Channel 8 is now Channel 9

I didn't really get that, how exactly did signing up for a squad change? (Except it being in another channel, of course)

Inviting people to the expedition is essentially the new signup, so there's no more signup anymore. Once the leader clicks the NPC, he/she goes in immediately, and the timer starts for everyone else in the expedition to click in. By the way, at topic starter, you could have just had everyone who went in early to leave through the exit NPC and go in again while the signup timer is still up =/

And yeah the horntail NPC text is full of typos. When you're on any channel other than 9, it tells you to go to channel 8, even if you are on channel 8. When you're on channel 9, it tells you that you have to stop horntail from creating a volcanic explosion in el nath, lol.