I should probably say right up front... all opinions about this are, inevitably, from a standpoint of my own self-interest. Because I am not the insubstantial embodiment of the FeralHeart player collective, and if I was I would probably be unable to type.
As much as this may change the dynamic of FeralHeart, I have to say I feel it's going to be for the better. I basically stopped going online for a month or two, just because when I did all I saw was arguments, spam, HUGELY inappropriate jokes, and "say i if u know TOBUSCUS" sprinkled with occasional ads for Warriors RPs (not that I have any specific thing against them, but I'm not really into Warriors and it's not worth sifting through the rest of General for). I'm pretty sure General must have been different in the past, because I used to spend quite a bit of time online, but it was getting to the point where it just wasn't worth it. And I know it's popular to say that the mods just don't do their jobs, but they do. They really do. The problem is that there's so darn much of this crap that nothing short of an android built for the purpose could possibly monitor it all 24/7. As far as I know, none of the staff are androids. And they totally didn't force me to say that so I'd be spared when the robots enslave humanity.
I know a lot of people just get online to chat with friends, but... FH is also meant to be a sort of virtual world, and it seems that being able to just shout out to the heavens from anywhere on the map and be heard takes away from that. It takes less than a minute to get from one end of Fluorite to the other now that we have the dash function; your friends aren't THAT far away. And even if they are, the whisper, party chat, and group functions still work just fine. The world doesn't necessarily need to see everyone's conversations about pizza and universal sufferage, which is actually one major problem I had with general... not every discussion has to be public for all to see, but denizens of Fluorite tend to act like they do. I understand the desire to make yourself and your opinions heard, but that's not what General was really supposed to be a platform for.
Now, there's the issue of RP recruiting. I'm sure this isn't the case for a lot of users, but I haven't found a good, lasting RP through general ads in over a year. Nor have I found any recruits for my own RP that stayed longer than a week, even at our most active. Any RPs or new members I have found have all been through friendship. Such-and-such long-time member knows someone, they join, and they stick around, which leads to a more close-knit and cohesive RP because everyone really wants to be there and won't vanish into the aether a week later. If I find an RP that way, there's a higher chance that I'll stay and be a part of it because I already have a friend or two in it. Chances are we already know our RP styles are compatible. And then we meet new people in those groups, and the cycle continues. So no, I don't think a lack of General-ness will inhibit the ability to meet new people and make new friends, we just have to put some actual effort into it now. And putting effort into something is almost never a bad thing.