Official servers double dipping - Rust

Hi everyone, This post is a mix in-between a rant and a question. Question part: Why are the official servers double dipping by being present in their own "officials" tab AND in the "community" tab, thus preventing REAL community run servers to have access to some visibility? Rant part: The only start of an explanation I've seen as of yet (not even by a Dev, as they stay completely silent on the subject) is that they, devs, want the officials to remain populated... Which to me does not make any sense what' so ever when you see official servers occasionally having queues of up to 100% of the max population they support (200/200 with 200 player queue). They don't need more visibility, they are already the go-to for new players (even tho that's the worst idea ever). Doing this only hurts the community server owners who are *cough* actually admining *cough* their servers. Trying to have population on a server when the only way to be seen is for people to scroll down like 30 "community" servers is horrendous. Especially when people are looking for fresh servers because they will try the officials, then whenever they get ran over by zergs/trashed by hackers, etc. they will see empty servers and think it's because they are worse... Pop attracts pop. Getting visibility is essential when you're trying to start the cycle. It's the worst kind of double dipping, leaving nothing to server owners who are actually trying to make the game more enjoyable for their players and provide active admining. And before I forget, Happy New year everyone.

Totally agree with this. My servers in the UK is the worst, only 10 players have joined this month. People there tend to stick with what they know or join other official servers. As for the Modded in South Africa, many South Africans hate the idea of playing on a modded server because "that is not the real game" and community servers are best because there is no official servers in SA that I know of. I tried hosting a modded in SA but failed hard, no one connected for 3 months then I said fukit. People sort by ping, then choose the server with the most pop in the top 10 and that is it. If you have no pop these days then you will get no players, except for trolls. Anyho, that is a bit about my life struggles. Good thread by the way.

ZA servers are basically invisible to most of the world due to the way the built-in server browser works.

I am fully aware of the limitations because I host servers around the world for some time now lol. I think there is less than 10 people that use just-wiped.net in SA and there is one ZA server on there. I do also think that this is low in the priority because this is more server owner issue and not a player issue, players won't give two shits about this, they just wanna play.

Hey there, Being a server owner yourself you should know your last sentence didn't make much sense Every single legit* player in the game enjoys seeing active non playing admins on the server they are playing on, it's an added protection from hackers. *Non-hacking, non-racist, players. Most thing player complain about can be fixed by in-game rules* that can only be enforced if there are active admins actually there to enforce them. *Trios, no-racism, modified spawn rate/density, etc. Having those rules in place makes servers more enjoyable, players more likely to be satisfied, return back to servers, etc.

I think you misunderstood me. I meant players won't give a shit about server categories, where server owners do but i see your point. You are correct but on my servers the admins are active and they are not allowed to play but there is no rules in game. Everything is allowed. This had some interesting results like rival clans teaming up to get rid of racists. I like to treat my players like test subjects, put them all together and let them find their own way to survive with no rules and see how they progress and learn to survive. For me is like owning a colony of ants or sea monkeys, where you can see how they evolve

See, that's exactly why community server deserves a fair chance, so we can study the intricate societal ways of the Rust test subject, ehrm... Because creating a community around a game is what makes it alive, they make art, develop inside jokes, create stories from the event they live, attract more people who are in tune with their particular community, etc. And in the end, isn't that what Rust is about? One big experiment by Helk I mean, a REAL free for all, where only the players decide how every wipe plays out? Why not let the server "popularity" be similar? May the best attract the more people, may the abusers be left empty handed and may Hezzy ever be in your favor.