This feature, which was added many years ago, has outlived its usefulness. The functions it was meant to perform are now entirely capably handled by the Magistrates and the Titans. Making rulers judge, jury, and executioner is no longer the appropriate way to handle players who are not, in whatever manner, abiding by the social contract and the game's other rules and policies.
Fundamentally, the problem is that the OOC ban effects an IC solution to OOC problems: it removes the character from the realm. This does not prevent them from causing whatever trouble they've been causing in other realms, nor does it send them a clear message that their conduct is unacceptable to the game's administrators.
There is one situation in which the speed of an OOC ban can be important, and that is when a player is spamming a realm with excessive and/or profane messages. I can count the number of times I have seen this occur in my 9+ years in BattleMaster on one hand. And if anyone were to let me know about such an occurrence, I would be sure to take appropriate steps to ensure that they could not bother anyone while a more official Titan or Magistrate case proceeded.
It is also worth noting that for several years, nearly every use of the OOC ban has been punished by the Titans for being abusive and/or inappropriate.
So, I would like to remove this feature, and Tom has asked that I put this to the community first, to see what your thoughts on it are.
