I wouldn't say things are that bad. I had been away from the RP scene for a long time and before I stumbled upon the Guild through a random Google search I legitimately thought that there are no serious RP boards left. Everything I came across was either too niche, too inactive or simply tacked on as an afterthought to a bigger forum. This is in sharp contrast to 2007-2012 when I RP'ed a lot more and knew of at least a couple of dedicated RP'ing forums with a sizable user base. So, the fact that this forum still exists and is frequently drawing in new members should be a testament to its resilience. 

Things could always be better, though I wouldn't say the website itself is to blame. It's a writing forum after all, how many features and tools do you need? You've got solid thread system (first time that I've seen a forum which allows you to combine OOC/IC/CS in one thread), working PM's and a sub-forum dedicated to discussions about writing and RP'ing. Status bars, chat, visitor messages, etc. are all quality of life improvements, hardly something that makes or breaks a RP'ing community. In other words, if a forum is losing members due to the inability to delete PM's, then it must be one fucking boring place.

It's all about the community and from what I've seen the Guild is a fairly welcoming place, catering to a wide range of styles and writing levels. I think this is the real issue when people talk about a forum not being advanced enough; the more people you have, the more things average out and it's normal that the majority of people will be somewhere around a Casual level. Believe me, this is for the best as this is what keeps a community alive. My all-time RP'ing community was an unapologetically elitist clique of very advanced writers that challenged me on a daily basis and we created some amazing RP's, but the community eventually died off because it failed to draw in new players to make up for the regular members we were losing due to RL. The moment you raise the bar too high is the moment you're dooming your community to a slow, but inevitable end. 

But yeah, I do have some gripes with the way RP is done on this site. For one, there is a distinct lack of collab posts in pretty much all the RP's I've participated in (or read through). I've only written 3 or 4 collab posts in the span of 6 months, which feels like such a waste. Often, Advanced RP's devolve into a back-and-forth of a couple of paragraphs between characters. Why not combine these fragments into a bigger, better post? Not only does it keep the high standards of the RP, but it feels a lot more organic, especially dialogue. Yes, collab posts are a logistical nightmare more often than not, due to varying time zones etc, but I feel the pros far outweigh the cons. 

Another thing that bugs me is that, in general, the community seems to give up on RP's fairly easily. I've already lost count of how many promising, interesting ideas start out strong, then lose all their members within a posting cycle or two. There doesn't seem to be a long-term interest in keeping things going, once the initial momentum is lost, people move on to newer things. It's a shame, but what can you do about it really? You can't force people to stay interested. 

As a result, I often have to stop myself from writing longer posts and I've grown very liberal with my editing, often cutting out 30% or more of what I initially write. It just feels weird to be writing walls of text when most people are putting out 4-5 paragraphs per post. And while I've had the pleasure of meeting some great people and RP'ers on this site, only a handful share my love for in-depth, detailed posts. I don't like it and I feel like I've stopped improving as a RP'er, but I can understand why this is the case and, as I said, it's preferable to having a closed-off group that will eventually suffocate under its own lofty standards. 

TL;DR: All in all, I'd say the Guild is in a good place.