Zeta (era)

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Zeta
Clockwise from top:
Stitched photo of players in Central Park celebrating the MRT Server's eighth anniversary
Time spanFebruary 19, 2020 - October 16, 2023
(3 years, 7 months and 28 days)
World(s)New World
Old World
Lab World
Games World
Space World
Staff World[a]
Map World
Ending eventSwitch from SoYouStart to OVHcloud as the server host
Technical information
Server hostSoYouStart (OVH)
Minecraft versions1.15.2 - 1.20.1
MRT era chronology
Alpha (2012–2013)
Omega (2013–2014)
Gamma (2014–2016)
Epsilon (2016–2020)
Zeta (2020–2023)
Delta (2023–present)

Zeta was the fifth MRT era, spanning from the expansion of the New World to 60,000 by 60,000 blocks to the switch to OVHcloud as the server host, lasting from February 19, 2020, to October 16, 2023.

Background

At the August 2019 General Staff Meeting, Frumple announced decisions that he made and announced to Administrators at an Administrative Staff Meeting on July 20, 2019. It was announced that Frumple planned to "continue to pay for the server costs for as long as [he is] financially able". For the first time, Frumple mentioned that he was setting up a new 'Zeta' server towards the end of the year. At the December 2019 General Staff Meeting, it was announced that the Zeta server had been purchased, with the New World would increase from an 18,000 block radius to a 30,000 block radius.

At the February 2020 General Staff Meeting, the Zeta ward map and lake numbering were approved, which permitted the placements of seaplanes on the newly numbered lakes 31 through 52. Certain ranks were given an increase in the number of homes available through the /home command.

Players on the Unofficial MRT Survival Server on February 28, 2020

The Minecraft server was shut down on February 18 at 4 a.m. UTC. In the downtime of the server being upgraded, events such as the Unofficial MRT Survival Server, Jackbox Games, and a Purge were held.

The Zeta server was opened to the public on February 29, 2020.

Major events

MRT staff

MRT staff members continued to be selected following during General Staff Meetings. The MRT staff team had its largest drop in MRT staff members between months, with a drop from 20 players in September 2020 to 13 players in October 2020. Additionally, the number of MRT staff members fell to its lowest since February 2013, with 10 members in July 2021. On August 8, 2021, the highest number of members promoted to MRT staff at once occurred during Zeta, with six players being promoted, surpassing four members being promoted during Omega on July 12, 2014. On January 8, 2022, SimonScholar became the first player to be re-promoted to Moderator for a third time after previously leaving the MRT staff team. On March 18, 2022, SimonScholar became the first player to be re-promoted to Administrator for a third time after previously leaving the MRT staff team.

In June 2020, the title 'Head Administrator' was officially created, and chiefbozx was appointed to the position by Frumple. The position technically acted as an intermediate layer between Administrators and Frumple and coordinated Staff Meetings; however, the role was initially more ceremonial, as there were not many permission or authority changes. In August 2023, chiefbozx stepped down from the MRT staff team, and the role was passed onto SimonScholar.

Main article: Public moderator nomination system

Following the initial events of Modgate, a public moderator nomination system replaced the selection method of MRT staff members. Nominations for Moderators became public and MRT staff discussions and votes were moved to the public portion of General Staff Meetings. The first time tune the system was used was for the November 2020 General Staff Meeting.

Tom_Pairs and AP_Red resigned from Administrator and stepped down to Moderator on July 6, 2020, and October 31, 2021, respectively.

Further information: List of MRT staff members

18 players were promoted to Moderator[b] on the MRT staff team during Zeta, with their names and dates of promotion listed below:

  1. godzilltrain (April 12, 2020)
  2. daltdisneyland (July 18, 2020)
  3. daltdisneyland (November 14, 2020)
  4. kyyl_ (November 14, 2020)
  5. Skelezomperman (December 13, 2020)
  6. Echohue (January 9, 2021)
  7. Missa_Solemnis (June 13, 2021)
  8. Needn_NL (June 13, 2021)
  9. DintyB (August 8, 2021)
  10. hvt2011 (August 8, 2021)
  11. MC_Protocol (August 8, 2021)
  12. MPolo455 (August 8, 2021)
  13. Narnia17 (August 8, 2021)
  14. ondist (August 8, 2021)
  15. __7d (January 8, 2022)
  16. Mojang1014 (January 8, 2022)
  17. SimonScholar (January 8, 2022)
  18. Foote_Chicken (December 11, 2022)
  19. DNAmaster10 (July 8, 2023)
  20. Zuoj (October 8, 2023)

Three Moderators were promoted to Administrator on the MRT staff team during Zeta. The following dates listed are when the player was promoted to Admin:

  1. godzilltrain (July 4, 2020)
  2. sesese9 (August 29, 2020)
  3. SimonScholar (March 18, 2022)

24 players left the MRT staff team during Zeta. The following dates listed are when the player left the MRT staff team and the reasoning:

  1. _HeavenAngel_ (June 24, 2020; resigned)
  2. Narnia17 (July 4, 2020; demoted due to inactivity)
  3. cal76 (October 3, 2020; demoted due to inactivity)
  4. _Kastle (October 4, 2020; demoted due to behavior issues)
  5. _Mossie (October 4, 2020; demoted due to unauthorized sharing of "sensitive details and discussion")
  6. daltdisneyland (October 4, 2020; resigned due to concerns about evidence put forth during their promotion)
  7. Echohue (October 4, 2020; demoted due to solicitation of Moderator nominations)
  8. hvt2011 (October 4, 2020; resigned in disagreement with Modgate)
  9. Valkorion314 (October 5, 2020; resigned in disagreement with Modgate)
  10. mine_man_ (November 4, 2020; resigned due to inactivity)
  11. godzilltrain (January 28, 2021; resigned due to inactivity)
  12. megascatterbomb (March 13, 2021; resigned due to inactivity)
  13. MinecraftYoshi26 (May 28, 2021; resigned due to inactivity)
  14. VickiTori_ (June 10, 2021; resigned due to inactivity)
  15. unjinz (June 12, 2021; demoted due to inactivity)
  16. kyyl_ (June 16, 2021; resigned due to frustrations with the community)
  17. daltdisneyland (July 9, 2021; resigned due to inactivity)
  18. Vulpicula (July 13, 2021; resigned due to conflicts with Frumple)
  19. Echohue (October 24, 2021; resigned due to inactivity)
  20. ondist (October 24, 2021; resigned due to effects on personal life and academics)
  21. Narnia17 (November 3, 2021; resigned in disagreement with the October 2021 Special Staff Meeting)
  22. sesese9 (December 12, 2021; resigned due to stress and decreased "attachment to the server")
  23. Mojang1014 (July 22, 2022; resigned to focus on real-life obligations)
  24. MC_Protocol (August 25, 2022; resigned due to personal issues and university)
  25. Tom_Pairs (December 17, 2022; demoted due to inactivity)
  26. Cynra_ (January 13, 2023; resigned due to inactivity)
  27. chiefbozx (August 13, 2023; resigned to focus on real-life obligations)

Infrastructure Staff Meetings

Players at Providence Park for the March 2021 Infrastructure Staff Meeting

An Infrastructure Staff Meeting (ISM) was a monthly meeting first conceived in May 2020 that approved non-MRT transport projects, event funding, inactive asset transfers, and other project sections. The meetings had a hard limit of one hour, with any undecided topics being forwarded to the following General Staff Meeting. Infrastructure Staff Meetings were held 14 days before the General Staff Meetings, once approximately every four weeks.

The concept of the Infrastructure Staff Meeting originated at the May 2020 General Staff Meeting. chiefbozx put forth a topic to discuss the date of the July 2020 General Staff Meeting as it fell near the MRT Server's eighth anniversary and could stifle wanting to be held around that time. The date change of the July 2020 General Staff Meeting, the influx of new members combined, and the four-hour length of the May 2020 General Staff Meeting due to the lengthy agenda led to a discussion on creating a "mini-GSM" following the conclusion of the May 2020 General Staff Meeting.

The first Infrastructure Staff Meeting was held on May 31, 2020. Infrastructure Staff Meetings were abolished at the December 2022 General Staff Meeting due to the lack of content at Infrastructure Staff Meetings. The meeting was replaced with a new #proposals forum channel in the MRT Discord, where players would submit proposals to be considered and voted on by staff for seven days. The final Infrastructure Staff Meeting was held on November 26, 2022.

Modgate

Main article: Modgate

Warning system overhaul

In early January 2021, megascatterbomb and Frumple discussed concerns brought up by various members as members were "under the impression that for any punishment given by [MRT] staff at one time, there is a maximum limit to what is given, and that is a double warning". A discussion was held at the January 2021 General Staff Meeting where some members including knowmads7, Worrski, and supykun, believed that recent punishments were too severe and that single warnings were not handed out when they happened. At the meeting, members who attended the meeting were polled and approximately 50% were "under the impression that a double warning was the ceiling for punishments given at any one time, outside of edge cases", which was clarified to be false. The discussion at the General Staff Meeting led to megascatterbomb working on creating a new system, which was proposed at the February 2021 General Staff Meeting.

When creating the new warning system, megascatterbomb stated that he wanted to make the new system have "more tiers of punishment to provide more options to staff", "not be a limit on the amount of warnings given at any one time", and simplicity. The new warning system was approved, replacing the warning system with a seven-level system, where each level lasted two weeks and had different punishments. It was specified that any level of warnings could be issued at once and that warning times were cumulative.

Resignation of Vulpicula

External documents
document icon Topic 3b) - Jokes, Satire, and Political Opinions (Public) document
document icon Letter by Vulpicula document
document icon Response to Vulpicula's Letter document

For the June 2020 General Staff Meeting, Skelezomperman and ondist put forth a topic to discuss some jokes, satire, and political opinions, citing specifically jokes about nuking Hendon and "fake Vulp". The discussion resulted in players being asked to be "mindful of the subjects of any jokes they are making" and that "references to 'Nuke Hendon' and 'Fake Vulp' are not allowed and may result in warnings under Most Important Rule One". Discussions of the result occurred on the same day in the #meeting-live MRT Discord channel, discussing jokes about certain symbols and flags. Multiple players took part in the discussion, including Vulpicula who advocated for a more hands-off approach and "allowing unrestricted speech". This, along with comments in the #politics Discord channel, resulted in concern from Frumple about Vulpicula's political views and whether he should stay a part of the MRT staff team. This resulted in private conversations between Frumple and Vulpicula and internal discussions among MRT Administrators.

On July 13, 2021, in a conversation in server chat, Vulpicula stated that he "[didn't] agree with the reasoning for preventing kicks", with Frumple responding that he "[didn't] want mods to freely kick people whenever they want" as it could be perceived that MRT staff were abusing their powers. Frumple then asked Vulpicula to have a private voice chat due to the disagreement about Vulpicula using the 'kick' command on players as a joke. Approximately an hour later, Vulpicula left the MRT Discord and privately communicated to the MRT staff about this resignation. A day later, Vulpicula released a statement entitled "Letter" where he described his conversation with Frumple the day prior as having resulted in a "full-on mental breakdown". In the letter, Vulpicula went over the relationship between himself and Frumple, alleging that Frumple had described him as "ignorant and unsympathetic to black issues" regarding comments in the #politics MRT Discord channel and argued that Frumple had a "hard time separating me as a person, from me politically". Vulpicula revealed that following Modgate, Frumple had expressed to Vulpicula that he did not want Vulpicula on the MRT staff team and that he interpreted that Frumple was calling him a "racist, sexist, homophobe, or something among those lines". Vulpicula also claimed that he was informed that Frumple was "actively trying to push" friends away from him. He ended the letter by noting that he did not want this to "be taken as an excuse to dogpile anyone, even Frumple" and had no plans to return to the server. Initial reactions from members included various members being disappointed with Vulpicula leaving the server and crimsonf0x and autobus22 giving their critiques of Frumple.

A few hours after the release of Vulpicula's letter, Frumple noted he needed a few days to think and write a response letter to address Vulpicula's claims. Two days later, on July 16, 2021, Frumple released "Response to Vulpicula's Letter" which went through and responded to points in Vulpicula's letter and discussed his relationship with the server. In the response, Frumple addressed the racial disagreements he had with Vulpicula by stating that he "was not expecting to change [Vulpicula]'s mind much... but at least get a conversation about them started". Frumple disagreed with the claim that he had a hard time separating Vulpicula as a person from Vulpicula's political views, noting that his concern "wasn't primarily with his political views, but the fact that he wasn't open to even listening to other views at all". Frumple confirmed that he did tell Vulpicula that he would prefer if Vulpicula left the MRT staff team by publicly releasing a statement that Vulpicula requested Frumple write to him about how Frumple felt about him. Frumple argued that he made it "very clear on why demoting him would probably be a bad idea for the community at the time" and that he decided to give Vulpicula a "second chance". In regards to Vulpicula's claim that Frumple was actively trying to push his friends away from him, Frumple stated that he did not know what Vulpicula was referring to, but inferred that could have been related to an incident earlier in 2021 involving a member who had concerns about several MRT staff members. Frumple argued that if it was the suspected incident, then this was a "massive misinterpretation on the member's part" and stated that "no point whatsoever did I intend to separate Vulpicula from his friends on a permanent basis". Frumple reiterated that he didn't want for-fun kicking to be actively encouraged and stated that he should have brought up his concerns about Vulpicula's "excessive" kicking privately rather than publicly. Frumple noted that he wanted to emphasize that he did not intend to demote Vulpicula going into the private voice call with him. He also denied calling Vulpicula a racist, sexist, or homophobe and argued that Vulpicula misinterpreted his arguments. Frumple added that he wanted to apologize for causing Vulpicula to have a panic attack during their conversation. Frumple concluded his discussion of Vulpicula by noting that Vulpicula's political views were "not compatible in terms of the [MRT Server's] anti-racism, pro-LGBT policy" and that he was officially vetoing Vulpicula from returning to the MRT staff team.

The final section in Frumple's letter focused on the server's community and his relationship with it. Frumple noted his frustration with how he feels that members expected him to "[do] everything perfectly without any fault" and the lack of empathy with miscommunication. Frumple continued by stating how he didn't feel appreciated for the work he had put into the server and how he felt a lack of understanding from the community. Frumple closed the letter by announcing that he was going on an indefinite leave from the MRT Server, lasting at least one month but would "likely be much longer than that" and that chiefbozx became the de facto Owner of the server while he was gone. Frumple stated that he was committed to renewing the server into 2022 as promised a week prior; however, did note that "this whole ordeal and other factors have made me question again whether it's really worth it keeping this community going". Following the release of Frumple's letter, initial reactions included messages hoping that the MRT Server would continue to exist despite the events and a few players, specifically autobus22, RacCort, and Skelezomperman, writing documents and messages critiquing Frumple's response. Frumple returned to the server in October 2021.

Banning of crimsonf0x and autobus22

Conductor

External documents
document icon Staff Team Revamp document
document icon Special Staff Meeting Agenda (Public Portion) - June 26th, 2022 document

On June 12, 2022, SimonScholar and Frumple discussed members' concerns about there being "too few [MRT] staff members... particularly during long periods where no staff member is online" and the "high bar of entry to the staff team [making] recruiting additional staff members is difficult". This led to SimonScholar proposing a revamp of the MRT staff team, which included an altered reintroduction of the Conductor rank as a "junior staff" rank. The original proposal suggested that players who were promoted to the Conductor rank would have WorldEdit permissions and would be promoted through a method similar to the public moderator nomination system. The proposal also suggested that Conductors could enforce rules and resolve conflicts to "demonstrate their proficiency for promotion to [Moderator]".

The topic was initially scheduled to be discussed at the July 2022 General Staff Meeting; however, due to SimonScholar's unavailability, a Special Staff Meeting solely for the topic was scheduled immediately following the June 2022 Infrastructure Staff Meeting on June 26. During the Special Staff Meeting, the role's permissions and responsibilities were discussed and laid out. It was decided that Conductors would be a non-staff "helper" rank, separate from both the town ranks and MRT staff ranks. A new in-game channel, /d, was created for Conductors to communicate. Conductors were given new permissions, including WorldEdit access, access to the in-game channel /helpop, and the ability to teleport to players.

It was decided that Conductors would not be nominated by others but rather an application would be put forth for eligible players to apply and be voted on at a General Staff Meeting by MRT staff. The eligibility requirements for Conductors were set as being an "active member for the past three months", a Trustee for three months, having no active warnings in the three months before applying, and not be subject to a veto by Frumple or the Head Administrator. Other factors that were noted as being taken into consideration in promoting Conductors included demonstrating "good communication skills" and knowing how to use WorldEdit at a "basic level".

The board used at the July 2022 General Staff Meeting for the first Conductor promotions

At the July 2022 General Staff Meeting, the first 12 Conductors were promoted. On July 22, 2022, and August 25, 2022, Mojang1014 and MC_Protocol each resigned from the MRT staff team into Conductor, respectively, as there were no formal rules disallowing it. At the October 2022 General Staff Meeting, a rule was created prohibiting MRT staff members from resigning directly into Conductor. The rule change was announced as retroactive, resulting in both Mojang1014 and MC_Protocol being demoted from Conductor to Premier, but were allowed to apply for the Conductor rank for the following General Staff Meeting.

Planned server closures and subsequent renewals

Major builds

  • Region of Nansei-Gunto (example of popular area, not full section)
  • Oparia fastest Premier, surpassed by Porton

Transit

MRT system

Airports

  • Joint airfields (March 2020 GSM)
  • Aurora International Airport attempt - Jan 2021 GSM

Cruise ships

  • Cruise ships (Nansei Cruise Lines, Azalea Cruises, Festival Cruise Lines)

Culture

Games and events

  • MRT Pride 2020 Parade, Hotel Building Competition 2, MRT Video Contest, London's Pub Quiz are event examples
  • Award shows (MRT Transit Awards and The Glowlight Awards)
  • Events required to gauge community interest before submitting for funding (April 2021 GSM - https://www.minecartrapidtransit.net/2021/04/17/april-2021-gsm-results/)
  • game shows and less frequency

Impact of COVID-19

  • Many active members during COVID, Member stagnation post-COVID

List of new Members

At least 255 players became Members during Zeta. New countries that have members that were accepted from included Hungary, Kazakhstan, and Vietnam.[c]

The following is a non-comprehensive list of players that became members during Zeta, taken from the Member List listed in alphabetical order:[d]

Notes

  1. ↑ Accessible to MRT staff only until it was opened for all ranks as view-only on September 11, 2021
  2. ↑ All players listed that were promoted to Moderator before August 9, 2020, were first promoted to Trial Moderator on the listed date before being approved to become a full Moderator after a three-month probationary period.
  3. ↑ Location data was self-reported mostly through member applications.
  4. ↑ The usernames reflect players' usernames when they were accepted for Member; however, some may not reflect their username when they were accepted for Member as this list was taken from the Member List in February 2024. Alternate accounts are not listed.
  5. ↑ a b c d e f g h Currently banned
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