Mitigate Squatting Abuse in Servers by AFK-Hosts

Motivation

REQUEST MOTIVATION
The online/multiplayer experience is negatively affected by players joining as hosts and going AFK, effectively disabling the server for an indefinite amount of time. As a result, users who join that server in good faith, only to receive no response from the AFK host, are angered and have their time wasted. The same also applies to one or more players remaining on a server afk indefinitely, after the match is over. Such a server too cannot be used until the idle players are removed.

Proposed solution

PROPOSED SOLUTION
OpenRA should implement an inactivity timer after which an inactive host (squatter) in the server gets removed. Repeated squatting should lead to an automatic ban from joining again. Others users within the server lobby should be able to hold a vote to kick a user and/or transfer host privileges.

Side effects

EXPECTED SIDE EFFECTS
A host-removing voting feature might incur some conflict or abuses pre-game. An inactive host might get wrongfully auto-kicked even though he may genuinely be waiting for others to join. However, he can try to rejoin the server or respond in the chat to a prompt warning about the inactivity.

Alternatives

ALTERNATIVES
Not addressing the issue will continue the problem of servers becoming idle and unusable.

The issue names no files, tests, or entry points; begin by locating the multiplayer server host and inactivity handling. Clarify the timeout, warning, kick or ban, voting, and host-transfer requirements, then define tests for the agreed behavior.