IGN: ThePhoenix
Reason for unban: Staff has gone soft on crime

@ThePhoenix is a player with a colorful past on the server, causing many disruptions and upsets throughout his time on CraftyMynes. He is guilty of the following:

• Griefing the server parkour by spawning a nether portal inside it
• Making sexist remarks in the Discord server (This elevated his ban status to permanent)
• Disrespecting staff's decisions when it comes to rule enforcement
• Bullying players
• Using incredibly racist language in his public Discord server
• Cheating by use of an unapproved mod

Not only do I find his behavior disgusting and reprehensible, but I find it utterly jarring that staff could overlook such transgressions and allow him onto the server. There was a time where even if you accidentally logged on using a banned mod, you were permabanned without exception. Now, times have changed, and there have been unbans based on players actually logging in with mods accidentally because of the decision on this guy. However, ThePhoenix admitted to using a mod despite it being a banned mod. Now, I've been a player on CM for a very long time, and to me this seems like a very clear cut case where the appeal should be denied, but for whatever reason, wasn't.

At least in Birdfrock's case, the decision was based on intent rather than outcome, and to be fair to staff, when the decision was made they retroactively applied the same ruling to other similar cases (and to play my own Devil's advocate, didn't apply it in others ).

I also find it incredibly interesting that ThePhoenix was unbanned after this debacle without any transparency for the players, in which the standard is that ban appeals are publicly viewable on the forums for accountability purposes. Then, following the resignation of certain administrative members, ThePhoenix was allowed back into the Discord despite being permanently banned. And now, we have the current situation.

This now begs the question, what precedent will be set by unbanning ThePhoenix?
Will NE0GE0 be unbanned as well?
Will other cheaters be unbanned as well?
If they won't be unbanned, why not?
Is ThePhoenix's case different from the others? If so, how?
Are the staff actually just playing favorites when it comes to unbans?
Will the rules be applied fairly and equally to all players on CraftyMynes?

I formally call for the re-banning of ThePhoenix, or for the staff that voted in favor of overturning his ban to publicly apologize to the entirety of the server, and unban other cheaters who also promised to "never do it again."
Thank you.

@CeruleanHusky Trying to remain somewhat positive here lol

https://imgur.com/5aG9aNC (embedded images don't work cuz dead)

cope

cm is doomed tbh

checking in to see if there's an update on these

bumping to see if there is any update on these so far

@ImKopi Which is totally fine, but I think there should be some kind of disclaimer of "Due to the fact you joined after 2015, you will not be permitted to join any teams nor should expect any help from players". I think that's a fair warning for new players.

wah wah wah whine whine whine

Too long, unbearable tts voice, didn't watch

@TimmyBoyT I’ve always liked CraftyMynes because it is vanilla. I think if you decide to take it semi-vanilla it’s going to be a slippery slope with people wanting ever more and more plug-ins.
If you want to boost membership I would recommend boosting motivation to vote. I remember for example when we used to be able to purchase elytra by spending vote credits.
In the same vein but a slight tangent, have you ever considered ban forgiveness? I love that cheaters get banned so reliably (as least from my perspective) but I also believe that many of the offenders could be reformed if given a chance. What do you think about a year long ban vice life?

I wholeheartedly disagree with your hypothesis that it would become a slippery slope, as the main reason to become semi-vanilla in the first place is to deal with the inadequacies of the vanilla server jar in terms of performance. The server would, and should, stay essentially a survival server. I don't think anyone would even suggest plug-ins on the server, not that they'd ever even be considered.

How would motivation to vote increase membership? Cm is already #1 in the vanilla category on mcsl, so this does nothing

I do think that the ban forgiveness is an interesting idea. I've always found it funny that cheaters were allowed to come back on alts and never the originally banned account. Sort of a "if you have money and/or you're not a kid with no job you get to come back" situation.

@Tez1010 I'm with Timmy on this, I like that CraftyMynes is genuinely vanilla. Most of the core players like that it uses the genuine mojang jar.

We went round this loop maybe 4 years ago. We had a vote and semi vanilla was seriously considered but I think you would lose as many players as you gain.

There is confusion out there as to what is vanilla. Vanilla is in a way what you make it. Teleports and homes don't make it not vanilla and let's be honest we enjoy those facilities.

Getting new people to join is mainly down to three things - votes, critical mass and welcoming. People come on the server because of the first two. They stay when they feel welcome and make friends.

So how
to get more votes. Personally, I would love to get rid of phantoms for votes! Rewarding top voters?

Critical mass - players don't join if they see 0 players on the server. They may as well play sp. They start to join if they see 3 or 4. Maybe some of the staff and loyal players can watch for the numbers being low and join even if they are mainly afk or just for a few minutes.

Welcome. Making sure to say hello and help new players. Taking time to chat to people. Everyone can help with this. You can also invite your friends.

The jar being vanilla is essentially just aesthetic for you then, and even if it improved performance you would be against it?

Vanilla is, technically, an unmodified server jar. If you asked a player though, they would just say "no commands, sethome, or things like that," so someone wanting a vanilla server would not make a scene because the server jar is modified.

2 of the 3 things you suggested to increase player count are responsibilities of the players, which in my mind, makes no sense. It's up to the people that run the server to attract and maintain a player base. The players that are on the server now are the product of that effort. The third thing you mentioned, votes, I already explained above.

Votes would matter more though if the server was semi-vanilla, as it would be in a newer, more competitive category. So I would say if the server was to be changed to semi-vanilla, increase voting rewards.

for as long as i can remember, cm prided itself on having the number 1 rated server in the vanilla tab on most server voting sites (mainly mcsl), which probably would have been close to impossible on semi-vanilla. the criteria for being on the vanilla tab was having an unmodified server jar file. seeing as how being #1 in vanilla doesn't seem to be making people flock to the server like it once did, i think improvements to the player experience (i.e. less lag, more player leeway) would be the next choice to bring people in.

@babybirdfrock I wasn't cheating.
It was an accident. and yeah I bet you've made worse mistakes IRL

rule 3. also, projection.