A casual return to the cess pool

[GFAD]

I've given thought to returning to P99 to fill the void of some newly acquired free time, and a couple of friends are interested as well. I left previously as I may have been more inundated with the forums, and felt it more then likely was a reflection of the community itself from the attitude of a lot of players I interacted with in game.

I've been reading through the forums again, weighing my options and seeing if it's even worth re-installing. I have noticed some posts going against the grain when it comes to the negative element that appears to exist in the population, including that of Rogean making it possible to filter out Rants and Flames if one decides to. (Fantastic Idea btw). But some questions still linger:

1) Is rants and flames still the marker of what the majority stands for, what attitudes are acceptable, and what to expect in game?
2) Is casual play even viable? Or is poopsocking the law of the land?

I'm not knocking on poop sockers, if people are willing to go to that extent, I say more power to them, that is their decision. But it would appear that the P99 population is stagnant, and will never change (except rise dramatically and taper off or dwindle down to nothing like the rest of the emulators). Mainly because everyone knows what to expect from the server and most people played this game during live and know what to do, and live a lifestyle that allows them to drop everything their doing to log in and raid.

I just don't understand why some 'hardcore' guilds don't explore the option of running their own private server if they rather live in a bubble.