1. I look at the name/FC tag. If your FC name is Pantsu even as a joke...nah. I like to see a name,even a joke one, that clearly has been well-thought out by leadership.

2. An FC, that is focused in a few areas rather than trying to be the jack of all trades.

You wanna be a raiding FC?

Okay be a raiding FC.Don't also try to be a casual FC because raiders and 'casuals' are very different groups of people with different mindsets.

Wanna be a RP/Crafting/Gathering FC?

Same as above, just focus on your core areas in order to attract and retain like-minded people.

Also, on this note, I cringe when I see FC recruitment ads,stating that the FC "is friendly,social,will be your second family, LGBTQ inclusive..."

Like duh, is there an FC out there that thinks,"Gee, it would be great to be exclusionary anti-social a-holes"

3. Member count.

I've found smaller FCs better (10-20 members). In a large FC, often you're just another name in the FC list until you find your own clique,at which point you can ignore everyone else.

4. Do regular FC members make new members feel welcome?

Not asking for regulars to drop everything when a new players logs in to help them out. But do regulars at least say, "Hi" when a new member logs in. Do regulars try to include new members in all group activities?

5. Communication. If FC chat is dead, at least be active on Discord.

6. So this is more of a personal gripe and perhaps an age thing but I often see FCs advertise themselves as for "mature people,18+, who like to make adult jokes from time to time".

Often this translates to, chat/Discord is mostly going to be filled with NSFW stuff. If a FC's collective maturity and humour revolve mainly around NSFW stuff, that's a red flag for me.