The removal of unlimited nametag feature

unlimited-tags-removal.md

About

Unlimited nametag feature hides original nametags and display armor stands instead. It was created back in MC 1.12, where we were actively suffering from 16 character limit in prefix and suffix. The very next version mojang removed the limit. Had they done it 1 version sooner, this feature may have never existed. It has unlocked a lot more than just that, and has become quite popular (about 20% of servers using TAB have it enabled). However, as time goes by, this feature is becoming more and more complicated to maintain, which made me decide to completely remove it. It was a good run, but I don't want to keep going.

Reasons for removal

Main reasons for removing this feature include:

• Code is becoming more and more complicated, especially to support all MC versions.
• There are tons of totally random bugs which I have no idea how to fix, as well as server bugs preventing it from working properly.
• Mojang is (albeit extremely slowly) making this feature less and less useful with less and less limits in vanilla nametags.
• People constantly keep asking the same questions over and over (top question being why they cannot see them with F5), making it by far the highest time investment into the feature (far more than coding itself)

What's next

• As of TAB 4.1.6 (Released with MC 1.21), this feature will be marked for removal:
  • NO support will be provided
  • All wiki references will be deleted (besides the feature page itself, which will have a warning on top)
  • No bugs will be fixed anymore and all existing bug reports will be closed
• A new branch called 5.0.0 was created, which has the feature removed. This branch will become the active one.
• 4.x branch will no longer be actively maintained, only receiving support for new MC versions and critical bugfixes (in other features)
• Github actions will only contain dev builds of 5.0.0 version, instead of 4.x
• When MC 1.22 hits (expected date is June 2025), version 5.0.0 will be released, fully removing the feature
• 4.x branch will only receive updates for new MC versions without any other changes and stay on github to compile for anyone who still wants the feature and doesn't care about anything else

What can you do?

Let's go through all ways you can deal with this:

• Find alternative way to display information using existing features:
  • 16 character limit on <1.13 - Update to 1.13+
  • Belowname limits - Update to 1.20.3+
  • Multiple lines - You'll need to display everything you want in just 2 (almost) fully customizable lines instead. It's enough to display everything important (prefix, suffix and Belowname).
  • RGB Username - Beg mojang to add hex support to team color
  • Changing player name - There are nick plugins that offer this (actually changing player's name in game profile and sending modified packet), although I am not aware of any good one. This is a very complicated process with tons of side effects that need to be accounted for, so it will not be added into the plugin.
• Stay on TAB 4.x. If you are stuck on MC versions older than their player base, you can also just keep your plugins outdated as well. The plugin works and currently doesn't have a single bug affecting Bukkit installation, so you won't be hurting at all. Even if one is found, it will be fixed. We still have a year to go afterall.
• Look for alternative plugins willing to deal with this mess. You can check these 3rd party plugins out (not affiliated with me in any way, use at your own risk):
  • UnlimitedNameTags

Feedback

While nothing you can say will change my mind, you can share your feedback below, such as questions or things I made unclear or forgot.

Since 1.20.3 you can display any placeholder, not just a number.

I use it like this currently, will this still be possible to have a placeholder on the second line? I dont want health...

<username / afk /  is PvP tagged>
<Tag set by player>

As I said many times already, since 1.20.3 you can put any placeholder into belowname.

As I said many times already, since 1.20.3 you can put any placeholder into belowname.

This is true. But it works very poorly.
If the placeholder is empty, an empty frame will appear.

Yes. Mojang designed the feature that way.

Will 5.0.0 also bring the supported versions to a "reasonable" amount? (Something like 1.19.4+ instead of 1.5-1.21)?
I've always wondered why you make yourself so much work to support so many ancient versions that have more bugs than active players?

The famous 1.8 combat community can just run a modern server with a "Bring back 1.8 combat" plugin instead of being hard stuck on that ancient buggy version and bothering devs to support that madness. I run such a setup for my PVP modes and it works perfectly.

No, reducing supported version interval is not planned. The work is done already and removing it wouldn't really help that much.
However, it will include performance optimizations (on Paper 1.20.5+) by using direct NMS code instead of reflection, which will not be available on older versions.

Ah okay

Hello, I think it’s perfect. I completely understand what you're talking about as a developer, since every software or program has a life cycle and requires its own maintenance; it doesn’t last forever. Obviously, it gets increasingly difficult over time. For that reason, I fully support NEZNAMY and everything that has been said. The function may be unsustainable, but perhaps there’s a way I’ve thought of that could make it possible. It would involve several changes and, obviously, would take time and a lot of work. We appreciate all the work and the open-source code. What more can we ask of Neznamy for all these years of work, both free and premium, which has been great for the community? Of course, we will continue to count on you. Maybe we’ll look for an alternative, possibly tags or something that can help us break the nickname limit. It’s a challenge, but it’s possible. Stay strong, and this is for those who come to complain: 'Remember, TAB has always been free and premium, and the developer has always worked hard to update it, so no complaints and be grateful.

Would you consider supporting it as a premium addon?

No, I tried going premium, y'all have showed me a middle finger. I don't want to do that feature anymore, free nor paid.