A lot of people may wonder, "Why does my server fail?" or "I've ran 3 different servers, and neither have survived..."...
Well I'm here to give you guys the answer why, and to tell those making a server what they shouldn't do!
My reasons of why none of my servers survived:
Bad Staff Choice
Unfortunately choosing bad staff can *easily* lead to a server's downfall. If you're like me and can't watch the server 24/7 because of whatever the reason may be and you assigned positions to the wrong staff members, you may have had your server fail because of that. Bad staff members can cause corruption amongst the rest of the staff, disrespect in the world chat or (if you have a xat chat, chatango chat, etc. on your main site) your website chatbox and it could just be bad.
Lack of Faith (In Yourself)
Oh my god, this is a huge reason why servers don't survive! Whenever the owner starts to lose faith in his progress! If you start acting as if your server might fail and others see it, they are probably going to leave your server because it's a waste of THEIR time! If you have a lack of faith in yourself, you'll stop development completely or it'll come to a snail speed. Don't believe me? I've been there and anyone else who has been there can probably vouch for me. You'll be thinking, "What's the point, it's just gonna fail anyway...".
Source/Client
If your source sucks, your server will suck. Enough said. If you're like me who attempted to use Conquer-Sx for both servers (FoxxCo, then Phantom Online and actually a little bit of Meteora Online) then you need an eye opener and your server deserves to fail. Having bugs in your server is no bueno(good) because it takes the fun out of it. For example, I had to restart my server every few hours because it would crash, mainly caused by people's inventory. I couldn't fix the bug so it stayed that way. You can tell how that went when I wasn't around a computer to restart my server.
If your client is queer (the non-derogatory meaning) and it has weird glitches (for example mine couldn't support 1024x728 resolution) then your members are going to hate your client. If your client doesn't look snazzy, some members will actually leave to another server because their game looks "sicker" (different effects, new effects, different/new items, etc.)
Lack of Community Effort
Your members WANT to be apart of a community, otherwise they wouldn't play Conquer. Let them help with development (maybe not with coding but with other stuff like ideas), offer rewards for being active like posting frequently (non-spam posts), finding bugs, etc.
Point is, make your members feel wanted, and get them to come together. via forum, whatever.
Not things I have done, but have seen before....
Corruption
What does it mean to be corrupt? Stuff like jacking up prices on donations, forcing your members to donate to access hidden features, PK'ing anyone you want because of your status, being disrespectful and letting members' questions go unanswered...
There's probably a lot more to it, but that's a small handful. It's basically just someone with power taking advantage of it.
Ignorance/Arrogance
This is the fastest way to make me leave a server and ban you from my server is if you're ignorant or arrogant.
Ignorance: Basically when you say shit that you know nothing about. Here's a good example: "Those Christian bigots only invented the idea of heaven and hell so they could control people. I mean think about it! The ultimate mind control! Using Ethos(Emotional Persuasion, such as guilt) as a way to dominate your way of life!" That's obviously false and no, I'm not a Christian, I'm Agnostic so I'm not promoting my religion. You could replace any religion with any of their after-life ideas and it would still work.
Arrogance: Basically when someone's pride does their talking for them. It doesn't necessarily have to be true but most of the time as I've seen, it is. A good example is when you see someone claiming their released source is the best because they know how to code like a boss, and they can do this and they can do that so it makes it the best. However it could include Ignorance too, which is even worse.
Ignorance + Arrogance: This one actually took me a real long time to think of: "Hey Reaver, nice server you got going but uh, this ain't nothing lol. I once coded a full conquer server that had over 700+ members all in HTML (There's the ignorance *). I mean I know over 8 out of 9 programming languages so it's no hard task, I could do it in like 3 hours cuz I've been doing this for yeaaars man. It's hella easy dude.(There's the arrogance **)"
* (There's the ignorance because they don't know shit about what they are talking about it. It's IMPOSSIBLE TO CODE ANYTHING IN HTML at the least, you need PHP or Javascript, one of those more start-friendly languages to code/script something)
** (There's the arrogance because they think just because they know 8 out of 9 coding languages and they can code a server in 3 hours [regardless of whether its a lie or not], they think they could do anything else better than anyone else, which is their pride talking)
Well, that's really about it. If there's more than you can think of, PM me about it and I'll put it up here and give you credit. Don't post it because not all members read posts and it'll keep the thread... slightly more clean.
Not really what causes your server to fail, but here's how to boost your success and some common myths that Server owners will tell you.
Foreigners
Just because they don't speak our language doesn't mean they aren't like us. How would you feel if you couldn't speak French but there was a server released that was quite potentially the best server that's ever been released and you couldn't play it because they require you to speak French? Someone might think your server could be the next greatest but as soon as you kick them or ban them, they lose every ounce of respect they had just built up for you. Why ban them? That's a fast way to make your server die. Learn some foreign language, it's not that hard to learn the basics. Not only will learning a second or third and so on language help you with your intelligence and brain usage, it's fun and it allows so much more communication than normal. At least learn enough to give the instructions, answer questions or direct them to a translator. Who knows, that German speaking female, might just be the hottest female known to all Conquer Online private servers who may grow to love you because of your awesomeness to understand and be patient and may end up contributing to your server in some spectacular way. It's a long-shot, but you never know. Although I have a girlfriend, I wouldn't care if hot girls (or guys, cuz that's just how I roll) came to the server. It'd be a plus! To know that you're sooooo cool, you have a hot chick/guy playing your server. (Just think of it that way, but don't let it go to your head. It's an easy confidence booster)
Your Website
Some server owners will tell you that you MUST have an amazing website. While yes, it does impress and increase your prestige, it's not everything. It all really comes down to what your community thinks for you and what they will do for you. The goal is to make your community feel like they belong and that your server is their home. They will then recruit on their own, and your server will thrive. There a few things you need to do before that will happen, but they are all just following the warnings in this thread I've given you. As long as your website is understandable and it does everything that's required to get a user into the game without your assistance, it's good. I mean come on, we're private server owners not fuckin' Bungie releasing the latest Oriental 3D adventure. (Yes I know Conquer is 2.5D, I'm just saying)
