mod is still avaible afaik. but there should be no messaging system like et because the /tell command is not avaible anymore.
imo b3 is a nice admin tool.
sry to say that, but it would be a waste of time and money. you dont have the typ of admins to populate a server (softcore and abnerdog server for example). people wanna play and dont camp until someone is joining. i can understand this, i was sitting hours on softcore server waiting for someone to join.
and yes, zombie modded server is/ was popular. dont know much about others