With the current setup, if someone sends you a Guild Request (To join your guild) - This currently poses a few issues:

The `Recruit Guild Member` page has only two options: [Whisper] [Decline]

This forces you to Whisper to track down members, instead of remotely [Accepting]

If the members are offline, you currently can't leave them a message.

If they are online, you still have to message them to track down what server they're on, and their location.

Individuals that haven't been in an Officer+ Role in a guild before, might be unaware of how recruitment fully works. If they are in your queue for a few hours or days, without being "Accepted", a lot of times they will just retract their join request. So it's a Lose-Lose situation.
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Some Solutions:

Cross Server Contract - By adding an [Accept] or [Contract] option, instead of just the current two - It could send the individual a custom contract regardless of Server (This will prevent needing to hunt down the member).

Standardized Contracts (Offline mitigation) - You could setup a default contract to apply to anyone that applies. They'll see the contract immediatly, and if you [Accept] the individual, it applies - Either the payment is taken after [Accepted] or it's pre-taken, and is returned if they are [Declined]

Offline Whispering - If you try whispering, and he/she is offline, it can send them pending whispers or mail with the message. 
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If anyone has other ideas, please list them - I just want recruitment to be easier on both ends. Why make it a hassle for everyone? xD

Weekly bump - Feedback or your own solution suggestions would be appreciated. c:

Those are some good ideas imo! I'm impressed.

Yeah we currently have the same issues that you can't accept people from applies right away.

It would be great to see your ideas in-game :D

Like you said most players who haven't been officer+ probably won't know how guild recruitment works, but I think that goes for almost anything. You have to explain everyone about the missions, how bonus works, guild bosses etc. etc.

I would like to see some "tutorial" quests so players can learn about the guild system, just like there is for the node system (i.e. the quests in Velia/Loggia about workers/nodes/crates & fishing rods). That way they will know that they can't get auto accepted or anything without a whisper & having to accept a contract. What the contract is about, what it means etc. I think it can be a bit overwhelming for new players to get such a big popup with a shtload of text xD

And honestly half of it doesn't make sense until you actually experience it.

As a guild recruiter I share the same experience: the currentingame recruiting features are basically non functional, they need to get improved drastically.

Yeah with contracts, if someone first sees a contract they may be hesistant seeing the area that talks about "Penalties" xD

The tutorial sounds like a cool idea - When I had some new guild mates join they were unfamiliar with guild chat, viewing the guild menu to collect their money, etc - Having the black spirit or a quest at top right when you join would help tremendously.

Contract renewal needs to be anywhere as well, and allowed while the person being renewed is offline.  If you play opposite the GM as an Officer, you can not get renewed.

While I would never use an accept button, as we go through an outside process for guild applications, I can still see how it would be immensely useful for others. My biggest gripe so far is communication, as it's hard to contact the people in the recruitment tab. I also think applicants should have a visible online/offline status like the guild roster and friend list does. Not only would this make communication easier, but if you noticed that they were consistently offline during peak guild hours, you could skip the whole guild attendance issue and subsequent kick phase.

As an aside, I think queued messages will have their own limitiations. It might be useful knowing they'll see your whisper eventually, but if they have questions and you're offline, we're back to square one. Why we can't use the mail system like nearly every other mmo in existence boggles my mind. The private message system in the friend list closes the gap a little bit, as those queue up so long as at least one person is online...but if both are offline, the messages disappear. It's a clunky system, but if updated, it holds potential for recruitment.

+1

they need to create an annoying little jumping ICON on the bottom of the screen for guild masters and officers who can oversee the guild functions.

The icon will be a lasting notification to let them know that a player is stuck in registration limbo and looking for resolution on a pending invite. 

The Online/Offline status is a great idea - That will definitely save you the hassle of DMing messages to see if they're online.

As well as if they're offline for a very long time, you can determine their activity before even talking with them. If they're offline for two weeks, they might not be active enough for your guild.

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Also the animated icon idea would be cool for Officers+ (Maybe toggleable in settings) 

If someone is given a responsibility to help invite, it shouldn't be all put in a single person's lap. A simple reminder can help keep everyone on track.

Though one drawback is if someone applied and is inactive, you wouldn't want to have a symbol bouncing for a week straight - So maybe it could be like the dark rift, and change after you view it, but when it's empty the symbol disappears?