[Sage Owl]

I've hosted a server for about two months now and for about 3/4 of that time it was been either empty, or had about 5 people on at a time with the highest player count being 18. I stand puzzled because I offered so many things (plugins, events, arena games, constant admining even when I was at work, etc.) and yet I feel like the love was not mutual from the rust populous. I had one guy join my server who made the effort to befriend some popular twitch streamers and they streamed the server, which is why it got 18 players, but that was short lived because the streamers ended up going to other more populated servers (some being completely vanilla, unadmined, DDos'd constantly) to continue their "show".
So my question sits as the title states: How does one attract players? Rust servers are dime a 1000, and it is hard to really offer anything completely different to the rust experience then what another server can offer, albeit I certainly tried to. Do people really go on websites like toprustservers to find their server? That would seem more practical if there wasn't a server browser.

[JudgeDredd]

use a magnet

[Sage Owl]

Thanks a lot you nigger.

(User was banned for this post ("flaming." - postal))

[Warm]

Rust is just completely over-saturated with servers right now.

[Yulin]

Warm posted:

Rust is just completely over-saturated with servers right now.

It's not Gary and his crew that are raking in the obscene $$s right now, is all the hosters who have servers running at 1% capacity and charging the owners a silly amount of money per month.

[Gliktch]

I'm making things that are truly unique to my server (new mods, giant islands etc) - though haven't advertised my server via my first big mod yet (Decay Control, downloaded by about 8% of current Rust server admins..), simply because I don't want the high pop yet. Once I'm happy with my server (well, servers, as I'm getting a second), I'll showcase a couple of other very in-demand mods, due for release soon after, which will get _some_ traffic, and eventually my Mechs mod which will likely blow the top off things lol :)

[OnDemand]

JudgeDredd posted:

use a magnet

Don't be so mean, tell him which is the right polarity.

[Trans_LFE]

The old fashion way, just have to whore it out...just be careful you don't get banned.

[Corvo]

normally the name should look something like this: Rust Classic or Vanilla Rust [EU] Active Admins, Wiped 19/03, Noobs Welcome

[Pygmy]

Sage Owl posted:

Thanks a lot you nigger.

what. the fuck

[Tripper3k]

I think ultimately Corvo is right... lots of people want Rust in its purest survival form, no silly 'games' or 'events', with zero tolerance for hacking and perhaps most importantly ZERO admin abuse.

The moment I log onto a brand new server and see a 50 storey admin tower, I leave... if admins spawn building components for themselvess, not long before the invisible armour goes on and they start wandering round your house, stealing C4...

[Mr_Cossack]

Sage Owl posted:

Thanks a lot you nigger.

One of the key things players look for on community servers are mature admins. ;)

[MrScratch]

Mr_Cossack posted:

One of the key things players look for on community servers are mature admins. ;)

Absolutely this. Me personally I play with a lot of skill capped players who often get banned due to their high success rate in combat. Poor Grammer and admins that take troll bait are the biggest red flags for us.

[natedog24]

Sage Owl posted:

Thanks a lot you nigger.

.... And that's why no one goes to your server....

[MMOSlut]

natedog24 posted:

.... And that's why no one goes to your server....

This. I joined a server that sounds a lot like yours, and, got banned for telling someone to fuck off away from my base. as, they tried make it their home. The admin then proceeded to destroy my base wall by wall and then banned me for not saying sorry..

[Sage Owl]

MMOSlut posted:

This. I joined a server that sounds a lot like yours, and, got banned for telling someone to fuck off away from my base. as, they tried make it their home. The admin then proceeded to destroy my base wall by wall and then banned me for not saying sorry..

That wasn't my server; also, I had to attract attention to this thread somehow. Looks like I got the answer to my dilemma eh?

I did try to offer a completely unique experience to my small population, but it didn't catch on. Stream viewers just like to play with the streamers and thus once they got their bases set up and realized there was much less to do afterwards, they just quit and followed the streamer.
I just sit baffled by some servers that offer nothing but lackluster entertainment getting near full population. To be honest, I only started a server so I could bypass the bullshit of random wipes, admin abuse, and otherwise out of control of the player crap. I have played plenty of servers that do all of that crap.
I apologize for the harsh words and do not wish to come off as brash. I am just a bit embittered by Rust at the moment.