- He freely gave up everything he created and admitted to it as well - what distributor do you know of that has done this and has gotten 1024?
It could be argued that, having been on the committee, he knew it would give him some leeway.
- He reported other stats that came to our use, eg who distributed the hacks, etc. - only some do this, but Rick told us basically everything.
No offense, but that isn't a strong enough reason, I don't see what will stop people from coming back and demanding a lower ban based on the amount of help they supplied. They'll always hold this over the committee's head, "you did it for Rick, don't be unfair", then watch out, this is next: "the committee is biased, they look out for their own and cannot remain objective."
The only thing that made me bump up the time was that he should've known better, being on the committee especially.
This is pretty much it. To me, it just blows the other reasons up.
When you think about it, this entire discussion is rather absurd. Really, we're talking about lowering a ban that was originally about 3 years to 2 years. Years. We're banning people for years now. And it took someone close to 132 days to make a thread about it (in general discussion). Do you think people will stand back and not fight to get their ban lowered by a whole year if they just saw someone else do it, especially against such odds? Of course not!
Oh, and I chose to dissect your post because..well, let's say I'm light, so I see you holding more mirrors than everyone else, and go, hey, I can bounce off of like 3 mirrors if I go over there, yay.