I don't know if it's necessarily one thing I would want, but it's something I think might help draw newcomers to the site. I know we have Scara Brae/Stonevale as a kind of newbie area where they can get bonus exp for writing, but that's about as far as we go with introducing them. So my idea is this:

Have like an open thread area (maybe within Stonevale or maybe separate) where people can come to write short things with characters, to try to get a feel for writing in various styles, or with a character and their personality. Reduce or negate the word count thing in the posts done here, as it can be daunting at times if you're not sure of how a character would act, so you force the writing to come out even if you aren't really comfortable with it. Rewards might focus less on exp, maybe more on gp for these, or however you want to handle it.

So like, a beginner section, where they can come to play around with a character idea, maybe before committing to putting together a character sheet?