I've had my fair share of servers now, and I've come to a conclusion that most Minehut players are pigeons.
The Pigeon Effect:
When a player joins a server they either stay or leave, this is the beginning of the effect. Regardless if your server is fun or not, the player will only stay if for three reasons; they are friends with another player which is enjoying the server, the server is visually popular, or they are not a pigeon. If your server has few players online or non-responsive players, the just joined player will leave the server.
When a pigeon finds a new place to settle, it will either stay if a friend is there, it's home, or leave and join the other pigeons.
The pigeon effect.