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Hiya, Sese here! And with that, it’s time for the news from the November 14th GSM.

Yellow Gang (New Premier)

This GSM, we reviewed the town of Oparia for Premier. With a vote of 8 For and 0 Against, kyyl joins the rank of Premiers on the server. He had this to say at the GSM:

Gold Gang (New Mods!)

As we mentioned in the past GSMs/ISMs, this GSM featured the new moderator nomination process. We had 4 candidates who were up for debate at this GSM. Out of that, 2 were promoted. Congrats to kyyl/KyleFrb and daltdisneyland! Click below to see all of the candidates we discussed and candidates who received one nomination. Remember that candidates need 2 nominations to be discussed at GSMs/discord review channels.

Server Updates

On November 17th, Main server has updated to 1.16.4! Make sure to update your launchers if you haven’t connected to the server since the update. Some new things include:

• GSit has replaced RFChairs
  • /lay to lie down and make snoring sounds
  • /crawl to crawl around
  • You can sit on other people now!
• //setbiome and //regen don’t make the server panic so admods can do them now by request
• You can now use your scroll wheel to select floors on a Lift. Right click on a [Lift] sign with no item to enable it. The old way of clicking a sign with an item still works.

Frumple has cancelled planning the survival server due to the events of October and the influx of new staff who will need onboarding. That isn’t to say that it will never happen but won’t happen for the foreseeable future.

Now, on to the other proposals at the GSM!

Rule Changes

Some rule changes are on the horizon based on two proposals that Frumple showed at the GSM.

First off, we will be adding Rule #13 (centered around voicechat conversations):

Second, staff have decided to take a pro-LGBT, anti-racist, anti-sexist stance. Based on current climate around us, we believe that everyone should be comfortable and that should apply to this server. Staff members will be expected to enforce the rules against any form of racism, sexism, homophobia, and transphobia. In short, treat each other with respect. Or as Bill and Ted said “be excellent to each other and party on!”. Official wording for this one is still being worked on by Frumple and will be updated on the main site in the future.

Community Topics

Godzilltrain proposed moving the Premier City voting to the Public Portion of GSM. This was discussed for a good chunk of time but ended up with no changes to the current process due to worries over members messing with staff during a vote.

We accepted a proposal from kyyl and CodyHM to add pronoun roles such as he/him, she/her, and they/them. You can add them to your discord profile through the #selfassign-roles channel on discord.

kyyl submitted a proposal to increase the recommended build count for Governor to 80. Based on feedback from members and staff, the decision was made to raise it to 70 so it still has a curve from Senator to Governor to Premier.

sasha9076 proposed adding @media and @event roles to discord so people wouldn’t have to use @everyone pings. This was denied based on the media/events channel setup we have currently. You can set your notifications for certain messages and pings by channel in Discord. If you have any questions on how to discord, ask an admod and we will gladly help you out!

Central City Revamp

There has been a lot of talk around changes to Central City. This GSM featured a proposal from wipeout111 to remove old buildings (mainly buildings with incomplete exteriors) and open new plots for construction. This sparked a lot of constructive conversation between the community. For now, we tabled this proposal for now to allow AP_Red to conduct an inventory of what builds we currently have in Central City. With this information, we can better evaluate the situation of all builds in Central City.

In addition, CentralLink Metro is currently amid a renovation by multiple members. AP_Red is heading this up with multiple members so contact him if you would like to renovate a CentralLink Metro station!

Roads? Roads!

B97 from Fuxemburg to Beachview was approved.

B845 from Roadonia to Birchwood was approved.

A12 bypass/reproposal was approved

B53 from Redwood to Metromso was approved.

Hold my Taco for my Burrito

XIX TacoBurritoAThon was approved. Tentative dat is Saturday, December 12th at 19:00 UTC. It will be held in Hendon with Skelezomperman and LondonThameslink heading it up. Message Skele if you want to participate!

Is It Cold in Here or Just Me?

Brrrr, Arctic line extension has been completed from Snowtopic (A32) to Kaloro City – Pine Park (A53). With it being opened, all stations are currently claimable!

Aaaaaand that’s a wrap on all of the fun stuff. Stay safe and wash your hands

– Sese

We did it! We successfully speedran a staff meeting – today’s ISM was open and closed in 1 minute, 4 seconds! In that time we approved:

• An inactive town bypass for Fred Rail at the town of Toshi Town.
• An extension to the B287 between Malosa and Turtle City.
• An inactive asset transfer of C92 Station to Cynra_.
• Renaming Lake Victoria to the Victorian Sea.
• Renaming Lake 53 to Piccolo Lake.

Looking ahead to the next few meetings, which we will not speedrun:

• Moderator nominations for the November GSM will close at 19:00 UTC on Saturday, November 7. Because of how the weekends line up, you’ve got a couple weeks to submit them this time around. Thank you to everyone who has submitted them so far – we’ve received several already, and one person submitted nine nominations in one email, so we’re certainly looking forward to the new process!
• As more countries will be switching to or from Daylight Saving Time over the coming weeks, please double check what time the meeting will be in your local time zone. The meeting and all deadlines are at 19:00 UTC on the appropriate days.
• We will have an ISM on November 28, however our December ISM (which was scheduled for December 27) has been cancelled. Our final staff meeting of the year will be the December General meeting on December 13. Please plan ahead if you have any year-end events or projects you’d like us to review.

<3, Chief

Hi all! Sese on the propaganda this time. First for everything and there’s a lot to unpack from this GSM so buckle up, folks!

Given the events from the past week, people have released various statements. In addition, people have provided more evidence of various players breaking server rules. One thing of evidence was a groupchat between MRT members in 2018, originally on the creation of an airline alliance. This groupchat would later be used as informal communication between the members. In this chat, members of this chat shared personal information of a member on the MRT and harassed said member behind their back.

This evidence, combined with what we have, is now being reclassified as “inconclusive” in determining who was responsible for the 2018 doxxing incident, specifically in the initial finding of information. Because of this, we are rescinding _Kastle’s double warning and retracting our original charges and an apology has been issued to _Kastle for our earlier decision based on weak evidence. We are keeping _Kastle’s termination in place however, so he won’t be able to return to the staff.

Three members will be receiving indefinite bans because of explicit and egregious harassment: woorich999, camelfantasy, and Frosty_Creeper10.

time2makemymove will be receiving a double warning for making highly disrespectful comments towards certain members, and for standing by the more egregious harassment from the other three.

New Mod Process and Current Staff Audit

In light of all the staffing changes, a new moderator nomination process was unveiled at the GSM. This is in effect now so you can nominate people for moderator for the November GSM.

Here’s the highlights:

• All submitted moderator nominations will be shown on the public portion of the GSM agenda. These nominations can be of any quality or detail, however it is strongly encouraged to have screenshots or chat logs.
• When a member has received 2 nominations, they will be asked by staff if they are actually interested in the position. If they are, they will remain on the list of nominees and be subject to any and all feedback from other members and staff. Otherwise, they will be removed from consideration.
• Members have the option to be removed from any future consideration for the moderator position at any time.
• Moderator nominations will now close 1 week before the GSM, instead of the usual deadline for all other topics 2 days before.
• During the 1 week before the GSM, members and staff will be given the chance to submit additional feedback (positive or negative) on the candidates. Separate temporary Discord channels will be made for discussing each candidate, while #forum will remain open for discussion of all other GSM topics.
• All nominations and feedback cannot be submitted anonymously.
• All members and staff will be responsible for addressing and reacting to all feedback in a civil and respectful manner. Those that cannot maturely give or receive such feedback may be given warnings.
• Frumple retains the power to veto any moderator candidates that he does not think would be a good fit for the staff team. If Frumple chooses to veto, he will notify members and staff and provide a reasoning for the veto.

Staff will openly discuss the candidates in the public portion, but they will still make the final decision on whether to promote or reject a candidate. A candidate must receive a simple 50% majority of “For” votes from staff, and they must not receive more than 2 “Against” votes.

Here’s a timeline for how the new process will work:

In addition to the process for new mods, we also decided on a audit system for current staff. Similar to the new moderator nomination process, you can submit positive/negative feedback over a current staff member to Frumple. We don’t expect any staff changes from this but we will use the feedback as a way to improve.

Below are the weeks where each staff member will be up for review.

Main Server Update to 1.16.4

Main server will be updating soon to 1.16.4. Beta is up currently to test but so far we haven’t had any major issues except one:

• ArmorStandTools is not compatible with 1.16 and will be disabled when we update. Current armor stands will still exist (verified on beta) and we are evaluating possible replacements at this time.

Discord Updates

We had quite a few proposals about discord channels and we opted to make a few of them into survey questions in order to gauge members opinion.

One change has already been implemented: #events has been split into #event-announcements and #event-discussion. This was due to lots of side discussion happening in #events drowning out announcements. This allows people to set notifications on for #event-announcements without worry of spammed notifications.

The following survey questions have been posted in Discord as of this post:

• Do you approve of adding a new #memes Discord channel, dedicated for memes separate from random talk/posts in #random channel?
• Do you approve of adding a #history Discord channel, for the discussion of IRL history. Alternatively, do you approve of adding an #irl-general channel instead, for the discussion of IRL topics that don’t belong in any other IRL channel?
• Do you approve of adding a permanent slowmode to #media channel and/or splitting #media channel into two channels for announcements and discussion?

Roads

BillionPenny483 proposed a Uniform Road Signage System for A and B roads on the MRT. We declined this proposal since we felt that road builders should not be punished if they don’t sign a road. Now, any signage is better than none at all. Other players have created signage all across the MRT to use.

• If you want to update the signage on an A road, email staff to get approval.
• If you want to update the signage on a B road, contact the road owner to get approval.

New Extension Opening

godzilltrain has opened the Expo East Extension 2 from Bawktown South (XE42) to East Mesa (XE52). All stations except the previously mentioned along the route are open for claiming and subject to normal claiming rules.

Wew. *wipes forehead* I think that’s all. If you have any questions, staff are always here so don’t hesitate to reach out. For me, let me know your thoughts on how I did this edition of propaganda as I will be helping write them in the future.

– Sese

Important update: We reviewed additional evidence about these events at the GSM on October 11, and at that meeting we retracted _Kastle’s double warning and associated charges, which were incorrectly issued as a result of allegations of doxxing against _Kastle. The complete sum of evidence we reviewed has since been ruled “inconclusive” as to who was involved and to what extent. We are keeping _Kastle’s termination from the staff team in place due to other unrelated complaints that we received during our investigation. This post has been updated to reflect these retractions; more information is available in the October 2020 GSM Results. We sincerely apologize to _Kastle for how we handled this situation, as we should not have jumped to conclusions so soon.

The MRT celebrated the sixth anniversary of the New World’s opening over the weekend. Six years ago, what was a single (albeit cluttered) Minecraft world split into five, which introduced the rank structure we have today and a significant increase in available terrain. We as a community have built quite a lot since then, both in terms of in-game construction, and in the intangible social aspects that have been vital to our collective well-being in 2020.

Recently we have become increasingly aware of a sizable group within our community who have felt excluded or otherwise treated as second-class community members, often because they either infrequently or never join our Mumble voice chat server. These community members have long believed that, because they are not in this group of regular Mumble participants, they are therefore less important when it comes to event participation or in-game requests like WorldEdits – or they are less qualified when it comes to being nominated for a moderator position. Furthermore, several community members have historically hesitated in either intervening in or reporting potential rule violations to staff, especially when it has been staff members committing the infraction in question, either out of fear of retribution or out of fear of being ignored. This same hesitation comes up in all sorts of other areas of feedback to staff. These beliefs and the hesitation in coming forward do not reflect how we intend our community to work, and they are now widespread enough that we as a staff team can no longer ignore them.

These are things that we, collectively as a community, need to change. We need to put in the work to actively reach out and listen to each other and build a more inclusive and welcoming community. We need to reform some of our processes so that access to staff assistance and staff positions does not depend on how comfortable someone is participating in voice chat. We need to open upward lines of communication to ensure that ideas and complaints can be heard and acted upon. And we need to rebuild trust in each other so that when something happens, calling it out won’t bring any negative consequences to the person who noticed that something is wrong. All of us have an important role to play in facilitating these changes, from prospective guests to senior staff members and everyone in between. These changes will be hard, and they won’t come easily.

Most of the need for this change was brought to our attention through an investigation we’ve been conducting over the past month to gauge general community sentiment and feedback on some specific areas. When we asked participants if they had suggestions or complaints about processes and even individual staff members, we heard several recurring themes, and several repeated complaints about a few particular incidents and staff members. Even though many of these complaints were brought to us under the condition of anonymity, the fact that multiple people have complained about the same things – some with more concrete evidence and allegations than others – is enough to suggest a worrying pattern that we need to act on.

As a result of this investigation and an emergency Administrative Staff Meeting that was held on October 4, we have taken some specific actions and issued sanctions against a few specific individuals. These are:

• woorich999 has been issued a double warning, charged under Most Important Rule One (“Be kind and respectful to other players”) and General Rule 9 (“Do not reveal personally identifiable information about others”). We received complaints and evidence to suggest that woorich999 was involved in finding, spreading, and using personal information of another MRT member to mock them behind their back (and, specifically, using personal information beyond what this MRT member had previously released to the public). We typically don’t post double warnings on the website, but because this was decided at the ASM and is in response to the complaints we received, we feel the need to post it here. (Update: At the October 2020 GSM, this was upgraded to an indefinite ban due to the extremely egregious nature of this harassment.)
• _Kastle has been terminated from Moderator and issued a double warning. This decision arises from the multiple complaints that we received from community members about _Kastle’s attitude towards members and general performance as a moderator. Several of these complaints alleged incidents where _Kastle had made belittling comments in voice channels about members while they were offline, including some members who have mental illnesses. The evidence we received is also enough to suggest that _Kastle was online during the incident that woorich999 received a double warning for, and that _Kastle either actively participated in the incident, or at the very least did not intervene as we expect moderators to do. (Update: The evidence that we were presented was not conclusive enough to warrant a double warning, and so the double warning has been retracted. We have kept _Kastle’s termination from Moderator in place as a result of other unrelated complaints we received during our investigation. More information is available in the October 2020 GSM Results.)
• Echohue has been suspended from Moderator for 3 months. We received complaints and concrete evidence to confirm that Echohue actively sought out moderator nominations back in July and August 2019. As our policy has long been that nominations should be earned organically, this casts doubts on the authenticity of the nominations, and therefore we need to suspend Echohue’s staff position. Echohue will be eligible to return to the staff at or after the January 2021 GSM, and will need to go through the moderator nomination process to be reinstated.
• _Mossie has been suspended from Moderator for 3 months. We received information to confirm that, during the September GSM, _Mossie provided live updates to a non-staff member while a moderator candidate was under consideration. We interpret this as a serious breach of trust as private portion topics are generally assumed to be sealed until announced through existing processes. _Mossie, like Echohue, will be eligible to return to the staff as of the January 2021 GSM and will need to go through the nomination process.
• We will be introducing a new moderator nomination process at the October GSM, effective at the November GSM, and scrubbing all current and deferred moderator candidates. One of the most common and actionable complaints we received was that our current system of moderator nominations is not working. We are therefore proposing changing the system entirely and replacing it with a much more open forum where all community opinions, nominations, and even the vote itself are held publicly (though only staff will be able to cast votes). The text of the proposal itself can be found here.
• Separately from the actions taken at the ASM, cal76 has been demoted from Moderator due to inactivity. This action was taken the day before the ASM, and was done as cal76’s Minecraft activity levels have decreased significantly over the past several months even though he remains active in Discord. However, if he chooses to become more active in the future, we will certainly welcome his consideration as a moderator again.

More information about each of these actions is available in the #announcements channel in Discord.

Additionally, we have three voluntary departures from the staff team that we need to announce: daltdisneyland, hvt2011, and Valkorion314 have all stepped down from their moderator positions. For Dalt specifically, we received several complaints that called his moderator nominations and the underlying process into question, and Dalt has agreed to step down for the time being and be re-evaluated by the community under our new process when the time is right.

In response to some of the most common complaints and suggestions we received, we want to reiterate our stance on two key items, which will not be changing:

• Mumble will remain an option for voice chat, and will not be shutting down. Discord and Mumble each have their pros and cons that make them great in some circumstances and unreliable or difficult in others. We also know that everyone has different opinions about the stability, features, and even some of the privacy and legal implications of using these platforms, so we want to accommodate those preferences.
• WorldEdit will never be available to anyone other than active staff members. The primary reason for this is the need for community stewardship and service. Providing WorldEdit to other players opens the door for abuse (even with low block limits), permanent damage beyond what admins can repair, and staff members enjoying the perks of WorldEdit without providing the service or assistance to the rest of the community that a staff position requires. Additional information is on the FAQ page here.

We do acknowledge that the investigation that we conducted and process that we went about with handing out punishments was not perfect by any means. We the admins can say that Vulpicula was the lead person in reaching out to several current and former “disillusioned” MRT members, and we did make efforts to ensure that his approach was as objective as possible. This included adjusting his initial questions to be less biased and leading, and having 1-on-1 conversations with some of those he interviewed and independently verifying their information. There were certainly more things we could’ve improved here here, but we do think that the overall outcome (at least in terms of demotions) would’ve still have been the same regardless. We also have to acknowledge that the only likely way we would’ve been able to get this information from these disillusioned members is by guaranteeing their anonymity, and having someone like Vulpicula to conduct those interviews. Keep in mind that many of these members simply did not feel comfortable bringing up these issues with other staff, admins, or even Frumple, because of the social atmosphere described previously. There have been calls from some members for us to reveal the evidence that led us to our decision, but we will not violate our promise to protect the anonymity of those who submitted this information. Suffice to say, we hope that from this process that our community can learn to be more open and honest with each other about their concerns, and we hope that we do not have to employ the use of anonymous feedback in this manner ever again.

In closing, we want to acknowledge the impact these changes will have on the community. For many of you, your social web has been significantly altered, perhaps permanently, by these changes and the ripple effects they have had. For some of you, this may change how and how much you decide to play on the server, if at all. We hope, however, that the community as a whole is able to work together to rebuild trust in each other and reopen lines of communication that have historically been closed (whether intentionally or not). Conducting this investigation and hearing this critical feedback was something we needed to do, albeit not the way we would have liked to hear this feedback; we would much rather everyone be open and honest with each other and with us in addressing problems. We believe that many of these issues could have had less severe sanctions or less of a community impact had we known about them and addressed them earlier. We apologize for not doing so sooner.

Please take the time you need to take care of yourself and process all of this information, and know that things will continue to change in the coming months. For those who plan to stay active or increase their activity, please be patient when working with staff in-game, as there are several fewer of us than there were a week ago. For those taking a break, the community will be here with open arms if and when you choose to return.

<3,
chiefbozx
Head Administrator

The September 2020 ISM has come and gone, and here’s what happened!

• A TuxCart tournament, organized by underscorepie, has been funded in full. This is the first entirely non-Minecraft event we’ve approved funding for, and we’re looking forward to seeing how it goes.
• The town of Chestwick (A18) has been transferred to ModernArt.
• The town of Grafton has been split: the eastern segment has been transferred to PaintedBlue, and the western segment has been transferred to EtihadMan.
• Siletz Central Airlines has been transferred to frogggggg.
• The Taiga Line Extension 2 (TLX2) from T50 to T58 has been opened. Station applications for T55 and T57 were awarded to SansNotLuigi and moose_52, respectively.
• The community town of Jimbo has been granted permission to build facilities for up to two helicopter-class vehicles to land (these could be helicopters, airships, blimps, etc).
• A request to rename Lake 32 to “Neobaltic Sea” was denied.
• VickiTori_ has been granted permission to start building the Western North Extension 1 (WNX1) from WN30 to Aston. The route map is included below.

That’s all for now, we’ll see you around!

<3, Chief