Minecraft wiki entry for Formatting_codes, associated text: Formatting codes can be used in the motd line in a server.properties file, but the section signs must be escaped as \u00A7. If a section sign is entered directly, the server replaces it with \u00C2\u00A7 (Â§); clients display the \u00C2 character as a question mark. Delete the \u00C2 character in the MOTD if it comes with a bunch of question marks: this happens if something is not compatible.