Yeah, you caught it. Also, something I've recently run into is that if you want to whisper to someone who is currently not in the game, you must whisper to the player's name, not to the character's name. This may be answering a question you hadn't asked, but in my game I have rotating players, and I hand out rumors every week - assuming the characters who are not adventuring are still gathering rumors as they wander around town. Using the /w <player's name> function enables them to log into the game at their leisure and receive their rumor.