I was thinking, along with my friends, that it is hard to notice when your friends are talking when you are in a group because you can't have different colored text when in public, so why not add a group chat, where you and lots of your friends can go in so you notice their text right away instead of having to look for their names?

We do have multiple chat channels you can join, use /ch list

I would like to +1 your suggestion though; we could use more Hero/Improved Chat channels. Or rename them to something more generic, maybe a few mimicking the Mumble rooms.

we currently have several channels set up. Global (/ch g), Local (/ch l), Trade (/ch t) are the main ones. Local is nice if you are all in the same area. it turns text yellow for you and only people within 100 blocks will be able to see and reply to it.There are also several sets of chat channels that can be found with imthelag's suggestion.