I owned a TTT server a few years back. The experience was interesting for sure. I was completely new to coding as a whole, and I had 0 help at that time. So I really did start from the bottom and climbed my way up learning how to understand the backend of a server, lua scripts, how to eventually modify them, etc. During my adventure to grow, so did the server, and I've gotten some incredible friends out of it.
In fact, 8 of us took plane tickets to meet up IRL at some point! :D
Working on a PropHunt server now, and once again I've gotten addicted to getting better at Lua, and managing a server's backend, although this time with a great teammate coder. In case none of you have bothered with it yet, I HIGHLY urge an owner/developer to learn to use PAC for all its glory. The customization you can bring to a server is so enjoyable with that addon.