Claimgate
Background
The First Claimgate and the Great Towny Crash are commonly used to describe a major scandal involving Levithan mayor MrLevi on March 30, 2019. An incidental and illegal townly command was used that resulted in the claiming a massive area of the world map (see picture). This claim even overridden the claims of other towns. Efforts to unclaim the land by then-prime minister marioboyrc resulted in a loop of server crashes leaving RetroMC offline for hours while administrators attempted to restore the world.
The Forbidden Command is Issued
It was early days of the Imperial Coalition and mayors all over were rapidly expanding their territory and population. To facilitate this, Levithan mayor MrLevi entered an experimental command to speed up the process. The result was a supermassive land claim that engulfed part of the continent and overridden other towns. Prime Minister marioboyrc showed up on the scene an hour later and attempted to unclaim the land. The result was a loop of server crashes that forced administrators to shut down the server.
Aftermath
After the world was restored, administrators blocked users from entering the forbidden towny command so a claim like this could not happen again. (see Second Claimgate and The Trial of LukeIsStuff). Many Imperial Coalition residents believed that the entire empire would be deleted from towny. Many non-resident RetroMC users were frustrated with some rage-quitting the game as all the diamonds they had mined prior to the world restoration were gone. A memorial dedicated to the tragic event is located in Levithan at the exact location the command was entered. The command would become known as the "Forbidden Command".
Testimonials
Here are some real reactions from in-game users and the Imperial Coalition discord chat:
"I think i have have literally broken the whole server boys. By a single command" "I'm going to assume that was my last command as an Imperial Coalition member." "I think nonetheless the staff will enact some sort of restriction on large towns like this now." -MrLevi
"I lost all my diamonds I quit." -Unnamed RetroMC player that was on that day
"There may have been an invident involving accidental claiming of a lot of land that wasn't me" "so, what's going to happen to this union?" -Waid
"The server probably won't reopen soon and the Union will be in ruins" -marioboyrc
"You all f****d up and now its my job to fix it, why t** f*** is this my problem." -Jim
"no way. holy f*********************. We need johnny." -crazy