I dont know what to say but I think that you guys should make it so it auto feeds in chat on all other servers saying something like "Come Play MC with us! >IP<" then you should also make more updates about it on steam. And you can maybe give rewards to players that refer people to the server that become a regular user.
1) Last time I checked, it did advertise on our CSS servers.
2) I have done a lot of advertising already. Getting people to join is easy, but the hard part is getting them to stay.
3) Maybe if you refer someone and they donate for sup.
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The server is empty not so much because it is boring , rather because the people are boring . I rememeber when Red Army and revolution were around- 30 man factions , cities were built, world domination was sought , people worked together to do great things. The server setup was all the same as it is today . At this point , it is not about advertising, it is about the players.