Minetest People

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Introduction

This page discusses a few past and present Minetest people.

Celeron55

Celeron55 aka Perttu Ahola was a young developer in Finland who was the lead in late 2010 in creating what would become Minetest. He largely left the project by 2012 though he maintained control of some of its infrastructure.

Perttu played no significant role as, for example, a BDFL and in later years pleaded lack of authority when he was asked to try to move the project in new directions.

He and OldCoder did agree in 2016 on a new direction and that was a success for a year. However, in Spring 2017, the project as it had been failed. The details are expected to be the subject of a book related to FOSS projects and the role that anonymity plays in Internet behavior.

VanessaE

VanessaE aka Vanessa Ezekowitz aka Vanessa Dannenberg along and Maciej Kasatkin aka dozens of other names are arguably the two most important of the very early Minetest figures. They should be assessed as more significant than Perttu Ahola.

In short, Vanessa and Maciej invested massive time in the project as a host [Vanessa] and as modders [both of them] and contributed as much as anybody else to making the project come alive.

For most of the 2010s, Vanessa indicated that she believed herself to be dying due to the after-effects of an industrial accident. It was true that Vanessa seemed to have lost some of her ability to retain memories but it didn't rise to the level of dementia.

To be added: Vanessa's mods and hosting. The weight issue. Abe's death.

Real Bad Angel 

Maciej Kasatkin aka Real Bad Angel is believed to be one of a group of pseudonyms used by a single young man [young in 2012] who might have been born in the mid-to-late 1990s. He claimed to be about 20 years older than his likely age and it might have been true.

Maciej's other names in the Minetest project included Jordach, Octupus, and Landmine aka Misael Roman. They may have included some of Fixer, Mati, Mijyn, Nekogloop, and Sokomine as well.

Maciej was a dedicated and skilled Minetest modder. The project was his home. He explained the use of multiple names to OldCoder once. The explanation will be added here.

In 2015, Maciej became disillusioned with Minetest. He asked Vanessa to start a fork with him. Vanessa refused and Maciej responded by pretending to die.

That period was humorous. Maciej came back in another identity to ask for money for a grieving girlfriend. One problem with that was that he'd claimed to be happily married not long before. But there were other issues related to the report of Maciej's demise.

In 2017, the deceased Maciej instructed OldCoder to do turn OldCoder's branch of Minetest into a hard fork. Starting year later, from Fall 2018 to mid-2019, somebody who may have been Maciej worked with OldCoder to refine the hard fork and create Final Minetest.

The last definite communication from Maciej to OldCoder, offered by the Jordach pseudonym, was at Christmas 2017.

OldCoder

In Spring 2012, OldCoder aka Robert Kiraly ended up in the Minetest project by accident. By December 2012, he was voted #3 out of the 100 most respected project figures.

OldCoder served for 5 years as IRC admin, world host, and modder. He invested more time and had a broader range of accomplishments than any other non-anonymous figure other than Vanessa Ezekowitz. The only other non-anonymous figure that came close was Andrew Ward aka Rubenwardy.

Editors: Add the story of 2017 to 2023 here.

Poikilos

Jake Gustafson aka Poikilos will be added here.

Rubenwardy

Andrew Ward aka Rubenwardy will be added here.

McKaygerhard

McKaygerhard and Minenux will be added here.

Edgy McEdge

James Tobin aka Edgy McEdge aka Stella Tobin will be added here.

Pentium44

Chris Dorman aka Pentium44 was only involved occasionally in Minetest. However, he visited intermittently for 10 years, from ages 15 to 25, to try out new code that he'd thought of.

Maksym Hamarnyk

Maksym Hamarnyk will be added here. Note: That isn't confirmed to be his actual name.

CoRNeRNoTe

Brett O'Donnell aka CoRNeRNoTe aka Mr. PHP was an early Minetest figure notable for the creation of SkyBlock. Brett designed the template that was used for the minetest.org home page from the mid-2010s into the 2020s.

Ten Plus One

Ten Plus One aka Troll Plus One will be added here. Short version: This is a long-term anonymous modder.

Auke-Jan Kok

Auke-Jan Kok will be added here.

Nathan Salapat

Nathan Salapat will be added here. Short version: This was one of Minetest's Blender people.

Shara RedCat

Shara RedCat aka Ezhh aka Tommy Treasure will be added here. Note: Shara RedCat may not have been Tommy Treasure but in the early 2020s statements by Tommy Treasure suggested that he either was Shara or had known her closely in real life.