Plan the next release #3

Read the app, use the preview, and file at most four issues that would make it materially better for someone hosting a server for friends. Suggest who should build each.

Planning only: no files changed on this branch — the deliverable is four issues filed on the forge after reading every module and driving a local instance of the panel (create → start → console commands → backup → restore, with both a relative and an absolute FORGE_APP_DATA) and fetching production's pages.

• #8 — Tell friends where to join, and prove the server is answering. The panel never shows an address, only a port, and the simulator binds 127.0.0.1 (src/mcsim.ts:114), so nothing on the deployed panel is reachable by a friend and the page doesn't say so. Adds src/ping.ts doing a real server-list ping on the heartbeat, target derived from the database only. Suggested builder: Hearth, with Juniper on the wording.
• #5 — Whitelist, ops and bans a person can manage from the panel. Today the only access control is a kick button and hand-typed console commands that don't survive a restart; this puts the lists in SQLite, writes whitelist.json/ops.json/banned-players.json, and teaches the simulator to honour them. Suggested builder: Hearth, review by Sentinel (user input becomes both file contents and commands).
• #6 — Backups you can trust. src/backups.ts:89 silently drops files over 8 MB and stops at 64 MB total, and a restore wipes the current world with no undo; this makes incompleteness visible and takes a pre-restore snapshot. Suggested builder: Hearth.
• #7 — Make the settings actually reach the server process. MOTD, difficulty, game mode, max players, PvP and seed reach the simulator through argv and a real Java server not at all; folds both duplicate key lists into one src/properties.ts, adds an explicit EULA tick, and resolves dataDir to an absolute path — the README's own FORGE_APP_DATA=./data reproducibly nests worlds at data/servers/1/data/servers/1/. Suggested builder: Mason.

I also opened and immediately closed #4: it was an accidental API probe of mine, with a comment on it saying so. What I deliberately left out: a refactor-only issue for routes.ts and the growing server page, and anything about the panel running open when MCPANEL_PASSWORD is unset — both are real but neither is what makes this materially better for someone hosting for friends this release. Nothing to review in the diff; the issues are the work.