Guys I'd like to put up a small status image, either in the first post of this topic or in my signature, so we can more easily see how many people are online. It seems the busyness of the server is a big incentive for people to stick around and currently most of us are leaving as soon as we realize no-one is online, which is kind of a shame.
Only thing is that such an image will make the IP adres public and I know some of you are still hesitant about that, even though all security holes have since been patched up.
However I think that the pro's outweight the (non-existant) cons in this case. I think a status image can easily bring some more life into the server. Something like this:
or this
Just to clarify on the security changes of the server since the 'incident':
1. Backups are made daily and stored on the server. If the world becomes corrupted somehow we'd lose 24 hours at the most.
2. I download the latest backup regularly (once a week on average, sometimes more). If the entire server decides to crap out we wouldn't lose months worth of work.
3. The server validates every user that tries to log in against the Minecraft.net user database. This means that someone can only log in if they own a legal copy of the game and has a valid account. Fake accounts (like the hacker using Notch's name) are therefor no longer possible. In fact, if the Minecraft.net server is down you can't log in at all.
4. The server uses a whitelist so only valid accounts of our own choosing are allowed to log in. Not even Notch could get in if he wanted to without being on the whitelist (which he happens to be, but that's beside the point).
All these things make it a little too paranoid to keep the IP a secret. There are hundreds of servers who have their IP open to the public and it rarely becomes a problem. And some of them have hundreds of slots and players to keep track of. We only have 15 at the most to deal with.
So all those who are opposed right now to a public IP, I'd like you to reconsider for the sake of the server. Right now I'm still the only one paying for it, and I don't mind that at all, I can spare the cash, but it's kind of a waste if the server is only populated for 3 out of 30 days. My 2 cents so far.