The minimal answering machine db is not intended to be logged into, it's just a place holder for when your MOO has moved. You have to edit the Minimal-AnsMachine.db file in a text editor and change the following line: msg = {"", "OurMOO has moved to 000.000.000.000 port 7007.", "Please update your world files.", ""}; to something relevant for your move. Save it, then restart the MOO server on your old port using this db: ./restart Minimal-AnsMachine 8888 Now when people connect they'll get the answering machine message, and then get booted. Since this runs on the minimal db, it uses very little memory, and like the regular MOO server it can keep running until the system gets shut down.