I see people complaining about how they get banned for no reason or for stupid reasons... and it kind of annoys me as a server owner. Most server owners are fine, and a lot of times the trigger happy bans are because we are used to dealing with idiots, so it is assumed that everyone is an idiot and you have to prove yourself from there. I'm going to give everyone an in depth article about how not to screw yourself over, going over the types of bans.

The "No Reason"-
There is ALWAYS a reason. Read the rest of the article to see what might have happened. If you honestly think the owner or an admin/mod just banned you because they felt like it, you probably should have been able to see it coming and shouldn't have been playing on that server in the first place.

Griefing Related Bans-
A lot of people are banned unjustly for griefing. A few of them:

"I was fixing it"- Logging plugins can't detect what your motives are when you patch something up or try and make it work better. If you see something that has been damaged, let the owner of the structure know, and don't try and do it yourself. If my house has a wall made out of gravel and gray wool haphazardly, I'm not going to think about what happened, I'll probably jump to the conclusion that somebody wanted the material in my wall and ban them.

"I was removing something bad"- If you see something bad or out of place, contact whoever owns the structure that it's in.

"The person who used to own it left the server"- Typically, nobody cares. If there's something on the map that you didn't make and it isn't natural, you don't touch it. Period.

"They said it was ok if I did it"- Make sure that anyone who might ban you or complain about you for whatever it is you're doing knows that you got permissions previously. Ask whoever gave you permission to leave notes for other people or to send them a message/mail.

"They deserved it"- This isn't an argument. Griefing is a no, nobody cares about why they had it coming.

Chat Related Bans-
Arguments, "trolling," and relationships with other people sometimes cause upset people.

"I was just trying to help"- If there's an admin that doesn't know how to do something, don't tell them how to do their job. Even if they're hopelessly confused and have no idea what they're doing, just continue on and ignore them. They're the ones that should know how to do it, not you.

Don't lie- Nobody confesses to the fact that they made up a story, but a lot of times they'll get banned and still claim they were telling the truth. The quite simple way to avoid getting banned for this is to NOT MAKE UP STORIES. It pisses me off whenever someone claims they were "hacked" or it was their little brother or when they make other various outrageous claims, and if I wasn't planning on banning them for whatever they did already, making up lies to cover up their story certainly guarantees I will.

"I was telling them to stop it"- If mods/admins are doing something you don't like and you feel the need to ask them to stop, just leave the server. An example in a thread I saw was that two mods were killing a person over and over so he asked them to stop, which is a mistake. If they're going to do something you already feel is unjust, they're probably loose cannons and might ban you for anything you do against them.

"I was just doing what they told me to do"- If someone of a higher rank tells you to do something, make sure they leave notes or messages for everyone else who may be concerned about it so that your butt isn't the one in the fire. If they won't do it and threaten to ban you if you don't, give a quick "got to go eat breakfast/lunch/dinner" or a "got to go walk my dog" and leave the server, then contact the owner by a different means. Take screenshots of what the person told you to do for the owner so that they can't believe the other person over you.

"They owed me for something"- If someone owes you something but refuses to give it to you, just forget about it and be the better person.

There was an argument and I got caught in the crossfire- If there is a dispute and you aren't involved, just disconnect from the server for a while until you think it'll be over.

Cheating/Hacking Related Bans-
Usually questionable calls to begin with, these don't happen as often but still happen-

Don't do dumb things- If in your opinion something should be allowed or is not bad enough to be banned, first make sure it's allowed on the server. Little mini cheats are usually not allowed, so just ask before you go ahead and use them.

"I was falsely accused of x-ray"- Typically it's hard to detect if anyone is using x-ray, so sometimes admins will just go into people's mines and see if they look sort of odd. If you have lots of weird branches and split offs from your mine, it usually is assumed that you have been using x-ray. To stop this from happening, just keep your mines uniform and following a pattern (preferably just going down+straight), and block off where you mined veins of ores with cobblestone. If you hit a cave and it ruins your pattern, close it off and put a sign saying "Cave- Explore Later." It makes sure to give a reason for any oddities that there might be.

Anything Else-
Just don't get involved. It's that simple. The easiest way to not get banned is to not make a scene or give a reason.

Quick Review-
1.) Don't touch stuff that isn't yours, even if it is on your land. EVER. Get an admin/owner to handle it.
2.) Don't touch stuff that isn't yours, even if it is on your land. EVER. Get an admin/owner to handle it.
3.) Don't tell people what to do.
4.) Let people sort out their problems, don't do it for them.
5.) Don't get involved in stuff you don't need to.
6.) If you're asked to do something trivial, make sure whoever asked you to do it is the one that is held responsible, not yourself.