I used to love going on vanilla servers with my friends and family, we used to have a great time building our bases and sneaking out to raid.
However, I've noticed how hard it is to find a good survival server. Usually they give you full enchanted diamond armor and weapons, food, wood, etc! It ruins the concept of vanilla.
Why can't they make a server in which you get nothing, you have to work together and help each other to build a base and gather resources? Why must they give you so much. Oh and while I'm here, even though I think that shops are really useful, it again takes away the idea of vanilla survival.
Hope this provokes some thought