Hey there!
To address your first concern- if a hacker is caught using hacks for a second time, they will be permanently banned
Permanently banning a hacker on their first offense makes sense in some aspects, but is heavily outweighed by others.
People do learn- there are many people who have been banned for first offense hacking, and have never again hacked. Being completely removed from all MCGamer servers for an entire week is as big of a wake-up call as we can give, and it really does work for some people. Some people may be unaware that a hack is illegal, or maybe just needed an extra push to tell them
"maybe this isn't the right thing to do". We give people a second chance to learn from their mistakes, and change their ways. If they continue to hack, they will be permanently removed. They had their opportunity to learn from their mistake, and if they didn't take it, they are permanently removed from the community.
Thing is, permanently banning them right away takes care of them for good, but we could potentially be removing someone from our community forever who may have changed their ways if given the chance.
Hackers are a problem, and always will be until hack clients are able to be blocked, or no longer are updated. The staff team does their absolute best to check the servers, check report abuses, and reply to pokes to take care of any and all hackers that may find their way onto our servers. If they are found to be hacking, they will be banned accordingly, whether it's their first or second offense.
To reiterate one of my earlier points, though hacking is an extremely low thing to do, many people may not initially realize that. Someone may have been influenced by other people, told it was ok to do so, or just not even realized how unfair and wrong what they were doing actually was, which is why a second chance is given. If they can't realize it, and continue to break rules, a permanent ban is enforced, and that person is removed from our network.
There are a few other offenses which result in an immediate permanent ban.
By removing evidence you have offered for the staff to use against a hacker, or any other rule breaker, you offer that rule break the chance to regain access to our servers. Why? If the evidence is no longer available, the Sr. Staff have no evidence to view and use in deciding whether to pardon, or uphold a ban. If the player posts a ban dispute, the ban will be pardoned for lack of evidence, regardless of whether that person has committed a serious offense.
There are a lot of blurred lines when it comes to this rule because quite frequently evidence is removed by accident, or with no malicious intent, leaving a lot of open area for argument, and different situational punishments.
Despite most cases involving accidental removal of evidence, the accident causes several problems and though situational circumstances can affect whether the permanent ban seems just or not, a permanent ban is out in place in acordance with the rules. By submitting, and reporting evidence you agree to the rules fully knowing thst by deleting it, the possibility for punishments to follow is looming.
