How to stop the server from dying? Listen to what the players have to say. FIX THE HIT DETECTION ON OP PVP.

 

That's not exactly easy. You either downgrade or upgrade from 1.8. While 1.7 sucks with the amount of blocks you have, you fix the hit detection issues. While 1.9 fixes the hit detection issues plus millions more of blocks added, you get the pvp system that all the 8 year olds hate and would rather see Mojang burn in hell for making. Its not a easy decision to make by downgrading or upgrading. You need to consider all the ups and downs of all three versions and pick the one that best helps the server. Right now with the community dying, we need to reach the bigger potential version, which would be 1.9 at this moment.