Plus you just cant match the real incentives as ep pointed out.
They were a bit far-fetched (such as WE and /item access) but you know you can almost always get a crowd with free beer. :3
There have been rumours from some that people are mostly hoarding the freebie chest items. Coincidentally, there is also speculation that instead the freebie items may not become free anymore to prevent this problem, and will instead be sold along with other rare materials in a fashion similar to the Suncialist (negotiated exchange) or Theeponomic (standard-based exchange) shop methods. A few extremists are also fearing that the materials will be re-taken if there are any significant amounts in even private chests, but this is very unlikely given the possibly sharp negative feedback such an action may receive.
I must also note one thing about expansion and lighting - please do it yourselves. It is very odd to see some settlers repeatedly rely on a few to do the lighting for them. Moreover, since it's their torches they are also able to take them off for any reason needed, which causes problems to the initial beneficiary. So I suggest that you take some time and light the hell out of your own areas so that we don't have further dispute. For those of you who have already benefited from this, well, now's a good time to expand on your own accord.
Not against collaboration or anything here, but I'm seeing some crazy requests every now and then for some of us to handle large torching jobs.
Lastly, it seems sponge is losing much reason. Aside from the Ellia railway and occasional undersea exploration, they are otherwise acting dormant. I thought that this PTM seed's really deep water and the addition of sponge would facilitate undersea development, but the reverse has occurred and now more structures are facing the sky.
