I love the party search feature, as it lets me "fire and forget" a party recruiting message, and everyone can see exactly what it is we're aiming to do right from the get go, and decide from there.

I think that the biggest problem is awareness. When you had a party seek icon, it was easy for people to see that you were available and that a party could be formed relatively easily. A potential solution would be to add some kind of icon or message that would pop up when you're near a camp that would easily display a list of parties seeking members in any given area.

This would make people more aware for sure, but I'm a firm believer in the idea that the idea would solidify much, MUCH easier if SE offered better documentation/tutorials on how to form parties using the PT search window.

The key element I think is visibility and ease.