Trying to get back to Minecraft. Halp

I don't even know what teenyweenie vanilla servers are you talking about? There are numerous servers you can join have have fun once again.

 

There are tons of whitelisted servers out there, but I don't have any connections to any of them that are worth joining.

 

Try browsing Planet Minecraft. There may be some small servers there, but I'm not entirely sure. It's worth trying though.

 

There's a bunch of forums where you can find people who want others to join their server, which you'd have to apply for. There's also a bunch of public servers with protection plugins that can help you. I prefer public since there's a lot more community interactivity.

 

Try looking into what the newest updates have brought on since you left. You might want to try a new survival world to get used to all the new features.
But it you are stuck on wanting to play on a server, I would look at planetminecraft to get in touch with old friends or to find the server you are looking for.

 

There are so many new things! So you should definitely get back into it.. I'm trying to for that very reason. But there are so many websites that have a list of forums. You can easily search for what you're looking for and find it. I recommend checking out Planet Minecraft

 

Smaller whitelisted servers aren't going to get you back into Minecraft. I found the big ones usually offer something pretty unique without having to download anything, and can be really entertaining for a while. The newer small servers usually have the owner desperate for players, and they'll ask you to help them build the same things as any other server (spawn points, rules...etc). I find that kind of boring. Try nerdcrafteria if you haven't heard of it yet.

 

What kind of server are you looking for? Nowadays in Minecraft, there are so many servers that it's impossible to not find a server that you like. Your interests are what determine what kind of server you want to join. There's PvP servers, plugin-oriented MMO servers, or old school vanilla servers.

Don't worry about having no friends. I made many friends through my experiences on Minecraft. What I suggest is joining a small, vanilla white listed server with some kind of voice communication such as Teamspeak. Check out Minecraft forums and apply to the ones that interest you.

 

Like another user stated, small servers tend to get boring after a while, maybe try getting into larger, more populated ones? If you need help finding any, try checking the official Minecraft forums; they offer tons of servers both whitelisted and not.

PS. If you want a small server, maybe try hosting one on your own, and then adding the link for people to join on the Minecraft forums!

 

Minigame servers like Hypixel are definitely fun to play on. They usually have a high player base (upwards to 1000) and a plethora of unique and fun minigames you can play. In terms of just having some good ol' minecraft fun with other players aside from building or survival, minigames is the way to go!

 

Really it depends on what you want to do whilst playing. I mean, you could either want to do survival, or perhaps you just casually want to build. But if you want a PVP then definitely there are PVP areans in most servers.