[quote=genghismike]
:/ if that's what everyone thinks it is. I have different theories, but that's here and there. No point arguing the matter.
[/quote]

Giygas tested it himself, it's his server, and he's outright said he didn't get the most high end deal you could get for a server, so yes it's most likely the fact that we were exploring 29k blocks out.

The other reason a slow-expanding border is good is because, as I was told yesterday: in 1.8 the lag is actually worse for a bit (on multiplayer servers) while chunks are being loaded. Once it's all explored then the game runs smoothly. The guys on mindcrack server apparently set a small world-size with a slow expanding border to address this very problem, and they do it pretty well with twice our highest turnout on spamcraft.

But don't take my word for it, ask Giygas and Atlas.