I’ve been seeing a lot of folk saying how bad Classic has gotten here and there, albeit I wasn’t playing at the time so kinda put it to the back of my mind.
I’m back now, but noticed practically all the realms were low pop when I came back. It looks like it’s healthier now, albeit the server I was looking at is still low 
Was curious what was the issue everyone had been talking about again? This applies to both eras and Cata classic btw.
in era: Mankrik pve is healthy population, and whitemane pvp is a plump population. Vanilla works as an MMO with a much smaller population than cata or retail, only 2k-3k players are really needed, and low pop goes well above that.
There is also another major thing to consider when joining one of the 2 servers. Whitemane you are trading access to raid times at many hours, for raids as a service, that is, you need gold to progress. Mankrik you can not get a raid at every hour, but there is far more access to SR/MS>OS runs. Consider what suits you best.
I love Classic. It’s like 2005 all over again.
Classic is alright. It could use a TBC partnership though. 
Vanilla Era is REALLY goin good, its too much fun. Right now leveling a mage in Westfall on WMC and the zone is packed; I am not kidding its like packed as if it were a fresh server; the chat is poppin off and I have to compete for mobs lol.
which is odd since it has several 40 man raids
Whiles true, the organization level and cooperation is really all that matters / needed to make vanilla work.
Unfortunately, no one can be told what the Classic is…you have to see it for yourself.
It’s kinda like the Warp, you cant describe it.
Azuresong is pretty much dead, at least on Horde side. Came back after a very long hiatus and well, seems I have the entire server to myself. AH is rather empty, no glyphs or recipes for sale (as of date/time I post this). Dungeon queues are 1 hour plus, with no one ever from Azuresong.
Windseeker, where I have Alliance characters, isn’t much better off.
Cataclysm, historically, was the beginning of WoW’s downward slide. Seems history is repeating itself. Blizzard should seriously consider merging Classic servers. Yes, I’m aware that with the Finder I can run Dungeons with players from other servers. Yet, on a “dead” server I have no guild to join and no AH to use.
Make a level 1 human on Whitemane and check out Stormwind. Then delete it and do the same with orc/Orgrimmar. The server is packed. Am having a lot of fun there though you have to be able to live with lots of ganking and a GDKP-based raid scene. Go to Mankrik if those are deal-breakers for you.
Whitmane cluster if you want WPVP and GDKP raids, and Mankrik if you want SR or MS>OS.
Literally the biggest lies since this entire forum for 6+ years has been telling ppl what classic is, how it should be, what version, what changes, blah blah blah.
been nothing but telling us what it is kekw
if you’re gonna play on whitemane, you will be required to buy gold.
People can define it however they want. Some would have you believe its a dead game literally no one plays. Some would tell you its good enough if you want an older MMORPG experience with the amount of people playing.
I was half jokingly quoting the film, The Matrix. People ask these questions but the only real way to know is to take the pill, log in and try it out for yourself.