DayZ Ban List and Whitelist

A ban says this player does not get to be here. A whitelist says only these players get to be here. They feel like opposites and they are. Communities still mix them into one "admin list" and then unban someone by adding them to the wrong file. Keep two lists. Name them in the tools you actually open, which should be CFTools Cloud if you are done editing ban.txt by hand at midnight.

A BattlEye ban is an identity and a reason and, if you set one, a duration. The reason is for your staff, not for the banned player to negotiate in your Discord ticket with a paragraph of excuses you will not read. Write what happened in one line: combat log at a raid, obvious script, harassment after a warning. Durations are a policy. Permanent is a policy. "Until I feel better" is not a policy and it produces inconsistent appeals. Publish the policy where players can see it before they play. The server page will not carry your rules. Your hostname can hint. Your Discord has to say the rest.

Kicks are not bans. A kick ends the session. A player who was kicked can reconnect unless something else stops them. If you wanted them gone, ban them. If you wanted a warning with teeth, kick and say why in say or in a direct message you can stand behind. The command list separates the words. Cloud separates the buttons so a tired moderator does not press the permanent one because it was on top.

A whitelist is for private events, staff-only tests, and communities that are tired of randoms. It is a bad default for a public server you also want on the open list. Players who cannot join will not read your essay. They will call the server dead. If the server is passworded, say so, and understand that DayZ Manager has an open roster precisely because passwords are a filter. Whitelist plus password plus a hostname that says "public" is three filters and one lie.

Reserved slots are not a whitelist. They let named players in when the server is full. Everyone else can still join while there is room. The priority queue guide is that mechanism. Do not implement "reserved" by banning the general public. You will forget to unban them.

Appeals need a log. If Cloud recorded the ban, the appeal has a starting fact. If the ban lived in a file a former moderator took with them, you are reconstructing gossip. The admin log is the argument for keeping the action in a product instead of a desktop. When you unban, unban in the same product. A leftover BattlEye ban and a Cloud unban that did not reach the server is how "I was unbanned" becomes a reconnect loop.

Export the list when you move hosts. A new machine with an empty ban file is an invitation to everyone you removed. CFTools Architect moves the process. You still have to move the policy. Treat the ban list as part of the server's persistence, next to the hive, even though it is not the same folder.

Appeals, exports, and the list you forgot

Write the rules where a new player can see them before they are interesting to you. A ban for "toxicity" with no example becomes a coin flip, and coin flips get litigated in your Discord until the staff quits. Pick three offenses you will always ban for, with durations, and apply them twice the same way. The log in CFTools Cloud is what makes the second time match the first. A spreadsheet on one moderator's laptop is what makes them diverge.

When you move hosts, export bans before you announce the new IP. The new process starts innocent. Everyone you removed is invited back by the empty file. Treat that export like the hive. CFTools Architect will not infer your disciplinary history from the mission folder. Copy it, then ban a test account on the new box and see it stick, before you publish the address on the server list.

Whitelists rot. People change Steam accounts, share them, and forget they applied in March. Review the list when you wipe, not every night. A whitelist that is longer than the peak player count is not a whitelist. It is a public server with extra friction. If that is what you wanted, remove the whitelist and stay on the community roster as a normal join. If you wanted privacy, the open list is the one you are correctly absent from, and the password flag should be honest.

Do not ban to enforce a queue. A full server is a capacity fact. Reserved slots exist so staff can still enter. Banning the waiting population to "clean the list" is how you become a story on someone else's server. Read the queue on your own page, then decide whether the cap is the problem. The official servers you do not control will not teach you this. Your community will, by leaving. Unban in the same tool that banned. A leftover BattlEye entry and a Cloud note that says forgiven is a reconnect loop you will blame on the game.