Could we please tweak the defaults for new players who freshly start the game?

I saw someone while playing on Chaos who I'm sure is a friend I know from elsewhere. I never knew they started playing Istaria and they chose a very specific First+Last Name combination that surely nobody else would ever pick.

I attempted to send a /tell (and use /says while near them) but they never responded.

My guesses are that because the default is 0% transparency and because new chat tabs will not flash at 0% transparency, they didn't notice my /tell and they might not have seen my /says if they were digging up ore while I was trying to talk to them.

My Suggestions:

1). Make the default transparency 50-60% so that new players will see flashing chat tabs without having to tweak their chat windows.
2). Make the chat tabs flash at all transparencies, including 0%.

I left them a #mail in the other place I know them, and hopefully they see it. I'd like to help them get settled in the game but that is difficult to do if they aren't noticing the fact I'm trying to say something to them.