I agree with the main core of the thread, and I think everyone does.
If a group of characters has a meeting, and its meant to deal with important aspects for those chars, and they do not want to be "catched" then they should hold that roleplay in a suitable location.
What decided me to post here, though, was something I was reported not so long ago, and that I honestly hope that, by now, it's over.
Apparently, and I've no reasons to doubt about it, seeing who were the ones telling me this, there was sort of a "fashion" to see a group of characters, but that said nothing. They were roleplaying in /group. I've enough trust in those players that told me as to know that they approached those groups nicely, roleplayed wise, but got no answer.
Notice the big contrast. We've a group of characters that, from the new arrived point of view is nothing more than a bunch of statues, saying nothing. In the meanwhile, they're having fun with the ones they've chosen to be on that meeting, and ensure that, by using the /group. Two worlds so different, one in front of the other. The player that roleplays around that group, but sees nothing else than statues plainly ignoring him/her, while, at the same time, that group is in frenetical activity of poorly disguised roleplay. It is painful to be told of things like those, and see that they happen. It is painful to see good roleplayers excluded from other people plays, simply because those ones decided to be in a steel bubble, roleplaying in group, selecting with whom they've fun, and appearing as speechless statues to the rest of the world.
My opinion: use the group chat function to partner someone when you go hunting, so you can attack the same NPC at once and share the looting easily, use it too if you're going to keep a long OOC talk with not a single person, but a group of them... but please, do not use the /group function to segregate even more the roleplayer community.