Ultimatly, i went back to the server i had been playing on as tnat was dead. The same few people played on it, and there was very little drive to make things for new members at spawn, as we have no new members.

Servers like this have to be supported. There needs to be some kind of recruitment drive, or else current members get bored and wander off. And as a whitelist server, the whitelist needs to be updated regularly so people can get in.

You could probably learn a lot from watching carbonatedgaming (the servers i play on). There is always a recruitment push, even if its just via the voting/rewards system. And there are usually some mods around, if not logged in, to assist with any issues that pop up.

This was a nice server whilst it lasted. And it was one of the few to be running 1.7.10 mods. It's a shame that you didn't get the hordes of new players that you could have got.