I like Blue's ideas but with a few ideas of my own
1) A Whole New World *insert Aladdin song here* I think a world size similar to the one we have will be fine but should have more land area, although there is a lot of land there is a lot of ocean, and because it is central it seems as if the land is all pushed a side. More land because it's a bitch to make good looking islands
If you're anything like me; you don't like to be near big builds or lots of other people's builds to form a 'town'. I like my space and like to share the area with a few but not an area where everyone and their dog's coming to MY area. Antisocial yes, un-reasonable, no. I often build my stuff and then move once the area becomes crowded, almost nomadic. So land where i don't have to build an island to get enough elbow space.
2) Spawn, when i first joined SMP I was put in a very dark town that was hard to navigate, i ended up looking on the forums and asking others about the rules, even then i was unsure about every one of my actions,
Iron City was good, it had all the rules laid out along with any additional information i would need. But after the removal of the north and south portals i found it hard to find my way out of the city.
Our current spawn is very nice and fun to explore, i've found lots of areas that i'm unsure if others have been to before me (this is what i like about SMP, Discovering things). The only problem i find isthat for reasons that are beyond me; guests (granted not all) struggle to find the portals.
I think it'd be nice to have a spawn city where the spawn has basic information (not rules, see 7) on signs they spawn facing. The spawn wouldn't be in the centre but rather just before the entrance/exit, this way people can explore the city, or can go out and get straight to however they may like to play.
3)
The entire point of Registered rank was to a) make people give a damn and get them on our forums and b) root out the idiots.
I have certainly noticed the influx of
Imbeciles People who are new/don't have a clue when it comes to forums. These people who have asked for registered usually get it, and then never interact with the forums again. The registered rank is a great idea, but when we share a map with them what are they registering for, other than the rank?
4)Theme builds; Maybe copy and scatter them over the map. Accidently stumbling across stuff and discovering things are part of the fun. At the moment they are all to one side. There isn't really anything to find.
Make more things to discover, maybe puzzles and rewards. or just a temple with a story with signs or whatever.
5) The Nether is good, i like that it can be hard to get there, keep it the same. It makes it fun and more valuable.
6) Players and rules.
Everyone should be allowed LWC, but it should cost. I don't know how configurable it is but if possible maybe chests more than doors or vice versa?
People should be allowed to raid houses but can't grief to get in (or maybe raids allowed and no sympathy for those that don't protect their own builds)
Attacking people should be allowed (non spam). Warn guests before, maybe have completely no PvP areas, possibly temples(?) so that we run with a theme?
Any others you think need addressing I'd be happy to force my opinion on you.
7) The acceptrules plugin is clear for me. You've accepted the rules, break one and you can be banned, simple. It's clear if i haven't read the rules and i get banned it's not an excuse, I've accepted them. Have this at the beginning rather than having the rules at spawn as people can run past them.