I joined around the time you describe as “Attracting prospective members was incredibly hard ”
I was in Cairdeas at the time. I had been with many players from our EQ guild for many many years. The guild was in its dying throws. The leader had left a lot of old school players had left and the new mood was recruit asshats instead of working with long time members wanting to step up. I joined a Shadow Labs “pug” with Warlock Bob and I think it may have been Shar and Di and some other pugged hunter. Not far into the run Bob spoke up and said to the hunter “I’m kicking you out. The mobs I assign you to trap spend more time beating on the shammy healer than trapped”.He brought in another AC member and the atmosphere of the group gave me a glimpse of the spirit of the guild. It appealed a lot to me as it was just like my old favorite guilds were. AC and at one time Cairdeas and from EQ Guardians of light all do/did something that is VERY hard to do long term. That is a successful family style raiding guild. Normally you have to choose Hardcore raiding or Family guild. To be successful on content and to hold a guild together that manages both usually doesn’t last long. I am thankful to have found this new home