Empty player names on server player lists

[The_GTA]

Dear MTA support,

I have been looking at the player lists of the most popular MTA servers and have stumbled upon a peculiar player list issue. By looking at the player list it looks like the servers do report empty player names. I am not aware of any method to hide player names from being reported in the server browser so I concluded that they report more players than they actually have playing on them. Please take a look at the following excerpt from Iran-MTA:

There are servers inbetween empty-playername servers that do not have empty playernames in their player list.

Is my assumption correct that servers use this method to virtually increase their player count? Or is there any other explanation for this issue?

Knowing the answer to this is important for an understanding about the authenticity of MTA servers, especially the player count as displayed on the top of this webpage.

Edited November 14, 2021 by The_GTA