This stems from the 2 disputes that happened last week from the TF2 community but is still a good piece of discussion even by itself.
First of all, our servers are meant to be a place for everyone in our community and people who visit our servers to have fun. I'm going to try to break down what we used to do and what I feel is sometimes not reflected in our community anymore.
Whenever we were on CSS, CS:GO or TF2, (even before I was Co-leader) issues obviously occurred. Sometimes we had a free-killer on the server, or a guard + prisoner arguing etc. The role of the staff should be right away to fix the problem WHILE keeping the servers interests in mind.
If someone got freekilled, we would also message them after slaying; if we know it was a freekill (either via voice, all chat, or pm)
"Hey man, you got slayed cuz you freekilled X during this game. If you get too close to them, they are allowed to knife since you are baiting, so you freekilled. You're not getting banned, just wanted to let you know to be careful and read the rules"
This lets you not only resolve the problem and let the server know you are doing right by punishing them, but the person who broke the rules understands exactly what happens, and lets them have another go at our server without feeling alienated.
There are PLENTY of situations that you (as staff) are not there for, but still need to resolve to help out the server. You should always be willing to communicate with BOTH parties, and get a good compromise or to punish them fairly if you don't feel there's anything more you can do to resolve this in an easy manner. Ask them one at a time what the issue is, gag/mute one of them if they aren't letting the other talk, after hearing both their stories, ask witnesses or look at chat logs and see what's going on.
The whole point of us punishing a person in our servers (Not perm punishments) is for the SOLE reason that we want to reform them. We don't week ban people first offense, just so they never come back again. That's not the point of our mutes,gags,bans. It's to teach people that their (repeated) offenses aren't okay here, and that we want everyone to enjoy their time here.
TL;DR for people who want a simple explanation, staff are not ban-bots programmed to ban anyone and everyone out of line, it's to fix any issues that people are having, and even if someone has previous offenses, if you can resolve a problem without banning, and the server is happy, then you are doing the right thing. You are there to ensure people (including you) have fun in our servers, and that no one is trying to ruin it for others.