<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?><feed xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" ><generator uri="https://jekyllrb.com/" version="3.10.0">Jekyll</generator><link href="https://sylv.gay/feed.xml" rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" /><link href="https://sylv.gay/" rel="alternate" type="text/html" /><updated>2026-04-29T04:32:29-04:00</updated><id>https://sylv.gay/feed.xml</id><title type="html">Sylv’s Website</title><subtitle>Sylv’s personal pocket dimension. sylv.gay describes Sylv’s projects, important links, and other cool things.</subtitle><entry><title type="html">Resources for Running a Mod Garden Event</title><link href="https://sylv.gay/blog/minecraft/modding/2025/09/16/resources-for-running-a-mod-garden/" rel="alternate" type="text/html" title="Resources for Running a Mod Garden Event" /><published>2025-09-16T21:34:50-04:00</published><updated>2025-09-16T21:34:50-04:00</updated><id>https://sylv.gay/blog/minecraft/modding/2025/09/16/resources-for-running-a-mod-garden</id><content type="html" xml:base="https://sylv.gay/blog/minecraft/modding/2025/09/16/resources-for-running-a-mod-garden/"><![CDATA[<p><strong>Note</strong>: This post is not affiliated with Mod Garden. Any and all statements here are my own and do not represent the opinions of Mod Garden, its team members, or its participants.</p>

<p>Additionally, this is a living document, meaning that anything here can and likely will change in the future.</p>

<p>So you’re wondering how to run a Mod Garden event? Awesome! Below is a list of links and brief explanations on how Mod Garden events are run and how you can run one yourself. This is primarily for Mod Garden team members and volunteers, but this may be helpful to others as well.</p>

<h2 id="mod-garden">Mod Garden</h2>
<p>This is a list of resources by Mod Garden:</p>
<ul>
  <li><a href="https://modgarden.net/blog/claiming-guide">Claiming Guide</a></li>
  <li><a href="https://modgarden.net/blog/mod-garden-timeline">Mod Garden - Garden Timeline</a></li>
  <li><a href="https://modgarden.net/blog/mod-garden-participant-guide">Mod Garden - Participant Guide</a></li>
</ul>

<h2 id="modfest">ModFest</h2>
<p>Here’s a list of resources ModFest has on running their events:</p>
<ul>
  <li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_x-Ic2fqm4">How (Not) to Run a ModFest | BlanketCon ‘25</a></li>
  <li><a href="https://modfest.net/pages/modfest">ModFest Guides</a></li>
</ul>]]></content><author><name>Sylv</name></author><category term="minecraft" /><category term="modding" /><category term="impromptu" /><category term="event organization" /><category term="mod garden" /><summary type="html"><![CDATA[A hastily-built list of resources for learning how to run Mod Garden events.]]></summary></entry><entry><title type="html">On Community LTS</title><link href="https://sylv.gay/blog/minecraft/modding/2025/09/09/on-community-lts/" rel="alternate" type="text/html" title="On Community LTS" /><published>2025-09-09T01:59:01-04:00</published><updated>2025-09-09T01:59:01-04:00</updated><id>https://sylv.gay/blog/minecraft/modding/2025/09/09/on-community-lts</id><content type="html" xml:base="https://sylv.gay/blog/minecraft/modding/2025/09/09/on-community-lts/"><![CDATA[<p>I highly recommend you read <a href="https://notes.highlysuspect.agency/blog/the_treadmill/">this article</a> on the version treadmill as it is important to understanding the issue at hand. This will be a more chaotic post since it’s my first, and I’m not the best writer. I hope to improve upon it in the future.</p>

<p><del>I am also currently working on another blog post with more research that may take longer, but it will have suggestions for improvements and discussion of COLTS’s potential effects.</del></p>

<p><strong>Addendum:</strong> since the new version format has dropped, I feel like this is no longer as much of an issue now that mods can confidently say they’ll port to “27.1” or “28.4” or “yy.1” annually providing an easy porting schedule.</p>

<p>One last thing: <strong>do not <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harassment">harass</a> anyone.</strong> We are here to change the atmosphere of modding, not destroy lives.</p>

<h2 id="the-problem">The Problem</h2>
<p>Every update, Mojang disenchants Minecraft mod developers with what we modders have come to call <a href="https://notes.highlysuspect.agency/blog/the_treadmill/">the treadmill</a>. Being a version labeling and servicing issue, the treadmill has caused immeasurable harm to the cohesion of the modding ecosystems that form around each Minecraft version, but part of the issue lies in version semantics. What the versions mean and what they contain has been lost as we have transitioned from the pre-1.16 <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">1.major.minor</code> era to the post-1.16 <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">1.major.refactor</code> era to the post-1.21 <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">1.21.major</code> Drops era, so to say that the modding community should pick a version and make it stable is antithetical to the goals of the wider modding community. Fundamentally, SMV (Standard Minecraft Version), COLTS (Community LTS), and other attempts to standardize the popular modding version are creatively bankrupt as they tend toward maximizing download count and modpack cohesion for the few modders who have a stake in the decision rather than naturally enhancing existing ecosystems on older Minecraft versions or establishing new ones on newer versions. What is most alarming is the bias for a specific crowd of developers. If these standards are “community-driven”, why is there a tendency for bias in the spaces and audience by which these votes and discussions are held?</p>

<h2 id="bias">Bias</h2>
<p>These movements have been biased from the get-go (e.g. SMV and initially COLTS). This is often criticized, and it further exemplifies the kind of idea that people have about these movements being for the “elite modders”. Exclusive groups have always existed in Minecraft modding ever since the early Forge days, and 2025 is no exception. Even today, these groups remain partially secluded from each other, often only known about through word of mouth, but when we are deciding important standards and when drama runs rampant in the modding community, it becomes near impossible for the modding community to agree on anything. And because spaces like the Fabric Discord disallow drama discussion, these smaller secluded spaces spread rumors and drama like wildfire. Therefore, it is important that we as a community have open discussions about these topics in an effort to dispel misinformation and displace harm. To add insult to injury, new modders will inevitably be confused as to why there is a standard Minecraft version, but more often than not they will be unaware of it. If we can’t agree on anything useful without fights and gossip, why should we expect newer modders to accept these arbitrary decisions, let alone know about them?</p>

<h2 id="motive">Motive</h2>
<p>Modding is an art form, but some people don’t see it that way. There are three increasingly large rifts forming between sections of the modding community: the old guard, contemporary modders, and for-profit studio and YouTube modders. However, the division between the old/contemporary modders and the so-called YouTube modders is more noticeable. Typically, these YouTubers will claim to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiiys_JDNY8">fix an issue</a> with Minecraft or that Minecraft <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxxNj2Hhevk">used to be better</a>. Of course, there is no real creative motive in these endeavors as they <em>coincidentally</em> follow viral content trends as well as <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kTFVsrCbqQ">common misconceptions</a> that “Mojang are lazy” or that “Minecraft needs to be fixed or saved by modders”.</p>

<p>So it’s clear that the grand majority of these popular update-slop YouTubers are not acting in the community’s best interest, but surely the old guard are, right? Not necessarily. Sometimes nostalgia takes over a person’s opinions and they begin saying that things were “better in the old days”. I don’t think this is productive, and some of the hate and condescension toward newer versions, their users, and newer loaders sometimes comes from these people. However, a vocal minority like that is inevitable among a group of modders who have seen the horrors for years. Even still, the sentiment that old versions of Minecraft are better than the current ones remains popular among this group which may explain the kind of people in favor of COLTS. Given that discussion and voting being exclusive to that group has been criticized, movements like COLTS have toned down their language and opened voting to a wider audience, but maybe we’re letting <em>too many</em> people vote.</p>

<h2 id="letting-players-vote-a-feedback-loop">Letting Players Vote: A Feedback Loop</h2>
<p><strong>Addendum</strong>: It has come to my attention that the COLTS version is decided by mod developers. I will admit, it could have been worded clearer, but some of the points below may still hold, especially regarding general player influence,  and also since their votes are seperate but (implied to be) public.</p>

<p>When you let players vote—people who have little to no experience modding or making modpacks—it becomes sorely obvious that they will choose the versions that have most of their favorite mods. In turn, this creates a positive feedback loop in which players—ignorant to Minecraft’s internals and the difficulty of supporting specific versions—pick the popular versions, influencing the versions mods support, and then affecting the versions players pick. This is no way to run an informed vote of a standard that would greatly impact what versions most mods would be available on, especially when the arbiter of the standard is presented as an authority. Hell, the standard probably shouldn’t <em>be</em> a standard. This is a glaring vulnerability in the system, and I hypothesize this is because they want versions like <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">1.21.1</code> and <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">1.20.1</code> to be the chosen standard Minecraft versions.</p>

<h2 id="just-pick-a-version-and-run">Just Pick A Version And Run</h2>
<p>I don’t think COLTS or any of these standards are a good idea because they may inadvertantly stratify and antagonize people in the already fracturing modding community. They serve as nothing more than an authority on whether the player is justified in bugging you to backport or forward-port. The only benefits that could be gained would come from accurate community insight complete with carefully gathered statistics, not a “standard modding version” because believe it or not, each Minecraft version has its own little niche! So reasonably speaking, the only reason this standard exists is to dubiously ascertain (or more accurately dictate) without nuance where the downloads and money go. If you don’t care about downloads, just pick a version and run with it. If you do, find the most popular version or whichever you prefer, but if you are a big mod developer or modpack creator, leave the entitlement to a specific version at the door. Ultimately, Community LTS will not fix nor alleviate the root issue of Minecraft versions: semantics and velocity of change. If you stand in opposition to COLTS, go vote <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">1.21.9, 1.21.8, 1.21.5</code> or something similar <a href="https://thepansmith.github.io/colts/2025/">here</a>, and call them out everywhere that you have a relevant audience. The end goal is to influence their decision making enough that they reconsider the viability of a standard Minecraft version. It is important that we don’t forget: when we mod, we should intend to create art, not solely products.</p>]]></content><author><name>Sylv</name></author><category term="minecraft" /><category term="modding" /><category term="community lts" /><category term="community" /><summary type="html"><![CDATA[How will the Minecraft modding community cope with the never-ending cycle of breaking updates? Most certainly not with standards.]]></summary></entry><entry><title type="html">Syntax Highlighter Test</title><link href="https://sylv.gay/blog/test/2023/09/16/syntax-highlighter-test/" rel="alternate" type="text/html" title="Syntax Highlighter Test" /><published>2023-09-16T23:11:57-04:00</published><updated>2023-09-16T23:11:57-04:00</updated><id>https://sylv.gay/blog/test/2023/09/16/syntax-highlighter-test</id><content type="html" xml:base="https://sylv.gay/blog/test/2023/09/16/syntax-highlighter-test/"><![CDATA[<p class="prism-break-all"><code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">testing123asdfffffffsadfsadfadsfsdaavczvzxcve52345234*(U@(*!J(f890djsjaf9jsa0dfj89j)))</code></p>

<p><code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">testing123asdfffffffsadfsadfadsfsdaavczvzxcve52345234*(U@(*!J(f890djsjaf9jsa0dfj89j)))</code></p>

<p class="prism-bg"><code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">testing abc</code></p>

<div class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge"><div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight"><code>a
asdfsdafopjiasdf
</code></pre></div></div>

<div class="language-plaintext prism-break highlighter-rouge"><div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight"><code>I'd just like to interject for a moment.  What you're referring to as Linux, is in fact, GNU/Linux, or as I've recently taken to calling it, GNU plus Linux. Linux is not an operating system unto itself, but rather another free component of a fully functioning GNU system made useful by the GNU corelibs, shell
utilities and vital system components comprising a full OS as defined by POSIX.

Many computer users run a modified version of the GNU system every day, without realizing it.  Through a peculiar turn of events, the version of GNU which is widely used today is often called "Linux", and many of its users are not aware that it is basically the GNU system, developed by the GNU Project.

There really is a Linux, and these people are using it, but it is just a part of the system they use.  Linux is the kernel: the program in the system that allocates the machine's resources to the other programs that you run. The kernel is an essential part of an operating system, but useless by itself;
it can only function in the context of a complete operating system.  Linux is normally used in combination with the GNU operating system: the whole system is basically GNU with Linux added, or GNU/Linux.  All the so-called "Linux" distributions are really distributions of GNU/Linux.
</code></pre></div></div>

<pre class="diff-highlight line-numbers"><code class="language-diff-javascript">@@ -4,6 +4,5 @@
-    let foo = bar.baz([1, 2, 3]);
-    foo = foo + 1;
+    const foo = bar.baz([1, 2, 3]) + 1;
     console.log(`foo: ${foo}`);
</code></pre>

<div class="language-rust match-braces highlighter-rouge"><div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight"><code><span class="c1">// Just a grab bag of stuff that you wouldn't want to actually write.</span>

<span class="k">fn</span> <span class="nf">strange</span><span class="p">()</span> <span class="k">-&gt;</span> <span class="nb">bool</span> <span class="p">{</span> <span class="k">let</span> <span class="n">_x</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="nb">bool</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="k">return</span> <span class="k">true</span><span class="p">;</span> <span class="p">}</span>

<span class="k">fn</span> <span class="nf">funny</span><span class="p">()</span> <span class="p">{</span>
		<span class="k">fn</span> <span class="nf">f</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">_x</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="p">())</span> <span class="p">{</span> <span class="p">}</span>
		<span class="nf">f</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="k">return</span><span class="p">);</span>
<span class="p">}</span>

<span class="k">fn</span> <span class="nf">what</span><span class="p">()</span> <span class="p">{</span>
		<span class="k">fn</span> <span class="nf">the</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">x</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="o">&amp;</span><span class="n">Cell</span><span class="o">&lt;</span><span class="nb">bool</span><span class="o">&gt;</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="p">{</span>
				<span class="k">return</span> <span class="k">while</span> <span class="o">!</span><span class="n">x</span><span class="nf">.get</span><span class="p">()</span> <span class="p">{</span> <span class="n">x</span><span class="nf">.set</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="k">true</span><span class="p">);</span> <span class="p">};</span>
		<span class="p">}</span>
		<span class="k">let</span> <span class="n">i</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="o">&amp;</span><span class="nn">Cell</span><span class="p">::</span><span class="nf">new</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="k">false</span><span class="p">);</span>
		<span class="k">let</span> <span class="n">dont</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="p">{||</span><span class="nf">the</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">i</span><span class="p">)};</span>
		<span class="nf">dont</span><span class="p">();</span>
		<span class="nd">assert!</span><span class="p">((</span><span class="n">i</span><span class="nf">.get</span><span class="p">()));</span>
<span class="p">}</span>
</code></pre></div></div>

<div class="language-bash command-line highlighter-rouge"><div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight"><code><span class="nb">cd</span> ~/.vim

vim vimrc
</code></pre></div></div>

<div class="language-bash command-line highlighter-rouge" data-user="root" data-host="protogen"><div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight"><code><span class="nb">cd</span> /usr/local/etc
<span class="nb">cp </span>php.ini php.ini.bak
vi php.ini
</code></pre></div></div>

<div class="language-css highlighter-rouge"><div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight"><code><span class="nc">.example-gradient</span> <span class="p">{</span>
	<span class="nl">background</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="n">-webkit-linear-gradient</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nb">left</span><span class="p">,</span>     <span class="m">#cb60b3</span> <span class="m">0%</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="m">#c146a1</span> <span class="m">50%</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="m">#a80077</span> <span class="m">51%</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="m">#db36a4</span> <span class="m">100%</span><span class="p">);</span> <span class="c">/* Chrome10+, Safari5.1+ */</span>
	<span class="nl">background</span><span class="p">:</span>    <span class="n">-moz-linear-gradient</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nb">left</span><span class="p">,</span>     <span class="m">#cb60b3</span> <span class="m">0%</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="m">#c146a1</span> <span class="m">50%</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="m">#a80077</span> <span class="m">51%</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="m">#db36a4</span> <span class="m">100%</span><span class="p">);</span> <span class="c">/* FF3.6+ */</span>
	<span class="nl">background</span><span class="p">:</span>     <span class="n">-ms-linear-gradient</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nb">left</span><span class="p">,</span>     <span class="m">#cb60b3</span> <span class="m">0%</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="m">#c146a1</span> <span class="m">50%</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="m">#a80077</span> <span class="m">51%</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="m">#db36a4</span> <span class="m">100%</span><span class="p">);</span> <span class="c">/* IE10+ */</span>
	<span class="nl">background</span><span class="p">:</span>      <span class="n">-o-linear-gradient</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nb">left</span><span class="p">,</span>     <span class="m">#cb60b3</span> <span class="m">0%</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="m">#c146a1</span> <span class="m">50%</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="m">#a80077</span> <span class="m">51%</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="m">#db36a4</span> <span class="m">100%</span><span class="p">);</span> <span class="c">/* Opera 11.10+ */</span>
	<span class="nl">background</span><span class="p">:</span>         <span class="n">linear-gradient</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">to</span> <span class="nb">right</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="m">#cb60b3</span> <span class="m">0%</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="m">#c146a1</span> <span class="m">50%</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="m">#a80077</span> <span class="m">51%</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="m">#db36a4</span> <span class="m">100%</span><span class="p">);</span> <span class="c">/* W3C */</span>
<span class="p">}</span>
<span class="nc">.example-angle</span> <span class="p">{</span>
	<span class="nl">transform</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="n">rotate</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="m">10deg</span><span class="p">);</span>
<span class="p">}</span>
<span class="nc">.example-color</span> <span class="p">{</span>
	<span class="nl">color</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="n">rgba</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="m">255</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="m">0</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="m">0</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="m">0.2</span><span class="p">);</span>
	<span class="nl">background</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="no">purple</span><span class="p">;</span>
	<span class="nl">border</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="m">1px</span> <span class="nb">solid</span> <span class="n">hsl</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="m">100</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="m">70%</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="m">40%</span><span class="p">);</span>
<span class="p">}</span>
<span class="nc">.example-easing</span> <span class="p">{</span>
	<span class="nl">transition-timing-function</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="n">linear</span><span class="p">;</span>
<span class="p">}</span>
<span class="nc">.example-time</span> <span class="p">{</span>
	<span class="nl">transition-duration</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="m">3s</span><span class="p">;</span>
<span class="p">}</span>
</code></pre></div></div>]]></content><author><name>Sylv</name></author><category term="test" /><category term="syntax highlighter" /><category term="test" /><category term="prism-js" /><summary type="html"><![CDATA[A test of the Prism syntax highlighter.]]></summary></entry><entry><title type="html">New Blog!</title><link href="https://sylv.gay/blog/introduction/2023/09/16/new-blog/" rel="alternate" type="text/html" title="New Blog!" /><published>2023-09-16T16:02:52-04:00</published><updated>2023-09-16T16:02:52-04:00</updated><id>https://sylv.gay/blog/introduction/2023/09/16/new-blog</id><content type="html" xml:base="https://sylv.gay/blog/introduction/2023/09/16/new-blog/"><![CDATA[<p>Welcome to our* new blog! We* will be posting interesting things such as essays and angryposts here regularly. Subscribe to our* RSS feed to stay tuned: <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">https://sylv.gay/feed.xml</code></p>]]></content><author><name>Sylv</name></author><category term="introduction" /><category term="new blog" /><summary type="html"><![CDATA[We've got a new blog.]]></summary></entry><entry><title type="html">Welcome to Jekyll!</title><link href="https://sylv.gay/blog/jekyll/update/2023/09/16/welcome-to-jekyll/" rel="alternate" type="text/html" title="Welcome to Jekyll!" /><published>2023-09-16T12:48:28-04:00</published><updated>2023-09-16T12:48:28-04:00</updated><id>https://sylv.gay/blog/jekyll/update/2023/09/16/welcome-to-jekyll</id><content type="html" xml:base="https://sylv.gay/blog/jekyll/update/2023/09/16/welcome-to-jekyll/"><![CDATA[<p>You’ll find this post in your <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">_posts</code> directory. Go ahead and edit it and re-build the site to see your changes. You can rebuild the site in many different ways, but the most common way is to run <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">jekyll serve</code>, which launches a web server and auto-regenerates your site when a file is updated.</p>

<p>Jekyll requires blog post files to be named according to the following format:</p>

<p><code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">YEAR-MONTH-DAY-title.MARKUP</code></p>

<p>Where <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">YEAR</code> is a four-digit number, <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">MONTH</code> and <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">DAY</code> are both two-digit numbers, and <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">MARKUP</code> is the file extension representing the format used in the file. After that, include the necessary front matter. Take a look at the source for this post to get an idea about how it works.</p>

<p>Jekyll also offers powerful support for code snippets:</p>

<figure class="highlight"><pre><code class="language-ruby" data-lang="ruby"><span class="k">def</span> <span class="nf">print_hi</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nb">name</span><span class="p">)</span>
  <span class="nb">puts</span> <span class="s2">"Hi, </span><span class="si">#{</span><span class="nb">name</span><span class="si">}</span><span class="s2">"</span>
<span class="k">end</span>
<span class="n">print_hi</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">'Tom'</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="c1">#=&gt; prints 'Hi, Tom' to STDOUT.</span></code></pre></figure>

<p>Check out the <a href="https://jekyllrb.com/docs/home">Jekyll docs</a> for more info on how to get the most out of Jekyll. File all bugs/feature requests at <a href="https://github.com/jekyll/jekyll">Jekyll’s GitHub repo</a>. If you have questions, you can ask them on <a href="https://talk.jekyllrb.com/">Jekyll Talk</a>.</p>]]></content><author><name>Sylv</name></author><category term="jekyll" /><category term="update" /><summary type="html"><![CDATA[Hello world!]]></summary></entry></feed>