If you are below version 2.12.5, it is recommended to upgrade.
Important changes:
- An issue related to plot tiers being duplicated has been fixed. This would in specific cases lead to drastically increased memory usage, and errors when stopping the server.
- An issue related to plugin incompatibility has been resolved. This was caused by code related to making PlotSquared unload/loadable using a plugin manager.

Other changes:
- Added a permission node for merging with friends: plots.merge.other
- Added plot rate event
- Considerable optimizations to kill road mobs task
- optimizations to the event system
- Fixed plot list only displaying the available subcommands.
- Fixed hangings being breakable by entities
- Fixed comment fetching for global inbox
- Fixed PlotMe conversion skipping plot members / denied.
- Fixed PlotMe UUID caching without conversion nulling specific config values
- Fixed an issue with some format codes not being translated
- Fixed regenallroads delaying longer than it says it would. credit: @LaxWasHere
- Fixed undesirable blocks being allowed for plot component setting
- Fixed a repo in the pom
- Fixed various inconsistencies with translation color and messages
- Tweaked plot condense to be more specific
- Updated README.md
- Incremented version number

Important information:
- This release includes a large number of changes, we encourage you to test it out before putting it on a live server
- You are encouraged to update any plugin that hooks into PlotSquared
- Some new features are unpolished and will be improved in the following updates
- A lot of stuff is undocumented as documentation is boring

UUID caching
- Now occurs on a separate thread so it has minimal impact on startup
- Completely bypasses the Bukkit system for fetching player data files (which is required for it to be async)
- Skips checking the UUID if using case insensitive and offline mode if the player name is already lowercase
- Used a custom NBT library which is much faster than the Bukkit system

Flag system:
- Flags can be designated as plugin only, and cannot be modified by players
- Fixed plot default flags being modified when any plot changes it's flags (/plot reload would fix this)
- Added multiple new flags related to plot protection ( misc-place, hanging-place, vehicle-place, mob-place etc)
- Tweaked the behavior of multiple flags to be more logical (protection related)
- Fixed heal and feed flags

Plot expiry:
- Recolored and looks a lot nicer
- The modified-blocks flag is added and allows the plugin to skip rechecking the number of modifications every day

Debug
- Added debug command to remove all of a specific flag from plots: /plot debugexec remove-flag <flag>

Updating
- PlotSquared will not check for updates on startup
- Update the plugin using /plot update (or specify an update url with /plot update <url> )

Plot analysis
- Relevant debug command: /plot debugexec analyze
- I've been working on some more interesting plot analysis which will in future give a better indication of quality content rather than blocks changed
- The main problem with blocks changes is that if a plot is entirely set to a blob of stone it will pass that requirement, despite the fact that it's a blob of stone
- With the plot analysis it will calculate the complexity of the build based on (currently 13) different metrics

Rating priority
- Relevant command to teleport to the next plot: /plot rate next
- PlotSquared will try to prioritize higher quality plots to receive more ratings
- Low quality plots will still be rated, just not as much as higher quality builds

Plot popularity
- Relevent command to list popular plots: /plot list top
- Will sort the plots based on average rating and number of ratings

Event system
- Fire can no longer be put out in protected areas
- Right clicking a block with food or a book in denied areas will no longer prevent you from eating or reading
- Dragon egg teleportation is now prevented
- fixed armor stands being placed outside allowed area
- fixed item frames and paintings being placeable outside allowed area
- fixed eating and reading being restricted where it shouldn't
- recoded player interact event
- tried centralizing some logic to the EventUtil class

Permissions
- Changed the permissions class to an enum
- Started using the enum permissions in place of hardcoded ones

Configuration
- PlotSquared is now maintaining its own configuration classes independent of Bukkit
- Invalid configuration files are now renamed and a new one is generated (rather than part or all of it being deleted)

Plot downloading
- Added plot downloading using /plot download
- Added config option web.url and web.server-ip
- Uses an external service for storage

Database
- Fixed an issue with SQLite bulk inserts sometimes skipping the last few
- Added PlotMe conversion for PlotMe 0.17.X

Translations
- Added italian language translations

Permissions
- Added multiple permission packs to the plugin (see the permissions page on the wiki)

Road schematics
- Fixed logs not being rotated correctly for road schematics

Tweaks / Minor modifications
- Fixed a typo in plot visit no permission message

Commands
- Improved the StringComparison class to provide better command feedback
- Block names will now be matched to their corresponding id if used in configuration or commands formerly requiring block ids
- Plot deny will now kick the corresponding player from the plot if required
- Fixed plot music duplication and not being able to easily stop music
- Plot ratings now support multiple categories and feature a GUI if there are categories (will be documented later)

Misc Fixes
- PlotSquared can now be unloaded and loaded by most plugin managers
- Fixed chunk sending for 1.7.10 clients
- Fixed linebreaks in the translations file behaving strangely

API
- Added PlotInventory class which allows for easy inventory GUI creation (used in plot musc / rating)
- Added various methods to the Plot class to simplify common tasks
- PlotSquared class renamed to PS, which is now a singleton; use PS.get() for the instance
- Added javadocs to lots of methods
- Restructured various classes / methods
- Minor tweaks to the PlotAPI class
- Plots can be marked as temporary in which case changes will not be made regarding it in the DB (may behave strangely for plot moving or bulk plot function)

Cumulative update log for 2.11.13/23

Additions
- Added a new interactive plot list
- Added optional redstone disabler for when plot owner and trusted are offline.
- Added max plot members option to each world (defaults to 128)
- Added option "keep-if-modified" which will ignore and add the keep flag to expired plots which meet the modified block requirement
- Added option "ignore-if-modified" which will ignore an expired plot which meets the modified blocks requirement
- Added setData method to SetBlockQueue for mass changing block data
- Added several debug commands associated with regenallroads
- Added permission for admins to see plot chat "plots.admin.command.chat"
- Added air height to RegenAllRoads in case of existing schematic
- Added option to allow members to WorldEdit
- Added conversion of Multiverse-Core worlds.yml and Bukkit.yml to PlotMe converter
- Added plot physics flag (must enable disable-physics flag in settings.yml)
- Added wrapping of OfflinePlayer to PlotPlayer object from BukkitUtil.getPlayer(...)
- Added new syntax options to plot visit and info

Modifications:
- Modified RegenAllRoads to be less intensive (but take longer)
- Optimized the trim command to cope with large deletions
- Optimized and restructured the flag system
- Removed some useless debug information
- Removed some unused messages from the translations file

Fixes:
- Fixed the cluster command not being added during startup
- Fixed plot swapping and moving using invalid hashcodes for the local copy (DB was correct)
- Fixed clearing and deleting not restoring plot schematic
- Fixed plot music duplication and disabling
- Fixed plot time being relative
- Fixed plot clearing not teleporting the players to the top under certain circumstances
- Fixed commandPreProcess processing registered commands (it now skips if registered)
- Fixed plot border generation
- Fixed PlotMe -> MySQL conversion not working under certain circumstances
- Fixed PVE bypass on unowned plots not behaving as expected
- Fixed errors from invalid plot music
- Fixed failed schematic pasting not recovering properly

Credit: @confuser, @Byteflux

Minor update
Changes:
- Added persistent attributes API to PlotPlayer class
- New command /plot toggle (perm: plots.toggle)
- Titles can now be toggled on/off with /plot toggle titles
- Added option to settings.yml: protection.physics-listener.enabled (adds the disable-physics flag)

Fixes:
- Plot rating now functions correctly
- Fixed the /reload command (which you shouldn't be using) not loading plots from the DB

Minor update:
Additions
- Started work on improving the plot title system
- Optimized mass plot saving (it is a lot faster now) (used for PlotMe conversion + UUID conversion + DB importing)
- Plot music is now flag based
Fixes
- Fixed an issue with teleportation with plot deny
- Fixed PlotPlayer caching
- Fixed an issue with conversion of merged plots
- modified ExpireManager (should fix bungee issue)
- Fixed an error in the PlotAPI class
- Fixed an error with plot chat

Enhancements
- Plot setup can now be executed from console
- Added an option for plot expiry clear interval 
(useful if you just converted and have a lot of plots)
- Added hook for WorldEdit schematic exporting (supports entities and such)
- Plot component setting is now Async for ClassicPlotManager and limited to one task per plot
- PlotSquared should now be more stable after using the (not recommended) reload command

Fixes:
- Fixed plot deletion not removing denied users from the DB
- Fixed an error with one of the help pages
- Fixed the page numbers for help sometimes being incorrect
- Fixed a URL in the README.md
- Fixed template creation from the bundled town world
- Fixed entity,mob,animal,hostile,vehicle cap flags

Changes since last update log:
!!!IMPORTANT NOTICE!!!
This version completely renames HELPERS and TRUSTED. Associated commands have been changed. Players may need to be informed about the change.

The following are the new commands:
(added users can build while owner is online)

/plot add <player>
​(trusted users can build always in plot)

/plot trust <player>
​(denied users cannot enter plot)

/plot deny <player>
​(remove a user from the plot)

/plot remove <player>
​(untrust a user from the plot)

/plot untrust <player>
​(undeny a user from the plot)

/plot undeny <player>​
Permissions:

plots.add
plots.trust
plots.deny
plots.remove
plots.untrust
plots.undeny​!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Additions:

• Command '/plot debugexec' is now usable from ingame
  
• The greeting flag can now be embedded into the title %greeting%
  
• Added PlotPlayer metadata to the PlotSquared API
  
• Creative block picking is now restricted (i.e. Chest contents cannot be copied from other plots)
  
• Added optional plot inbox notifications
  
• Finally finished plot rating system; players can now rate plots
  
• PlotSquared can now convert from AthionPlots (works with same converter as PlotMe, LOL)
  

Fixes:

• Fixed an issue where '*' was not recognized as everyone when P^2 takes the shortcut for UUID caching
  
• Fixed an issue with fire being extinguishable in other plots
  
• Fixed an issue with world loading and Cauldron
  
• Fixed an issue with world loading of external generators with certain setups
  
• Fixed setup command for empty configuration steps
  
• Fixed recovering from invalid translation messages
  
• Fixed reading an empty inbox sometimes causing an exception
  
• Fixed augmented data population for type 2 terrain mode 0 worlds
  
• FIxed augmented clearing for type 2 terrain mode 0 worlds
  
• Fixed regenallrodas for type 2 worlds
  
• Fixed plot clear schematics for terrain mode 0 worlds
  
• Fixed unlink with hybrid, schematic enabled worlds placing air above the side of the roads
  
• Various other fixes
  

Changes made by community members:
Credit: @soulofwolf

• Redesigned the translations file. Messages are now grouped
  

Credit: @Byteflux

• Added a command to toggle local plot chat
  
• UUID caching from non-standard world path
  
• Fixed player caching
  

-- Fixes --
To quote a previous changelog:

Fixed an issue with regenerating all road schematics. Our previous tweak actually made it worse. It should be perfect now.

^ Should actually be working now. Previously it sometimes skipped chunks, which appears to be fixed now.

Attempted to address a performance issue with plot outlining. There should be much less lag associated with using /plot fill outline

Fixed an issue with specific outdated versions of Spigot (1.8.3) crashing the server when trying to get the name of the world during initialization. (as MCProHosting continues to have this as their default jar despite it being out of date and non functional with many custom generators).

Updated german translation file (credit: @Krauti2/EvilOlaf)

Added player meta to the PlotPlayer API (for temporary storage of player information).

Fixed an issue with terrain generating over roads in Augmented world types. (If you are interested in having underground tunnels, maybe I can add this back as an option).

Improved tab completion, and command auto-correction.

The plot WorldEdit command blacklist is now configurable (previously you needed to have the bypass permission).

--- Coming Soon! ---
Mop cap