Hopefully transferring to Forge will fix the issue.
Transferring to forge will take a while, and we MAY (not entirely sure yet) lose PvP control, but considering no one PvP'd anyway, it mightn't be so bad. If the vote is in support I'll transfer to forge on Friday, the server will probably be offline for a while cause I've got to back everything up, transfer the ranks, install all the new mods and so forth, so it's gonna take a little while. The good news for moderators is that with the current mods I'm going to try, you don't have to learn new commands for ranking people, you just use "/p" instead "/pex".
I'm not sure if clients need to have forge installed in order to play on a server that has forge and I can't find anything on the internet about that. Does anyone know the answer? I have some mods that would, logically, be only server-sided mods, but i want to stray away from client sided mods, at least for the moment.
Just so people understand what I mean when I say server-sided mods and client-sided mods, I'll briefly explain.
There are two things that make up a minecraft game. The client (the player, IE: you) and the server (the thing that connects the players together). A server in general has a Mod interface installed, this is something that makes it easier for modders to "plug in" their mods, without worrying about compatibility issues with other mods and without happening to change any significant files. The current mod interface we have is craftbukkit 1.8, the one we may have in the future is Forge. When a mod interface is installed, there are two types of mods that can be installed.
1. Server-side mods: A server side mod is a mod that runs on the server and doesn't effect the client. This is something like a ranks mod, or a warp mod, or something like that. It's a mod that the client can use even if they themselves don't have the mod. You don't need the same ranking mod in order to play on the server with the ranking mod, the server simply uses the mod and the client doesn't even have to worry about.
2. Client-sided mods: Not all mods are server-sided mods, some mods change minecraft files or are set up in a way that it's impossible for the client to ignore. This includes a mod that adds new blocks or items into the game, the game needs to be changed to reference these new blocks, the server can't do that without consulting the client so the client needs the mod installed as well. For all client-sided mods both the client AND the server need the mod, with the current way forge is set up, if you do not have the mod you WON'T BE ABLE TO JOIN THE SERVER. This is why I'm a bit hesitant to install client sided mods, cause it means people need to download mods on their client in order to play.
If we do install any client-sided mods, I'll create a personal modpack and link it on the original post of this thread. That way installing it should be as easy as clicking a button and dragging and dropping.