So the original thread was closed before I could make a comment, thus I've started this one.
First, I should note that this is not any kind of appeal to have him banned longer or unbanned sooner, it's simply my two cents. This is a forum after all. Feel free to add on to this discussion; two cents is not a lot of money.
I have a problem with the way the appeal ended. Peter was originally given a two week ban, which, after the mentioned appeal was posted, was shortened to a measly five days.
After reading Peter's reasons for the appeal, in essence his main argument summed down to this: he didn't know when the grace period ended. He didn't know.
Now, I will say that the whole grace period has been confusing and there have been plenty of grey areas, but to essentially reward somebody with such a massive reduction in their ban because they "didn't know" is nothing short of idiotic.
Everything that was on that mountain base was the sum of all the work Josef, Lith, Par, and myself had put into the server literally since its opening. On another blog of Peter's, he posts a screenshot of our griefed base with the caption "Yavin Alliance Waterpark". Seeing as all of our collective hard work as well as many long hours of wasted energy had been put into that base, I couldn't help but be offended at Peter so jovially calling it a "waterpark". Ask Lith or Par: I had built the stairwell depicted in the picture over a span of days: gathering materials, digging out the mountain for nearly two hundred blocks down, and building it up. He also goes on in the blog by posting a screenshot of our destroyed base, several destroyed chests, and with the caption "hidden chests cant hide from tnt m8". Again, this is extremely degrading; I know that Lith had worked hours to brew those potions Peter looted, not to mention the countless other valuable items we had in there.
The point I'm trying to make is this: we had spent a massive amount of time, work, and energy on building that base, and over the span of a couple of minutes, it was blown to bits, looted, and griefed. All this during a supposed GRACE PERIOD. The culprit's defence? He didn't know the grace period was still on.
I won't go far into discussing his other accusations – attempted burning of Moscow, profanity, and stealing – because I had limited involvement. However, from what he said in the thread, I see nothing but weak excuses and quite frankly, lies. "Sorry for the misunderstanding Ned it did look like I was stealing, but when you killed me you have to admit I only had 1 flint and steel that's all." Accidentally building on somebody else's claim is a misunderstanding. Hitting someone with a sword when you were meaning to hit a mob next to them is a misunderstanding. However, deliberately going into somebody's base and rumaging through their chests is not a misunderstanding. Also, how do I know you had the intention of stealing? You said it yourself: you had an empty inventory, save a flint and steel. You were not only going to fill your pockets with Ned's stuff; you were also going to set fire to his base. Enough with this bullcrap, Peter.
But in all honesty, a good chunk of the fault here does not lie solely with Peter. I believe that the administration has exhibited poor judgement in reducing his ban, given Peter's only arguments to his four ban reasons are:
1) "I didn't know"
2) "I thought I had been pretty friendly the days before and had no reason to burn it." (Direct quote)
3) "I thought myself I stayed pretty calm during the whole ordeal" (Direct quote)
and
4) "I wasn't stealing though it definitely looked like I was stealing"
I'm no Sherlock Holmes, but these are hardly compelling reasons to assume innocence.
Peter has shown continued hostility during the grace period, and simply because he was not up to date he's being rewarded by being allowed back on the server sooner, where he will no doubt continue to be hostile. He has brought four fellow players' weeks of hard work to absolute nill, and he's getting away scotch-free because apparently it was a misunderstanding. Do you not see how stupid his defensive reasoning is?
Like I said, this is not an appeal to lengthen his ban. I do request, however, that the server administrator reread this, take another look at his "reasons" to shorten the ban, and then ask yourself: does he deserve to be let back on here, let alone so quickly?
Truly, I'm abhorred at not only Peter's blatant lies and poor excuses, but the administration's willingness to so quickly accept them. In all honestly, I have considered leaving the server, should such poor judgement be made and such detestable acts be tolerated.
Thanks for reading.