All of the posts aside (whether they're beneficial to this discussion or merely looking to bash other people), Chad, a Developer, and myself were discussing the matter in depth recently. I have a few updates for everyone:
- We agreed that while a majority of the XAC bans are legitimate (with some hacks being 100% guaranteed), we admit that there are certain aspects of the system that could result in false positives in a set of rare instances.
- It would appear that lag and luck are the complicating factors at play here. Making matters worse is the terrible way Minecraft handles server connectivity and client integrity.
- On Tuesday, a push was made to address lag compensation for the affected XAC systems. That should help with more accurate reporting.
- Also on Tuesday, a modification was made to the XAC auto-ban system to make it more, "forgiving" in light of the potential false positive bans. We will be returning XAC to its previous strictness once we've accounted for all the edge-cases, and generally made it more accurate.
- This was done as a direct result of player outcry like this, so I don't want to hear any more of, "MCGamer doesn't caaaaare!"
- We are currently researching the extent of punishments that were done with the potentially-troublesome system. We will use this information to estimate the general likelihood that bans done with that system were false-positives.
A developer should be posting further clarifications and updates on this matter later.
Unbans are definitely on the table to be discussed. But based on what I've read in this thread, I feel compelled to issue this warning: if you can't behave yourselves, you'll be find your Hacking ban being replaced with an Abuse/Disrespect/Mass Demonstration ban instead. That's not worth it, so please behave yourselves.
We're willing to work with you folks to make this all better, but that's not going to happen if the standard mode of behavior here is insults and claims of how much things suck. Work with us, not against us, and we'll work through this together.