History of the MRT Server

The Minecart Rapid Transit Server was opened on July 13, 2012. The server has five main eras, each marked by an expansion of server resources (all of which were expansions of land, with the exception of Omega which was a major upgrade of server resources).

Gamma: October 4, 2014 - December 26, 2016

A Fresh Start

A Whole New World

The "New World" was set to open on October 4, 2014.
photo courtesy CortesiRaccoon

Main article: New World

The New World opened on October 4, 2014. Staff had spent several months prior to the opening of the new world constructing eleven new MRT lines, Central City's road network along with a few important structures, and the new MRT Marina. The new world was 8 times the size of the old world, and introduced several new 1.7.0 biomes to the server, such as the savannah biome and the roofed forest biome. A new rank system was also introduced with the transition to the new world, as towns were able to grow substantially larger with the added world size. The New World MRT System uses the MRT v5.0 technology unveiled by Frumple in 2014 as a christmas present for the community. On December 26, 2016, the New World was extended again as the server updated from Gamma to Epsilon.

Towns and Reconstruction

Following Gamma's opening, many new towns were founded in the new world. Some stations saw disputes over ownership, such as  A32  Snowtopic. Some of the more notable cities, including Vermilion, Airchester and Whitechapel, were founded during the opening of Gamma. Additionaly, canals such as the Seneca Canal were built to connect major water bodies. Many players chose to build their cities in close proximity to one another, leading to the formation of multiple SMPs, such as the Lacledic Republic.

Shared Municipalities

Shared municipalities (SMP) first arose when Arcadia was founded on August 29, 2014, by snaf014, tarheelscouse, and others. It brought up the idea of having multiple districts, each with its own mayor who would collaborate. However, shared municipalities did not develop until Saint Roux was founded by tarheelscouse, bestmate66, and AP_Red in 2014. After they created the city together, SMPs were created to allow collaborations similar to Saint Roux. People in the SMP would get all the perks of the rank above if there was at least one city within the SMP with a higher rank. An example would be that if a Senator and Mayor was in an SMP, the Mayor would get all the perks of Senator, including building transit hubs and stadiums. However, a Governor and a Councillor town in the same SMP would mean the Councillor town would only get Mayor perks. Premier cities, which does not benefit from being in an SMP, offer nothing to SMPs if a member is a Governor.

In August 2016, the issue arose that SMPs were losing their original meaning, so it was discussed on August 20, 2016 at the GSM. Changes included that when proposing SMPs, the staff required greater reasoning behind the proposal such as present goals and plans. The staff want to avoid SMPs being created solely to get a bigger airport. Some airports that were allowed to be built to a larger scale than the original town because of original SMP rules included Achowalogen Takachsin-Covina International Airport, Horizon National Airport, Ilirea-Vermilion International Airport, and Union of Central Western Territories International Airport. It wanted to be made clear that if towns want to band together and work on an airport, then they could do so. All that would be required was a Governor town willing to collaborate and share. It was set to discourage SMPs being formed in this situation purely to get a bigger airport.

At the December 2016 GSM, the staff proposed the changing of the rules of SMPs. The website post, posted on December 25, 2016 by Frumple, explained the proposal:

The staff would like to propose removing most of the rules around SMPs, particularly around the sharing of perks between ranks. So far, staff have been unable to enforce SMP restrictions, and it’s too complicated to keep track of whether a player can build or not build something based on their SMP. Therefore, we would like to propose the

• Sharing of perks in SMPs, and SMPs in general, will be eliminated with one exception. The exception is that players may still work together on a single large airport if at least one of the players is of Governor rank. Any players within this group, regardless of their rank, can participate in the construction of this large airport.
• To allow towns that are very close together to still build road and rail connections, as part of this proposal we will allow unlimited connections within 300 blocks. The rules for connections outside of 300 blocks will still apply according to your rank.
• Also, as an addendum to the Senator Airfield rule, we initially mandated that if a player initially constructs or helps out in building a large airport, but they haven’t yet built their own small airfield, then they forfeit the right to build the small airfield. However, on further consideration with these SMP rules, this restriction would be lifted. Under these new rules, Senators would be able to build their own airfield in any case regardless of whether they built a large airport.

Once again, this proposal is not finalized and will be discussed at the next GSM.

Problematic Changes

Colafest and Its Effects

Colafest may have only peaked for a short time in early January 2015, but the effects were seen all the way through the summer. Colafest started with the deletion of many pages on the wiki by colaja953. One of the first major changes to occur was the ban of colaja953 and the resignation of yeamanator132 from mod, and eventually, a ban due to suspicions of have colaja953 possibly being linked to having access to the account. Music3_0 also resigned from mod as he disagreed with some of the ways the situation was dealt with, mainly yeamanator132's ban. Shortly after, thomasfyfe recovered all the pages which were deleted by colaja953 on January 2, 2015. After this, Frumple put mumble on severe lock-down, changing the password every few days and only allowing people to get the password in batches. This was thought to be the last of Colafest, however, it was not.

February came about, and angelzer0 had placed chests in Central Park where members could send Valentine's Day cards to one another. In one book, however, there was a link to an email thread with private details about Frumple and chiefbozx. This link then was spread to the MRT Skype chat and the MBS Twitter. When this information was given to the staff, Music3_0, 0rocketscience0, and Skelezomperman received double warnings for an infringement on privacy. Who placed the book is still a controversial subject among many members. Theories have surfaced as to whether it was placed by Music3_0 or colaja953. Frumple has claimed it to be Music3_0. Frumple then announced that privacy is of the utmost importance on the server. This led to the issuing of double warnings for giving out the personal information of oneself or others, whether accidentally or on purpose.

MBS tweeted regarding Music3_0's ban.
photo courtesy MBS Twitter

By the time the second Eagle Awards came around, most had thought Colafest had faded away completely, but were all proved wrong when Music3_0 was banned after the event due to remarks to other players and past infractions. This shocked many people since Music3_0 was known by many people in the community and that the ban occurred rather suddenly. After Music3_0's ban, colaja953 occasionally came onto the server with alternate accounts. However, after they were found out, Colafest had died out almost completely.

After about two months after Music3_0's ban, a new guest joined the server called Katyalina, who claimed to be colaja953's girlfriend. At first, some people had their reservations, but most people had treated her as a normal guest, discounting her association with colaja953. However, due to the reservations of staff members, she was never able to get member. Later, she started acting weird and started to make rude comments to many other players. Many assume that colaja953 got a hold of her account and used it to abuse the server again. Katyalina was then banned and Colafest had died down.

Colafest generally caused havoc and overreactions. People became suspicious of new guests during this time, causing people to question whether they were colaja953 or just a random guest. From then on, colaja953 has sometimes popped on the server with alternate accounts.

Road Proposals

The original proposal for A50 was made by mine_man_.
photo courtesy mine_man_

The first A-class road was secured by _frozen. It ran between Central City-Inchmuir Street and Whitechapel. It was built by Benie and still remains in operation.

At the March GSM, the staff announced a much simpler way of sending in road proposals. To send in a road proposal, players would email the staff with the road number, the builders and planners, and the price of construction. The numbering system was overhauled to create a easier system to find roads. Nine road regions were created, radiating from Central City. Thus, the Whitechapel freeway became A8. The first number would be the largest region the road would pass through. The second, third, and fourth digits would be recommended by the metropolitan planning organizations and cities the road passed through. For example, roads in the IVY region usually start seventy-five, roads near Whitechapel usually start eighty-nine, and roads near the Epsilon Region usually start thirty-one. At GSMs, the staff make the final decision regarding what number will be assigned to a road.

At the May GSM, a whole host of A roads were approved. This included the A1 and the A4. The GSM also brought on the first player-owned roads. The A50 was approved and was privately owned by mine_man_ and KittyCat11231 (before being taken over by Yellowitcher). Afterwards, there was a hiatus in GSMs. Now, the number of roads is increasing rapidly.

Airport Disputes

After the January 2015 GSM, _frozen was promoted to governor for his town of Whitechapel, allowing them to begin construction of the third New World airport, Whitechapel Sky Harbor. When under construction, the project was considered to be the largest airport in terms of area on the New World, being roughly the same area as the city it served. The airport was seen to many as a great new landmark to the New World, and as a result, the airport's size was overlooked by the majority of members.

Vermilion, by Chiefbozx, was later promoted to Governor during the February 2015 GSM, meaning the city was able to construct a new airport. At the time, Vermilion was in a shared municipality with mikefishr's town of Ilirea, and the two decided to collaborate on making the fourth and largest airport in the New World. Named Ilirea-Vermilion International Airport, with over eighty gates and had six concourses, was a very large structure relative to other large scale projects on the MRT.

As a result of these two airports, new rules were put in place to stop airports such as IVY and WHT from being constructed during the March 2015 GSM, in hopes to prevent too much space on the new world being used for airport construction. WHT was downsized and IVY was completely removed from existence, despite many members opposing these changes. The two main cities IVY serviced constructed their own smaller, seperate airports. Future airports were limited to a maximum size of one half of the total area of the city or SMP they serve.

Positive Change in the Community

Defining Premier: Arisa

Kekkomatic became premier for his town of Arisa.
photo taken by lalaboy

Main article: Arisa

As more and more members were attaining the Senator and Governor ranks, the Premier city rank was not far off being attained. The first Premier was kekkomatic, promoted in February 2015 for his Old World city of Arisa. The city was deemed eligable for promotion with its outstanding beauty, and was a project which many members aspired to emulate, despite kekkomatic not having a town in the New World at the time, and Arisa being located in the Old World. Staff decided to use Arisa as the standard for all future premier promotions, so people could see how they could improve their own towns to the premier standard. When accepting his promotion, kekkomatic gave a speech:

"Well, I’ve been playing on this server for as long as it’s been online. I joined on the third day, I remember, and I’ve been incredibly impressed with the community and the warmth. And you know, I’m only just glad that… I’m not glad about the recognition, and the importance of the project, but more about the friendships and the relationships that started from just joining a server. I’m a very shy person, so I would have never imagined to go this far. And I’m glad that the project is getting a final recognition. I’m also going to finish the city very soon, so that’s a… just thank you, I don’t know what to say!"

Controversy arose with some members who believed that this was unfair, since the rules stated that only New World cities were eligible for promotion, however it was decided that Arisa would still retain the rank of Premier despite this.

Staff also came up with the acronym "EPIC" to describe what cities should be like to get premier.

• Expressive, meaning they have a variety of building sizes and styles (e.g., low and high density areas).

• Planned, meaning it is thought out with defined districts, a transportation network, which could include roads, busses, metro or pedestrian walkways as well as a well thought out layout for where buildings will go.

• Individual, meaning it has something special to it, whether it is the building style, green spaces, road layout, transportation system or general "vibe".

• Culturally significant, meaning it is a significant part of the server, whether it is a transportation hub, an event haven, or something else entirely.

Central Park Upgrade

_Kastle's original Central Park proposal was sent to the admins.
photo courtesy _Kastle

Central Park, the spawn location, was originally constructed by staff before the Gamma server opened. Angelzer0 had received building permissions from computerghost to edit Central park, which she used to add some small park tables and varois other smaller details. Angelzer0 had also constructed various other buildings for some community events, such as the Valentine's Day Cards chest. While Angelzer0 hadn't had any negative impact on Central Park, Some members felt that she had been given permission wrongly without any preparations or plans.

_Kastle had also asked for permission to build within Central Park, however he was denied these permissions by computerghost as he did not present any plans, which added further to the permission controversy. On February 6, 2015, _Kastle had sent a proposal to the admins to remake Central Park with his new plans. Shortly after, he received the permissions necessary to build within Central Park, and gave the area a complete makeover, leaving little to no trace of angelzer0's original builds. _Kastle had since added a Welcome Center, a gazebo, rivers and lakes, a train line, and more flags at Central Park.

For the winter holidays, _Kastle, lalaboy, and MinecraftYoshi26 worked together to produce a holiday themed spawn, comprising of large spruce trees, a new Welcome Center, and more. The themed park was removed in early January 2016, and was reused in December 2016.

The Screenshot Contest

_Kastle's screenshot won first place in the Screenshot Contest.
photo taken by _Kastle

On February 7, 2015, Frumple had announced the screenshot contest on the MRT's website. Screenshots would be placed in the image slider on the website’s front page, and the winners of the contest would receive cash prizes in game. The eligibility rules were:

• The contest is open to all players who are of at least [Member] rank and at most [Mod] rank. The 4 [Admin]s will be judging all submissions. The [Owner] will be facilitating the contest and will not vote on any submissions.
• Each player can make ONLY ONE (1) screenshot submission to the contest, so make sure it counts! If you have already sent in your submission, any further submissions will not be accepted. No exceptions.
• The contest will start following the February GSM, tentatively scheduled for Saturday, February 7th.
• Submissions will be accepted until 11:59 pm PST on Saturday February 28th. Admins will then conduct voting for 1 week until the results are announced at the March GSM, tentatively scheduled for Saturday, March 7th.

The screenshot rules were:

• The screenshot may contain any subjects (including structures, towns, cities, landscapes, players, mobs, etc.), as along as it is within server rules.
• Minimum resolution for screenshots is 1024 x 768. Higher resolutions are strongly recommended.
• The Heads-Up Display (HUD) must be hidden in your screenshot. Press F1 to show/hide it.
• If you are using OptiFine, you are encouraged to enable connected textures and grass sides.
• You may use any texture packs.
• You may use any shaders or renderers.
• You may crop or rotate your screenshots to your liking, but any further edits or "photoshopping" of your screenshots is strongly discouraged and may result in disqualification.

To send images in, members uploaded images to the MRT subreddit. Some contestants that submitted were RLcrafters, _frozen, and Music3_0.

There were two rounds of voting, a preliminary round and a final round. For the duration of the contest, admins were only allowed to share their votes with Frumple. In the preliminary round of voting, the four admins at the time each selected a choice of their top five submissions to be sent to Frumple. Frumple collected a maximum of twenty finalist submissions, which moved forward to the final round of voting. In the final round of voting, the four admins scored each of the finalist submissions from 0 to 10. Frumple then tallied up the scores for each finalist, and issued prizes to each finalist according to their score. Two "People's Choice" prizes were also due to be awarded to the 2 highest upvoted screenshot posts on the MRT subreddit, however it was later decided that the voting on the Subreddit was unreliable, and resulted in "inconsistent and rigged" voting. The admins voted based on overall aesthetics and beauty, use of colors and contrasts, attention to details, and depiction of everyday life on the server. Some players wondered whether the Admins would favour screenshots using shaders, which some people were unable to install or run on their Minecraft Client. The Admins reassured members, stating that they would not take the use of shaders within a screenshot into any major consideration.

The finishing places of the contest were:

• First place: _Kastle – $5,000
• Second place: Ryumitch – $3,000
• Third place: cal76 and MinecraftYoshi26 – $2,000 each
• Fifth place: lalaboy – $500
• Finalists: Aliksong, autobus22, CortesiRaccoon, Just_robinho, kiwirainbow, Omricon, and Ortem – $100 each

Remaining participants who did not win an award were given $20 for participating. Overall, $13,560 in prizes was handed out to participants, and the twelve finalists' screenshots were posted to the MRT website.

The Eagle Awards

The "Frozen" skit during the Second Eagle Awards featured KittyCat11231.
video still taken from "[MBS Entertainment] 2nd Eagle Awards - Full Ceremony" by MBS

Main article: The Eagle Awards

As more cities received the Governor rank, many new airports emmerged in the New World, and airlines were frequently fighting for gates to dock their planes in. The high levels of competition between airlines was so thrilling that a community event called the Eagle Awards was created. The event involved an awards ceremony that gave out awards to the airline industry of the server based on various different categories. The show, founded by kiwirainbow, had huge success in leading the airline industry on the MRT into a new era. The first Eagle Awards was hosted by KittyCat11231 and Music3_0, and despire being seen by some people as "unplanned", others had seen it as sufficient. The second Eagle Awards was hosted by hntredtie and Gopher, and had the highest attendance of all the Eagle Awards ceremonies. The show had been planned arguably well. Some had seen it as inadequately planned and corny, while others saw it as an amazing show. It attracted a large audience and significant attention. Both awards shows prompted the server community to come together as a community.

A Change In Staff

During early 2015, the server saw and increased need for staff members. During the February GSM, hntredtie was promoted to moderator. At the March GSM, Omricon was re-promoted to moderator, becoming the first staff member to be re-promoted after previously stepping down due to joining the Navy. At the April GSM, MinecraftYoshi26 became the first moderator to be re-promoted after being previously demoted from the position. These promotions meant moderators were more available on the server.

A New Era

1.8 Update

On Saturday, May 30, 2015, the long awaited 1.8 update to the server arrived. Previously, the beta server was open for testing running 1.8, and was closed shortly after the 1.8 update to save memory. The update was successful overall, but there were several problems. During the first few days, the server randomly crashed, and all unsaved work would be lost. This was later determined to be caused by the server running out of memory, and was thus fixed by shutting down the beta server. It was also noticed that 43:8 blocks could not be added to player inventory's and could only be world-edited into place. Infinite carts also stopped working, causing third party transit to panic. Major intercity rail companies such as CitiRail and RegionalConnect had to go through all of their stations to perform a replacement. Lalaboy and Frumple had tried to fix this issue, though they failed. Another problem was that warps would randomly disappear with out being deleted or reappear after deletion, causing many problems among the members of the server. The warp bug was fixed by updating the server to 1.8.8 in the fall of 2015.

Warp Trains

Calbar Arena is home to a few RaiLinQ Warp Train lines.
photo taken by MinecraftYoshi26

Warp trains were created by autobus22 in 2015. Warp trains were still trains that were built to look like realistic trains which had warps in them, similar to buses. Warp trains, mainly distributed by RaiLinQ, had garnered some respect for its realistic build style, but some criticism for its possible affect on the MRT, being a waste of space.

After some people were vocal positively and negatively about warp trains, it began to be talked about during GSMs. After the June GSM concluded, the staff came up with a new verdict involving warp trains. On the website, Frumple posted the GSM update which said this:

"Warp Trains (train systems that use warps to simulate travel instead of classic minecarts and rails) are allowed on the server. However, staff will only grant warps to such systems if there is an actual physical connection that has been built on the world, and this includes any rails, tunnels, etc. This policy will also apply to bus routes: staff will only grant warps to bus routes that have an actual road connection."

RaiLinQ faced several obstacles to continue building due to the new rules requiring warp train tracks to be connected between all stations and several cities denying RaiLinQ because the transit simply being a warp train. Though some people were in agreement with the conclusion of the GSM, some people still claim that the tracks between the stations are useless and that warp trains should be abolished, while some believe that warp trains are fine to be on the server.

Eventually however, Warp Trains become more commonplace and there was less of a taboo against them.

New Events

As the server was growing due to the New Worlds' arrival, some members of the community again started to create new events for the general public to enjoy.

Main article: The Mole 5

The first event that occurred was The Mole 5, hosted by MinecraftYoshi26. The season was played over the course of late March to the last day in May. The show generally connected the community, and caused more money to flow into the server economy, since five-thousand dollars was awarded to the winner of the show, Technological99. The show was later dedicated to Music3_0, because of his ban during the season.

Main article: The Amazing Race 2

The next event that hit the server was The Amazing Race 2, hosted once again by MinecraftYoshi26. This cycle of the race traveled to New World cities, such as Airchester, Whitechapel, and Achowalogen Takachsin. The race allowed for many people to discuss the race's possible outcome and locations. The winning team of the event was Just_robinho and kekkomatic. This season was one of the most popular of all.

Main article: SummerFest 2015

SummerFest 2015, the next event, featured three events, MRTVision, the MRT Cities Awards, and the third Eagle Awards. MRTVision was run in the style of a smaller-scale Eurovision. Unlike Eurovision, there can be an unlimited number of contestants from any region in the semi-finals. For voting, each region's votes are brought together as one uniform vote. It featured MRT players singing, and the live audience voting. SummerFest had hit a rocky start, and was quite frantic in the beginning. The event did finish, however, and sparked server conversation. The MRT Cities Awards was attended by a small group and featured cities receiving awards. The awards show did not gain mass recognition. The third Eagle awards did not receive nearly as much as attention as its counterpart, the second Eagle Awards. This caused the ceremony to be cancelled and the results to only be posted on the wiki. All tickets were refunded.

Whodunnit? Season 2 occured next, which featured 12 contestants, one of whom was the killer. After came more The Amazing Race seasons.

Change In Administration & The Timely GSM

On September 7, 2015, chiefbozx resigned from administrator of the server, thus making him the first of his rank to do so. This was largely due to the fact that he is now attending college, which he has stated as a higher priority than the server. Chiefbozx was in turn demoted to the rank of Governor for his city of Vermilion.

On November 7, 2015 during the Timely GSM, thomasfyfe resigned from the administrator rank and was demoted to Mod, and Computerghost was also demoted, to the rank of Trustee, thus leaving Tom_Pairs as the only person of his rank. There were also two new mods. Ortem was promoted to mod shortly after the GSM, and the mystery mod was revealed about a month later to be AlikSong.

The GSM results post was released on the website on December 6, 2015. It indicated there was indeed a new admin who had passed the promotion criteria, but stated that he was busy with life and therefore not promoted. At the March GSM, _frozen was promoted to administrator. On April 3, BaronThamesBank was promoted to Admin, becoming the third administrator at the time.

The Revival of The Snapshot

The Snapshot's new logo was created by Just_robinho.
photo courtesy Just_robinho

Main article: The Snapshot

Near the end of November, random broadcasts were being made that stated "15.12.15", referring to December 15, 2015. On that date, it was announced that The Snapshot was making a return.

After a hiatus lasting over two years, a video in relation to The Snapshot was released on chiefbozx's YouTube channel. The eleven minute video entitled "12-15-15" was considered the 44th episode of The Snapshot. During the video and according to the updated wiki page, the new CEOs were Just_robinho and kekkomatic. The Snapshot was put under the parent company of "The Italian Birds", the name of Just_robinho and kekkomatic's Amazing Race team name. According to Just_robinho and kekkomatic, the Amazing Race money they had won was used to produce episode 44.

Just_robinho replaced chiefbozx as host. The Snapshot's main segment is set to feature: general server maintenance, server updates, station renames, staff vacations or breaks, channel announcements, and newsworthy topics. The Spotlight, which replaced the Featured Station segment, was made longer and hosted by kekkomatic. Episode release was changed from weekly to monthly, usually staying in line with the GSM.

The new version of The Snapshot has yet to be seen as momentous or a large event as it has only been released for a short amount of time. As time progresses, some people expect it to be a spectacle for the server.

More Premier Cities

Main article: Acceptance speeches

As the influx of promotions increased, Premier was not far for some members. After kekkomatic came CortesiRaccoon with Airchester, Tom_Pairs with Achowalogen Takachsin, and _frozen with Whitechapel. Those cities set more precedents for Premier towns and what they should strive to be. CortesiRaccoon gave this speech when accepting his promotion during the May 2015 GSM:

"Two years and five months. I’ve passed a lot of time on this amazing server. I’ve made new friends, and I don’t regret any single minute I’ve spent on it. One of the things I’m most proud of is of the work I’ve done and of the people I’ve made happy. I now have the highest rank of non-staff players, and it’s an amazing objective. I’ve been demoted a few times, but that’s helped me to become more mature. I’m now a better person, a more friendly person. People may think Minecraft is a waste of time, but this server never stops surprising me, and I cannot live without it. Next objective? Well, helping grow the buildings, and moderator sounds like a good objective. Thank you to all of the players of the MRT, for making my days on this amazing and unforgettable server. Love you all.

P.S. Still waiting for the pineapples to take over the server…"

Achowalogen Takachsin was also promoted during the same GSM, and Tom_Pairs gave this short statement:

"Come visit Achowalogen Takachsin! I have lots of shops and houses available. I’m starting to build some high-end condos… I don’t know, I don’t like speeches."

_frozen was the fourth person to receive Premier.
photo taken by _frozen

A few months later, the outcome of the December 2015 GSM was that _frozen's town of Whitechapel was ready to be the Premier, making Whitechapel the fourth Premier town. Shortly after his town's promotion, _frozen's speech was posted onto the website:

"I cannot take the credit for Whitechapel entirely to myself. I have been exceedingly lucky and blessed with people helping with this city, with a lot of help from people that are still here and people that are long gone. Without their work, Whitechapel would be a poorer town.

Now that Whitechapel is endorsed as one of the Premier Cities, I would like to take the time to thank people.

Thank you to everyone that contributed to the city, from those that helped with the start of the road system with radioactive center lines (To date, no one has reported they have had terminal cancer from those, so that s(sic) good!), to those that put down dirt blocks after dirt blocks with no clue what the insane mod was planning, to those that installed major puzzle parts of Whitechapel (especially the Airport, the Canals, Sheepshead, Sports District, the Rail Yards, to name a few puzzle pieces).

Thank you to everyone who willingly let me create a large rail hub out of Whitechapel using totally unproven technology, and to allow Whitechapel come closer to your town. My hope is to make CitiRail actually working and functional by the end of the holidays!

Thank you to the staff for the honor of adding Whitechapel to a prestigious list of premier cities such as Arisa, Achowalogen Takachsin, and Airchester. It is a list I am honored to be part of.

Thank you to Frumple, for running the server (if it wasn’t this type of server I wouldn’t even consider building this city. Imagine Whitechapel in a survival server...). Also, without you, we wouldn’t have this special community to be part of.

As for the future: Whitechapel is not done as is. It is far from being done, really. Look for more development, major events, and surprises hidden in Whitechapel. It is the least I can do for you all.

Again, Whitechapel is but a collection of dirt huts without all your help. Thank you all."

In December 2016, AlikSong was promoted for their city of Kenthurst, one year after _frozen, at the tenth city rank promotion batch. He sent his speech to the staff almost two months after being promoted:

"Dear everyone,

I came to the MRT server on 1 January 2015. On that same day I started building up the area around MRT station XW10, hoping that one day my city would expand to the coastline and have a port. Since that first day I have come back to this server again and again to work on this one city for over 2 years. I thought I’d give everyone a brief snapshot of the history of Kenthurst.

The central part of Kenthurst surrounding XW10 MRT station is the oldest part of the city, and all the builds there are the original builds that I constructed in the first month of being on the server. I also built an inner ring road to set up the skeleton for my city expansion.

About 5 months in, I decided to construct a large ring road around my city to establish its new boundaries (now the B79 outer ring road). This was a big challenge as it meant that I had to fill in most of the empty space between the inner and outer ring roads. Slowly but surely I created district after district, including the New Commercial District (supertall skyscrapers), residential district, estates district, sporting district, Kenthurst beach/port district, Kenthurst Fort, and an airport. I decided to also build a canal system within my city, and this required a fair bit of planning especially since I had to retrofit the canals into some of the existing areas of the city.

In about August 2015, Mississa Bay (around XW11) was also given to me by hnt and decorminecraft. I have expanded the original township and integrated it into greater Kenthurst. In mid 2016, Central Park north of XW9 was established as an exhibition of the best terrace buildings on the MRT. More recently I have been putting more detail into the buildings throughout Kenthurst, building parks, constructing roads to other cities and building general infrastructure within Kenthurst.

Throughout my time on the MRT I have been supported by many generous players who have contributed large and small to the development of Kenthurst. Ideas for what to build next were sourced from other players, my own imagination, and Google Images (honourable mention). I have invested much time to create a city that tries to have a healthy mix of high and low density districts, with a futuristic theme, while being in harmony with the natural landscape. I spent much time planning to ensure that the city would look realistic and well organised to visitors and locals alike.

Thank you everyone for your support in attaining the Premier rank. I especially thank Frumple for creating such a wonderful server and for facilitating a close knit community. All the best for 2017 and beyond. Love from Alik"

In October 2017, SimonScholar (formerly godzilltrain) received Premier for his town of Segville. His speech was as follows:

"After playing on the server since pretty much the start, It’s honestly an honour that I’ve been accepted as one of the Premiers. Being not an exceptionally good builder, I hope this sets an example that even with mediocre skill, enough effort can still be recognised with the highest rank possible. While I hope to carry on with Segville in the future, I hope this also allows me to help others around the server, working on more community projects. Right that’s the speech done, if you were expecting anything better, blame the staff who gave me 20 minutes to finish this speech before the end of the GSM.

--godzilltrain"

Increase In Conflict

Mumble Versus Discord

At the January 2016 GSM, the staff announced that it would be testing a new voice-chat server called Discord. The discussion "Mumble versus Discord" sparked controversy as people took sides of which chat client they preferred. At the February 2016 GSM, the staff discussed "Mumble versus Discord" and the verdict was that both would be kept for the foreseeable future.

Announced at the November 2016 GSM, Discord was going to pushed by Frumple more rather than Mumble. Mumble was said to be phased out as the main voice chat in the future. When Epsilon was being transferred over, Mumble was shut down for a brief period of time but was set back up quickly. The server uses both forms of communications today.

Wars and The League of Cities

The first iteration of the headquarters of the League of Cities had a large open room where meetings were held.
photo taken by camelfantasy

Main article: League of Cities

Founded on September 1, 2015, the League of Cities was a New World metropolitan planning organization founded by camelfantasy. Its main aim was to keep peace across the server, have intercity projects, and discuss issues. Many players liked the idea and it became a large organization quickly with a large influx of members joining it. The League of Cities' headquarters is Formosa while the offices were in Vermilion.

As the League of Cities expanded, new issues arose, such as the abundance of wars. Since late 2015, players started making war scenes with armor stands and war scenes in their cities. War scenes and bases were built throughout the server, and attacks occurred at those locations as well. A few skirmishes during this time included The Sealane War and Isle of Friel War. Conflicts arose when some members had built war scenes in others' towns without permission, making some staff have to step in and making decisions on a gray area in the rules. As these scenes were more prevalent, the admods looked for a way to reduce them. It was decided that war scenes would still be allowed, however they would be strongly discouraged and need to be removed for town promotions.

The League of Cities had been dissolved on April 26, 2016, after _Kastle had proposed a Resolution 31, "Dissolution of the League of Cities". After its disassembly, _hnt had posted this final note on the League of Cities' wiki page:

"Now that Resolution 31 has passed, the LoC will be dissolved effective May 1st, however all operations of the League have ceased immediately. On behalf of myself and the rest of your leadership team, I'd like to extend my sincere thanks for all the contributions that were made to the LoC during its lifespan. I'd like to wish the best to everyone in future endeavors. Yours truly, _hnt 07/4/2016"

The League of Cities had not made any major contributions to the server other than wars and disputes. It has left a legacy to where other members have tried to make similar versions of large-scale metropolitan planning organizations that are more successful, such as The Federation, Let's Talk Peace, and United Cities. A majority of the new organizations have failed to do any major actions.

Expansion of Connectivity

Extension of the MRT Network

At the October 2016 GSM, this proposal was accepted for the extention of the Desert, Mesa, and Southern Lines.
photo courtesy thomasfyfe

Several months after the New World opened, no MRT line apart from the MRT Zephyr Line was extended. Only some parts of the MRT Eastern Line was built in early 2015 by Just_robinho and chiefbozx.

The Eastern Line was extended to Pearl Coast in September 2016. After that, the MRT expanded at a slow rate. In October 2015, the decision to extend MRT Plains Line and MRT Eastern Line from 30 stations to 40+ stations. At the March 2016 GSM, it was decided that thomasfyfe would extend the MRT Mesa Line to Totsworth, and was later decided that it would be expanded to Heampstead, making the MRT Mesa Line have 45 stations in total. The MRT Taiga Line was extended by lalaboy to the northwest, which also included a few parts of the MRT Arctic Line, MRT Northern Line and MRT Western Line. CortesiRaccoon started work on the Northern Line beginning in the northeast corner shortly thereafter. It was also decided that the Western Line would not serve Camino, since Omricon, who owns the island, wanted to be isolated from other cities, which led to some players being upset.

The expansion of some new lines led to some conflict among players. Issues regarding claiming stations before the builder allowed so led to arguments with new towns being set up. Some players had dealt with issues of claims "being too close," as evidenced by mine_man_ and Vegeta on the MRT Taiga Line. There was also some controversy that surrounded MRT Northern Line construction, that led to CortesiRaccoon almost dropping the project, but after the October 2016 GSM, decided against dropping it and continued work. He ended his role in building it after resigning from staff and it led to AP_Red taking the project.

Epsilon: December 27, 2016 - February 18, 2020 (PLEASE ADD MORE)

The Shift to Epsilon

World Expansion

The MRT Server migrated from the old Gamma Machine to the new Epsilon Machine in the final days of December 2016. One of the most defining features of the new machine was the expansion of the New World which made it 3.3x larger.

Change in Staff

At the April 2017 GSM, Frumple announced the introduction of the [Trial Mod] rank, which he described as:

"New moderators on probation for three months, and have the [Trial Mod] tag. They have all of the same permissions as full moderators, except that full mods have the ability to temporarily ban trial moderators if necessary. Once the probation for a trial moderator is up, Frumple and the admins will make a decision as to promote them to a full moderator or not."

In addition, Frumple added a second purpose to the rank at the June 2017 GSM in response to events of the time regarding the United Cities and jphgolf4321's involvement in related incidents:

"Starting from now, I have decided that when a mod is warned, they will be demoted to [Trial Mod] to indicate their warning to all players. They will also go through a 3-month probation period, at the end of which, the admins and myself will make a determination whether they should re-promoted back to full moderator or not."

The first to receive the rank were SimonScholar and _Kastle, with subsequent GSMs seeing the promotions of unjinz, hvt2011, _HeavenAngel_, mine_man_, megascatterbomb, and sesese9. As of late June 2018 all but the last have received [Mod].

On October 1st, 2017, several staff promotions were given out following an Administrative Staff Meeting. Chiefbozx was promoted directly to [Mod] with a possible further promotion to [Admin] following a three-month probation ending in January, and AlikSong and thomasfyfe were promoted to [Admin]. Several months later near the beginning of 2018, 2 new admins were promoted: Chiefbozx was repromoted to [Admin] on December 2nd, 2017 following his probation period, and SimonScholar was promoted a few days later on January 2nd, 2018. On May 2nd, 2018, AlikSong voluntarily stepped down from [Admin] to [Mod]. At the May 2018 GSM, held on May 7th, Cynra was promoted to [Admin], to replace Alik.

Events

MRT Screenshot Contest, 2017

The 2017 MRT Screenshot contest was held in June, with ranking done directly by taking the average of members' rankings of each submission from 1 to 10, 1 being disliked screenshots and 10 being well-liked ones. The top five screenshots are below in order of ranking. (Click on each image to enlarge.)

• 

  "Copperport" by MikeRoma

• 

  "Rainy Night in Verdantium" by Mossie_1810

• 

  "A Refreshing Day in Victoria" by MC_Protocol

• 

  "Fort Yaxier Central Station" by camelfantasy

• 

  "Central Park in the morning" by SimonScholar

More new MRT Lines

At the October 2017 GSM, alongside other topics such as the United Cities and lake naming, a new MRT Line to the far east, which had been in rough planning for a while got a finalized name: the MRT Jungle Line which also became the first MRT line to not be built with wool or concrete blocks instead using Jungle Wood blocks. It was approved at the February 2018 GSM.

Months later at the August 2018 GSM, the MRT Savannah Line proposed by _HeavenAngel was approved, it later opened in March 2019. It was built out of Savannah Wood blocks.

City Rank Changes

At the June 2019 GSM, new cooldown periods were instituted for cities that repeatedly fail to be promoted, the threshold for the promotion of Premier Cities was also lowered from 85% to 80%. At the same GSM, Espil and Kolpino City got Premier.

Zeta: February 19, 2020 - Present

Zeta Expansions

The Zeta Migration

In February of 2020, it was formally announced that the server would be upgrading to Epsilon to Zeta due to the old Epsilon machine being too old. The new Zeta machine would be cheaper, bring about a new update for both the Wiki and Minecraft Server as well as an expansion of the New World expanding it to a radius of 30000 blocks. The migration took place between February 18 and 29 with an unofficial survival server being hosted by LDShadowLord and Vulpicula.

Zeta would later officially open on the 29th, there were restrictions on what members could and could not build but would be lifted soon after.

Nansei Gunto: The Asian City Boom

The Zeta expansion led many to create new towns in the area, one of these was Kazeshima, founded by i____7d who was soon followed by mi_aquamarine who founded Shenghua and Wenyanga by Airplaneguy9 which were all founded within half an hour of each other. All 3 towns were also founded within close proximity of each other in the Southwestern edge of Zeta. They also mostly had an Asian theme. A couple of days later, the three cities formed the Nansei-Gunto region within the Epsilonian Republic and were later joined by Shahai, a town founded by Weier.

There were many disputes over territory especially with Kazeshima's overclaiming of islands. One of these land disputes ended up creating a community town: New Singapore which soon became the official capital of the region. More players would flock to the region to create towns and help with New Singapore although the latter started to see slower progress.

The Lakeshore Line

Originally proposed as a line that would be an extension of the Marina Shuttle going in the South in 2015, the new alingment of the MRT Lakeshore Line would instead be in the Northwest, built with Light Blue Terracotta, becoming the first MRT line to be built entirely with a form of Terracotta. It also became the first line to inherit tracks from another MRT Line that being the Zephyr Line.

Oparia: The First Zeta Premier

Oparia, founded by Kyyl in April of 2020, became one of the fastest-growing cities on the server becoming one of two Governor-ranked cities at the time in Zeta in September and soon after, becoming the first Premier-ranked city in Zeta.

Modgate and Its Effects

Initial Announcements

At 21:50 UTC on October 4, 2020, Frumple published a statement in the #announcements channel of the MRT Discord Server that outlined his opinion on the status of the MRT server and vaguely announced changes to elements of the MRT community, including the announcement of "very serious complaints towards certain staff members," emerging after a server-wide focus study conducted by Vulpicula and endorsed by the overall staff team. His statement said, "one of these problems that we are already aware of is the notion of the "Mumble crowd", where others feel that those who frequent Mumble get special treatment in moderator selection and staff requests, and they feel excluded from that social circle in general," and, "the social group within Mumble... will be greatly affected by these changes, and hopefully for the better."

The first announcement out of a series of announcements coming as a result of the investigation conducted by Vulpicula.

At 22:01 UTC, _Kastle sent a message into the #general channel of the MRT Discord Server, pinging @everyone and saying "this is my final message. goodbye," with a link to a statement from him, outlining his perspective on his imminent punishment and stating that he would be leaving the server community. Two minutes later, at 22:03 UTC, Frumple announced the immediate demotion and double-warning of _Kastle. The reasons for this action were listed as, "At least aware and complicit in the finding and sharing of an MRT member without their consent, including phone numbers and personal photos, using that information to mock, slander, and disrespect the MRT member behind their back, and consistent complaints from numerous MRT members citing unfriendly, unhelpful, and disrespectful behaviour from _Kastle when interacting with him on Mumble or in-game." It was clarified that _Kastle would never have the opportunity return to the staff team. _Kastle's response statement to his punishment stated that he blamed Vulpicula for conducting a biased study, which he described as a "witchhunt," and, "To those for whom my demotion and departure is a celebration, I really do hope that this will bring you peace, as I assure you it brings me none."

At 22:15 UTC, it was announced that _Mossie would be demoted from the moderator position due to "unauthorized sharing of sensitive details and discussion from the September 2020 GSM private portion to a non-staff MRT member, specifically the discussion on moderator candidates." It was clarified that he would be eligible for renomination to the staff team three months after the demotion.

At 22:39 UTC, it was announced that woorich999 would be double-warned for "finding and sharing personal information about an MRT member without their consent, as well as harassment and disrespectful behaviour on Mumble."

At 23:03 UTC, it was announced that Echohue would be demoted from the moderator position due to "Discord DM evidence that shows him directly soliciting other members to nominate him for moderator back in July/August 2019." It was clarified that he would be eligible for renomination to the staff team three months after the demotion. This was the final forced demotion of moderators, yet the fallout after was yet to come.

At 23:05 UTC, as a part of the same set of announcements but not as a punishment for wrongdoing, it was announced that daltdisneyland had voluntarily resigned from the moderator position due to "negative feedback rang[ing] from questioning the accuracy and scope of dalt's assistance in moderating MPOs, to negative personal interactions with dalt himself."

For the final announcement, at 23:15 UTC, the new Open Moderator Nomination Process was announced as an agenda item on the October GSM and to be implemented for the November GSM onwards. The announcement came with a statement that provided more information on the process.

There were a wide variety of reactions to these announcements, from very positive to very negative and everywhere in between. While some people called for the end of the Mumble server, Frumple clarified in his original announcement that the Mumble server, at least for the time, would not be shut down. Due to the immense amount of reactions in the duration of the announcements, "Slowmode" was enabled on some channels of the MRT Discord Server. Staff in the #general channel continually asked members to stop speculating on what would happen in future announcements.

Many questions arose from the aftermath. Proposals of recording others in the Mumble server to catch rule breakers arose. Frumple and other staff instructed members not to record others, and rather to write down what happens and get verification from others in a situation if a member sees rulebreaking or harassment in Mumble. Another solution staff instructed people to utilize was to ask for a staff member to enter the channel.

At 05:28 UTC on October 5, 2020, hvt2011 announced in the #general channel that he would be resigning from the moderator position and he would be leaving the MRT community, with a link to a statement. This statement cited, "the demotions that occurred... have been quite taxing on my mental health due to many of them being some of my close friends," and that "to me, [friends from the server are] like my second family. To see many of them get demoted today, really disheartens me. I really thought I belonged on this server. Now I no longer feel welcome here," as reasons he was leaving the community. Many staff members that were not demoted/didn't voluntarily resign said goodbyes to hvt2011, for example, sesese9 responded in the #general channel by saying, "It's hard to put into words how sad I am to see you leave, hvt. When I came back from a long hiatus (2 year break) to a wacky mumble, you were quick to accept and befriend me."

After hvt2011's departure, chiefbozx recognized the struggles to come for the server by saying, "the next couple months are going to be a bit rough for several reasons... hopefully with the new nomination process we'll be able to bring on more people in November and onwards. We've had small staff teams like this before."

At 17:15 UTC, Valkorion314 (formerly known as jphgolf4321) announced in the #general channel that he would be resigning from the moderator position and spending less time with the MRT community, with a link to a statement. In his statement, he said, "If not for the friends I met through Mumble, I don’t know if I would even be alive to write this letter... Initially, I was debating whether or not I should resign, but the response of the community in the past several hours has been, frankly, appalling. It has left a sour taste in my mouth which has led me to this point." He also called the evidence used against the demoted staff members into question, saying, "I vehemently disagree with every single demotion which occurred yesterday, in part because I firmly believe the “evidence” which the investigation found that resulted in the demotions was nothing more than conjecture and hearsay." Addressing those who he believes were working against him and his friend group, he said, "You won, but at a heavy cost. You’ve both eliminated the so-called “Mumble crowd” and driven several of the most critical anchors of this community away in one fell swoop. I wish you the best of luck in picking up the pieces from this. You’re going to need it."

After Valkorion314's departure, at 17:24 UTC, VickiTori_ stated why she was not going to leave the server or the staff team, saying, "The server will definitely be rendered hardly recognizable. It's one of the reasons I'm very passionate about staying on the mod team. Enough have left already. Though most of the mods have left, there needs to be someone to keep that worldedit niche filled."

Being greatly affected by the departures, Conric005 announced a month-long hiatus and a link to a statement, saying, "I no longer feel welcome on this server. Now that all of my friend group is gone, I need to take a month to let things blow over. I honestly don’t know how my future here is going to go." KyleFrb also commented on the situation and the feeling of being unwelcome by saying, "the tone of some messages from select people after the announcements made me and others feel unwelcome. It got to the point for some staff [and people] that they left."

At 20:15 UTC, Vulpicula released a statement in the #announcements channel addressing the concerns others had about the investigation method and announcing the questions used. The questions in the study were as follows:

• Do you know of anyone who might have left or is playing less due to the actions of staff, or other issues with how the server is run?
• Does your perspective of the ‘Mumble Crowd’ affect how much you play on the server, or how you feel about the server?
• Do you know anyone who I could possibly talk to, to try and get information and opinions?
• If you could change anything on the server to fix the issues you feel it has, what would it be, how would you change it, and why?
• Are there any staff members you have issues with, and why?

As a way of showing that the study was not a targeted attack on those who frequent Mumble, Vulpicula said, "I assure you that none of the actions taken on Sunday were a result of [the question about Mumble]. [That question] was largely to gather information and assess possible reforms and ways forward." He also stated, "I understand that for many I’m the last person they want to hear from right now, and I can understand that. While I didn’t wish for this chaos, it was merely the result of what I had found. Don’t shoot the messenger, and all that. This whole investigation consisted of me asking questions and sending those answers to the admin team, or trying to link incidents together to get a more complete picture of what we were hearing." As a way of addressing whether he did this survey for his own gain, Vulpicula stated, "Some have accused me of doing this only to further my own position on the server, and to that I again, deny. This investigation was done out of a moral sense of trying to make things better. I love this community, and want to improve it for everyone. Hearing that folks are being driven off, harassed, or generally feel unwelcome for one reason or another is something I wished to rectify." Frumple also stated in relation to this accusation that, "I've heard some rumours that people think Vulp was doing this just to further his own position in staff. I will say clearly that I'll probably never promote Vulp to admin."

Before and During The October GSM

On October 9, daltdisneyland posted a statement to the #announcements channel showing his perspective. dalt mentioned that he wanted more open conversation to bridge the gap between Mumble frequenters and non-Mumble frequenters. "He said, I’ve run in social circles both “in the group” and out of it, and I can say from experience that neither side has all of the information", noting a time when someone thought frequenting Mumble was "a direct pipeline to [being] staff", as well as comparing the reaction to _Mossie's demotion with ones on the resignations of hvt and Valkorion.

Two days later, woorich999 and _Kastle had posted another statement to #announcements. This served as an apology and farewell message for the two of them, as well as more evidence being put forward. Kastle clarified Frumple's original statement about their demotion, stating that the doxxing event they were allegedly involved in happened in a Discord chat he wasn't in, which was a chat including camelfantasy, Frosty_Creeper10, SoSo123, time2makemymove, and woorich999, which served as a chatroom intended for the splitting of FliHigh Airlines and FlyCreeper, and the foundation of SkyNation Alliance. This statement contained various instances of doxxing by camel, Frosty, and woorich, and a link to the logs of the full Discord conversation, with relevant information redacted out for the victims' safety.

On October 13, 2020, the staff made a website post updating the allegations made against _Kastle following the woorich and _Kastle releasing the document, resulting in the withdrawal of Kastle's double warning, time2makemymove receiving a double warning, and the banning of woorich999, camelfantasy, and Frosty_Creeper10.

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.

October 13, 2020

Frumple later wrote a statement that explained his personal opinions in the events that occured in the days prior, including woorich and Kastle's statement. This included explanations to this actions that led to both Kastle's initial demotion to Trial Mod on 2018, and their later demotion on October 4. He said that Kastle, Frosty, and Cookie46910 had attended a raid to another server named UltraCraft, whose head admin, a former MRT member, reported to Frumple. This, as well as other concerns, most notably the contacting of a banned member's school without the direct permission of Frumple, had initially led him to be demoted from Staff. However, he changed his mind and re-promoted Kastle to Trial Mod after several Staff members protested. This statement also considered the statement of woorich and Kastle mentioned above, and considered the possibility of retracting the double warning that was initially given in light of new evidence.

That same day, time2makemymove had posted a third statement, showing their perspective in the doxxing that happened in the SkyNation founders' chat. They said that while their was the least active person in the chat, not noticing most of the events that happened without their knowledge, their apologized for the hurtful messages sent by them and their friends.

The final major statement that day was from Frosty_Creeper10 and camelfantasy, the last two founders of SkyNation who hadn't published a statement yet (excluding SoSo123, who was already banned on 2018). They both apologized for their actions in the chat, and answered a few questions and clarifications for the events in the chat. They denied that they were actively tracking down the information of other members, mentioned that Frosty reported their own doxxing to Vulpicula during the investigation, and said that the SkyNation founders' chat and the main SkyNation Discord were different, and that other members of the airline alliance were not involved in this situation.

Later that day, various members expressed their feelings, opinions, and information regarding the new discoveries. Worrski of aero left SkyNation due to the events, and time also mentioned wanting to leave SkyNation. SoaPuffball, another member of SkyNation, confirmed that the discussion indeed only happened in the founders' chat, as "nothing of note happens in the [SkyNation] main discord". Various other members, including Sasha9076 and MIKE24DUDE, had posted statements about their feelings from the first wave of demotions on the 4th until this point.

A Recovering Community: The MRT after Modgate

Post-Modgate Reforms

A new Moderator Nomination system was approved in light of Modgate, this allowed players to nominate candidates for Moderator provided that they have two nominations. Furthermore, all candidates had to be approved by two-thirds of staff as well as Frumple who could veto it. KyleFrb, daltdisneyland, and Echohue were promoted to Moderator through this system. However, the discussion channels on the discord server, which were introduced as a part of the new system, were controversial with members often getting into immature arguments and discussions, oftentimes deviating from the original purpose. This contributed to Frumple seriously considering shutting down the server and not renewing it in January. Tensions and worries were at an all time high and some were making preparations should the server not be renewed for 2021.

On January 1st 2021, Frumple announced he had renewed the server albeit with several caveats and conditions. He went into more detail in a statement at the January GSM just a couple of days later.

On January 28, 2021, SimonScholar resigned from the administrator due to real-life responsibilities. This also led to the removal of the role of Staff Meeting Coordinator.

At the February GSM, megascatterbomb introduced a new 7-level warning system to replace the old one. With the old system, staff faced multiple discussions of what punishment was appropriate and therefore impacting response time to the actual issue. The new system included features like offline reflections as well as the ability to "stack" punishments for more severe incidents. This system was later updated so that nominations needed at least one piece of evidence, with new guidelines on how a candidate could ask about a potential veto.

Approximately a month later, megascatterbomb resigned due to real-life responsibilities and the fallout of Modgate.

Resignations and Nominations: The Fallout of Modgate

With the exception of Echohue who was repromoted in January, no new moderators were promoted from January to May of 2021. From February to March, 5 candidates were considered but none were promoted. No candidates were considered for the next 2 months, and the lack of staff members were worsened by the resignation or demotions of MinecraftYoshi26, Vickiposa and Unjinz in May to June.

At the June GSM, 2 members: Missa_Solemnis and Needn_NL were promoted to moderator being the first new moderators in 6 months.

However, just a few days later, Kyyl would resign from Mod, departing from the civil tone of other resignation letters, with a very blunt letter stressing his frustrations with the server's maturity and claiming that it was going downhill. This caused considerable discourse in the community with some members making statements describing their thoughts on the situation and others leaving. A few Staff members, like Skelezomperman, would also publish statements.

Following Kyyl, daltdisneyland would resign a few weeks later due to issues with the community as well.

The Resignation of Vulpicula

On July 11, 2021, Frumple made a statement shortly before the anniversary and read it out loud at the July 2021 GSM stating that he was committed to running the server through 2022 and that if the server was to shut down, he would give at least 6 month's notice, an idea he came up with SimonScholar.

On the day of the anniversary, Vulpicula suddenly left the MRT discord server after a conversation with Frumple over non-serious use of the /kick command. Several hours later, it was announced that Vulpicula was resigning as a mod and leaving the server. He then released a statement via fellow mod Skelezomperman where he stressed his problems with Frumple including the claim that Frumple tried to drive his friends away from Vulpicula. A voice chat conversation around the same time also revealed that several members had issues with Frumple and the relationship between Frumple and Vulpicula was part of a trend rather than a stand alone incident.

A few days later, Frumple would release a response to Vulpicula's statement disputing some of his claims and criticizing the community. He then announced his indefinite leave from the server and the appointment of chiefbozx as de-facto acting Owner although Frumple would still have legal and financial responsibilities. Skelezomperman would also publish an addendum critiquing Frumple specifically for his comments to the community.

A New Start: New Mods and New Change

The events of mid-July would lead to renewed hope in the community specifically in regards to the staff shortage. 7 Candidates would be nominated at the August GSM though not without criticism from some members in regards to the quality of the nominations and the rationality behind them.

At the GSM, 6 out of the 7 candidates: DintyB, hvt2011, ondist, MC_Protocol, Narnia17 and MPolo455 were promoted, breaking the record for most candidates promoted in a single meeting. There were also several changes during this period such as modifications to the Plagiarism rule, the enforcement of 300-500 block rules to only apply to registered towns and a new "Miranda Rights" rule, something proposed and approved in light of the events in Mid July by autobus22. Other more reforms included the increase to how many Seaplanes a town could have and the deregulation of Spaceports.

The October SSM

The Meeting

At the October GSM, chiefbozx called for a Special Staff Meeting for October 17th. Nothing was mentioned about the meeting other than the fact that the meeting agenda would be private until the meeting started. Chief encouraged members to be at the meeting if possible.

A few days later, Chief announced that the meeting would concern Frumple’s return to the server as Owner. The meeting was also rescheduled to October 24th due to clashes with the schedules of select Staff members.

On the day of the meeting, Frumple announced that the server, while it would still be renewed for 2022, it would most likely be the final renewal meaning that the server would most likely shut down in January 2023. While there had been threats by Frumple to shut down the server in the past, most prominently during the initial fallout of Modgate, this was more serious and seemed less than a threat or a hypothetical.

Frumple cited that he was “done” with the community and that he was tired of managing it. He mentioned that all admins, including chiefbozx, were not in a position to take over the server and that any change of ownership would be international meaning more trouble.

The meeting also bought up concerns with Frumple with individual members, bought up by autobus22 in a statement he made after Vulpicula's resignation. Frumple dismissed these concerns as invalid and said that auto's comments directly contributed to him deciding to close the server.

Aftermath & Fallout

Many members expressed sadness and disappointment that the server would be closing, some would take a step back from the server while a minority would leave the server entirely. Coincidentally, two moderators: ondist and Echohue resigned, the latter having mentioned that he would resign at the end of the summer back in June. Both mods did not cite community issues as factors in their resignation.

Frumple would then propose a Moratorium on future Section 5 topics in GSMs, in the #forum channel, to be considered at the December GSM. However, it did not happen, as the shutdown cancellation was announced.

The Bans of November 4th

On November 4th 2021, Frumple decided to indefinitely ban crimsonf0x, who had been issued a L5 Warning at the October GSM for uncivil behavior, citing that he was not someone that could be reasoned with any capacity. Following this, autobus22, a well known critic of Frumple as well as the wider staff team , criticized Frumple for the warning calling it problematic and saying that the community was fractured and broken. Shortly after, Frumple would ban auto for sustained belligerent dissent.

This sparked outrage in the community with many criticizing Frumple for this seemingly authoritarian measure. Frumple would then threaten to shut down the server early but would then back off. A couple of hours later, Narnia17 would resign calling Frumple out for his dismissal of criticism, accusing him of gaslighting and abusing the community and compared Frumple's actions to something out of George Orwell's 1984. He would then transfer all of his assets and leave the server.

Shortly after, Frumple would make a statement apologizing for his rash comments to certain members as well as defending his position for banning autobus22. The whole ordeal would lead to several members leaving the server, either temporarily or permanently.

2022 and 2023

Shutdown Cancelled

At the December 2021 GSM, Frumple announced that the server would not be shut down anytime soon. This brought a general feeling of relief to the community as a whole - not because the server wouldn't be going away, but because Frumple seemed eager to keep the server going for as long as he could.

Introduction of Conductors

Originally conceived by SimonsScholar, the idea of a "helper rank" had been floating around for some time. The idea was later discussed at an SSM held in June 2022, where the name of the rank was decided and an application system was put in place.The server's first 12 Conductors would be promoted at the following GSM in July, with 4 more being promoted at the August GSM. The introduction of the Conductor rank led to a reduced need for Moderators, and helped players in less active timezones access World Edit.

Union Line

Main article: MRT Union Line

While the Union line was initially conceived as an east-west line passing through various different locations in 2019 and 2020, it was later changed to be an outer Zeta circle line. The first section of the Union Line was proposed and approved during the October 2022 GSM, with dark gray as its colour and smooth bassalt for use ingame as the primary theming. Further sections would be built to extend the line clockwise around Zeta, with many extensions being proposed and built in order to connect to the various terminuses of other MRT lines.

Member Stagnation

Form late 2022 onwards, the amount of new guests joining and applying for membership dropped to an all-time low. This led to some concern amongst Frumple and the community, and multiple ideas were proposed to address the problem. Some notable ideas included applying for the Syscraft showcase and the custom tablist, covered in the January 2023 and March 2023 GSMs, the creation of a Planet Minecraft page for the MRT server, advertising in the Reddit r/mcservers subreddit, in-game voting reminders, and the possibility of opening the Discord server to the public.

June 2023 ASM

On June 6, 2023, Frumple announced there would be an Administrative Staff Meeting on June 10, 2023, which would be the first ASM since 2021. Additionally, Frumple clarified that the ASM would not involve any involuntary staff or conductor demotions, and later clarified that the server would not be shutting down in response to some concern amongst members. In the announcement, Frumple stated that the primary theme for this ASM would be the "future direction of the server."

At the ASM, it was announced that chiefbozx would be stepping down from his position as Head Admin after the August 2022 GSM, with SimonScholar assuming the Head Admin position from this point onwards. There were no new promotions to Admin at this meeting. Additionally, a new server, Delta, was announced, with SimonScholar saying that the server lease for Delta has been pre-paid for 24 months by Frumple. The transition date to Delta was to take place in September 2023, along with the Discord Server being opened to guests. While guests wouldn't have full access to the MRT Discord server, they would be able to view and read many of the most important channels, and send messages in a few others. Additionally, the Mumble server would be discounted due to very low use.