MRT NewsChannel/Stories/Archive/June 2017

May 2017

The Archives of MRT NewsChannel June 2017

July 2017

Next GSM to be held July 9 Status of _Kastle and godzilltrain to be resolved by then

9:26 PM EDT June 30, 2017

On Friday evening, Frumple announced that the July GSM will be held on Sunday, July 9 at 1900 UTC (3 PM EDT). The GSM is "not expected to be...time-consuming" and will mostly focus on backlogs for the Staff. Frumple also confirmed to MRT NewsChannel that a decision would be made on the status of Trial Moderators godzilltrain and _Kastle by the GSM as their probation periods both expire that day.

MRT NewsChannel will live-stream and live-tweet the public portion when it starts.

Batch 14 results announced 2 Senator promotions, no applications for Governor or Premier

9:16 PM EDT June 30, 2017

Batch Results

Senator
Spruce Valley - TheSubway
Royal Ferry - MIKE24DUDE
Beaufort - frankbros429
Welsbury - dragonbloon419
Amestris - I_90
Itomori - yoko_Mitsuha
Paixton - CaptLincoln

On Friday evening, Frumple posted the results of City Promotion Batch 14 on the website. Two towns were promoted to Senator: Itomori, whose mayor is yoko_Mitsuha, and Paixton, whose mayor is CaptLincoln.

Batch 15 voting begins Day after Batch 14 promotions

UPDATE at 9:13 AM EDT July 1, 2017: Voting on Batch 15 has begun.

3:28 PM EDT June 26, 2017

On Monday afternoon, godzilltrain announced that City Rank Promotion Batch #15 will begin on July 1. This is the same day that the results of Batch #14 will be announced, one day after voting by Staff is to end on Friday, June 30. June 30 is also the deadline to submit cities for Batch 15. It will end on Friday, July 14, with promotions to be announced shortly afterwards.

Candidate registration opens for July 2017 Election Candidacies announced by several

UPDATE at 7:13 PM EDT June 28, 2017: Several new candidates have registered since this article was published. FredTheTimeLord officially confirmed his candidacy for President Sunday night, while Skelezomperman registered for President on Monday morning and BernCow registered on Wednesday afternoon. AlikSong also confirmed his candidacy for Secretary of State overnight Sunday, and dragonbloon419 entered the Chief Justice race for the second consecutive election on Tuesday evening. Joint Poll #1's results will be released on Saturday, although neither BernCow nor dragonbloon419 are included due to their late entries.

5:19 PM EDT June 25, 2017

On Sunday morning, registration for the July 2017 Election began and several candidacies were officially confirmed; others were announced on the spot.

For President, MikeRoma of the MRT Green Party registered for the third consecutive time even though earlier he had stated that he had not intended to do this. Mr. Roma did not have poor showings in either of his two previous candidacies, winning 42.42% of the vote in January and 43.9% of the vote in April, the latter after forcing voting to go to a second round. Independent FredTheTimeLord has also announced his candidacy but has yet to register; he ran in April for President and at 17.9% had the best showing of any third candidate in the race. A third candidate, jphgolf4321, the first President and Founder of the United Cities, has been rumored to be exploring a run for President even after resigning from Vice President but no official announcement has been made. The incumbent President _Kastle is constitutionally unable to run for any officer position in this election after serving two terms.

For Vice President, mdbro55 of the MRT Green Party and Secretary of State mine_man_ of the Social Democratic Party both officially confirmed their candidacies. They had announced their candidacies earlier this month. Secretary Mineman won his first election by a 57% majority and his second with an overwhelming 85%, while Mr. Mdbro has never ran for an election. The incumbent Vice President hvt2011 has not expressed any interest in running for his position again.

So far for Secretary of State, independent MindBender15 registered on the same day he joined the United Ciites. AlikSong of the MRT Green Party has already announced his candidacy and will likely register later today. He has very good popularity ratings among the MRT, nearly defeating cal76 in the January election for Chief Justice. The incumbent Secretary of State mine_man_ is unable to run again for the position but has declared candidacy for Vice President.

For Attorney General, KittyCat11231 has registered, and will likely be the only incumbent to run for their position again. No other people have announced an interest in running for Attorney General.

Finally for Chief Justice, tomtomy8, the new leader of the MRT Labour Party, confirmed his candidacy while Associate Justice mjpwwf announced his candidacy. Mr. Tomy succeeded DJMC2000 as leader of the Labour Party following the proxy voting scandal and has never ran for an election. Justice Pueff when we interviewed him earlier this month was unsure of whether he would run however much of the right wanted him to do so in order to succeed cal76.

The first poll by the Joint Polling Alliance, which includes MRT NewsChannel, will begin tomorrow, with results to be released on Saturday.

Website returns after maintenance Screenshot Contest winners uploaded

UPDATE at 4:00 PM EDT June 23, 2017: The website has returned with the Top 16 from the Screenshot Contest up.

1:13 PM EDT June 23, 2017

On Friday afternoon, Frumple took the website down for maintenance. He stated that this was because he needed to increase the file upload limit for the Website in order to accept the screenshots from the second Screenshot Contest. The Website is the only service being taken down, as the other web services, including the Wiki, will stay up. MRT NewsChannel will monitor the situation and provide updates.

GSM concludes, results announced See the summary here

7:56 PM EDT June 18, 2017

The GSM concluded on Sunday after 3.5 hours. The results were announced and can be seen here. The results of the Screenshot Contest and City Batch #13 were also announced, see below.

Voting on City Batch 14 begins immediately Caused by 5 cities being left off of City Batch 13

UPDATE at 7:04 PM EDT June 19, 2017: Voting on Batch 14 has started immediately, including the five cities left off of Batch 13 plus two applications done since the deadline. Voting will close on June 30, promotions will be announced on July 1.

11:28 AM EDT June 19, 2017

On Monday morning, Frumple stated that five submissions made on May 31, the deadline for City Promotion Batch #13, were left out of the batch even though they were valid. At least three people were seen complaining that they had sent in a valid application without their city in the batch.

Frumple told reporters that the situation "is unfair" but that he is unable to do anything about it. He stated that he could rectify the situation by "start[ing] batch 14 now, instead of having the five wait until mid-July" for their results.

No official announcement has been made about Batch 14, which at the GSM was stated to be slated to start at the beginning of July, however we will bring you that news when it comes.

Spleef fever hits the MRT

11:46 AM EDT June 20, 2017

The newest fad has popped up in the MRT almost overnight, spleef. It began when early Saturday morning, jphgolf4321, known for being an avid fan of American sports, founded Major League Spleef, part spoof of Major League Soccer (the top professional association football league in the United States) and part event-generator to give the server something to do. It had grown so fast that it was even discussed at the GSM, with Frumple stating in the public portion that "the server loves fads." Today, there are 20 teams in MLS, just as the season begins tomorrow after the deadline for applying to join passes.

The MLS uses a ranking system similar to real-life association football as a win brings three points to the team that wins, a draw brings one point, and a loss brings zero points. Each team will play four matches per week, and in either July or August will be the Shovelers' Cup Playoffs, which will decide the winner. There has also been talk of a mid-season "MRT Open," which would be a spoof of the real-life US Open (of soccer) in that the MRT Open, if it occurs, would be a tournament which anyone can enter.

jphgolf4321 demoted to Trial Mod Trial Mod rank to be used for Staff with warnings

6:53 PM EDT June 18, 2017

At the June GSM, Frumple announced that jphgolf4321 was demoted to Trial Moderator. This was following for calls for his demotion from several players following an incident that occurred in the United Cities. Frumple also stated that Trial Mod will be used as a rank for moderators with warnings from now on and will have a 3-month probationary period like new moderators.

City Batch #13 announced 3 Senators, no Governors

8:06 PM EDT June 18, 2017

Promotion requests and results
Senator	Governor	Premier
DesertView - lfpp003	Stoneedge - SoSo123	City of Evella - LDShadowLord
Woodsdale - Hightech_TR		Segville - godzilltrain
Dabecco - Sirots
Verdantium - Mossie_1810
Heights City - Toaro

Voting for City Batch #13 concluded Saturday night, and the results were announced at the GSM public portion. 3 towns were promoted to Senator: Woodsdale, owned by Hightech_TR, Dabecco, owned by Sirots, and Verdantium, owned by Mossie_1810. All three of those players got player promotions. The towns denied for Senator were DesertView, owned by lfpp003, and Heights City, owned by Toaro.

Only one town applied for Governor, which was Stoneedge, owned by SoSo123, and that was denied. Two towns applied for Premier, which were Evella, owned by LDShadowLord, and Segville, owned by godzilltrain, both of which denied.

Staff notably were unanimous on all towns. The feedback can be seen here.

Screenshot Contest won by MikeRoma Top 10 to be featured on website

8:09 PM EDT June 18, 2017

The Screenshot Contest results were announced at the GSM. The voting was said by Frumple to be fair, which pleased him.

Winning first place was MikeRoma with "Copperport," and he got a $10000 prize. In second earning a $5000 prize was Mossie_1810 with "Rainy Night in Verdantium," in third earning $3000 was MC_Protocol with "A Refreshing Day in Victoria," in fourth earning $2000 was camelfantasy with "Fort Yaxier Central Station," and in fifth earning $1000 was godzilltrain with "Central Park in the morning." All other qualified submissions earned $100.

The results, including average scores, can be seen here.

Technical issues with UUIDs Likely caused by Mojang blacklist of OVH

10:49 PM EDT June 18, 2017

Mojang has apparently blacklisted servers from OVH from using their API. OVH, of course, hosts the MRT server. These issues mean that there are problems with the /skull command, which accesses heads, as well as with promoting players, an issue which had initially delayed several promotions. Owner Frumple stated at the GSM that he is planning on contacting Mojang to rectify the situation.

Green Party leaves MRT International Result of unauthorized proxy votes

'UPDATE at 11:31 PM EDT June 18, 2017: MRT International is functionally dead. All members who are active in the United Cities have left.

UPDATE at 8:11 PM EDT June 18, 2017: CaptainChimpy has admitted guilt and left the United Cities, and Case #8 has been ruled in favor of the Department of Law, with the two wrong votes being stricken from the record.

7:19 PM EDT June 17, 2017

On Saturday evening, Ardyle, the founder of the MRT Green Party, announced that it was leaving MRT International. He stated that MRT International “has failed to accomplish its goals” and that they will return if the coalition decides to “conform to our standards of...democracy.” This is likely related to the scandal in which CaptainChimpy was found to have placed fake a proxy votes on the wiki for AlikSong. CaptainChimpy during voting on Resolution 102 placed proxy votes for AlikSong and BuildPilot, both members of the Green Party, the latter of whom has not been online for over 2 weeks and has no Discord account in the MRT or the UC Discord. After that, Attorney General KittyCat11231 filed suit in the United Cities Court on Thursday seeking to mark the proxy votes invalid, and the case continued even after the Director of Party Programme for MRT International DJMC2000 removed the proxy votes and stated that an internal investigation was underway. And just earlier today, the Attorney General posted an opening argument with evidence that CaptainChimpy had not only put a “NAY” vote that AlikSong had not authorized, but changed a "YEA" vote placed by Mr. Song with a "NAY" vote.. It was also concluded that it is extremely unlikely that BuildPilot has done so due to him not having been on the server for over two weeks and not having voted on a resolution for two months. As a result, AlikSong left MRT International, and the party followed with him.

The Amazing Race 7 concludes Session 2

10:19 AM EDT June 18, 2017

The Amazing Race 7 has concluded its second session on Saturday. Again, it only consisted of two legs.

Leg 3 was split between the Amberstone server (the location of Leg 2) and the WolvHaven server, the latter of which is not only Anglophone but shares a significant portion of its community with the MRT due to the fact that similarly to the MRT, WolvHaven has a focus on transit. Leg 3 had issues with lag on WolvHaven, likely caused by a combination of tps issues because of the amount of people online at the time and connection problems due to the fact that it is hosted in Singapore, while every player in The Amazing Race except for one resides in either North America or Europe. It was won by Team GOP, with Due To Time finishing last. Leg 3 was originally intended to be an elimination leg but was decided to be non-elimination instead due to lag problems, and similarly to Leg 2, Leg 3 had no effect on places; a prize was not awarded to Team GOP, and Due To Time was not required to do a Speed Bump in Leg 4.

Leg 4 was held entirely on the MRT server and initially was intended to have been played later, however it was moved up due to the issues with lag on WolvHaven. It started in Laclede and continued to Arisa, where the pit stop was. Originally in first was 2 Brains 2 Drunks, however a time penalty meant that they were passed by Derpy_bus22, who won the prize, while Actual Team Name finished in last place and was eliminated. A Double U-Turn was also present but had no effect; the first U-Turn was done by 2 Brains 2 Drunks (who eventually finished second) against Actual Team Name, however Actual Team Name did not make it to the U-Turn before being eliminated, and the second one was used by War Flashbacks against hvt2011, however at the time hvt2011 had already passed the U-Turn although he was later overtaken by War Flashbacks.

The date of Session 3 has not been decided yet, however it is unlikely that it will occur next weekend. MRT NewsChannel will live-stream Session 3 and any further sessions when they happen.

VI TacoBurritoAThon won by Team Taco

10:22 AM EDT June 18, 2017

VI TacoBurritoAThon was held in Utopia and concluded after about an hour on Saturday afternoon. It was won by Team Taco 3-2, giving Team Taco their first win in TacoBurritoAThon since I TacoBurritoAThon. Team Taco, which consisted of hvt2011 and BernCow, won the Marathon, Spleef, and Sumotori events, while Team Bacon, consisting of FredTheTimeLord, mine_man_, and jphgolf4321, won the Swimming and American Football events. Team Taco split a $430 prize, one of the largest in TacoBurritoAThon history.

VII TacoBurritoAThon's date was also announced to be July 15, the weekend of the MRT's 5th anniversary. It had already been awarded to the city of Konawa at the same time as VI TacoBurritoAThon, and VIII TacoBurritoAThon has also already been awarded to the city of Fort Yaxier.

hvt2011 confirmed as Vice President Controversy over stance on Resolution 101

UPDATE at 11:55 AM EDT June 16, 2017: hvt2011's confirmation has passed the General Assembly 23-10.

6:41 AM EDT June 15, 2017

Overnight Thursday, hvt2011 was nominated by President Kastle for the post of Vice President. This is as Resolution 101 was closed as a tie with no sitting Vice President to break the tie. Voting closes on Friday morning.

GSM concludes 2 hour private portion

UPDATE at 6:30 PM EDT June 18, 2017: The GSM has concluded, there will be a full wrap up on the MRT News Report at 7 EDT.

UPDATE at 1:00 PM EDT June 18, 2017: The GSM has been delayed two hours in order to allow for more staff to join.

5:38 PM EDT June 16, 2017

On Friday afternoon, the deadline for submitting proposals to the GSM passed. This was 48 hours prior to the start of the GSM at 1700 UTC on Sunday, which is 1 PM EDT.

Shortly thereafter, Owner Frumple posted to the website to state this; he also included a link to a Google Doc that includes the agenda items. Included in the agenda is 1 road proposal, 3 project proposals, 7 auction requests, and several "Community issues", most notably the 5th anniversary of the server, a section whose name has been redacted, and a section bluntly titled "United Cities". It is unknown what the latter two are related to and what will come out of them.

MRT NewsChannel will be live-tweeting the GSM on the twitter @mrt_newschannel, as well as live-streaming it starting at 3 PM EDT, two hours after the private portion commences.

Screenshot Voting closes after two weeks Winners to be announced at the GSM

UPDATE at 10:11 AM EDT June 18, 2017: Voting has closed and the winners will be announced today.

5:41 PM EDT June 16, 2017

The Second Screenshot Contest's voting will close at 2400 UTC (8 PM EDT) on Saturday Night. Voting will have been open to the community for two weeks. The Second Screenshot Contest, like the first one, will pay monetary prizes to the winners, including a $10000 prize for first place, and top posts will be featured on the website. The winners will be announced at the GSM on Sunday.

The Amazing Race 7 to continue today

10:20 PM EDT June 16, 2017

The Amazing Race 7 will continue on Saturday with its second session. Session 2 will start at 1830 UTC (2:30 PM EDT), and will begin at the Amberstone server. It is unknown how many more legs will be done on other servers.

Session 2 will start with Leg 3. Leg 2 was a non-elimination leg, however notably the team which finished last in Leg 2, Mind Your Bases, will not be required to do a Speed Bump in Leg 3 because of several rule breaks caught in Leg 2 which normally would result in penalties; this also resulted in the winners of Leg 2, 2 Brains 2 Drunks, being asked to relinquish their prizes from that leg.

This session, and all further sessions, will be livestreamed by MRT NewsChannel starting 5 minutes prior to the beginning.

VI TacoBurritoAThon to be held today

9:44 AM EDT June 17, 2017

VI TacoBurritoAThon will be held today in Utopia. It will start at 1700 UTC (1 PM EDT), 90 minutes prior to Session 2 of The Amazing Race. TacoBurritoAThon is known for being, in the words of Commissioner Skelezomperman, "the only successful sporting event" in the MRT. The prize has not been revealed yet but has been estimated to be upwards of $300.

TacoBurritoAThon's format is that it splits the players into two teams, Taco and Bacon, who each have to compete in five events: Sumotori, Spleef, Swimming, Marathon, and American Football. The team which wins the most events wins the entire TBAThon and the prize. Historically Team Bacon has dominated TacoBurritoAThon as only once in the history of the event has Team Taco won, this being in the pre-New World I TacoBurritoAThon held in Crystal City.

City Batch 13 Voting Extended to June 17 Promotions will be announced at June GSM on Sunday

11:06 AM EDT June 13, 2017

On Tuesday morning, Owner Frumple announced that voting for City Batch #13 has been extended from June 14 to Saturday, June 17. Promotions will now be announced during the public portion of the June GSM on Sunday, June 18. MRT NewsChannel will live-stream the GSM public portion live as well as live-tweet it.

MRT Minecraft server back up after 3 hours of maintenance Overran end by 30 minutes

UPDATE at 3:27 PM EDT: The server has returned to service after running over the end of maintenance by about 30 minutes.

12:04 PM EDT June 12, 2017

At Noon EDT on Monday, the MRT Minecraft server was brought down for maintenance by Frumple. This will be the last maintenance until the 1.12 update. The maintenance should conclude by 3 PM EDT. MRT NewsChannel will be following on Twitter, @mrt_newschannel.

jphgolf4321 abruptly resigns from Vice President Leaves the UC completely

7:16 AM EDT June 12, 2017

Overnight Monday, jphgolf4321 resigned from his position as Vice President and left the United Cities. Mr. Golf was the founder of the organization and except for a short two day period in January has been an officer for the entirety of the UC's history. He has also resigned as Chairman of the Great Society Congress, a position in which Narnia17 succeeds him.

Mr. Golf in a public statement stated that a private chat that was reportedly named "Real Roads Committee" was created after the resignation of Skelezomperman consisting of all of the Roads Committee members except for PtldKnight. The group was apparently created for the purpose of removing Mr. Knight from the committee, however its existence was leaked out to the President, after which Mr. Golf had allegedly cursed out Skelezomperman as he was the one who allegedly told President Kastle.

President Kastle is to nominate a successor to Mr. Golf as Vice President in accordance with the Constitution.

Minecraft maintenance concludes after one hour Done during early morning

7:11 AM EDT June 12, 2017

At about 6:11 AM EDT, Minecraft was brought down for maintenance by Mojang. Services were originally down, however MRT NewsChannel can confirm that it is possible to log back on to Minecraft now. The MRT Minecraft server will still go down at Noon EDT for maintenance.

Session One of The Amazing Race 7 concludes

Update 5:46 PM EDT: Session One has concluded. Leg 1 was won by Actual Team Name (_Kastle), who won $50, while CyAmethyst and seshpenguin finished in last place and were eliminated. Leg 2 featured the twist which was heading to the Amberstone server, a server which is in creative and is Francophone. In that leg, 2 Brains 2 Drunks (godzilltrain and mine_man_) finished first and won $30, while Baseball02 survived elimination even though he finished last because Leg 2 was a non-elimination leg. The Amazing Race will continue on June 17, and the "twist" has been confirmed to continue for a few more legs.

1:00 PM EDT June 10, 2017

The first session of The Amazing Race 7 will occur today. It will start at ATC-101 in Covina and likely run at least two legs. The race starts at 3 PM EDT; MRT NewsChannel will stream it live starting at 2:55 PM EDT. More updates can be seen on the Twitter, @mrt_newschannel.

mjpwwf confirmed as Associate Justice Unanimously passed General Assembly

4:39 PM EDT June 9, 2017

Update at 11:04 PM EDT: President Kastle signs Resolution 97, therefore confirming mjpwwf as an Associate Justice.

On Thursday, mjpwwf was nominated by Chief Justice cal76 to become an Associate Justice. Mr. Pueff is the founder of the MRT Federalist Party and like the current Associate Justice Narnia17 is a member of the Great Society Congress. He is known for posting long replies to resolutions to analyze them and provide criticism, something that has earned him both praise and scorn. Mr. Pueff's nomination then passed the General Assembly on Friday, and he is expected to have his nomination signed by President Kastle later tonight.

Minecraft server to go down for three hours on Monday Occurs during maintenance by Mojang

5:58 PM EDT June 8, 2017

During scheduled maintenance by Mojang on Minecraft services, Frumple will take down the MRT Minecraft server for maintenance. This will last for three hours from 1600-1900 UTC, which is Noon to 3 PM EDT. Follow @mrt_newschannel for updates.

Minecraft to go down for a few hours on Monday Server maintenance during this time

11:43 AM EDT June 8, 2017

Update at 5:58 PM EDT: There will be maintenance on the Minecraft server on Monday.

On Thursday morning, Mojang announced that Minecraft will be taken down for a couple hours on Monday, June 12. A time was not specified. "Most systems related to the PC system" will be down, which presumably will make it impossible to log-in and connect to the MRT minecraft server. A time was not specified. Frumple also stated that this downtime may also be used for server maintenance. MRT NewsChannel will be monitoring this on Twitter.

Minecraft updates to 1.12 Server will not update for several months

9:02 AM EDT June 7, 2017

On Wednesday, Minecraft officially released version 1.12, the "World of Color" update. The World of Color Update is a major update, giving out several new blocks such as concrete, making new mobs such as parrots, allowing for "recipe books" that save recipes in crafting, and most notably, allowing the saving of up to 9 different toolbars in Creative mode, which is likely the change that will impact the Minecart Rapid Transit server the most. The 1.12 update was already addressed at the May GSM though, when Frumple stated that it was "very bad...for plugins" and was known to break the current versions of several key plugins such as Dynmap; it may take "a while" for the server to update to 1.12.

Supporters revert back to plus symbol from star Star symbol was more compatible with VentureChat

8:58 AM EDT June 7, 2017

On Tuesday, the supporter tag was changed from a plus sign (+) to a star symbol (✭). This was due to errors from VentureChat, which had earlier been configured to allow a pop-up saying what someone with a rank does if one moused over a tag. The plus sign made this impossible for supporters. In addition, a star symbol was also added for staff members who supported the server, making the new tags [Mod✭] and [Admin✭]. This only lasted for about half a day though as overnight the star symbol was changed back to a plus sign, with a new standard to be decided on later (e.g., an exclamation point).

First poll of the July Election Write-in form

6:57 PM EDT June 4, 2017

MRT NewsChannel on Sunday evening released a preliminary, "Way too early" poll for the July 2017 election. It can be voted on here. It is the first poll for the election. MRT NewsChannel will not be doing in-depth coverage of the election for some time though.

Screenshot Contest voting form opens Closes 2400 UTC June 17

10:48 AM EDT June 4, 2017

The voting form for the Screenshot Contest was opened on Saturday night by Frumple. The voting is public for the community and will last two weeks, closing at 2400 UTC (8 PM EDT) on June 17, after two weeks. Several screenshots were submitted to the subreddit. The winners of the Screenshot Contest will be announced at the GSM on June 18, the day after voting closes.

Next GSM on Sunday, June 18 Two hours early at 1700 UTC

4:56 PM EDT June 3, 2017

The June GSM will be held on Sunday, June 18, Frumple announced on Saturday afternoon. It will start at 1700 UTC - 1 PM EDT - 2 hours earlier than normal. In addition, it was stated that the deadline for submitting proposals is 48 hours ahead of time - 1 PM EDT on Friday, June 16. MRT NewsChannel will livestream the GSM as well as livetweet it @mrt_newschannel.

Ben6331 banned for "disrespecting staff" First major ban in months

12:45 PM EDT June 3, 2017

On Saturday afternoon, Ben6331 was banned for "disrespecting staff" by Frumple. It was the first time a long-term member has been banned for several months. Mr. Ben was notable for having been involved in several disputes as of late. His only town, Benion, went to its deputy mayor EliteNeon. No more comment will be made because of the sensitivity of the matter.

Skelezomperman resigns from Associate Justice Voluntarily becomes Observer

Credit: MBS News

11:11 AM EDT June 3, 2017

Skelezomperman resigned from his position as an Associate Justice of the United Cities on Friday, June 2nd, following controversy and accusations he falsely accused United Cities President _Kastle of planning to rig an election. He originally left the United Cities but rejoined as an Observer.

In the United Cities on Thursday, June 1st, Resolution 96, the Election Procedure Reform Act proposed by Skelezomperman, failed to pass the General Assembly by a 7-9 vote. The resolution would have replaced the Election Clerk with an Election Oversight Committee, and would have granted the United Cities Court the right to audit elections and invalidate the results if they were found to be tainted. The new power given to the court was considered controversial and is one of the reasons the resolution did not pass.

On Thursday evening, resolution sponsor Skelezomperman appeared upset over the failure of Resolution 96 to pass, and made sarcastic remarks against some United Cities members who had voted against the resolution. Then, according to reports, Skelezomperman, currently an Associate Justice of the United Cities, stated in Discord that United Cities President _Kastle had privately messaged him that he was going to rig the next election, a message which was then deleted, before President _Kastle made a statement in Discord accusing Skele of making false statements, and providing a screenshot of a Discord private message with Skelezomperman suggesting that _Kastle had never stated he planned to influence the election, despite Skele suggesting the idea to _Kastle in apparent sarcasm.

Skelezomperman admitted the claim was "unsubstantiated" in an article published by the MRT NewsChannel, which Skele owns.

Resolution 96 proposed to abolish Election Clerk fails Various concerns raised over "complication"

Update: Resolution 96 failed 7-9 on Thursday night.

6:56 AM EDT June 2, 2017

On Wednesday evening, Skelezomperman proposed a resolution to abolish the position of Election Clerk. This comes only one day before the 45-day mark when all current members of the United Cities become ineligible to be Election Clerk, as June 1 is 45 days prior to Election Day, July 16. Mr. Zomperman's resolution will replace the position of Election Clerk with a five-member committee, the Election Oversight Committee, which allows current UC members to join. It also removes the ID system which has been criticized for allowing the President to fix an election by supplying fake ID codes to the Election Clerk. Notably, the Court is also given the ability to audit an election during a 48 hour grace period following the end of an election, after which the new officers take office. Several objections have been raised to he Resolution though, most notably by mjpwwf, who states that the resolution requiring usernames to be submitted alongside ballots is undemocratic by abolishing the secret ballot, as well as an absence of confirmation for the EOC. Others feel that Resolution 96 is over complicated and vote no for that.

Event calendar released for the server Updated by Administrators

5:17 PM EDT June 3, 2017

On Thursday afternoon, Frumple announced a new event calendar on the website. The calendar is updated by administrators and has a list of events on the server, both created by Staff and by normal members.

Skelezomperman has apparent breakdown after failure of Resolution 96: Is he fit to hold office?

June 1, 2017

Update: President Kastle releases screenshot disproving accusation

After the failure of Resolution 96, Skelezomperman, the sponsor of the resolution, had an apparent breakdown. He was seen cursing at some people and yelling at others to "make their own proposal", apparently not listening to anyone else. He also accused President Kastle of using the failure of Resolution 96 to rig the next election, a claim which is unsubstantiated. This raises the question: Is Mr. Zomperman fit to hold the office of Associate Justice? We'll cover this on Talk to Minecartia.