Cooldown policy

Why this exists

Site owners pay for honest, attentive feedback. The replacement guarantee means BurnTest eats the cost of bad burns. Cooldown is how we keep the panel worth paying for.

What triggers a cooldown

Any one of these starts a 7-day cooldown:

• Your average rating falls below 3.5 across the rated burns among your last 10 decided burns (once at least 5 of them are rated).
• More than 30% of your last 10 decided burns were rejected (once you have at least 5 decisions).
• A burn is rejected for being silent, under two minutes long, or mostly off the target site.
• You contact a site owner outside the platform.

What cooldown means

You can still see and record burns, but for 7 days approved burns pay nothing and add no Heat Points, no credit progress and no badges. Ad ratings earn no Heat Points. Your level and badges stay; your Heat Points still cools if you go idle. Elite status (Blaze and above) is shown as usual but priority access and free audits pause.

How it ends

Automatically, 7 days after it started. An admin can lift it early after an appeal. Burns approved during the cooldown are not paid or awarded retroactively. Pay you earned before the cooldown stays in your balance.

Permanent removal

A second cooldown within 90 days, any attempt to submit AI-generated or pre-recorded content as a live burn, or any harassment of site owners results in permanent removal. Heat Points, badges and unspent credits earned through Heat Points are forfeited.

Appeals

If you believe a rejection or rating was unfair, reply to the rejection email within 7 days or open a ticket with the burn number. A human reviews every appeal; a successful one restores the pay and Heat Points for that burn and lifts a cooldown it caused.