Role-playing options and opinions

Say someone would be to open a serious and dedicated Role-play guild, which server would be the best for it?

The best all-around option seems to be Icecrown:
- the leveling rates are big enough to allow people to easily reroll into the character that they want to play.
- the server is very popular, which can mean a lot more immersion, but at the same time there can be a lot of people meddling into our business and ruining the mood, ganking, trolling, things like that.
- statistically, most people have their mains on Icecrown, which could mean that some potential roleplayers would not leave the server for less popular ones.

Lordaeron is a meh option:
- server is less populated, which means less meddling and less annoying people, less spam, less ganking, less everything.
- the leveling is 1x which means it's SLOW. Now, I know, I know, filthy casual, but let's face it, getting to 80 takes a lot of time if you just started to level there. Very, very few people would be willing to dedicate so much time.
- slow means also constantly low level characters, less options for role-play, etc.

I don't play on Blackrock but I think it's instant 80:
- no more stress with leveling, we can simply start the role-play compaign without much hassle.
- easily accessible everything from the start.
- roll anything you want without thinking much ahead but that's also a con, because good role-play only happens with people who care about their characters.

For Cataclysm and MoP, the Role-play potential is infinite but I know for a fact that not many people enjoy the setting in those expansions. A pity but oh well.

And let's face it, BC is boring when it comes to role-play opportunities. Sure you can make it work, but there's little else, it simply doesn't offer the immersion of Northrend.

I'm looking for replies and opinions. I'm thinking on starting my guild and role-play campaign if enough people present interest.

It's not easy to start a serious roleplaying guild in private servers in general, mainly because there aren't that many people out there interested in dedicating fully to RP, so most RP groups tend to be casual. Most roleplayers in private servers see RP as something they can do while leveling, or something they can mess around with only if they don't have a raid scheduled that day. This often leads to roleplay in private servers being extremely limited in terms of developing a plot or a common storyline. It's possible, but you need to be patient to gather enough people willing to dedicate fully to the task.

We have a small RP group in Lordaeron with such roleplayers, both for Alliance and Horde, and we're trying to build some kind of progression together. We will have an event this Saturday (March 31) in the Alliance side where most characters will have the chance to introduce themselves. Should this pick your interest, please join us here, we would be delighted to have someone so dedicated in our group:
https://discord.gg/PWUuSfH