While I am talking about the administration of the server, I do also think that some of the mods are a little pedantic. No offence, and I know you all have a job to do but in some cases it is bordering on ridiculous. For example, me and my friend needed sandstone for the community path from the spawn which we started. I decided not to take any from the beaches as it makes them look terrible, so we searched a little further inland. We found a large pit of sand near a massive castle, there was a mine next to this place that was claimed which presumably led deep underground. So we proceeded to take some of this sand from the pit, then Sylvet popped up and accused us of 'strip-mining' and 'griefing' the land of the owner of the castle which was destroying the landscape. We politely told him that the pit wasn't claimed, that we was removing some sand for a community project, that we had no intentions of taking any ore, that it was not ruining the landscape as the pit was already there, and that we had only taken about 20 blocks each! We also offered to return the blocks if he thought it was that bad. He then replied pretty aggressively threatening my friend with a ban if he did anything else and giving me a warning. He then proceeded to follow us for ages afterwards while we tried to find somewhere else to get sand. I was pretty offended TBH as I had put a lot of work into the community and was a trusted member- I see no reason to be treated like that over such a little thing.
Another instance was when To_String, a very respectable member, removed a pretty ugly looking bunch of stacked trees next to his house. The trees allowed creepers to spawn right next to his house and dangerously close to the town. At the end of the day, it looked terrible, it was in a built up area that should be available for building, it spawned destructive mobs right next to two peoples' houses and the town and was unclaimed and was clearly not being used a a forest. A mod was very rude to him and undid the removal which, despite being lit up by the mod, continued to spawn a ton of creepers. Fortunately it has been removed now and I have not heard a single person complain.
Sorry to rant, but Minecraft is about building and mining, and just because someone put something up doesn't mean it shouldn't be removed when it obstructs a project as big as a town. In the same way just because a hole is near to someone's property you can't harvest it even though you are not causing any damage to the scenery. I'm not having a dig at the mods, I think they have done an excellent job- especially with the influx of griefers, however I think they are being too harsh on some trusted members without due cause.
I think 2x2 is the best size as you don't miss any eggs that way.
