Baldur's Gate : The Sword Coast Chronicles : NWN2 Persistent World

It would be very convenient if we had a top-level forum for planning RP times, maybe with a separate subforum for coordinating character creation. (People could ask for someone to roll a character from their backstory or make characters together.)

I agree with this. Would be nice to have one place where players could look for others with similar play times and looking for similar RP. Not that it isn't supported currently, but having it's own sub-forum would certainly make organizing group play a bit easier.

Honestly I find the largest hurdle to getting involved with guilds the fact that it's often difficult to be in game at the same time as others involved with a given guild. Organizing group play ensures that you have some folks to adventure with and just enjoy exploring the server with. While Guild RP has always been a cornerstone of the server plots and story lines, unless you play at a similar time to those who are in the guild you're interested in it's very difficult to get involved in their various plots and RP lines.

How about have the list of online players available in the forums? Also, if they hide their status in scry, they should be hidden in the forums as well.