Answer 1.
Gray = Basic Account Pirate
Blue = Unlimited Account Pirate
Gold/Gold coing = Founder Pirate (signed up with original promotion)
Answer 2.
Some pirates are under parental control limiting them from seeing varied levels of chat. A pirate under parental or age restrictions may be limited thusly..
1. May be able to open chat normally like I assume you can.
2. May be able to only see chat that is sent using the [+] setting as it is more restrictive open chat.
3. May be able to only see speedchat, and not view anything directly typed by other pirates.
I do not know the level of which this is applied to "whispers" but I assume the rules are basically the same.
The last part about why people attempt to friend? Well I assume myself that these pirates are often restricted as mentioned in item 3, but may just be unresponsive as #2.
I dont friend pirates that cant talk, sorry.. its just too frustrating, i cant help them, they cant help me.
