I'm pretty sure I didn't say everyone else should wait for me, my friends, and friends of friends to arrive. I don't know what part of my post made you think I said that. It seems strange...
I don't think the person who spawned / discovered the mob should wait for everyone to arrive. Of course it's unrealistic.
What is realistic, however, is for the first person to discover it to at least wait for the person / group who triggered it to arrive.
Furthermore, if the person who discovered / spawned the mob shouted "Start time: ET [time]", and someone else who arrived after the discoverer / trigger group decides to just pull it anyway, is this early pulling?
When the discoverer / trigger group shouts the time limit, shouldn't that be the acceptable time limit? (Within reason of course. Asking to begin 10 minutes later would be quite unreasonable.)
If the discoverer / trigger group says "Start time: ET 16:00", then that is the start time. That's basically how it works in Carbuncle. Everyone knows it and almost everyone follows it. (Like I said, only seen someone not follow that twice.) As far as the folks doing hunts in our server are concerned, pulling before the announced start time is an "early pull".
EDIT: Also about this situation: "Oh, my friend is coming. Can you wait a little longer?". As I mentioned in another post also, the discoverer / trigger group decide the start time. If they are in different groups, they discuss it together. They announce the start time in /shout and, usually, in Party Finder. They also announce the start time whenever someone joins the party. This way, people know ahead of time whether or not they can make it there before the agreed upon time.
What I consider to be an early pull is when someone who is not in the initial trigger / discoverer group comes along and pulls before the agreed upon time.
Do other servers not use this "/shout ET [time]" or write the time in Party Finder method?