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 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:

The shortcuts are equivalent commands—c is a synonym for stop. This makes using the bot from your smartphone much easier.

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. If you are away, notifications will be delivered when you return, provided they still apply. To receive notifications even while you're 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.

The basic notification only triggers once, but you can also request a smart notification which can trigger multiple times:

notify-increase [HHhMMm] [HHhMMm] [HHhMMm] [away] [private] [once]

The smart notification will let you know whenever the number of players on the server increases. The first parameter is the expiration time; notifications will continue until the time has elapsed. The second parameter is a cooldown period. Once a notification sends, the cooldown period must pass before another one can be sent. This prevents the bot from annoying you with repeated notifications. The third parameter is the depart-rejoin delay. This delay prevents players who disconnect and rapidly reconnect from triggering a notification. When the player count decreases, the count must remain low for the depart-rejoin delay before it is considered accurate. The default cooldown period is five minutes, and the default depart-rejoin delay is two minutes. The once flag will cause the notification to only trigger once.

Example invocations include:

• notify: The default notification is one more person than is presently playing for the next two hours.
• n 1 1h30m: Look for any connected players within the next ninety minutes. The n is a short-cut for notify.
• notify-increase 8h away private: For the next eight hours, you will be notified when the number of players on the server increases, even if you are listed as away, without listing yourself as “looking for group.” This is perfect for idling.
• 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. Normal notify requests will only trigger once, but notify-increase requests will keep sending you messages until the request expires. To cancel either type of notification before it expires, send the stop command.