I find that if you want to have people join your server, don't set the player max to 32 if theres only four people there. If someone sees that, they'll think "Oh, that server sounds interesting... too bad there's not much traffic there now." Simply because of the player max : actual amount of players currently ratio.
This is especially true about DMs. Nobody wants to join a server which is (or looks like it is) designed around 32 player gameplay when there's only a few people there.
People also judge a server's quality based on ping, and amount of bricks.
If you have only a few hundred bricks and your server's entitled "Epic Dogfight," people will assume that the server is either incomplete, or it is just plain lame.