I read through this whole thread and it really puzzles me how this is even an issue. Guild applications are there to screen potential recruits. To people suggesting to have a chat or a test flex run with recruits - this usually is a next step of the process but first is the screening of bad applications.
There are basically two mindsets: either your WoL parses get you in or not being an ass gets you in. While I can understand that there are guilds and like-minded people that believe raiding dedication and ability to play your character well is a deciding factors, for me much more important is knowledge if the recruit (or the guild I'm applying to) is the best fit for me personally/socially.
Our guild has an app form with a lot of questions. Some are very basic ones and some are much more "exotic" - main point of that app is firstly to have something written what whole guild can read and comment on, for us to see if the person can be bothered with investing time into filling in application and most importantly to see if their answers fit with our guild's style.
Our guild has been going strong and raiding since early Vanilla, we have 100+ members and we rarely loose people. We loose people to WoW itself as they quit the game after couple of years but very little leave the guild to join a different one. I strongly believe that this is due to our application process and letting in only people who are a good fit.
on the completely unrelated news - we are constantly recruiting, even more so that WoD is coming