Dogcraft

The Dogcraft Logo—designed by MudDog in 2012—symbolises the intersection of a pickaxe (a symbol of Minecraft) and bone (a symbol of dogs), surrounded by a cog (representing the "Cyberdog" community).

Dogcraft is the official Minecraft-centered fan community of YouTube content creator ReNDoG. Founded by Ren in July 2012 as a fansite at the domain Dogcraft.net, the community has since grown from a small fan forum to encompass a public Minecraft Server, a premium Patreon Server, a Discord Server, and Wiki. Members of Dogcraft and fans of Rendog are known as Cyberdogs.

History

See Also: History of Dogcraft.net

Dogcraft was founded as a website on c. July 12, 2012 by ReNDoG, and was first mentioned in Episode 56 of his Let's Play Minecraft YouTube series. Hosted at the domain Dogcraft.net, the site consisted of a simple PHP web forum, but later grew to feature a chatroom and Adobe Flash games. In the early days, the site grew in prominence thanks to Ren's "Dogolith" initiative— a long-running feature of his singleplayer Minecraft seires in which Ren would "immortalize" fans who put their name forth on the forum with a sign on a tower in his world.

Over time, a Staff Team to maintain and moderate the website was formed and slowly grew, and a set of rules developed—including the somewhat infamous "13+" age restriction rule to comply with UK data protection legislation. In the mid-2010s, Ren partnered with a number of prominent forum members to form a "Cyberdog Network" Multi-Channel YouTube network which played a Hexxit modpack world for a time. As the community grew, enthusiasm for an official Minecraft server emerged, with several unofficial servers being hosted by various members for periods. In late-2015, after a period of testing, the Dogcraft Server officially launched with Ren's blessing. Around the same time, a "Cyberdog Nation Discord Server" opened to the public. The launch of official Minecraft and Discord servers would bring about a dramatic long-term shift in community culture.

Changes in public behaviour over time saw the use of web forums decline, with the Minecraft and Discord servers increasingly becoming the primary spaces for community engagement. By 2019, use of the Dogcraft.net forums had dwindled, with interest drained by a series of data loss and hacking incidents that resulted in historical records being lost. This led to the creation of a fan Wiki to track Minecraft server and community history. In March 2020, the site received its most significant overhaul in years. The forums were retired and archived, a new account system was introduced, and the community-founded Dogcraft Wiki was integrated into the official site. In December 2023, with the Survival Multiplayer server entering its sixth season, a new minimum age restriction of 18+ was introduced, and an age verification system was introduced into account setup.

Culture

The City of Havana, built on the Survival 2 world of the Dogcraft Server is a strong example of community project organization

Dogcraft has a distinct community culture, which has been described as being reflective of ReNDoG's personality. Key factors in its development include a strong level of moderation by an active staff team, a high degree of enthusiasm for organized projects and building among the playerbase, continued engagement and interest in ReNDoG in preserving and promoting community interests, and long-term stability in community leadership. Although the Minecraft server has required all Cyberdogs to be aged 18+ since late 2023, Dogcraft maintains a community-wide requirement for discourse to be rid of politics and controvsery, maintaining a "PG-13" content restriction. This has been identified as helping to maintain a gentle atmosphere in conversation.

Dogcraft is known for its wide range of subcultures, with groups such as the Survival Railway Network becoming dominant early on in the Dogcraft Server. Community groups and projects are often meticulously planned and organized, with the Dogcraft Sandbox server frequently used to plan large-scale builds and infrastructure projects. Community projects are known to create numerous Discord servers for organizing, with the official Dogcraft Discord providing facilities for organization and promotion of these. Server Events—both player and server-organized—are hosted frequently, with seasonal events planned months in advance by a dedicated Dogcraft Creative Team unit. The Cyberdog News Network creates monthly videos documenting server activity and events, working with the Dogcraft Media Team to publish content for the benefit and promotion of the community. The Dogcraft Wiki, started as a community project in 2018, quickly grew in popularity among Cyberdogs and was officially integrated into Dogcraft.net in early 2020.

Ren's frequent visits and promotions of the Dogcraft Server, through base tours and live streams, have attracted attention and helped maintain a healthy playerbase on the server. One notable example of the impact of these is the "Townpocalypse" phenomenon, in which the prominent featuring of community settlements led to a surge in creation of similar smaller town projects.

Management

See Also: Staff Team

Dogcraft is owned by ReNDoG and overseen primarily by Community Administrator  Ironboundred. Dogcraft's network infrastructure is privately hosted in Texas, US, and maintained by a small development and administration team. Moderation staff are divided by department (Discord, Minecraft Server and Patreon Server) and are responsible for enforcing the community rules. Head Moderators across departments alongside administrators form the server's leadership commitee, who oversee the strategic direction and determine the server rules. Dogcraft is funded by ReNDoG's Patreon income, which pays for server infrastructure and development costs; though staff are largely otherwise unpaid volunteers. In exchange for pledging to Ren's Patreon, Cyberdogs recieve colored ranks in-game and on Discord, and get Plushies and Rencoin on the server.

Media

A CDNN broadcast on Survival 1

In addition to seeing promotion on ReNDoG's YouTube and Twitch channels, Dogcraft maintains official YouTube, Twitter/X, and Instagram accounts, and lists its public Minecraft Server on the Official Minecraft Server List. These feeds are primarily maintained by a Media Team unit within the Staff Team and are used to promote community events and showcase server builds, such as through the Cyberdog News Network (CDNN). The primary channel for community news and announcements, however, is the Dogcraft Discord server. The Dogcraft website has an account system, which users are required to setup and link to their Minecraft account to in order to play. This allows Cyberdogs to track their balance of the server currency; Dogcraft Dollars.