Title says it all.
I really think the game is lacking when it comes to the ability to communicate.
I assume it is stemming from a design decision however it results in guilds/towns just turning to alternate chat room forums to communicate.
There should either be a postal service developed where you can build a mailbox and then afterwards receive letters through the Boston post (tax could be a piece of wood or whatever) and then the character offline or online will be able to check the mailbox and respond in kind.
This will encourage trade as well as keep anonymity with where homesteads are located, also is semi realistic
Town/Guild chat. It is needed to keep a real community working. Don't force people to go to skype or teamspeak or whatever alternative. Just build a good chat function in game.
Also make it movable so it doesn't block the bottom icons that sometimes need to be clicked.
Cheers,
B