Have you ever wanted to know how many people are connected to the Minecraft server… without having to open Minecraft? With the Jabber Instant Messenger bot, now you can. To see near-real time information about the server status, just add status@theparadox.us to your instant messenger contacts. You can even register to be notified when a certain number of players connect. This way, you can wait around for your friends… without waiting around for your friends. Instant Messaging enables the smart and rapid delivery of these notifications to a variety of devices.

Anyone with a Jabber ID can use the Minecraft bot. If you have a Google account, you have a Jabber ID. You can also use any of the servers in the XMPP federation. Here are some of the ways you can use the Jabber bot.

Virtually any multi-protocol instant messenger client supports Jabber. You can use Pidgin for Windows or Linux, Empathy for linux, or Adium for Mac. Just sign in using a Jabber or Google Talk account and add status@theparadox.us to your contact list.

Adding a contact in GMail

You can receive notifications in GMail by logging into GMail and using the chat widget. To add the bot, click on the avatar icon (see left) and choose “Add Contact.” In the “To invite other people…” field, enter status@theparadox.us and hit the button. The bot should appear in your contact list, and you can use it like any other chat contact in GMail.

Most hosted GMail accounts (i.e., “Google Apps for your domain”) services won't work with the bot, but @gmail.com accounts will work just fine.

Android has built-in support for Google Talk—just use the Talk app. You may also use BEEM.

Support for instant messaging on iOS is less than stellar. Jabber clients, such as Monal, can run as background tasks on the 3GS and above. The official AIM client supports “push” notifications when the program isn't running. In order to use it, you must add the bot to a Google account as described above. You may then use the AOL Instant Messenger website to link your AIM account to your Google account, which will show your Google Talk contacts in AIM.

The bot broadcasts the number of players on the server, and the server's Message of the Day, in its status message. Normally, the bot's status is always “available,” but if the server is down, the bot will change its status to “Do Not Disturb/Busy.” The bot is well-behaved and will never send you any messages unless you ask it to do so. You can interact with the bot by sending it one of the following commands:

You can ask the bot to notify you when players connect to the server. You might want to do this if

• You like playing Minecraft with friends
• You're idling and want to know if someone else signs on
• The server is down, and you want to know when it comes back up

To add a new notification, type:

notify [min_players] [HHhMMm] [away] [private]

The bot will send you an alert if at least min_players are logged into the Minecraft server within the next HH hours and MM minutes. The default expiration time is two hours from now. By default, you will only receive notifications if at least one of your IM clients has a status of available. To receive notifications while away, use the away argument. The number of players with active notifications is listed in the bot's presence message—this gives everyone an idea of how interested people are in Minecraft. To exclude yourself from this count, use private.

Example invocations include:

• notify: The default notification is one more person than is presently playing for the next two hours.
• notify 2 8h away private: Send a notice if two or more players connect within the next eight hours, even if you are listed as away, without listing yourself as “looking for group.” This is perfect for idling.
• notify 1 1h30m: Look for any connected players within the next ninety minutes
• notify 0 24h: If the server is down, notifications for zero players will be accepted and sent when it comes back up.

You may only have one notification at a time. Adding a new notification will replace your existing one.

All notifications expire within twenty-four hours, and they are strictly “one shot” messages which will only trigger once. To cancel your notification before it expires, send the stop command.