I figured I’d add my insights/experiences with anything night elf related - most of the general questions have already been handled by others, so I’ll leave those out.
As I’ll touch on more in one of the next paragraphs, the night elf scene is fragmented without hub. Alone, you’ll need to do some searching to find out where certain guilds/initiatives are based currently. Naturally, you’ll have an easier time finding roleplay in a guild.
Most of the time, people strive to follow lore as much as they can. You may spot a questionable egg now and then, but people generally follow canon lore to the best of their ability.
For night elves, you’ll find that it’s fairly fragmented/split; there’s plenty of guilds but, as has been an issue for a while now, there’s not really any established hubs. Several of the night elf guilds move around a lot, and thus never really settle long enough in one place to draw people. In turn, that makes the night elf scene more guild-based than anything.
If yoiu’re interested in finding out more on the various night elven guilds, there is a list on the night elf RP thread that Manata also posted earlier (thank you!).