The few times I've poked my nose in there it felt awful cliquish. I had no idea what was up and thought I might poke around a little bit on my own. Got ganked by a group of seven? Ten? Twelve? players who then crowed about it (with one posting "how come we never see any new faces in here?" right before I zoned, too, ha ha). I have, since HC, been in there once or twice for a few badges, being chaperoned in with a player who knew what they were doing - and in the middle of the night when there were ZERO villains about to screw up our badge collecting.
Goi8ng off of those two extremes, I'd say you need some real community outreach, not hand slapping. Which I do know some are doing, so good on you.