We should have a whitelist option for tells

[Avenger]

In other words, everyone that can already contact you via other means may /tell you, while everyone who's only available method of communication would be /tell could not /tell you? And how would someone ask you to add them to your "custom list?" Send you a party invite first so they can ask you? What if you're in a party already? How can they ask to join?

I don't think you've thought this through, have you.

In most cases (as I noted above) they should be able to use /say, /yell, or /shout.

The main thing that's lost is private communication to/from random people who aren't in your zone.

As an example, as Dreufo noted, you would no longer be able to quickly reply to a random /say or /shout you just noticed after you teleported.

Once you join a party, then /tell would work fine for private non-party conversation (and /p for party conversation of course.)

As I noted, I'd add a few more checkboxes, like allowing /tell from people you're trading with.

That being said, I think you have put your finger on a core assumption of the whitelist concept, which is that for certain forms of communication that can be readily abused, you may prefer to explicitly permit groups of people who you want to use them. And you are also correct in pointing out that certain forms of (random, global, private) communication which are currently permitted, easy, and occasionally useful or beneficial could become impossible or restricted under a whitelist system.

I'm also not looking forward to "spammer dotcom has invited you to a party."