I've had this suggestion in my head for a few days after getting an idea after seeing someone on Lounge ask if a certain player was still around.  Currently there is a "Looking for Old Friends" thread that has been around for many years that is plastered with names from the past.  While I'm sure the thread has led to reunions, I was thinking of suggesting this as a game feature in the following fashion -  

In this example, Spaceman would be searching for Joseph_Ligambi.  Under a new thread designed for this feature, a person trying to be located would be tagged with the @ symbol and would be notified through their master account e-mail that someone is looking for them.  In this instance, Joseph_Ligambi would receive an email to the effect of "Spaceman is looking for you!".  Since master account records go back from 2009, it's a healthy stretch of time that encompasses most of our playing history, and could ostensibly go back that far.

If the person being tagged has a current character, the notification will instead ping them through notification.

A few caveats on this, mostly from the perspective of the administrative side to avoid the site's e-mails from being marked as spam -

-- Users would likely only be e-mailed if they continue to be subscribed to the website.
-- These mails would set off a cool-down period to avoid multiple people from spamming someone's name
-- Said thread would be monitored for potential abuse, although I see this as negligible.
-- Instances where usernames have been reused but are used by different people can be resolved through a small form to indicate which user ID from archives is being referenced.  I can't think of a more elegant solution to this right now.

I would definitely like to balance this feature out with the potential for spam, but I think this would be an interesting way to reengage with older players that have maybe fallen off over the years if they knew a few players were still looking for them.  There is currently an influx of players who seem to come on around V-Day, and while that has resulted in an uptick of returning users every year, I would venture to say that a healthy portion of us have stayed around as long as we have because of the community.  Having a reminder of that in the form of a simple tag notifying someone that they're still being thought of - or being searched for - would be a nice addition, in my opinion.

Provided this is coded and monitored properly to deter spam, I think it could be an excellent addition. I know there are certainly a handful of bloodlines I wouldn't mind seeing rejoining our shores, perhaps a nice email letting them know people are looking for them is just the nudge they'd need. +1 from me, bossman. 

- Minimum hours played is a good way to avoid spam.
- Being able to select an account from your archived player history would be preferable.

"Fuck you" e-mail can perhaps be mitigated to an extent by limiting the amount of tags someone is able to do in a given time period.  Since the feature in spirit is to reconnect with old friends, this would require some discretion when dealing with anyone who may use this for questionable purposes, but any punishment should result in a severe penalty if the tag doesn't follow the spirit of the feature.