what bugs me is that dedicated servers usually don't maintain after the host has left
servers usually have a 'spool-up' time during which players won't join because there aren't enough players in the server (in other words, it's not currently popular enough), and during that point in time you usually have to go tell people that the server is up or otherwise advertise that you are hosting
after you break 4 or 5 players, the server gets high enough on the server list for players to see it immediately and go 'oh hey _______'s server is up i will join it' and then you'll consistently have a server with players in it
but the trick is, there's actually two thresholds; the first one is waiting for someone to join the server in the first place (presumably out of boredom). that can take forever to break
nondedicated servers have the advantage that the first person is the host, so that's an entire threshold down and there's also someone actively trying to get the server advertised so it can build a playerbase. without the host being present you've basically got a dead server.
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i clearly put too much thought into my posts.
