Server lists are commonly used by admins in hopes of helping to gather more players. But they hide a dark truth behind them!
What is a server list
Server lists are public listings of Minecraft servers, used to promote your own server. Sounds great, right? Well, not exactly!
⛔ The common misconception
The whole problem with server lists is that there are thousands of servers on a list, and to get a higher spot, you need a ton of votes. To get a ton of votes, you need a lot of players. Do you see the problem here? Yeah. It only helps servers that are already popular!
If that's not bad enough, server list only shows a limited amount of servers on one page, that's pretty obvious. But it also makes a server that has a spot no. 5,000 completely irrelevant! No one is going to scroll 100 pages to find a SMP!
🤖 Bots are used to vote
Unfortunately, server lists are often abused by servers that use bots to vote for them. Such a server will gather massive amount of votes, effectively cheating the system and ensuring a top spot on the list. You will never convince your limited amount of players to vote more than a computer program that runs for the whole night and emasses hundreds or thousands of votes.
💵 Paid list spots
You can feature your server on a server list. Usually premium spots are auctioned, to ensure the server list portal gets the most money possible. The issue is, again, established servers have more funds than small servers, which strengthens their position even more!
Some server list will also partner with very popular servers and those servers will occupy the first 5-10 spots at all times. You won't even be able to purchase those spots!
👿 Sounds horrible! What do I do then?
Fortunately there are infinitely better ways to promote your server! You don't have to rely on sketchy websites who will sell features spots and never actually show your server on the first page!
➡️ You can use social media and internet press to your advantage! Read about truly effective ways to promote your server in our recent blog post!