Rickod,
Alot of participation depends on two things:
-The mission itself, if not properly planned, will be the biggest turn off for anyone. Especially in a 'Jabo' world where bombers are >< this close to being obsolete due to the flow of the arena, the speed in which the enemy reacts, and other factors. If you do bombers in your missions, make them designated for factories or HQ's. Exception would be a B26 launched ahead of the everyone else for de-acking forward fields, or using them for diversion.
Second, don't get negative with people online. Simply type in CAP letters that theres a mission up, tell the time to mission launch, limit your positions in each flight and announce that there are limited positions...and be positive when asking folks to join. Don't abuse the CAPS when recruiting, it may tend to piss some folks off. Also, read in the HELP forum my post about 'Joining Missions'. Hope this helps.
Remember, a 'suicide' mission (unless deemed that, ie. NOE run on HQ) will NOT get you anyone in your mission, or a poorly planned mission will result in low numbers.
If you end up with only 1-4 people, announce (in a positive way) that the mission will be scrubbed, and attempted in 30 min. Then, put the mission backup in 1/2 hour and try again!
<S>