Your server in our hub

Our hub is where players land when they join play.serverhost.example. It is the only server list we run: there is no list of servers on the website. Players walk around, then pick a server from the list and are moved there on the same connection, with no disconnect.

How players open the list

Players arrive at the spawn and can look around first. The list never pops open by itself. They open it in any of these ways:

• right-click the Servers compass in their hotbar,
• press their swap-hands key (F by default),
• walk up to or click the person on the platform by the spawn,
• type /servers, or /servers and a search, like /servers lifesteal.

Until our menus with pictures arrive, the list is a chest menu. It works the same for every player, including Bedrock players and players with shaders.

Where your server shows up

Every listed server is in one list, in this order:

1. Boosted servers, pinned to the top, marked "Boosted". There is no limit on how many. Among themselves they are ordered by how many players are on right now. See Credits and plans for what a boost costs.
2. Every other server with players, by how many players are on right now.
3. Servers with nobody on, the most recently played first.

A sleeping server is shown honestly: "0 playing, sleeping" and "wakes in about 20s". When a player picks it, it wakes and they are moved in once it is ready. See Sleeping and waking.

Each entry shows your server's name, its tagline (a short line you write, up to 60 characters), the players on now, its region with the expected ping, the Minecraft versions it accepts and its genre tag (for example smp, lifesteal, box, gens or creative). Your server's name, tagline, MOTD and sleeping note pass our word filter before they show. Without a tagline, the list shows the first line of your MOTD instead. The hub checks your tagline, MOTD line, sleeping note and hub tag once more with its chat filter: a line with a blocked word, a link, or contact or personal details is left out of the list (your server still shows). Capital letters are fine there.

Players can search by name, tagline and genre tag, and filter by version and by region. Bedrock players also choose between servers they can join and all servers; they start on the ones they can join. If your server does not take Bedrock players, it says "Java players only" to them. Turn Bedrock on in Bedrock and crossplay.

If a player's game version cannot join your server, the list says so ("Needs 26.2 or newer") instead of letting them fail to connect.

Jump back in. At the top of the list each player sees the last few servers they played. We keep only that short list, by Minecraft player ID, nothing else.

Votes. A player can right-click your server in the list to vote for it, once a day. See Credits and plans for what votes earn you.

Your servers menu in the hub

Owners and team admins can start, stop, restart and check their servers from inside the hub, with the Your servers item in the hotbar. It needs your Minecraft account linked to your account first: see Linking your Minecraft account with /claim. Every action from the hub is checked and logged the same way as in the panel.

Hub cosmetics

Owners on a paid plan get hub cosmetics: a few particle trails, hats, a tag before your name in chat and the tab list, and a small pet that follows you. Open Profile and cosmetics in the hotbar, or talk to the Cosmetics person in the court south of spawn, to switch them on. They show in our hub only, never on any owner's server, and they are never sold on their own.

Things to do in the hub

None of these give credits. They are for fun and bragging rights.

• Parkour east of spawn, with checkpoints. Falling sends you back to your last checkpoint. The board by the course shows the best times ever; the board in the court shows this week's time trial, which starts again every Monday at 00:00 UTC.
• Boat race north of spawn. Step on the plate in the race lobby to get a boat. The clock starts when you cross the line and stops when you cross it again after one lap.
• PvP pit in the court. Walk in through the gap to fight anyone else inside; walk out to stop. You get a plain kit inside and keep nothing. If you lose a fight, you come back just outside the pit with your hub items, and the winner is told. Inside the pit you always see the other players in it, even with "hide other players" on, so nobody is hit by someone they cannot see.

Friends, parties and messages

In the hub, players can add friends, start a party and send private messages, all by Minecraft name, with no account. Open Friends and party in the hotbar, or use /friend, /party, /msg and /r. Private messages are friends-only unless a player changes it. "Show my server to friends" is off until a player turns it on. A party that joins a server goes together.

Blocking. Block anyone, friend or not: open Friends and party, click Block a player and type their name, or block a friend from their entry. You then stop seeing each other in the hub: no body, no pet, no trail and no chat lines, both ways, and they cannot message or invite you. Blocked players cannot fight each other in the PvP pit either. Unblock them from Blocked players in the same menu.

Once players are on your server, your own plugins handle /msg and the rest. Only /hub stays ours on every server.

Hub chat rules

Hub chat is for everyone, including young players, so it is filtered at a moderate level:

• slurs, sexual words, links and spam are blocked; mild swearing is allowed,
• personal details are blocked: phone numbers, home addresses, emails, social media names and asks to move the chat to another app (coordinates and amounts like "1200 64 -3400" or "1000000 coins" are fine),
• sending too many messages quickly, or the same one again and again, is held back.

A blocked message is not sent at all, and the sender is told why. Nothing bans anyone automatically. Right after a player joins, chat opens a moment later, once the hub knows whether they are muted.

Reporting. Type /report and a player's name in the hub. Pick a reason. The report goes to our staff with the reported line and the few lines around it. Apart from reported lines, we do not keep hub chat. See Rules and reports.

Our staff can mute, kick and keep players out of the hub. These only ever apply to our hub, never to your server. Your server's chat and bans are yours. A mute or ban reaches the whole hub at once, and within a minute at the latest; lifting a mute never lifts a ban, and lifting a ban never lifts a mute.

Settings players can change

Settings in the hotbar: menu sounds, hiding other players (their pets and trails too, except in the PvP pit), who can send private messages (friends or nobody), friend requests on or off, and "show my server to friends". A choice between picture menus and chest menus comes with our picture menus.