while sometimes it would be nice to have 30+ people on our servers, we don't want those people to be spawncampers. If it is a choice between less or no people, and having the people be spawncampers, i would choose the first. Spawncampers add nothing positive to gameplay, so we do not allow spawncamping. We do not, however, perm ban spawncampers unless they simply will not stop at all. Most people that are spawncampers end up playing by the rules on our server, which is what we want.
I think that there may be a relationship between the 24/7 map + GT and the amount of people we get. I think people like having servers that are always the same map and gametype, because that means they can play that map and gametype whenever they want, with a populated server. Rotation servers do not offer the same accessibility to specific maps and gametypes, and I think that people sometimes are turned away by this.
For instance, in my favorites are mostly 24/7 type servers. If I want to play BC SnD, theres 24/7 Broadcast SnD server. If i want to play crossfire sab, theres one for that. Crossfire tdm, killhouse ffa, klilhouse tdm, crossfire SnD ...etc. All of these servers are populated almost all the time, so i can just play watever map i want whenver i want, pretty much.