Guides
Running a whitelist that people actually apply to
Whitelists keep a server civil, but a bad application form kills growth. Here is what to ask, what to cut, and how fast to reply.
Jonah Ellis3 min read2 views
Why most whitelists fail
A whitelist is a filter, not a wall. The servers that grow with one ask three short questions and answer within a day. The servers that stall ask fifteen and answer in a week.
What to ask
- How long have you played, and what do you enjoy building or doing?
- Have you been banned anywhere, and what happened?
- One sentence on why this server rather than a public one.
That is enough to filter griefers without losing the quiet players who make a server worth joining.
Reply speed matters more than the questions
An applicant who waits four days has already joined somewhere else.
Set an internal target of 24 hours and post it publicly. If you cannot hold that, shrink the form until you can.
Keep a written record
Log every decision with a one-line reason. When someone appeals six months later, the log is the difference between a fair call and an argument.