Other Tips
Here are some other useful tips and tricks that might improve your game.
Trash can
The trash command allows you to dispose of unwanted items from your inventory.
/trash opens the trash inventory.
Any items placed in the Disposal section will be destroyed when you close it. Do so carefully as there's no retrieving of trashed items.
The Map
We have a map of all our worlds, provided by dynmap, which you can find here. It shows all the explored land in the Overworld, Nether and The End, along with the current location of online players.
The panel on the right allows you to jump between maps and change perspectives. You can center on a player by clicking their name in the player list.
The menu on the left lets you show and hide overlays, for example the World Guards or Plots.
The red squares indicate regions that have been claimed (World Guards) by players. For more information, see here. Click on a region to see more information about it (name, owners, flags etc).
Portals and the Nether Ceiling
Certain Nether portals, usually at farms, may take you above the Nether's ceiling. This is technically out of bounds for the game, but the flat expanse is useful for building farms.
When building here, please make sure not to leave any blocks where mobs can spawn (unless where it is specifically required by a farm). The open space makes the place very dangerous when mobs spawn and puts players and farms at risk.
OptiFine
OptiFine is a popular Minecraft optimization tool that players can run client-side. It helps Minecraft run faster, look better, and adds extra customisation. A full list of features can be found on the OptiFine homepage.
The installer can be downloaded here. Note that more recent versions can be found under the Preview Version link at the top of the page.
Other client mods
There are lots of mods that you might like to try, and most just need dropping in your client's mods plugin directory after installing whichever mod-loader you choose. We'd recommend Fabric as your mod-loader, and more info can be found on the Fabric page.
OptiFabric, which is needed as an interface between OptiFine and Fabric if you wanted to use both at the same time.
Xaero's Mini Map or JourneyMap which provide a mini map and compass whilst in game to see what's around you!
Bobby is a great mod to allow you to have a larger view distance than the server, it works by caching chunks you've recently visited.
🛈 Make sure you download the Fabric versions of Mods if you are using Fabric mod-loader.
You can find more mods at CurseForge and players are usually willing to help in the Discord too if you want some recommendations or get stuck!