Most of Middle-earth is protected: you cannot place or break blocks on the main map, and that is on purpose. It keeps years of work safe from one stray click. To build, you join a job. A job is an area that a staff member opens for building while the job runs. Everyone who joins can build inside that area, and when the job ends it locks again. Jobs are run by a plugin called TheGaffer. This page explains jobs from the builder's side. If you start and run jobs yourself, read Running jobs.

What a job is

• A job has a name, a leader (the staff member who runs it) and a build area.
• The build area is a square around the job's centre point, called the job's warp. It covers every height, from the bottom of the world to the top. It is in one world, on one server.
• When you join a job you become a worker. The leader is the job's owner, and staff assisting the leader are helpers.
• A job is either public (anyone can join) or private (only invited players can join).
• You can be on only one job at a time.

Finding a job

When a job starts, a message appears in chat on every server of the network. It shows the job's name, who started it, a short description and a Click to join button. A sound plays as well. If you log in while jobs are running, you get a message about them with a join button or a list.

Missed it? Type:

/job check

This lists every job running anywhere on the network, under the heading Available Jobs. Each line shows the job's name, who started it, and a JOIN button. Hover over a job's name to read its description. Click JOIN to join that job. If it runs on another server, you are moved there first.

Each JOIN button works once. If you need it again, run /job check again. When nothing is running you see "There are no active jobs."

If the leader chose to, the job is also posted on MCME's Discord, with the exact /job join command to type.

Joining a job

Job names are case-sensitive. /job join Minas_Tirith works; /job join minas_tirith does not. Copy the name exactly as /job check shows it, or just click the button.

When you join:

• You are teleported to the job's warp, in the right world. You do not need to travel there first, even if the start announcement tells you to travel to the job's world.
• You see: You joined <job> as Worker. Creative inside the build area, Survival outside. The next line has clickable /job border and /job leave hints.
• Everyone on the job sees <you> has joined the job.
• If the job uses glow, you also see You will glow while in the job. You then get a coloured outline, so the leader can see who is on the job.

When you are invited

A leader can invite you to a job, which is how you get into a private job. You see a message like <leader> has invited you to <job>. with an Accept button. Click Accept to join.

When joining fails

You see a red message starting with "Error:". The common ones:

Leaving a job

/job leave

You see You left the job <job>, and you go back to Survival. The rest of the job sees that you left.

You also leave a job when:

• You stay away. If you leave the job's server (log off or switch to another server) for five minutes or more, you are taken off the job. Join it again when you are back.
• The job ends. You see The <job> job has ended. and go back to Survival.
• The leader removes you. You see You were removed from the <job> job. You can join again if the job is open to you.
• The leader bans you. You see You were banned from the <job> job. You cannot join that job again unless they unban you.

While you are on a job

Creative and Survival

Walk into the job's area while in Survival and you are switched to Creative. The bar above your hotbar says Entered the <job> build area — you can build here. Walk out of the area and you go back to Survival, with You left the job build area — building is disabled out here. If you were flying, you keep flying.

That switch is the plugin doing its work. You do not need to change gamemode yourself, and you should not try. The plugin only switches players who are in Survival.

If the job is paused, you go back to Survival the next time you move, and you cannot build until it resumes.

Seeing the edge: /job border

A wall of white particles marks the edge of the build area. It appears by itself when you join. It shows the parts of the edge within about 64 blocks of you, in a band around your own height. It is only a picture: you can walk and fly through it.

Can't see the wall? Set Options → Video Settings → Particles to All. With fewer particles, your game may not draw it.

Other commands

Job chat

Job chat keeps the conversation with the people you build with apart from general chat.

For example:

/jc passing you the stone now

Job chat messages look like Job <name>: message. Everyone on your job sees them: workers, helpers and the leader. Nobody else does, and they are not sent to Discord. When you turn job chat on you see Job chat enabled — your messages now go to job <job>. If you leave the job while it is on, it switches itself off the next time you type.

If you cannot place or break a block

The game tells you why, in red:

Being on a job is not enough on its own. You must also stand inside its area, in its world, and the job must not be paused.

The same rules apply to:

• Architect's building tools. They ask TheGaffer before they change a block, so they only work where you could build by hand. See Architect building tools.
• Some right-click actions, such as using bone meal on plants, filling flower pots or putting out fire.

Crafting is turned off for builders. Use the Creative inventory inside the job's area instead.

Your statistics

Blocks you place and break inside your job's area are counted. So is your build time: the time you spend actually placing and breaking blocks. A pause of more than about a minute between blocks does not count, so standing still does not add time.

Click a name on the leaderboard to see that player's stats.

The leaderboard and /job stats <player> count a job once it has finished. If you have been building all evening on a job that is still running, you will not appear there yet. Your work is recorded; it joins the totals when the job ends.

Projects

Big builds are made of many jobs. A project groups those jobs, so the whole effort counts as one thing: every job on Minas Tirith, for example. /pj is short for /project.

Project names are not case-sensitive and may contain spaces, so /project info minas tirith works. A project's totals include its running jobs. If a job belongs to a project, /job info <job> shows the project's name; click it to open the project.

Getting a job started

Jobs are started by staff. If there is something you would like to work on, ask in game or on Discord rather than waiting for a job to appear. Job leaders are usually happy to open a job for people who want to help.