What is a MOTD?

Do you know those descriptions that show up on your bookmarked servers? Sometimes they're next to an image and sometimes they're filled with all kinds of colors. These are known as the "server message" or "Message of the Day" (MOTD) and help identify the server you've bookmarked.

Here's an example! I've taken a screenshot of my bookmark for our staff team's testing site. The description beside our logo and below the slots is the MOTD.

Are there any requirements for the MOTD?

Other than correct formatting when you want to spice it up, nope!

How do I customize the MOTD?

Without special customization, you can simply type a message into the right box, save, restart, and you're set! Here's how to do this:

  1. Open Prisma and go to the server you want to modify.

  2. Access your server settings under the Customize > Settings menu.

  3. Update the Server Name field with what you want to display.

  4. Save your changes using the Save button at the bottom of the Settings panel.

  5. Restart your server.

  6. Check your bookmarked servers list to make sure it looks right.

  7. Make any changes you need to, otherwise, you're set!

How do I add colors, obfuscated text, or a new line?

The easiest way to customize your MOTD tends to be through the use of a MOTD generator online; however, you can avoid using these if you know what to use.

MOTD Customization for Bedrock Servers

With Bedrock, Minecraft uses § to add formatting to the MOTD. This should be attached to any desired customization, like colors or obfuscated text.

For example, text colored cyan would look like this: §b Hello as the color code for cyan in Java Edition is b. If you also wanted this text emboldened, it would look like this: §b§l Hello!

You can find the formatting codes for Minecraft online or in the image here, courtesy of Gamepedia.

For Bedrock, just remember that your MOTD uses § instead of \u00A7 or & to prefix codes.

Can I modify this directly in server.properties?

While you can modify most of your configuration files directly, we don't recommend it in cases where you have another option as modifying a file incorrectly can easily cause havoc. If you do want to modify the file directly, open your server.properties file and add your MOTD to the server-name= line. Be sure to save your changes and restart the server after you're done.

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