How does that work? I don't like the idea of admins deleting items or cutting off supply. It feels like there'd be too large a gap between the "haves" and the "have nots".

This usually works by not allowing certain things to be crafted. Generally this is used for C4 or explosives being uncraftable.

I honestly don't care what kind of server is chosen. That being said, there are some things to consider.

1. Death Messages
As annoying as death messages are, it allows the admins to see what is happening easier. For example, if 5 people are all killed by the same person in a row, that's a simple red flag that there may be a hacker, as opposed to simply having to take peoples words for it that a certain person may or may not be hacking.
 
  TL;DR - kill messages help deter hackers.

2. No wipes
No wipes means that large portions of the server may be full of decaying / inactive bases. It makes it hard to find a place to set up shop. Also you have to contend with a lot of people (like me) running around in kevlar killing all your gatherers.

3. What is standard?

Standard Servers

• Sleepers
• Door Codes
• No locked packs (but can be toggled on by admin)

Mods

• Personal messages
• Door share
• Suicide in console
• Ability to see players on the server
• Starter kits

4.

Renting a server

• Zero raises a good point about trying to get the server populated
• It would put you guys in charge of doing all the adminy stuff on the server, fixing peoples shit, trying to regulate people doing fucked up stuff, listening to people bitch and moan about such and such. Ew. In addition to this, if you end up helping someone do some adminy stuff (fixing a base or whatnot), it becomes super questionable to raid that base later, whether you had found it legitimately before hand or not.

5. The things I would like

• Server that averages a population of about 30-40
• The two most useful mods I think are PM and door share
• Playing on a server that's primarily east coast would be good if that's where the majority of you are, just to allow more chance of us actually having people on when we're under attack.
• If there are servers that are english only that would be amazing. (I'm korean and I don't have anything against asians, but a lot of the asians on these servers seem to be pretty shady... )
• I would prefer to be on a server that was recently wiped
• Lastly, I am totally OK with staying on the server we were on. At least we know the admins are active and relatively helpful. I also think the population on our server was pretty decent most of the time.