I think that's a pretty hefty sum of money to put out on advertising and a tournament. Where would we source that amount of money from? However, I'm not against paid advertising if we have a funding source. I think it would help drive some traffic here but we should certainly be prepared for it when it arrives here.
We have 1,263 members in the War2Server group, 1,115 followers for the War2Combat Edition page, and 2,286 followers for the War2 Tides of Darkness page on Facebook. Although, the members and followers most likely overlap, I think we still have a pretty decent following on there. Not much advertising is going on with the groups and pages in general. They look pretty dead right now and even if we tried posting some general things here and there it would probably draw in some engagement but not very much. I believe that, if done properly, posting regularly with posts that encourage and promote engagement would do wonders. The more engagement there is, the more of an audience there will be. For a while, I was posting on the group and pages daily, but now that I look back on this, I probably could have done a better job. I think one of the goals with the current followers would be to bring about nostalgic feelings that would encourage them to get back into playing.
The en.war2.ru site looks pretty dead as well. Server status no longer updates and the last news update is from March 2021. Does anyone besides mousEtopher have access to fix the server status on the page? Does anyone have access to update the news feed on this page? It seems like we have some things going on but they are only happening on the forum.
My time is pretty limited nowadays, which is why I initially posted this topic. I was hoping there would be some players that may be interested in trying to advertise or even get their twitch streams out there to a wider audience by becoming editors on the Facebook pages. The players that are active enough to regularly post on this forum, come up with all these ideas of what needs to be done to help the server, and complain that the admins aren't doing enough... this is an opportunity to put those ideas into action without relying any admin to do it for you. I have always believed, and still believe, that progress for this server relies on it's community of players and what they can contribute to keep it going.
Mad-Luster77 is right on point for recommending one of the audiences we should be trying to advertise to. I'm not opposed to the GOG server, but there's no one on it. But, maybe some traffic could eventually make it's way there.
So, here's what I would do to help this community (and what I probably will try to do if I have enough time to do it)...
1. Get with iL or whoever to fix the en.war2.ru server status.
2. Request access to the en.war2.ru news feed to post updates, get access, and post updates regularly.
3. Change the names of the War2Server group to Warcraft II Server, the War2Combat page to Warcraft II Combat Edition, and the War2 Tides of Darkness page to Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness on Facebook. (Not sure about the limitations on changing the names, but I would try.) I think Warcraft II will resonate more with older players than War2.
4. Advertise an event like War2 Festival. I would hype up this event with posts that encourage engagement from old players leading up to the event. Cover a wide range of maps , both competitive (for all you GOW fiends) and for fun (peon olympics comes to mind). And for the most part, we need to promote fun because the players we need to draw in are rusty as hell. They want a nostalgic piece of fun whether they played GOW or custom maps so I wouldn't base this entire event on being competitive or winning some money prize. Let's get together and play a game that we had fun with when we were younger.
5. Try to encourage the remaining community of players to get involved in trying to promote the server in their own ways. They have access to so much without even being an admin on the server. If you feel there needs to be more advertising, then I'm more than willing to give editor privileges on Facebook for you to advertise. If you have a twitch stream, I'm more than wiling to give you editor privileges on Facebook for you to post your stream and reach a wider audience. If you're hosting tournaments or leagues, again, I'm more than willing to give you editor privileges on Facebook for you to reach a wider audience.
So... I might make all of this happen. It would really be nice if there were some others who were driven enough to get involved and help do what I have recommended. If not, I guess I'll try to do the best I can to make all of this happen on my own.
Someone, please hold my banana while I try to do some strongest monkey in the world type shit.