This seems really, really stupid. (Except for the actual Minecraft building, which seems quite nice)
> It's worth noting that this project will likely not benefit the people of China. A somewhat obscure fact is that China has its own edition of Minecraft which cannot connect to servers of the mainstream edition. https://minecraft.gamepedia.com/Minecraft_China
> Censorship also applies to any text in the launcher, such as community posts, comments on contents, and private messages. Rental servers and virtual LAN games are not allowed to have names altogether, instead being referred to by a numerical ID
I guess you don't need any obscure packet inspection if you can just censor the clients and servers directly instead. This feels like the censorship equivalent of the wrench XKCD.
'Different from rental server, the owner has full permission Usually adopt third-party server application'
So there is a way around?
Edit: and tbh in China they're more likely to play a pirated java edition.
Again, you're not wrong, and I'm not even saying these comments are bad or anything. I'm guessing hackernews commentors tend to be skeptics and are tuned to poke holes? But clearly it was posted based on some apparent merit. Other reactions would be totally normal too, like "oh wow, that's really impressive. I didn't know this existed." Or how so much of the real world has been modeled in minecraft (archival libraries, computers using redstone, etc.). Or noting what works they consider worthy of entry in the library.
It's a mindset where nothing good happens in the world, and no cloud has a silver lining. Skepticism is a default, and earnestness or cleverness makes you naive or a sucker who will get their deserved reality check soon enough.
It must be a horrendous headspace to constantly be in.
Is this project useful as a way of circumventing censorship? Nah, almost certainly not. So consider it a thought experiment. An art piece. A way of illustrating the importance of free speech to a younger generation that maybe hasn't thought that hard about it yet. A browsable museum of censorship, the likes of which no government would build. Maybe an inspiration for people to build better tools.
Or just a neat project for people to spend some time working on, that's more interesting than making a copy of Big Ben in Minecraft.
I too never understood how is this project better than a website and thanks to the dismissive comment and the subthread it spawned I now had a chance to read some reasonable explanations.
What survives, is true.
If the server operators wanted to make that even more of a challenge they could render the books as maps.
Second thought: since it's Minecraft, a secondary purpose can be that it signals the values not just the supposed target demography, but to all people interested in Minecraft.
> “In many countries, websites, social media and blogs are controlled by oppressive leaders. Young people, in particular, are forced to grow up in systems where their opinion is heavily manipulated by governmental disinformation campaigns. But even where almost all media is blocked or controlled, the world’s most successful computer game is still accessible. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) uses this loophole to bypass internet censorship to bring back the truth – within Minecraft.”