Now I understand that a ban is a ban no matter what it's for, but I feel as though bans should be shortened, at least a little bit, for the first offense.

Here's an example, I was banned on July 12th for using xray. I didn't know what I was doing since I had never used any sort of cheat before this. I was banned for 60 days for the offense with barely any time to really understand that I was being banned for that long.
Maybe instead of having a 60 day ban, since that was the first offense, it could've been a 45 day ban.

I'm not saying that I should be completely let off the hook for what I did, no, what I did was against the rules and I should be punished for it. I'm saying that since it was the first offense, it should, like in most situations irl that I've been in, be less as long of a ban. Especially if the one being banned, in this case me, has been following the rules and being an active player for a long time before this, as I have been playing since season 7 and have never broken any rules before my ban.

You're told to read /rules when first joining the server, and you're given a pop up stating that X-ray is bannable for 60d with no exceptions the first time you mine diamonds. 
Additionally, every offense has a duration for first, second, and third offenses. For X-ray, 60d IS the shortened ban duration for first offense. A second offense X-ray is a perma-ban

Awkwardbowman, I did not know this, thanks for pointing this out and I'll leave it alone from now on.