Been thinking about just how to respond here for a few days and I've a good faith question to @HonourWolf, @vladimir26, and @Mort (if your post is serious - a little difficult to tell given the tone and the fact that you've said you don't really take anything here seriously):
Instead of singling out one staff member and doubling down on it, why not make some actual concrete proposals for staff conduct. I've made a few based off your feedback and I'm curious as to whether or not they would actually satisfy you. If they don't, I feel you may want to reevaluate what's really bothering you.
1. Codified or not, staff should provide notice that they will begin enforcing previously unenforced rules and protocols. @Petitioner actually followed the letter of the law in not providing evidence to an unofficial faction. The rule wasn't changed after that sanction thread. Rather, it had never been followed to begin with.
2. Do we want to talk about codifying some kind of rule where staff can't have fun when posting sanction notices? I don't find what @Petitioner did particularly egregious at all, but I also recognize that both them and I hail from an era where Discovery's administration was far more merciless, their words far more barbed. It was all in good fun, but maybe it isn't the kind of fun we ought be having in a thread where people are being punished.
3. Regarding 1.1.2 and fair play - would it satisfy you to have a sort of non-admin/mod committee that these judgements are outsourced to in determining the fairness of a fight? The rule is here to stay and rightfully so, but I understand how high emotions run here and I think more importantly, not every staff member is particularly pvp savvy and thus not as capable of properly evaluating a fight. I'd keep such a board small, maybe 5 people, and rather than attempting to aim for "unbiased" members (as no one will ever agree on who is unbiased), try and keep the cliques they hail from as diverse as possible. I have always been strongly, strongly opposed to the outsourcing of staff work, but I think this one time there could be meaningful benefit from an exception.
4. This one is an actual piece of feedback for the administration: stop doing this. This isn't me singling out @Petitioner in the slightest, there is a long standing history of the administration simply ignoring even the most clear of offenses if not provided as a violation report. You can take your own action when the case is cut and dry. It's no different than taking matters into your own hands and .beaming someone to bastille when they start dropping slurs. It takes all of 5 seconds of googling to figure out why names like Ar'Tanis, Ra'Zagal, or Ochako.Uraraka don't have a place on the server. I can actually see how @HonourWolf felt slighted by essentially being told "step back in line and follow protocol, citizen."
Or if we want to put a touch of humor on it, "PICK UP THAT CAN."
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Lastly, I want to say regarding staff confidence being at an "all-time low."
No it isn't.
We are not anywhere close to an all time low in staff confidence. Discovery has seen strikes, coups, administrations threatening to ban developers for balance and story changes. Discovery has seen administrators who were aces put battleship powercores on their fighters and fly around New York instakilling people with SNACs to prove a point and remain green afterwards. Y'all would not have survived if you think these are the ends times.
I understand feeling singled out, feeling like your group is under attack, but really, all told, shit's going pretty well right now. I would actually like a response from the people involved here to see if any of those proposals would allay concerns, rather than the current status quo where it seems you simply want a target, who could just as easily be replaced by someone who cares a whole hell of a lot less at all.