public servers

[white echo]

not a good idea, you'd be opening your public IP address to a bunch of random people, and i dont think there's any way for essential to know how to pair you with other people who have the exact same mods. just use a server hosting service

[gusty fjord]

We highly recommend only playing with people you know and trust. You don't know what other people's intentions are and they could damage your worlds or threaten your online safety and privacy.

[white echo]

it doesnt matter even if it is optional, it's simply a bad idea. even one of the devs agreed

there are free server hosting services that would allow you to add server-side mods and would not expose your IP to the Internet

well if you want a good one you'd probably have to pay tbh