I noticed players are rarely on in the AM for my timezone PST. To encourage players to login at various times I suggest some sort of automated event plug-in that gives players a buff at certain times. I mean nobody comes to a server to play alone... This will help make it more enjoyable at all times of the day. Specific Ideas: The plug-in announces a three hour window all day. When the server enters this window every hour on the hour the event 'may' activate. The event will always activate at-least once. (This creates some obscurity and prompts players to stay on-line longer). When the event activates it applies a one hour death persistent speed and regeneration buff to all players on-line. These particular buffs would make things marginally easier but at the same time should have no damaging effect on the economy or other aspects of the server.
I think the problem with this, isn't to encourage players to join. The real problem lies IRL. Some have jobs, some have school (Such as myself), some have other duties. And while the gray area there is pretty big, it still lies in the daily occurences of other players. Simply adding events with stat buffs won't likely encourage players to join. Not to mention the time to develop a plugin like that.
Actually it's a relatively simple plug-in at most a couple hours work. You have a point with life but at the same time if anyone sticks around or stays up an extra hour for the buff that's a win...