Jimmy Henderson

Spectators don't have to be former players of the map. They can be assigned Spectators before logging on to a server. I'm okay with actual players refusing to sleep the night away, that's part of being on a server with other people playing - not everyone has the same goal in mind to rid the night and/or rain. I understand that all the valid player checks indicate spectators as players... however, they are not intended to influence the gameplay in anyway, regardless if regular players can do it, too. It'd be like saying, well, regular players can attack other players, so what's wrong when a spectator does it?

The issue I have with it is, say you're running Hardcore, and you're using the in-game mechanic of passing the night to prevent mob spawns near you, but any spectators present prevent that. (Granted, that's better for the spectator, hehe) Or you want to pass a thunderstorm/rainstorm through the night, you cannot because of spectators. These are in-game features, not exploits. Spectators are not players, and should not impact gameplay.

Confirmed for 14w26c on SMP server

Works for chopping trees, too, items will appear to fall down to you (looking up at the tree as you chop), but you won't here the 'pickup' sound, and stepping away, you'll see the item several blocks away, sometimes down the side of a mountain/cliff.

Edit: Lillypads, too, will fly off into deeper ocean 😞

Edit 2: Managed to get cobble to jump from Y:11 to Y:56