I just wanted to pop my head in and say how awesome I think this post is.
It's absolutely worth it to just try and hop on and seek someone out to RP with right now, there's so much going on that could be played through! Some of the recent changes help with the "confinement" issue, too.
One important thing I'd like to add for other players too, not just DMs... Be available for RP, guys! It's the best thing you can do. Unless you're being forced to by IC circumstances... don't totally isolate your character, physically or psychologically. Write around this at all costs. Sometimes it's hard, but it's worth it. You'll have more fun and so will everyone else you encounter.
As far as the DM Team goes, here's some of the concerns I've seen personally and heard from other players I talk to. But I want you to know that all of you who I've played with recently are great and shouldn't get discouraged. I'm only doing this because I care about the server.
1. DM Approachability and Friendliness.
Let's face it... it's scary to pester a DM to do something for you, and (hopefully) good players don't want to seem like a burden to any of you. DMs are oftentimes busy, or RPing something else, and there's always been a long-standing suggestion not to bother one who is on player-side. All of these things are completely understandable.
However! As much as a certain amount of secrecy is important to keep things IC, it's hard to know how and when to contact a DM or communicate with one when it isn't already happening.
Progress has already been made on this, in my experience. And especially now that we can easily send tells to NPC's. (That's an awesome feature! It seems to have happened on accident?)
An easier way to know when a DM is online and available to talk would be helpful here - this could be an /e command or something similar perhaps? It may not be a bad idea to have a "busy" flag just in case, though it's also very important for a DM not to scare players or seem too intimidating. Sometimes it takes a while for a player to get comfortable talking to each DM, I know it has for me. And some of you are awesome at this already.
2. PC Uselessness/Underpower.
This goes doubly for every year your character is under seventh - the perception is that you just can't accomplish anything special and never will. Some would say this should be as fun to RP as anything else, and sometimes it is! But no one wants to play the pointless butt monkey. Every character should get their chance to shine, regardless of year. The new skill point system could be a wonderful way to help express this through individual RP. At the moment, it is somewhat skewed in favor of older students, but we can work with this by just generally providing more opportunity for all PCs to mean something in the world and to themselves.
As someone who plays a lot, it's more frustrating than it should be, to run into a week of complete brick-wall failure. Now imagine this in the eyes of a player that only just popped in for a couple days to give this place another chance, and upon any DM interaction at all, is immediately greeted with how useless they are because they're a first or second year who doesn't roll 20s. It's disheartening, depressing to RP, and certainly doesn't encourage them to keep logging in.
The solution is not year-rushing - not everyone wants to do this, it's like reading book summaries so you can skip right to Deathly Hallows.
And I've even been hearing these kinds of concerns from a couple seventh years, too.
In short, it's... just too darn difficult to accomplish anything unless you're extremely lucky OOC -and- have good DM contact -and- are playing exactly the right type of character.
Accomplishments should not be central to RP, but everyone wants the freedom to explore the world of magic, with their own character's development and personality in mind.
I want to wholeheartedly thank the DM team for their efforts on this and willingness to hear out these topics. We've got the foundations of something really great here, we just need to keep working at it.
Sorry for the lengthy post. The best thing we can do, player and DM alike, is first participate as ourselves and our characters, and secondly look to each other and help each other have the most fun "Harry Potter" experience we can. Everything else will fall into place if we keep that in mind.