Server life

AFK mining and automation rules on prison servers

Prison rewards repetitive input, which makes automation the genre's permanent argument. Every server draws the line somewhere and almost none of them draw it in the same place, so read the rules before you set anything running.

The four categories

• Server-provided AFK. An AFK pool, an AFK mine, or an /afk command with reduced rewards. Explicitly allowed, because the server built it.
• Holding a key down with a physical object. The classic. Usually tolerated, sometimes not, and almost never written down clearly. Ask.
• Autoclickers and macros. Software that generates input. Banned on most servers, and the most common reason for a prison ban.
• Client mods that automate decisions. Auto-sell scripts, inventory managers that act on their own, anything that plays for you. Banned essentially everywhere.

Why servers care

Two reasons, and only one is fairness. The first is economic: a player mining twenty-four hours a day produces income the economy was not balanced for, and multiplied by a hundred players it breaks the sell prices for everyone. The second is load. Automated mining with area-of-effect enchants is the single most expensive thing a prison server does per tick, and an AFK farm running overnight costs real performance for everyone online.

How to stay on the right side of it

1. Read the rules page, then ask in chat if it is ambiguous. Staff answering "that is fine" in public is worth having.
2. Prefer the server's own AFK feature if one exists, even at reduced rates. It is sanctioned and it will not get your progress wiped.
3. Assume anything generating input while you are not at the keyboard is risky.
4. Do not run automation during a lag event. It is the fastest way to be noticed.

The rollback risk

Bans are not the worst outcome. Servers that discover an exploited or automated economy often roll balances back, and rollbacks do not distinguish carefully between what you earned legitimately and what you did not. That is the actual reason to stay well inside the line.

Next in the prison wiki

• Prison seasons and resets: what carries and what does not Prison resets more often than most gamemodes. What usually survives a reset, what never does, and when to join.
• Prison server glossary Every term you will meet in prison chat, defined in one line.
• How Minecraft prison servers work The mine, the sell command, the rankup, the plot world and the PvP warp: the five things every prison server is built from.
• Prison ranks, prestige and rebirths explained A to Z is the tutorial. Prestige resets your rank for a multiplier, rebirth resets your prestige for a bigger one, and that loop is the real game.