Despite this not being a legitimate ban appeal, and PapaNeon having summed it up so well already, I will answer this anyways.
I am the mod that banned you. Any form of cheating is not allowed on our server.

Appeal denied. Best of luck elsewhere.

Hello, I'm the mod that banned you. I am well aware of the "lag-ray" joking that was going on in chat, and despite joking about xraying being taken very seriously here and can lead to a ban, that is not the reason you were banned. I watched you showing off your "lucky diamond finding ability" as you mined your way directly to diamonds, calling out where it was before ever reaching it. That luck of yours must be divinely sent to pull off something like that. Per our server rules, any form of cheating will not be tolerated.

I wish you the best of luck on other servers
-Den

No I wouldn't kill them. I wouldn't trust them either, however, unless I had prior interactions with them or they had established themselves as a trustworthy person. I would accept their help, but I would be cautious and ready to defend myself during the entire interaction.

This is a debate that gets brought up with every major update, so I will reiterate what I have heard and said in the past. It really sucks to lose your progress and I understand that's why most people are hesitant or against a reset. My best advice to that is to remember to always take screenshots and pictures of your base for memory's sake. Because there's no way to know if your base will get raided or griefed tomorrow, next week, or not at all. We take that risk on this server and most long standing players have come to accept that understanding. The same goes for server resets. We may not like them all the time, but it's how it goes.

I am all for a reset for a few reasons:

1. Several players have nether bases. It would be extremely unfair for their bases to be erased while everyone else on the server is unaffected. You could argue this is the same as getting raided, but there's a big difference between a player getting raided by another player and several players having the server owner erase their progress and only their progress.
2. No update or just a partial update will make it harder to stay high on the server list charts and Craftymynes won't get seen as much, won't get as many new players, won't get as many donations, and will all together suffer because we didn't want to have a fresh start when the update releases. I for one love this server and want to see it succeed, and that means sometimes losing everything for a reset.
3. I personally think it has been long enough for a full reset. We have seen factions rise and fall, hundreds of bases pillaged and raided, and insane builds reborn at new locations, all within this map. It has lived a full life and I think it is time for a fresh start.

I encourage other long standing players to give their opinions on this. Those with the most will also have the most to give up, and I'd love to hear what you have to think on this.

It's awful seeing builds you love destroyed, but one of the things I look forward to the most is the opportunity to build something new. I guess think of it like having a little extra push to try and try again. You get the chance to change up your style, play the game a little differently this time. Take it as an opportunity to refresh your minecraft experience, kind of like a server reset. I know it's sad remembering the stuff you lost, the work now gone, but your memories of having fun and playing with friends there are still alive and well.

Awww, thanks! The love goes both ways. As much as staff help to keep the server running smoothly, the players give us our community. Thanks to all you guys for making this such a great community!

From the 1.13 map, I had my end base. It was a few blocks short of being from 1 to build height. Took months to complete, and that was just the glass outside. I never finished the inside before the map reset. I had completed so far a kelp farm, an all other plants farm, a central floor, and my base at the very top. And that central pillar was the elevator. I could fly around freely inside that thing with an elytra without fear of hitting any walls. Honestly the coolest thing was just the translucent effect of the glass against the void when you saw it from far away.

I remember the shutting down prank. I didn't realize it was april fools at the time and within a few hours had gone through all the stages of grief.

Hi, I'm the mod that banned you.

Whether you believe what you said was harmful or not, it was in violation of our rules. From the reactions of many other people in chat, it seems you had been doing this for a while before I joined the game. You were warned several times and even made comments that you knew what you were saying was going to result in a kick or ban. You knew what you were doing, and you chose to keep doing it. In light of this, you'll be unbanned in 24 hours of this reply. Please take some of that time to read our rules before rejoining the server. Rules

Dennari43

I've not given an opinion on this yet, mostly because I want to stay vanilla, but I know, if things don't get better, that's the wrong decision. I too am for the principle of it. I only found CM because it was vanilla, and I've stayed because of that. It's absolutely amazing all the things Crafty has done with it. A good portion of the people who join don't believe us when we say we're 100% vanilla, because we've managed things other vanilla couldn't. There's some real pride in that. Crafty deserves all the praise in the world for making vanilla the best form of minecraft for a lot of us. I'd hate to see CM turn away from that.

But I also hate seeing CM die. I hate seeing lag be the main topic in chat all the time. I hate hearing so many cries for help because 1.14 screwed someone over in something, time and time again, and there's little to nothing I can do to help. I hate that I don't see my friends on anymore, because they can't play or refuse to play until things are better. I hate that I can only play at certain times when traffic is low, because it's unbearable any other time.

I would love to stay vanilla. But if things don't improve with 1.14.3, then it's not just the server that's at risk of dying. I've spent so many years in this community, and I don't want to lose it. I'd happily switch to semi if it meant keeping this community. I'd switch to a different game entirely if it meant keeping this community. If staying vanilla means watching the thing I care about slowly suffer as I wait for it to inevitably die, then I don't want to be vanilla anymore. And I don't mean to sound harsh in saying this, but if a video game running a certain way is more important than preserving real friendships and keeping a real community alive, you should rethink your principles.