One of the many flaws of Freespace 1/2 multiplayer was that you couldn't message other players or see if they were online UNLESS they were chatting in a channel.
In Blizzard's Battle.net servers, there are some very helpful commands. I'll list a couple i think are good, and should be implemented into the SCP:
- /w *username* *message*
Sends a message to the user in any state, whether he's in-game or chatting in a channel. If the user is in the "select game" screen and is unable to receive messages, it stores them and whenever he can receive them again (i.e. in-game or in channel) it sends them. If the sender sends a message to a user and the user is not logged on, it sends the message back to the sender: The User is not online. If the sender wants to check if the user is online, he types: /w *username* and that will bring a message back saying: "What do you want to say?" This is very useful, as apposed to the current messaging system 
- /whois *username*
If the user is not online, a message is returned saying The User is not online. If the user is online, it returns in what state the user is. For example:
== User Stealth is currently playing Freespace in the game "Come and play".
== User Stealth is currently in a private channel *(this happens if the user's in a private channel/chat room, so it doesn't say the name of the channel for privacy)*
== User Stealth is currently in the channel: Stealth's Channel
This is also very helpful to see exactly where your 'friend' is.
- /away *message*
If someone does a /whois search for the user, it returns a message saying Stealth is currently away: "*message*"
If someone tries to send a message to the user via the /w command, the message is sent, but a reply is sent to the sender saying Stealth is currently away: "*message*"
- /dnd *message*
If a user goes into "Do Not Disturb" mode, any messages or /whois commands will tell the sender the user is in do not disturb mode, and all messages sent to the user will be terminated
- Friends List
One of the great aspects of online Battle.net playing is the Friends list. Close friends can be added to this list via /f add *username* or removed via /f remove *username*. In any stage (in-channel or in-game) if the user wants to see which of his friends are on-line and where they are, he types /f list and a list of (up to 25) friends that he's added shows up in this format:
Eclips, Offline
Rc5, Offline
venom284, using Freespace in a private channel
Darkage, using Freespace in the game "Come and play with me"
Knight_Templar, offline
etc. etc. etc. you can also send messages to people on your friends list by typing /f m *message*. This sends a /w message to everyone on your friends list. this is useful if your friend has a long name. you simply add him to your list, and instead of typing /w venom38572 every time, you just type /f m *message*.
i dunno, i think that'd be helpful though.
