Hi guys,
First I'm going to be honest I didn't read everything is this topic, but anyway I get the idea, and read the suggestions.
Second, my answer won't please you.
Third, yes Bunny our KTK server was once popular, at some point there was often between 20 and 40 people on the server.
Fourth, I don't think reviving KTK is possible.
You guys are saying: THIS needs to be done for a server to be popular, THIS is necessary... No, THAT is necessary...
Well the truth is, it's all true. A lot of things are needed, and even more for a game that is almost 10 years old and whose overall population is decreasing over the years.
For a server to work well, you need:
- Luck, so that the server gets populated a bit to start with
- Dedication (of initial admins / clan members), to create a positive atmosphere on the server and handle possible issues, cheaters, etc.
- Dedication of a modder / server admin to always add new stuff to the server, maybe organize events, etc.
- Then it should create a group of "hardcore" players who will play a lot, and will love the server so much that they will connect to it even when it's empty (because no "casual" player is going to join an empty sever, and without a core of hardcore players, the server will remain empty).
- Then, some of these players will love the server so much that they'll be willing to help moderate it: either by joining the team, or becoming a trusted player. They'll still play a lot + they will help handling issues on the server, etc. They can also provide ideas to improve the server as they play a lot on it.
=> And if there's an admin caring a lot about the server, AND this admin has the technical knowledge to improve the mod/server, etc, then it's all good.
Of course, all these factors influence each other, and they create somewhat of a virtuous circle.
But nowadays, if only one of these factors are missing, the population will slowly begin to decrease. And this will lead to the fall of other factors, and the population will decrease again, etc. And now you've got a vicious circle, which is super hard to reverse.
Easy example: Less players on the server => Less applications to join the team/trusted team => When older trusted players stop playing regularly, they're not replaced by as many trusted players => More issues on the server can't be handled properly (hackers not banned all the time, etc.) => People will enjoy the server less => Less players will play on the server (we're back to the beginning of the circle).
It works like that for all other factors.
And that's how once, we had basically too many trusted players playing at once on the KTK server at all times; and now, we don't have any anymore, or very very few.
As for frisbeesky who seems a bit bitter about his experience on the forums:
You've got to understand that the people who are the most able to help (people like Mirko or Duffman who have acquired a lot of technical knowledge over the years), are:
1-Less interested in the game than they used to be; especially because they often don't even really play the game themselves
2-Also have their own ideas about what they should do to make things better; add to that the ideas of all other people that can't do what they want themselves, or only partly, and you find yourselves crowded with ideas you don't have the time to actually realize.
3-Are nowadays a lot more busy than they used to, because they are working their ass off at university or college, or have a job, or both, and they're not highschool students anymore. And sometimes gaming isn't among their top priorities anymore.
People who want most things to improve on the servers are people playing hours and hours every day or week on the servers - and for most of them, they can't actually help improving the servers. They only give ideas (don't get me wrong, that's a great start; it just really isn't enough).
And guys like you are needed in a great community frisbeesky, but as in the examples I gave above, you're not the only factor necessary for everything to work exactly as you'd want them to work.
Or you could learn how to mod, script, map, administrate servers (I know you already know some of that stuff), + keep playing on the servers, + develop all of your great ideas, + organize events, + take care of cheaters & rule breakers, etc. And regroup most of the factors into yourself so you could probably run the servers the way you want to.
But then you find yourself stuck with an unpaid full-time "job" 
I could develop more. But this post is obviously long enough already.
Simply, to answer to the initial post of this thread:
I'd have to mostly agree with Rhoyder's first post.
What would be nice would be to automatically give max. 5 prestige to everyone joining the server. And then they have to play to earn the rest.
That would mean we would need a modder/scripter to create this feature.
I know we won't find one willing to do that. And I can't do that myself, never learned how to script. And even if I could, I wouldn't, because as I explained, I know the effort required to revive the server would go way beyond implementing a simple feature like this.
It would mean hundreds of hours of hard work over several months, and we won't find anyone with that time.
Anyway, I guess some of the people interested in the matter will read this post despite its annoying length. So thanks or reading 
And sorry to the people who still had hope.
I may be wrong in some of the stuff I said. But I'm convinced I'm saying the truth. If anyone wants to prove me wrong though... I sincerely hope you succeed
