The last patch finallly introduced a small modification aiming to render functional guild applications: The Guild master can now send guild invites cross-channels and regardless whether the player is online or not. 

This is of course very good but only resolves a minor part of the guild application issues.  What about the first officer and other officers ?  Does everyone in the guild has to rely on GM being there 24/7 to send invites to applicants to the Guild?  It would be far easer if the same ability is extended to all officers in the Guild.

Furthermore, the other issues with the guild applications stay the same:

- There is nothing that helps players to find the right community for them : no search tools or filters for guilds

- Application could be simply be accepted (or rejected) with a button instead of falling back again to the invitations system

- Apprentice period: Why two weeks ? That is far too long to provide any sense of progress withing the guild !  5 days would have been enough as a deterrant for guild hoppers.

I'd like to keep the two weeks probation for my guild. 

Losing guild bank items is rough.

Maybe they can introduce an option for risk-taking guilds to have it reduced to 5 days, but I wouldn't want 5 days to be the standard.

Guild Bank items leak is entirely another matter that could be fixed directly by limiting the rights to guild officers only.  The apprenticeship period has only incidentally an influence on that.

In any way the big issue remains the recruitement that currently is entirely at random or relies upon the invites of the Guild Master. 

It should be a twofold process:  Guild positions offers of course, but also players that are actively able to apply for a suitable guild and get immediately accepted by Guild officers.   This can also happen here on the PA website instead of the ingame applications.  

Interactions among guild members can only happen if both parties are willing to cooperate together in order to advance in the game.  Offering individual guild bonuses is not an alternative to developpping guild tools.

Here how a typical guild membership conversation goes:

[Applicant]: hey can I join ?

[Officer]: yes sure, which channel are you playing ?

no answer

[Officer]: Hey, I need to know which channel are you playing in order to be able to send you a guild invite

no answer

[Officer]: Hey are you still there ?

no answer.

Anyone would think that the Applcant is being rude by not replying, but we have seen this happening so many times that we beleive that there could be multiple reasons for a non response:  channel change, disconnection (they happen a lot!), chat malfunction,  too many messages in chat, players attention is elsewhere etc.

The truth is that the invite system sucks...  and the single channel invite has too many actions that render guild recruitement very difficcult to practice and the guild applications impossible to use. 

While the patch providing for a cross-server invite from the Guild Master (only) is a welcomed update it is too little and too late to reverse the general carelessness for guild community building.