Personally, I find that I will only roleplay blacksmithing when I'm around others. If I'm alone, it's most likely because I'm grinding the skill and thusly doing something else during that waiting period.
Uldar Irongut would hear of the declaration, muttering to himself, "Ta' 'ell wit' thes' bloodeh Orcs tryin' 'ta enslave th' world, th'y'll be comin' fer the Dwarves next if we ar'n't careful."
Absolutely. I'd be more than willing to see some sort of temporary map (That isn't the Fringe) until the transfer to 4.0. I haven't actually seen the old maps, so I can't possibly comment on those, but I wouldn't mind something randomly generated or a quickly world-painted map.