I tend to see some riders names listed in blue, some in orange and some in white. What’s the significance of the color?
I’m curious what you all think it’s for.
Is it due to level achieved?
I haven’t seen enough riders that are riding on at the same time to really get an idea of what it’s for. 
Maybe it represents the device that the user has connected with? Powermeter,kickr,speed cadence,etc?
M guessing:
Orange = smart trainer
Blue = dumb trainer
White overlay - rider on for < than an hour
Black overlay - rider on > 1 hour
If I’m right can I get one of those virtual Pinarellos???
Greg
Blue background is probably a Zwift employ.
Black background might be a status thing but not for > 1 hour.
I’m on a kickr and as far as I can tell, always gray background, orange text. About half seem to be black half gray background when I’m riding.
Well, sorry to disappoint, but the colors aren’t for anything exciting. Each rider is randomly given a set of colors so that you can correlate the color of their name in the list with the color of the “pin” on the profile map. It seems that hint didn’t quite work out, experiment failed.
The goal for Zwift is to be mostly self explanatory, and the colors seem like they needed explaining so they’re changed now. You all will see a new friends list in the next update. Attempt #2.