16. The warning system

Administrators can kick or ban players. We generally give warnings before kicking, and again before banning. When a server is "out of control", we will sometimes give a blanket warning, then proceed straight to kicking players without further warning.

Also, we reserve the right to kick or even ban without any warning at all. This will occur for players who have a "history" on our servers, and will also occur if the offence is considered, well, offensive enough. Examples include, but are not limited to, sexually explicit or racist language.

A kick involves removing a player from the server. The player can then return to the server immediately if there is room. A player can ask why they were kicked, if they are unsure (see "Your rights").

A ban involves barring a player from the server until such time as a senior BFM officer removes the ban. Each ban is recorded in a ban report on a forum only visible to BFM admins. The ban report provides some detail on the behavior that led up to the ban. Bans can be, and often are, overturned by requesting to be unbanned on our forum.

Bans are based on the key of the Halo CD, so changing a Profile name will not allow a player to get around a ban. You are responsible for anyone using your Halo CD, regardless of how it was misused—"my brother / son / dad / mom / uncle / dog / cat did it" is the most common excuse that we see for misbehavior.

We usually don't point out when we have kicked a player--you will just see that they have quit. However, on an "out of control" server, we will point out when people are kicked as a courtesy to our rule-abiding guests, so that they know we are trying our best to clean up the server.