There are three things about this.

1) Your server may be dead. Besaid is very lively in the common areas like Uldah.

2) The combat system doesn't allow players to communicate "on the fly." In XI, chatting in party was fairly easy because of both the keyboard layout and the combat system (pull camps.) The way the layout is in XIV does not lend itself well to easy communication during action. Also, controller players are going to have challenges and I know a good number of them.

3) You cannot easily craft/gather while carrying on a conversation via keyboard. Every time an action is que'd it resets the chatlog and interrupts what you are saying. If you are typing "how is your day?" a que'd action may pop up and all that gets sent is "y?" because the initial part was cutoff while you were still typing (basically, it interrupted the message while you were still trying to communicate.)

These should all be fixed either at 2.0 or before. But yes, it does suck atm.