Non-technical server problem - players don't stay!

My server used to be quite popular. I used to have an average of 8 people online most of the time, 15-20 during peak hours, and it would stay filled up at a constant 20 during weekends. At the time, the player cap was 20, so it probably would've had more at peaks if I had a better system. Nowadays, the player cap is 30 (faster system, faster connection) and I have an average of ZERO players online during most of the day, 4-6 during peaks, and 8-15 on weekend peaks. I see new players joining, walking around a bit, then leaving. Very few actually stay. Of those, even fewer stay long enough and care enough to apply for [Member] rank.

I wish I had paid more attention so I would know exactly when the activity started declining. I had a 'new map' a few months ago (note that the old map stays and is fully playable, so it wasn't a reset or forced transition) and some of the veterans from the previous map told me that the old spawn was better. The thing is, the old spawn had two crippling issues which was part of the reason for making a new map entirely:
1) Low protection radius, so there were lots of crappy builds around, mostly user shops.
2) PvP protection only inside the spawn house, so you couldn't go shopping to the nearby shops without risking sure death.
It should be noted that most of these veterans had full enchanted diamond gear at the time so maybe they just missed "killing noobs" at the old spawn. Again, I should be having MORE players now that they can't get killed two minutes after joining the server.

Other reasons included the lack of snow and jungle biomes (map core was generated during beta 1.8), so that's another reason I should be having more players: prettier & up to date map. There's even a jungle right outside the protected zone.

So I'm wondering if any of you could check my server out and report back your impression, and perhaps why you decide to stay or not stay. It's a survival PvP server, by the way, and it uses WorldGuard for protection. Information about the important plugins is at the new-player spawn house, while information about other 'utility' plugins that players shouldn't be concerned about at first (such as user reputation and marriage plugins) are shown via periodic tips in the chat. The IP is scandic.us. Thanks in advance!

 

Had a look around and it seemed like a well maintained server. PvP isn't everone's cup of tea though. Our players are more like 90% building/other stuff and 10% PvP. Personally I found your chat too colorful and way too spammy given that like 5 people were online. The auto-messages filled half the screen. The language on some signs at spawn was a bit rough at times.

I have of course no idea what happened/why you lost players, I'm just posting random observations which I think might have contributed. We have quite a lot of one or even over 2 year "veterans" on our server (it's a little over 2.5 years old now), and quite a number of donators. Why that is so, hard to say. We never advertised, we don't actively ask for donations or sell ranks, but it still kept running and running. Quite a number of players come from word-of-mouth.

I believe the biggest reason may be PvP only, which in my experience deters a lot of players from joining (or staying). Then again, that is the point of your server, PvP, so I don't really know. : )

 

Oh, I know PvP isn't for everyone, but I've seen Factions servers with 200+ players. Those are even harder because you can actually lose your stuff even if you guard it.

Thanks for helping out with those observations!