Whitelist Grading Rubric

Overview

A lot of guests seem to not understand what it is that Admins are looking for in a whitelist submission. This page is an attempt at some transparency so that guests don't waste their or our time by building something that has no chance of ever being whitelisted. Each of the admins may be looking for slightly different qualities, and seeing all the different ideas of what makes a build "good" can be enlightening for guests and members alike.

At this time all whitelist builds:

• Must be built using the Palceon, Deep Space, or Organix texture packs. Be sure to tell whoever is reviewing your build what texture pack you are using.

Brent

First rule of thumb: If you can impress me you can impress them all. Make it your goal to give me something that I find myself NEEDING to look at.

Second rule of thumb: This isn't just an opportunity to become a member of great builders- however this IS an opportunity to join a community that is more a, albeit large, family than friends.

These being said there are a number of ways to do this as 256y is the limit, and imaginations are vast and the human mind has proven time and time again that when put up to certain odds, such as becoming a beloved member of our cozy community, it has a keen way of circumventing failure even through infeasible probabilities. Luckily, for you, the only failure you can get as a guest or member is giving up on yourself. As a friend, and current Curator, of mine has said,"Just because you've made a shitty build doesn't make you a shitty builder." At the end of the day, you will constantly improve from mistakes, but they are only mistakes and never failures. As long as you are having fun while doing what makes you happy even a mistake is just another positive experience in the right direction. Hell, we are only human we are bound to falter but how we pick ourselves up matters more than the trip straight to a face-to-floor introduction. Constantly keep improving and even when you are finished look at what you've done and ask yourself,"What is the weakest part of my build, and what could I do to make my build better?"

NOW! To the meat and bones of what I look for getting past the bullshit mushy stuff(Although it isn't bullshit, and I'll take it as a kindness if you trust my word on that.). If you want to get Whitelisted by me there are a number of things you and your build need to demonstrate to me.

For your convenience I have prepared an easy to view list. Here it is, here you go:

• Exterior: Prove to me that you can make a pretty outside.
  
  
  • Wow(Positive) Factor: I should want to look at your build, not be so appalled to want to look at everything but. I assure you there are a few different ways to really get my attention, building something that bothers my eyes is not the best way to do that, however. If your build is boring or just plain ugly I can promise you that you will not enjoy or appreciate what I have to say.
    
    
  • Definition: When I walk around your build and in your build I should know what it is immediately before you ever let your fingertips dance on your keyboard. You shouldn't have to explain anything or little to nothing towards me about what something is or does. It should be conveyed.
    
    
  • 3D effects: Show me something that pops out from the flat, boring wall. Give me exaggerated awnings and beams that jut out. Make me stare at something that doesn't resemble thrown-to-the-floor Play-Doh.
    
    
  • Depth: What I mean by depth is I want to see your build in layers. Sure, 3D effects on a flat wall is nice, but you can put 3D effects on a box, doesn't make it not a box. Give me tiers, and tapers. Give me cantilevering, and let me savor the flavour of multiangles.
    
    
  • Palette: Make your colours make sense to me. Let your textures run with each other- not against. Give me a stream, but don't give me a torrent. Give me wind through tree leaves, not gusts blowing towards soon to be shattered windows. I need to see something that doesn't hurt my eyes.
    
    
  • Character: I've seen some good builds in my time, but if they stick too close to the herd without ever breaking from the pack or they use many age old-gimmicks without a bar-hold it may break the build for me. It is for you to decide what to use and I refuse to list examples of what not to use. Don't take this as an opportunity to be absurd and have it be acceptable. Absurdity in moderation is fantastic, but overdo it and try to cop it out as me telling you to do so and you are going to have a bad time.
    
    
  • Ambiance: Set the mood. Give me lighting and a full scene. Let me believe that if I walked down the street in whatever setting your build is in I would expect to see it. Sure, your job is too make a build, but if you immerse me in the idea of your build it will work more than wonders; convince me that I'm no longer in Minecraft. Be my escape.
    
    
  • Difficulty: Reach out of your comfort zone and try something new and hard. Study other builds and give it a good whack at incorporation within your style. On the occasion you may over reach, but as human nature dictates mistakes will be made...remember about picking ourselves up.
    
    
  • Horizontal and Vertical trim/energy: These are the texture/grain lines that go up and down your build or left and right. They are a kind of detail and palette choice that will make or break it. Grains that run up and down should have the concurrent block be used as, you guessed it, up and down trimming, also the same can be said about to and fro(left and right.) Use these blocks in purposeful incorrect positions to draw attention to a focal point- it is like using a colour accent(Bright colour that differs from the standard to your palette that attracts normally unwarranted attention.) or a punchblock(An ending block, so-to-speak, that doesn't have energy/grain. It ends.).
    
    
  • Landscape: This ties in with ambiance. Sure, your build is the focus, but put it in a scene. Don't make it a standalone prop. What is a prop without a play and a play without a prop?
    
    
  • Structure: Your build better look like it can support its own weight. By all means I may be too scared to walk in at the sight of a flimsy box. A box should be rigid, with weight distribution and it shouldn't resemble that cheap piece of whatever it is they give you at the movie theater to carry your bullshit in.
    
    
  • Details: Throw in little things that I may not notice, give me tiny pieces of colour or 3D effects that just give your build as much character as you have. Make me want to view the little here and there's at all angle of your build. Give me a reason to get up close and personal.
    
    

• Interior: Prove to me that you are more than just a pretty facade.
  
  
  • Spacial Recognition: If I walk into your build and I see some mess that would make my mother cringe I am going to be disappointed. Take the time to research interior design or watch HGTV if you have that channel. I need to be able to tell that you know the key difference between too much and too little.
    
    
  • Double Thick Walls/Floors: Most, if not all, traditional homes that we picture don't have their siding as the choice for their wall decor, and when I look up at the ceiling in my house and see white paint I don't look down from the second level at my floor and see white paint- I see wood flooring. It is essential that you understand this and compensate for the space, or lack thereof, in Minecraft. Hell, I expect it between rooms in your home. I don't think your room and the room next to yours have the same colour scheme, so why should your Minecraft build?
    
    
  • Appropriate Rooms: Let me put this into perspective: Wow, man- this is some crazy shindig you got going on. Man, I need to piss like a pregnant woman; can I use your bathroom? ...What, you don't have one? Your house, store, market, or even a goddamn temple better have appropriate rooms. If I see a house and I do not see at least a bathroom, bedroom, kitchen, living room you will not see 'PLAYER X has been Whitelisted!'
    
    
  • Layout: If I walk into your build and I'm standing in your bedroom I can assure you that like most women in this situation I will be thoroughly creeped the hell out. Give me a realistic floorplan. Don't make me see it as so much you should make me feel it; give me familiarity. If you do not know what the layout of a house should be please, by all means, get up and explore through the twisting, winding hallways of your own damn house.
    
    
  • Paintings: We have paintings that look like drawers? Shiny! Take advantage with the tool set you are allowed and paintings are a large decorative tool that you are lucky to have. They liven up walls, they give purpose to blocks that didn't have purpose, hell they hide glowstone lighting which is always fantastic.
    
    
  • Furniture: I say furniture but that does necessarily pertain to objects you sit on or put a lamp on, although those a great representations. By the meaning of what I said I am to say that if I am to be standing in your shop of some sort I better see displays and shelves. Don't leave me with an empty room or inappropriately themed space. The latter is to say that I shouldn't have a toilet in my kitchen.
    
    
  • Palette: Did you think colour and texture ended outside? Hell no, my friend. They certainly didn't, and they may be more important where we are standing now; in the bowels. You better theme certain rooms with a certain scheme. I shouldn't see red in my kitchen. Certain colours play havoc on the human psyche which is why certain rooms in, let's say, schools have a very light palette- it is calming and allows you to focus. For instance- would you like to have more fun with the old ball and chain? Colour your room a satiny purple or deep red.
    
    
  • Flooring: If I see too much of the same I am going to want to see too little of the rest of your build. If I see wood flooring as the base of your kitchen or bathroom I am going to immediately give up my tour of your build. Moisture fucks up your shit in the world especially in regards to wood. Kitchens and bathrooms, namely, are full of moisture. Your build should reflect on this and deal with it accordingly.
    
    
  • Supports: Structurally, your rooms should be sound. If I feel like this room is going to cave in I am going to avoid being in it. It is always my goal to put proper weight distribution into my builds and I believe it should be yours as well. Also, assuming you are making a house, the more you make your house feel real the less I will feel that I am in Minecraft, once again be my escape.
    
    
  • Lighting: Your build needs to have appropriate lighting. Please don't fill it with glowstone and please do not crowd it with torches, and do not do the flipside of either the latter or the former. Give me enough light to see in appropriate rooms. Make it bright in the kitchen, but dim it down a bit in the bedroom- make it bright in a bathroom, but let me have a little shadow in the living room.
    
    

• Who are you?: The Voxel Box is a puzzle, and if your piece just doesn't fit I will not place you in our complicated maze of a portrait.
  
  
  • There is no defining bullet for this category as there is no defining character point of a person that I will base you on. I will look at a number of things such as how you communicate, do you listen to advice and take criticism, are you outgoing, do you have spirit, are you argumentative, do you type in a way I can stand, and are you aware of your potential for greatness. The whole experience as a guest isn't to test out your mettle as a builder, but it is also to find your capacity for greatness as a person and a potential member. We will not welcome you if you do not welcome us, even if your building is grand if you show that you are not a fit then we will have to part ways.
    
    

At the end of the day there are a number of things I look for that I may have not listed, but I hope with this you can and will understand how and why I view builds and players the way I do. Hopefully this gave you a bit of insight and help onto the scale and level your projects should be. I appreciate you and the time you took to read this. Now please, by all means, repay me with something I'd love to look at while proving to me you are someone I'd love to be around.

Ciscog33k

I'm a sucker for ambient lighting and modern themed builds.

Uniqueness factor is huge. {super awesome list gooooo



...mmmm... maybe later..}

I'm more with ELEVN. Build what makes you happy. Don't try to impress us you'll end up with a better result if you have a passion for your own work. :)

Deamon5550

I will usually only look at a build if it is redstone, and then what I am looking for is that you are actually putting effort into the build, and that you are willing to take advise and critism on how you can improve it.

ELEVn

build what makes you happy.

Featherblade

See: Elites of Minecraft: The Architect (Mind you, it's months old)

There are three things I look for in builds:

Execution (How well the build was made physically) Idea/Theme (How well the theme relates to what was built) Sociability (How well the guest speaks, reads and acts)

-Execution: I often look for usage of contrast, material grain, shape and colour combinations. These are builds which simply look good, regardless what they are.

-Idea/Theme: This is often judged by interior, about what the build is supposed to be. Dynamic, original and build-able ideas do better than Cliché 'Greek' builds or generic 'Tower' builds. Sometimes when a build started off one thing, and ended another, it will suffer in this area as well.

-Sociability: Simply whether you talk with punctuation and grammar, talk about enjoyable and on-topic subjects and generally mesh with the community. Also accounts for the types of questions asked.

Keep to all three, and you'll get whitelist. If you miss one, I'll often tell you about how to improve.

Gavjenks

I'm not going to beat a dead horse. Most stuff is covered by others already. But I will stress that NEW /NOVEL things I have never seen before get graded a lot more easily if they are a good idea. It is pretty easy to think of new things if you try at it. Honestly, the last couple of really innovative Guest builds I saw were both structures that one sees almost every day outside their window if they live in a city.

Also, if you're a whiny idiot, I don't care how novel or amazing your builds are. You will not be fun to play with on the server. A lot of people seem to overlook this as they mope and complain about every little critique, or badger staff members for two hours straight to come see a build. Yes, I know it is hard to get online, but honestly, if your build is really great, you barely even have to ask anybody to see it. It will be noticed. And oftentimes, people who think nobody is listening to them actually had their build looked at, and it was just un-noteworthy. maybe the staff member just didn't have time to give a whole review so they simply pretended they hadn't visited. I wish everybody could get long, involved teaching moments full of useful critique, but the reality is that there are too many guests online now for that to always happen these days. If you seem to be getting ignored for two+ hours, your build is probably a long way from being whitelistable. Start over by reading up on this page, etc. more, or even by practicing more on other servers or singleplayer (if you are having trouble logging onto the voxelbox). Don't react by losing your temper - that may hurt you much more than any mediocre build would.

Bonus: I do a lot of graylist application sifting, and what I look for in that is:

1) If you post pictures of shitty builds that look beyond hope, you are out.

2) If you post no pictures at all or any coherent plans, you are probably out, unless you really score a lot of brownie points in the other areas.

3) On the flip side, a fantastic build will make up for a lot of spelling errors, etc. - it makes you worth a shot, at least.

4) That said, being able to spell and write coherently is almost a requirement on our applications. So make sure you do that

. 5) If I can see your personality shine through and you feel like somebody that would be fun to hang out with, that helps. That doesn't mean "write 18 paragraphs." More of you does not = better you. Just make sure you say enough to communicate what kind of person you are if you want the best chances.

6) For God's sake, use imgur.com for photos. You have no idea how many people I have to reject because they post some stupid facebook album or something as their build link, or use a broken link. Posting facebook pictures is REALLY LAZY and is a clear indicator that you don't care that much about our server to put any time into it.

7) We want builders a lot more than we want redstone people. If you are applying about redstone, you'd better be damn fantastic. if not, supplement it with pictures of builds so we don't just gloss over you.

8) Posting ideas and plans that are in clear violation of things we say on the wiki is stupid, and makes it clear you haven't put much time or effort into this. For example "I want to make a bunch of piston things." No, guests are probably never going to be allowed to use pistons. Or "I want to build a cool house." No - you didn't read our very prominently linked "what not to build" page before telling us what you want to build. These aren't dealbreakers - sometimes the wiki is down, and we aren't that nitpicky, but it certainly doesn't help you.

9) Again... I like people who read ahead of time, so if you're reading this, put the word "Cyborgs." at the end of your application by itself, and I will probably consider it more carefully.

Giltwist

What follows is the mental checklist that I go through when looking at a build in the Quercas. Typically, I need all of these criteria to be fulfilled for me to give a submission the thumbs-up.

The Checklist

Dealbreakers

This build is not:

• A statue, monument, garden or otherwise purely decorative
  • While we have these on the server, many of these take very little thought
• One room
  • This includes multiple story builds that are basically one big stairwell with furniture
• Empty inside
• Mostly one material
• Doesn't use our texture pack
  • My number one clue to this is if you have standard plank floors; we've got a second kind of plank that looks better 9 times out of 10.
  • My other big clue to this is if you don't have any of the blocks ONLY available in our texture pack.
• Going to collapse under its own weight
  • This typically entails a 1 thick platform of some sort floating over the edge of a cliff with, at most, a 1x1 pillar or two to hold it up.
• Underground
  • Basements are fine, but there needs to be a building with an exterior. Doors do not count as an exterior.

Bad Choices

A bad choice

Preferably, this build is not one of the following unless it's done VERY VERY VERY well.

• A collection of tiny builds such as a village or a market
  • It takes very little planning to make a bunch of 3x3 huts
• A boat, an airship, or redstone
  • Have you seen some of our videos? We've got people who specialize in these things and anything less than genius pales in comparison.
• Anything that's the same room over and over again, like a hotel
  • It's not 20 rooms, it's one room twenty times
• A rectangular or circular foundation
  • Clusters of circles and rectangles, such as L-shapes and D-shapes are fine.
• A giant tree
  • We can do more with sniper in 5 minutes than you can do by hand in two hours. Again, see our videos on youtube.
• Floating islands

Must Haves

Must Have detailing

This build is:

• Made primarily of 3-5 well-matched materials, and uses them logically
  • This isn't to say you can't have, say, 10 materials in the build but the extras should just be a block here and there.
• Between 10x10 and 30x30
  • Bigger can be ok, but is usually wasted effort
• Carefully crafted with good detail work like accent blocks, furniture, paintings, etc.
• Well planned with elements of symmetry
  • Ex: no 1 wide doors near the middle of an even dimensioned wall

Bonus Points

Bonus points for a unique foundation

This build is particularly good if it is:

• Filled with rooms of different shapes and sizes.
  • Look at a real floor plan, very few rooms are perfect rectangles and almost none are the same size, except maybe bedrooms
• Themed
  • Ex: A 1920's barber shop, a Tudor cottage, a scale replica of a famous building
• Unique elements
  • Ex: A new way to build furniture (My whitelist build had filing cabinets)

Plusnine

• Workshop your build concept before you build. Houses, hotels, domiciles of most kinds are generally inadmissible as whitelist submissions. The Voxel Box collectively strives to give players the feeling of being transported somewhere. If we wanted to eat sandwiches and lie down on bed, we could do that in our own homes. Take us somewhere new. An exception might be made for strong recreations of specific architectural styles (e.g. a VICTORIAN house).
  • Avoid cliches. Floating islands, pixel art, character statues, pyramids, nondescript airships and greek temples all fall under this category for me.
  • Avoid abstract work as whitelist submissions. Experiments with shape and color are a great exercise and I encourage players to undertake them, but these structures often are culled from the guest area to make room for more finished, serious submissions. Build this stuff in single player instead.
  • Make sure your build involves some design! Domes, pyramids, rectangles are good basic shapes, but it's linking them together and arranging them in pleasing ways that makes a build special. Be wary of oversimplifying your floor plan.

• Make sure your build is finished and polished. I expect every room to be furnished, no rooms empty, no wasted spaces, and no awkward truncations. I rarely visit works in progress. When you workshop your build's idea, make a short list of four or five things that that build would need to have in order to be convincing.
  • Shape and sculpt every line and every seam. Pick your materials carefully, examine all lines and seams in your build. Add definition to everywhere that calls for it.
  • Consider abandoning your addiction to symmetry. Symmetry is a wonderful tool, but when overused, strips a build of all it's potential to surprise a viewer. Do not build something that looks identical from every angle. Create drama using asymmetrical features: big / small, dark / light, straight / curved - proper use of these elements in your builds will give them a style and flair you don't see anywhere else.
  • Make sure your build is accessible and visitors can find their way around. All staircases should be two blocks wide at minimum. All hatches and other important access points should be clearly marked. Players should be able to access all of your build without flying unless flying is a part of that build's story.
  • Good building in Minecraft allows a player to utilize their willing suspension of disbelief. (e.g. If you are building an airship, it must look as if it belongs in the sky, and would not drop like a rock.)

• Expect to build at least two submissions before you are whitelisted. Server staff are not just vetting your build capability, we are vetting your patience, building versatility, your response to critique and your ability to interact well with members and other guests. If I do not know you well, I will often ask to see some supplemental work.

SorrowL

My Moods change. Don't expect the same rating everyday. The better you get to know me, The more we talk and of course the more you show me you want to be a part of this server, Then you'll get in through me. Please note that not many get whitelisted by me.