service?
Do you have a support system?
I'll leave these for Pecon to answer more precisely.
I say untrustworthy, because you have given no reason to be trusted. You are just well known.
The fact that Pecon isn't
untrustworthy is a point in his favor. For lack of a better example, take Hammereditor. Hammereditor had made several mistakes and terrible choices, and thus he was less trustworthy. Pecon doesn't have that - he's been running a successful Blockland server for three years now, with no major complaints of abuse or anything against him personally.
At this point, you raise the example of Ephialtes, and therefore explicitly define what you consider "trustworthy," so I'll work off that.
Whereas, Ephialtes was a forum admin and an admin on Badspot's server
This clearly shows something specific - you trust people who are trusted by others who are trustworthy. In this case, Badspot.
At this point, I'd like to go on the record and say that I personally trust Pecon. I'm a mod developer, and I've released several mods. I've been an administrator on a number of servers, and while I tend to lean more towards development, I haven't forgeted up dramatically in an administrative capacity either. I have... two dramas? I'm also still on my first forum account - thus showing that Badspot himself doesn't consider me a problem user worth removing. In other words, I believe that you can trust my trust. You may be wondering why I brought up my development experience as evidence for you to trust me. Because of this:
as well as long time developer for the game's most extensive and widely used add-on, RTB.
In other words, you trust someone who had
opportunity to do bad things, but didn't.
I don't do bad things with my mods. I report security stuff responsibly - in a white hat fashion, and I have to several individuals. Badspot, Ephialtes, at least 3 other websites, people I know personally... they've all received a message from me about something I found that was insecure. The true scale and range of these issues varies, some turned out to be non-issues, but judging by what you've written, I'm trustworthy. Again, I trust Pecon.
Furthermore, Pecon has also released a few mods, reported Slayer bugs to Greek2Me, and again, ran a server with few complaints. He is, at a minimum, an upstanding member of the Blockland community.
What makes you trustable with players' keys?
Well, to figure out the answer here, we have to ask this: "why wouldn't he be trustable?" The answer is simple: he wouldn't be trustworthy if he was likely to steal them. (specifically, more likely to steal them than not) Let's assume keystealing is a crime (I guess it is, actually) so we need means, motive, and opportunity. He has the means and the opportunity, but I put forth that he doesn't have the motive. For motive, he needs to come out ahead if he commits the crime over if he doesn't commit it. So will he?
This is the same point I raised back when I received the similar question for LugHost. Blockland Dedicated Server Hosting is presently a loving monopoly - if you don't forget up, you get clients. Period. Constant streams of income, as opposed to one time fun of impersonating someone or selling the keys on the black market (who would be the buyers???). It's more profitable in the long run for him to not steal and sell or use the keys. Furthermore, if he does forget up, he loses his reputation instantly from all but the most irrational members of the forums. You don't recover from that in this community, so it is a clear end to his income if he messes up.
Failing to provide this kind of information, and making the official topic while it's still in beta tells me you rushed to put this out here.
I'll be blunt and say that this is the wrong conclusion to reach from the evidence you're given because it's based on faulty priors, or at least faulty understandings of the evidence.
What is the evidence, exactly? This topic. The fact that it exists. So what do I think is the faulty understanding?
This topic isn't the official topic. Or at least, not the final one. Pecon is, evidently, using this topic for a few things - one, to get the knowledge that this product exists out there, (building hype) and two, to find beta testers. This raises the question of why Pecon didn't just approach people directly asking if they wanted to be betatesters. The answer is simple - because the people who request to be testers here are positively motivated to do it and provide feedback. Furthermore, if I were Pecon, I would have difficulty finding server hosts in my Steam friends list. Coders, bugtesters, I could find easily... normal server hosts? Not so much.
Hope that answered some of your questions, and if it didn't, what would? In other words, if you still don't feel like he's trustworthy, what would have to happen to make you feel that he's trustworthy?
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