Running a whitelist that people actually apply to

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.

JoinGG is a live directory of community game servers — current status, players online right now, and a copyable address for every listing.