Hey, super nooby question here. Ive heard of irontown which seems to be like a general town with shops and is just kind of like a public area. my question is where do i find places like this? where is iron town? are there any more places like it? how do i interact with other players on this smp ( this is my first smp) that makes it different from a solo world?

Well, there are many different player built towns in the server, you should log into the server and talk to people. Maybe someone will teleport you to somewhere interesting like Irontown (first I've heard of it, haven't been on for a while) or even Kotapuri. Many player built towns are split up into smaller sections of land called lots where you can buy permission to build there from the land owner. Some have general guidelines to follow as to keep a certain aesthetic or something of the like.

As for interacting with other players, the chat is a good start, could ask if anyone needs help with clearing up something or you could start a project and go from there too. Public spaces are most notably in the central region in and around spawn, which includes shops and stuff. You can gain MTC (MineTown Credits) by voting for the server here on the forum which you can use in game to purchase stuff from the Admin shop as well as player shops, you can even trade directly in person and transfer MTC to the player you trade with.

The only thing that really differenciates MineTown from a single player world is that it is an online multiplayer and has server specific implementations like add-ons that offer some interactions like having MTC or being able to submit help queries to the staff in-game (kind of like a support ticket) or even some non-vanilla stuff like player add-ons you get in the shop for donating to the server. Some are no longer available so you may see older players such as myself with perks that have been grandfathered in despite no longer being available, some of which have actually disappeared over time unfortunately. Most of the time due to having to conform to changes in administrative rules or exploit prevention. The new things are mostly cosmetic but theres some interesting stuff. Some of the other add-ons include being able to claim some land and protect the structures within it, the ability to lock your doors and chests, the ability to add a friend to the land claim so they can build there too, being able to set a few home locations you can teleport yourself to and a few other things I can't remember.

For the most part, MineTown is a Vanilla server, the server add-ons do not change how the game is played.

Hey Rack

My name is Justin and I'm the mayor of Iron City. we have housing plots as well as shop plots available for players like yourself at my City. We are a player built town that helps out new and existing players. We pride ourselves on community and players playing a part in that community always makes me happy. We support from many staff of my own as well as Minetown, Iron City is there for you. Below is a picture of our new 32x32 plots that are there for 1.13 update as well as for now.

Feel free to message me if you have anymore questions

Justin.