November 2018 GSM & Fall ASM Results

Hello everyone! Here’s the results of the November 2018 GSM and the ASM that preceded it. As always, you can watch the public portion of the meeting here.

No changes to reflection letter policy

At the ASM we discussed the reflection letter policy and how it has been working out so far. We decided to keep the system as it is for the time being. This means that any player who has been demoted to the Member rank due to warnings (either one double warning or two single warnings) will need to send a reflection statement to the admins (not all staff), in addition to waiting the required time, before re-promotion can be considered.

You can find a set of guidelines for reflection letters on the Rules page (under “Warning and Ban Policy”). Please ask an admin if you have any questions.

New World Dynmap render November 5-7

We will begin our Fall 2018 dynmap render of the New World just after 5:00 a.m. UTC on Monday, November 5. The render is expected to last about two to three days due to the size of the New World. During this time, expect significantly more lag than usual, and note that WorldEdit requests are not allowed until the render finishes. We will also be temporarily suspending renders of other worlds while the New World is rendered.

Recent sexist and disrespectful comments towards women

We’d like to take a moment to remind you of Most Important Rule One: “Be kind and respectful to other players.”

Over the last couple of weeks we have observed a few instances where members have made comments that are sexist or otherwise disrespectful towards women. These are not tolerated on the MRT.

We are proud of the fact that community members have called out disrespectful comments in the past, and we encourage you to continue to do so. If you’re uncomfortable calling out something you see in conversation, you can also report the incident to a staff member. We want to create an open and inclusive community, and racist, sexist, or otherwise disrespectful comments are the exact opposite.

We recognize that a lot of players are on the autism spectrum and can have difficulty interacting with others, and we know a lot of you like to use the MRT as a source of entertainment (after all, that is Most Important Rule Four). These are not excuses for any kind of racist, sexist, or other disrespectful comments. Regardless of your intention or circumstances, these kinds of comments can and do often have a negative effect on others. You’re responsible for the impact of your actions, so please consider how others will interpret something you’re saying before you say it.

Upcoming rules revamp

We are in the process of reviewing the rules and combining the Rules page and multitude of GSM announcements into one single manifest of rules and special cases. We discussed some of it at the GSM, and while most changes won’t go into effect for at least another month (and likely not until 2019), there is one change we are making now.

• Governor-ranked cities wishing to build an airport must include existing airfields in their proposed airport land allocation. Under the old rules, airfields built at the Senator rank were not counted as a part of airport land allocation, meaning a city 100,000 blocks in size could have a 50,000-block airport in addition to a 7,500-block airfield. Under the new rules, the 100,000-block city with a 7,500-block airfield can now only build an airport that is 42,500 blocks or smaller.

Existing cities with airports built before November 3 are grandfathered in and do not need to be modified, however cities will need to be within the limits in order to expand an airport.

Old World: Minor edits to your stuff only

There has been some interest in construction on the Old World, so we’d like to remind you of the Old World construction policy. You are permitted to make changes to assets on the Old World if you meet BOTH of the following requirements:

• You are the owner of the asset being modified (or have received permission from the asset owner), AND
• Your changes are minor in nature.

As a reminder, Old World towns and buildings are not eligible for auctions.

We’ll be giving a more precise definition of “minor changes” in the upcoming rules update; for now the determination of whether something is “minor” or not is up to staff. Generally we will classify changes as “minor” if they can’t be quickly discerned by looking at the build in question, or are done for routine maintenance purposes. “Minor” changes include, but are not limited to updating signage, rearranging furniture, updating branding, or changing the tenant of a gate or check-in desk. Airports are explicitly allowed to reassign gates, check-in areas, and lounges, and update aircraft as needed for business purposes. “Major” changes, which are not allowed, include removing, replacing, or completing large renovations to a building.

Please ask a staff member if you are unsure of whether or not a project is considered “major” on the Old World.

Miscellaneous community issues

Some smaller issues that were discussed at the GSM and last week’s ASM:

• Airport owners are responsible for distributing their own gates. We received a proposal to impose a “fairness” requirement to airport gate distribution. We understand where this is coming from, however it would cause a lot more workload on staff, and everyone has their own definition of “fair”. As such, we will be leaving gate distribution as it is.
• Towns that are extremely close to each other (including towns that completely surround other towns) need to have clear borders. Ambiguous borders could cause town promotions to be delayed or denied. Your best bet is to use something wide, such as a river or major road, though any marked border will suffice. (This, for instance, is fine.)
• Seasonal ranks will be a thing in December. We’re working on it and should have them launched soon. Please let admins know if you have any ideas, though note that Frumple will veto them if they include the word “sock”.
• Frumple is experimenting with Discord bots. Most staff didn’t have a strong opinion on this, so we’ll see what happens.
• Admins will soon be adding /wiki and other useful commands to Essentials, much like /dynmap and /apply.
• We’ve created the #information channel in Discord to store quick-reference links. You can look there for links to most MRT resources. Let us know if anything is missing.
• The public portion of the GSM will continue to be held in a variety of locations, chosen “off the cuff”, though we do appreciate the venues players have created! Let us know if you have one in your town, and we might pay you a visit. Candidate sites need to have sufficient space for Nothing to be built behind a podium. Large, open spaces work better than theaters.

Roads!

Roads are Frumple’s favorite thing besides socks, so we talked about three of them.

• An extension of the A54, proposed by SkyjumperTalon to run from Murrville to Cactus River, has been approved.
• An unnumbered B-road, proposed by Gran_Cacto to run from Murrville to Sunshine Coast, has been approved. Gran_Cacto will need to let us know of the road number before construction begins (just so that we can ensure it’s a unique number).
• An extension of the A51, proposed by LithiumMirnuX to run from Schillerton to Seloho, has been denied because Lithium still has an outstanding road (the A746 between Janghwa and Kolpino) that needs to be finished first, and we have concerns about the quality of roads Lithium has built in the past. However, we do hope that a road is built out to the southern arctic biome, so other players wishing to build in this corridor can submit a proposal for an A51 or A507 extension at the next GSM.

Special projects and funding requests

• SkyjumperTalon has proposed more mini-golf tournaments, including a “Tournament of Champions” invite-only tournament for those who have won prior MGA events. All of these have been approved and fully funded. Note that we approved the Tournament of Champions because it is an infrequent event, and invitations are sent out based on performance in prior public events, so it is possible for anyone to qualify for it.
• MIKE24DUDE requested permission to build a rail tunnel underground between F16 and F20. This has been approved.
• autobus22 requested permission to build a rail bridge across a bay in the Autumnal Sea, connecting Aquamarine Bay and Moton. This has been conditionally approved: the bridge can’t block boats, so it will either need to be built with enough clearance, or have a portion that can be lifted open.
• hvt2011 requested permission to build a BluRail tunnel under XW21. This has been approved.
• AyyLion requested a grant to fund the first season of the “Survivor” game show. This has been approved and funded in full. Best of luck to the participants!

Property auctions

• The MRT station S0 (which will also be the final terminus of the Zephyr South Line) was awarded to Conric005.
• The town of Genesis was requested by airplane320, but has been denied due to the town’s proximity to Zaquar.

THE END

The next GSM has not yet been scheduled, but will likely occur in December or early January. Stay tuned, but if you have something in the meantime that you’d like us to discuss or know about, send it our way!

Thanks all!

Chief