MRT NewsChannel/Stories/Archive/May 2017

April 2017

The Archives of MRT NewsChannel May 2017

June 2017

Frumple is "not sure" about server's future after January More speculation ensues

7:04 PM EDT May 29, 2017

Frumple stated on Sunday in conversation that he is not sure about the future of the server after January. The Minecart Rapid Transit server, which hosts the Minecraft server, wiki, website, Mumble, and files server, is paid until January 14, 2018. Mr. Frumple has been known by most of the server to be in personal turmoil; he stated that he has "decisions" to make soon. No plans have been made by anyone to "save" the server, and it is very doubtful that this will occur.

Resolution proposed to abolish Election Clerk Court to be allowed to "audit" elections

May 31, 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.

Frumple is "not sure" about server's future after January More speculation ensues

May 29, 2017

Frumple stated on Sunday in conversation that he is not sure about the future of the server after January. The Minecart Rapid Transit server, which hosts the Minecraft server, wiki, website, Mumble, and files server, is paid until January 14, 2018. Mr. Frumple has been known by most of the server to be in personal turmoil; he stated that he has "tough decisions" to make soon. No plans have been made by anyone to "save" the server, and it is very doubtful that this will occur.

New changes to server, including dynmap renders Uploading schematics directly to files server

May 29, 2017

On Sunday, Frumple revealed a couple changes were done to the server. Firstly, on the Minecraft server the daily offsite backups returned. They now occur nighty at 12:20 AM ET, 20 minutes after the nightly restart. In addition, all worlds except for the New World render weekly. The Old World, Lab World, and Games World all render starting at 1:05 AM ET on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday morning respectively, and the Space World renders at 2:05 AM ET on Friday morning following the Games World. The New World will not have a set automatic schedule due to the immense amount of time it takes - 30 hours for just the flat map alone, however Monday and Tuesday are reserved for New World renders. In addition, the major web change was revealed: schematics can now be uploaded directly into the files server. The username and password did change, so members must ask staff now for the credentials to access the files server. This is in addition to the minecartrapidtransit.net domain receiving TLS.

Admod Building replaced New building built by _Kastle

May 28, 2017

Over the weekend, the Admod Building was replaced by a new one built by _Kastle on the same lot. The new version, built in Mr. Kastle's signature build style, has 8 floors of offices, 6 for moderators and 2 for administrators, as well as an extra floor as above and below, and retaining the existing parking lot from the previous building. Owner Frumple's office is located on the first floor, as is a conference room. This is the fifth iteration of the Admod Building. Three were built on the Old World - the first by a variety of people immediately after the server opening, the second by chiefbozx and Omricon in August 2012, and the third by the staff. The fourth version was the first on the Old World. Staff will begin moving into their offices over the next week.

TacoBurritoAThon announces hosts for next three events

May 25, 2017

On Thursday evening, Commissioner Skelezomperman of the TacoBurritoAThon announced the host for VI TacoBurritoAThon: Utopia. Utopia, owned by Narnia17, was one of three official candidate cities for VI TBAThon, which will be held in June, the other two being Konawa, owned by Soleurs, and Fort Yaxier, owned by camelfantasy. However, Mr. Zomperman also stated that all three cities were great and that he would award the next two TacoBurritoAThons also: VII TacoBurritoAThon, to be held in July, was awarded to Konawa, and VIII TacoBurritoAThon, to be held in the fall, was awarded to Fort Yaxier. TacoBurritoAThon is a sporting event that was first held 2013, however Mr. Zomperman created the modern version of it in 2016. It is a for-profit event consisting of five sports that are held one after the other, though most sponsorship money is awarded to the winners.

Amazing Race 7 to start in Covina area

May 25, 2017

The latest news out of The Amazing Race season 7 is that it will start on ATC-101, near Los Angeles. The starting date - June 10 - has already been decided, and forms to apply to play are still open even though 19 contestants have already been confirmed. MRT NewsChannel will be livestreaming The Amazing Race as a special presentation when it occurs - though it may be limited by a "twist" that MinecraftYoshi26 has stated "levels the playing field."

Web-based services complete maintenance early Part of round of maintenance for server

May 23, 2017

Frumple took down the web-based services of the MRT - the website, wiki, dynmap, and files server - again on Tuesday, May 23. This was at the same timeslot as the maintenance of last Thursday, 1600-2400 UTC (Noon-8 PM EDT). However, maintenance finished about two hours early, at 5:45 PM EDT, and the web-based services were opened up again. More maintenance will be coming up, including even more downtime for web-based services.

GSM has concluded Summary of GSM

May 20, 2017

The GSM concluded after 3 and a half hours on Saturday evening. Because of the sheer amount of content and news discussed, MRT NewsChannel has a summary of the GSM available here. In addition, you can watch the latest episode of the MRT News Report for those of you who hate reading a wall of text.

_frozen and _MajorMagpie_ stripped of staff powers Cause is inactivity

May 20, 2017

On Saturday prior to the GSM, Frumple demoted _frozen and _MajorMagpie_ from their staff positions due to inactivity. Mr. Frozen had become a moderator in January 2014 and an administrator in March 2016. He has not been online for nearly 10 months. It was announced at the April 2017 GSM that he would resign and would issue a message on Discord saying this, but this did not occur. _MajorMagpie_ was also contacted at the April 2017 GSM and it was announced that he would stay if he became active again; this did not happen as Mr. Magpie has not joined in over 5 months. It is not known if a replacement administrator would be promoted soon to replace Mr. Frozen as all three of the current administrators (Frumple, Tom_Pairs, and BaronThamesBank) are at least semi-inactive, although Mr. Frumple has been more active as of recently. As already known, two people (godzilltrain and _Kastle) attained Trial Moderator, likely to replace Mr. Frozen and Mr. Magpie.

No chair for Parks and Recreation Committee? President Kastle implies this is the case

May 18, 2017

Early Thursday morning, President Kastle and Ardyle engaged in a conversation in which the President implied that he will choose not to appoint a Chair to the Parks and Recreation Committee. Mr. Kastle stated that it is actually allowed for the committee to function without a Chair since there is no law stating this; he also stated that he did not want to appoint a Chairman due to all of the existing members of the committee "fail[ing] to do anything because there was 'no chair.'" Mr. Ardy then replied to Mr. Kastle's assertion that something should have been done by blaming the MRT newsmedia, stating that "we want to play it safe" because of the existence of a "huge establishment block nitpicking everything we say to use against us." Since the conversation, Mr. Ardy created a motion that would set forth the framework created by him and CaptainChimpy that would split the committee into build and review teams and put them on schedules. It is leading 2-0 as of Thursday afternoon, with neither mine_man_ nor mdbro55 having voted on it.

Web maintenance finishes early Wiki file size limit increases

May 18, 2017

At approximately 7:25 PM EDT Thursday, web maintenance finished about 30 minutes earlier than the projected end time of 8 PM. Maintenance was done on the website, wiki, and files server, and the dynmap was also taken down although Frumple stated that no changes were being made to it. Two changes were made after the maintenance: the size limit for files uploaded to the wiki increased to 5 MB from 2 MB (in practice, 1 MB), and the files server had HTML pages added to make it more user-friendly. More on this on the MRT EyeOpener on Saturday.

Roads Committee reorganization Form opened to request road building

May 16, 2017

On Tuesday evening, a long-awaited reorganization of the Roads Committee was done by the Chairman jphgolf4321 which involved the opening of a form to request road building. This form allows towns to request the construction of new B-roads to link into the road system similarly to the Transit Committee having a form to request transit links. Mr. Golf also stated that there would be a meeting scheduled "once there are some form responses." This, however, is not the end of A30-style projects as Narnia17, a member of the committee, submitted a proposal to the GSM for the construction of A40, which would be a proposed connection between A30 and A50 as part of the AX0 beltway.

The Amazing Race 7 to start June 10

May 17, 2017

Wednesday afternoon, MinecraftYoshi26 announced that the seventh season of The Amazing Race will start on Saturday, June 10. This will have been the first Yoshi game show of the summer, and potentially could be the last running of The Amazing Race due to Mr. Yoshi's commitments to college. Mr. Yoshi also warned that forms would close soon but they remain open even after not only the date was announced, but two teams were confirmed.

Extreme lag on server caused TPS drop Drop caused by Minetrends

May 17, 2017

An extreme lag incident occurred on Wednesday afternoon. TPS had dropped to below 2. The server had a gradual drop even after all players were shepherded to the Spawn, and later the Space World, until several crashes occurred at approximately 4:50 PM. Frumple restarted the server at 5 PM EDT, solving the problem by disabling Minetrends, a plugin used to monitor server stats. Minetrends apparently was stuck in a loop. It was disabled.

Web-based services to go down 1600-2400 UTC Thursday Website, dynmap, wiki, and file server

May 16, 2017

Follow @mrt_newschannel here for the latest developments on this story

Frumple announced on Tuesday evening that the web-based services of the Minecart Rapid Transit server - the website, wiki, dynmap, and files server - will go down from 4 PM to Midnight GMT Thursday. This is Noon to 8 PM EDT. This is for some "major maintenance" for these services. The other MRT services, including the Minecraft server, Mumble, and Discord will stay up.

Exodus from Parks and Recreation Committee Currently only MRT International members left

May 15, 2017

Correction: A previous version of the article did not acknowledge that mine_man_ was also part of the committee. Thanks to our loyal readers for pointing this out.

On Monday, three of the four non-MRT International members of the Parks and Recreation Committee resigned - Chairman soso123, a member of the Freedom Party, and independents camelfantasy and FredTheTimeLord. The former two are part of the Great Society Congress. This is believed to have been in response to CaptainChimpy and Ardyle releasing a new "framework" for the Parks and Recreation Committee which would divide the committee into two teams and put people on a schedule. They apparently were trying to implement it without the approval of either Mr. Soso or President Kastle even after repeated warnings, although Mr. Chimpy has repeatedly denied this, saying that it is instead a "suggestion." In addition, following the resignation of Mr. Soso, Mr. Chimpy attempted to start an election for Chairman even after the President told them that there would not be an election as he would pick the chair, which is believed to have triggered Mr. Fred's resignation. Four remain on the committee, Ardyle, CaptainChimpy, mdbro55, and mine_man_, and the former 3 are members of MRT International. President Kastle will pick a new Chairman shortly, and it is unknown if he will appoint more members to the committee, although it is likely since the committee has essentially been halved.

GSM to be held Saturday, May 20 Deadline for submissions Thursday

May 13, 2017

On Saturday, Frumple announced that the next GSM will be held on Saturday, May 20. It will be at 1900 UTC - 3 PM EDT. In addition, it was also announced the deadline to submit GSM proposals will be 48 hours before - Thursday, 1900 UTC. MRT NewsChannel will provide live coverage of the GSM.

Minecraft authentications return to service About 5 hours of downtime

May 11, 2017

At approximately 8:13 PM Eastern Time Thursday night, authentications for Minecraft went down, preventing people from joining the server. Announcements have been posted in both the MRT Discord and the UC Discord informing users of thie situation. Unprecedented was how long it lasted: a full 5 hours until in the wee hours of Friday morning the issue was rectified, with _Kastle announcing this in Discord at approximately 1:30 AM Eastern Time.

President Kastle confirms that Parks and Recreation Committee to stay Committee criticized over reviews system

May 11, 2017

On Thursday, the President of the United Cities _Kastle confirmed to MRT NewsChannel that he is not planning on dissolving the Parks and Recreation Committee in the United Cities. Mr. Kastle said that there was "no reason" for this even though there has been rumblings of a planned dissolution of the Parks and Recreation Committee, rumored to have been created to "pander" to the MRT Green Party by some. Criticism of the Parks and Recreation Committee has ramped up in recent days following the appointment of Ardyle and mdbro55, both members of the MRT Green Party to the committee, with the two working with their fellow MRT International member CaptainChimpy to reform the committee and complete the current reviews system. Critics of the committee state that the purpose of the committee is to build parks and not review towns to make them look like parks, with Great Society Congress President jphgolf4321 stating that it is "mimicking the staff town reviews." The story will continue to be updated as new developments occur.

The Amazing Race 7 to be held "soon", forms to play open

May 10, 2017

Update: Form to play open here

MinecraftYoshi26 confirmed Wednesday that Season 7 of The Amazing Race will be held "soon." The Amazing Race has been the second server-wide game show created by Mr. Yoshi, after The Mole. Mr. Yoshi has also stated that the form to apply to play in The Amazing Race will open either today or tomorrow.

Ardyle to propose elections to committees "A more democratical framework"

May 7, 2017

Update: DJMC2000 dissociates MRTI from proposal

The founder of MRT International, Ardyle, told MRT NewsChannel on Sunday that MRT International is indeed planning on reforming the committee system. This was in response to rumors that MRTI was preparing for a "democratization" of the current committee system, in which the President is allowed to create committees and appoint/remove people on the committees. Mr. Ardy acknowledged that the current system does have progress, however he stated that it is a "benevolent dictator[ship]," and that having the President determine the members of executive committees "oppress[es]...people with new ideas by keeping them outside the committee framework." Mr. Ardy also used the example of his fellow MRT International member Yellowitcher being appointed as the chair of the Parks and Recreation Committee and then being removed as justification for electing members to committees instead of allowing the President to appoint them. Opponents have pointed out that committees could be created via legislation that are not necessarily chosen by the President, but instead by the legislation or through an election as Mr. Ardy proposes. They have also stated that the current President, _Kastle, has not been biased and pointed to the appointments of Yellowitcher, mdbro55, and Ardyle, all of whom are members of MRT International, to committees in the past even though they are opposed to him. It is unknown when the "democratization" will be proposed, however Mr. Ardy stated that he will "announce it [an alternative framework]" when he's done.

The Mole 8 completes, _Kastle wins

May 6, 2017

Saturday Evening, _Kastle won the eighth season of The Mole. mine_man_ turned out to be the Mole, and CyAmethyst was the last person eliminated. _Kastle became the second person to be both the Mole and the Winner, while mine_man_ became only the second Mole to be from Europe.

Arguments over extent of options for voting Department of Law warning some votes may be invalidated

May 2, 2017

Update: Resolution 87 has passed

The United Cities has once again entered into an argument about the extent of options for votes on resolutions. On Monday night, Resolution 87 was proposed by MinecraftYoshi26 to restrict voting to just the words "YEA" and "NAY." Mr. Yoshi had recently on previous resolutions voted erratically, voting the word "AFFIRMATIVE" and in Thai to show that the current law can allow wild voting. Resolution 87 was closed on Tuesday evening, passing 16-9, but most notably Mr. Yoshi removed a vote by MIKE24DUDE due to it having two words, "Eww nao," which is illegal under the 31st Amendment to the Constitution. Mr. Mike attempted to revert Mr. Yoshi's change, but eventually gave up after Attorney General KittyCat11231 intervened. Attorney General Kitty also warned that votes in foreign languages may be invalidated, with Associate Justice Skelezomperman having said that foreign languages do not count as synonyms. President Kastle has yet to make a decision on Resolution 87, with sources saying that he plans to veto it.

UC Court Case #5 rules to allow voting resets New Resolution out to codify ruling

May 1, 2017

The hearing for Case #5 in the United Cities Court concluded on Monday evening. Case #5 was filed by KittyCat11231 to seek a legal precedent on whether it was legal for Ardyle to reset Resolution 84 by changing its text, resetting the deadline for voting, and removing all votes. CaptainChimpy also was with Ardyle. The original justice who was to hear the case was Skelezomperman, however since Mr. Zomperman voted no on Resolution 84 and was vocally against it, it was mutually agreed that he would recuse himself and allow cal76 to preside. Mr. Kitty did not publicly argue for invalidating the reset or not, while Ardyle and CaptainChimpy both argued against invalidating the reset. Mr. Ardy also accused Mr. Kitty of having political motivations even though Mr. Kitty repeatedly stated that he had no political motive. The hearing lasted for approximately an hour. Chief Justice Cal will released the decision overnight Monday, ruling that it was legal for Resolution 84 to be reset. In addition, a new resolution was proposed to the General Assembly, Resolution 88, to codify the ruling.