Server Survey

Myself and two others are slowly in the process of creating a new Minecraft server.
Right now we're building the towns and setting up WorldGuard regions.
After that we have to fix all of the bugs and finalize our list of plugins.

I just wanted to ask a couple of questions targeted to people who play Minecraft/on Minecraft Servers.
If you don't want to answer all of the questions that's fine.
We're just trying to get as much information as we can.

One of our big goals for this server is to give the players a voice. After the server is up and running, we will listen to what they want, and we will always have them vote on any changes. (From new towns to new moderators.)

1) What server(s) do you currently play on, and why?

2) How long have you been playing on those, and are you a rank higher than the default rank on any.

3) If you donated, how much money did you donate and, most importantly, why did you donate.

3) If you were to play a new server, what are some cool features you would like to see. (Doesn't matter if you've seen it on a different server or not.)

4) If the server owner was a Java Programmer and wrote exclusive plugins for the server based on what the players want, would that make a big difference to you?

5) Do you like servers with more people, or less people.

6) If you could get beta access by donating, would you? (This also gets you a "Veteran Donor" rank when the full server is released.)
-We are trying to raise as much money as we can to build a dedicated powerful server to run it, and to pay a company to host the server. (We all live in locations where we can't get internet above 1mb.)
-Also note that I am not asking you guys to donate to join a beta. I personally am sick of seeing people post stuff like that all of the net, and I'm avoiding that. (We're just going to bug our buds in real life )

7) On a scale of 1/10 (1 being "I HATE it" and 10 being "It really doesn't bother me"), how much does it bother you when servers lag.

8) Would it bother you if a server automatically rebooted every hour? (Could also be at a different time interval.)
-Note: This would just be to make sure the world gets saved correctly and to eliminate as much lag as possible.

9) If you were running a server, what way(s) would attempt to raise money? (If you've ever tried to run a "true" server, you know it's EXPENSIVE. Especially if you build your own high powered rig and pay a large monthly sum for the internet.
Methods can include anything from raffle tickets, monthly subscriptions, ads, and donations.

10) If there were towns set up in the game, each providing a player with a plot of land (15x15 is our current default), would you rather build your house on one of those plots where you know you won't get griefed, or would you prefer to just go out in the danger-filled possible grief-ridden wilderness.

11) Write any other thoughts, opinions, rants, or anything about this poll, or Minecraft servers in general.

12) Again, it it was you running the server, what cost effective method(s) would you use to gain a larger player base?
For obvious reasons at the beginning things like advertising on websites and commercials (can you imagine seeing a commercial for a Minecraft server? Hah!) are our of the picture.

13 (optional)) Are you experienced with running Minecraft Servers/have you played on a lot of Minecraft Servers? If so, would be up for (before the server gets released), getting exclusive access to the server with one of the admins and critiquing it like Simon Cowel would?


Thanks guys!
We're going to try to make this server great and really try to not let this fall through the cracks like some previous things we've done.

-W77