FOSS gamedev and creative worlds

I'm on the LinuxGaming.us server, and today found a stack of gravel sitting on a void, as shown in the file below:

Here's what I could do next:

• Dig the gravel or any adjacent blocks, causing the gravel to fall endlessly.
• Place blocks below it (it can't be done because it's the bottom
• Leave the gravel as it is.

What will happen if the gravel keeps falling down, if I did dig on it?

You could place an extra piece of gravel there and see what happens...

That is just going to cause the gravel to fall, as just modifying the area surrounding gravel will cause the ABM (automatic block modifier to update the area.

Not on the other gravel, but rather a little bit away.

I'm safe with blocks at least 2 nodes away from the gravel stack in question, and there is also an iron ore next to it. Digging that or other stone nodes next to it will also cause the gravel to fall, and then I won't be able to retrieve it all.

The answer is the following:
When any object falls to the void, it will fall only to a certaing height, It does nothing. Eventualy, the chunks will unload, and any thing that had fallen, will disappear.

What will happen is.... Nothing. That "void" is a solid platform. The gravel will fall to there and stop. You can also go and walk there.

Source:I always mine to the bottom and have seen it a million times.

The bottom of the world has many issues and this is a known problem, discussed here:
https://github.com/minetest/minetest/issues/2702

To my knowledge, if you dig gravel at the bottom, it will fall through the bottom for about 16 further nodes BELOW the bottom, but it won't fall any deeper. As far I know, in this state the gravel is still “falling”, it won't even stack there, but the weird “endlessly falling gravel” will get deleted after 15 minutes or so on default settings. Of course, this stuff is not good and clearly not intended.
But the gravel will not always fall right through, sometimes it is stopped. The bottom is really weird and buggy (see the issue discussion for for info).

I have created a mod which generates a indestructible bedrock layer at the bottom of the world, so this should be a nice workaround for those world bottom issues:
viewtopic.php?f=9&t=11271

l guess the falling gravel entity falls down until it's away from a player and the entity becomes deactivated.