Here are the results of the December 2023 GSM.
Premier Candidate: Port Sonder
One Premier candidate was considered at this GSM: Port Sonder by TheThirdOdd.
Unfortunately, Port Sonder did not pass with a vote of 0-12. However, most of the feedback from staff seem to indicate that the city was very close to Premier, but just had some specific issues that needed to be addressed. If these issues are addressed, then it is likely Port Sonder can get Premier the next time the city is submitted. The feedback can be read here.
Conductor Applications
Two Conductor applicants were considered at this GSM:
- powerminer01 was promoted by a vote of 9-5-0.
- PotatoDumMasala was not promoted by a vote of 0-7-7.
Congratulations to powerminer01 for their promotion to Conductor.
TrainCarts is coming to the Minecraft server!
After extensive testing on the beta server, the TrainCarts plugin will be coming to the main Minecraft server on Monday, December 11th. There will be a brief maintenance period while the plugin is installed and configured.
There are some caveats and details to be aware of with this plugin:
Train Spawning and Ownership
- TrainCarts permissions to use signs and commands will only be available to Trustees and above.
- TrainCarts can only be spawned using signs. TC trains can then be controlled using signs or commands.
- TC trains are owned by the “Server” by default. To change the owner of the train, use a property sign that applies the “addowner” property, such as in this screenshot:
Train Limits
- These are the current TrainCarts limits (note that these are subject to change at any time):
- 250 TC carts total per world at any one time
- 5 seconds minimum between train spawns per sign
- 10 cart maximum per train
Destinations and Tickets
- For players using TC destinations, a naming standard for destinations has been recommended to avoid name collisions. Please add a prefix before your destination name. For example, Fred Rail could have a prefix of “FR”, and destinations would have names like “FR-Whitechapel”.
- Any TC ticket setup and management will be handled by staff only. Train ticket background images can only be handled by admins. For any ticket-related requests, please use the #requests-to-staff channel in Discord or email.
Train Destruction
- For performance reasons, all TC trains will be automatically destroyed on server restart. Staff also have the ability to run “/train destroyall” to destroy all trains in case there is a performance issue.
- Additionally in the near future, we’ll look at implementing a script that will periodically destroy trains that currently have no passengers riding in them.
- We encourage players to please cleanup after themselves and destroy trains that are no longer in use, either by using the “/train destroy” command or using the “destroy” sign.
How to use TrainCarts
A TrainCarts tutorial area will soon be setup by _frozen and Athena33, underneath the Lab World spawn. If you need assistance on how to use the TrainCarts plugin, please check out this tutorial area when it is ready, read the TrainCarts wiki, or ask any players who may have more expert knowledge on how to use the plugin.
New Central City Flag Park approved
Tom_Pairs will soon begin construction on the new flag park in the northeast corner of Central City. The park will integrate the existing Oak Cafe, and the old Federated States HQ building will be demolished. The new flag park will have more hilly terrain that respects the existing landscape, and will feature specific areas such as Premier Mountain (for Premier cities only) and a Lost Towns area for towns that have been destroyed or made defunct for whatever reason.
Once the flag park is complete, we will start the migration process of flags in the current park to the new park. Details of how this will work will be announced at that time.
Big Board Center in Central City approved
Also in Central City, EliteNeon and PtldKnight will soon begin construction on the new Big Board Center. Originally in a plot closer to the center of Central City, these boards kept track of IRL political events such as the US election. Since there were concerns that such political things would give a bad impression to guests and new players on the server, the Big Boards were moved out at the instruction of staff several years ago. Since this new plot is not near spawn, this problem is no longer an issue and thus the Big Boards are now welcomed back to Central City.
Automatic VPN bans are now disabled
The VPNGuard plugin will now no longer automatically ban guests and new members if they are using a proxy or VPN. Originally this was used to prevent certain banned players from harassing the server, but nowadays the automatic bans may be causing more harm than good by pre-emptively banning any player who uses a VPN. The admins can re-enable bans in the plugin if there is ever a situation in the future where it is necessary.
Staff News document will be public starting in 2024
The private Staff News documents from 2024 onwards will now become public. Previous Staff News documents from 2023 and earlier will remain private due to concerns that they may contain sensitive information, though we may look at publicizing them at a later date. The Staff News document keeps a records of all the things that are usually in the #notifications channel on Discord, plus these additional items:
- Member application rejections
- Guest bans
- Station renames
- Username changes
- Deputy mayor changes
GSMs will now be on Saturdays only starting in 2024
For better consistency and to make it easier to remember, GSMs will now always be held on Saturdays, and not alternate between Saturdays and Sundays. The dates for all GSMs in 2024 have now been added to the Events Calendar on this website.
Next GSM
- The next General Staff Meeting will be held on Saturday, January 13th at 7pm UTC.
- Moderator nominations and Conductor applications are due by Saturday, January 6th at 7pm UTC.
- All other community topics are due by Thursday, January 11th at 7pm UTC.