Destroying something that isn't owned by you is considered griefing. So in your situation, the person that destroyed the fence and started defacing the landscape that you will be using in the future is considered griefing in my opinion.

Still, if you are going to be using the area later on then I'd class it as griefing, certainly as you've fenced the area off.

Some people would class it as griefing, I wouldn't. I know it was pretty much claimed since you placed the fence there, but they only took generated blocks, right? Maybe you could put a sign up telling people not to build or destroy there.

I would have to agree with danniel, if you placed fence around an area, why would you place fence around items that are okay to be taken? It is considered griefing if you destroy another player's items, it sounds like to me if someone placed fence around items, they do not want those items taken.

You're totally right, but you also need to take in to mind that this server attracts a lot of new people, not only to the server, but new to Minecraft.  I have a guy in my town that's literally only 3 days old in Minecraft terms. If it was a common player of Noobstown that trespassed then I'd totally agree with you, but not in this situation. When you first joined Minecraft, didn't you want to explore everywhere?

That's the whole point, they don't know anything, they could think griefing is only being rude to people. When I'm on a new server I travel until I'm nearly dead from hunger, I get to the closest tree and start crafting. I'd climb over a fence and destroy a tree if I needed to or dig in to the ground a little bit and wait until it's mid-day.

I doubt new comers would bother reading the rules because they want to get right in and join the community, I'm pretty sure you don't read 'all' the rules on 'every' server you've visited, nor even attempt to read the "terms of service" on every product you've bought or downloaded.

I think this topic should be locked because it's turning in to a needless discussion.