ghide before character loads?

I have this horrible feeling I'm missing something obvious, but...

As nearly as I can tell, /ghide works on a per-character basis. If I'm hidden and switch characters to check on an auction or whatever, the new one pops up as visible like usual until I invoke ghide for that one, and then the first one's visible when I return to it.

Is there any way to set ghide options before I load a character?

Not that I'm aware of. Your best bet would be to keep at least one character on "permanent hide" so that you can use that one to log into to see if it's "safe" for any of your other characters to log in. Each character's hide settings are permanent to that character - if you set all of your characters to full /ghide then they'll all stay that way until you change them regardless of logging.

Yes you have to hide each toon individually but they stay hidden until you /unhide even if you log out.

Ah ha! Hmm. Thanks!

(I don't actually use hide a lot - I'm pretty social. There are just moments...)

(...you don't want your cats to know you're logging in from work.)

This feature is a bit buggy. When you leave a character on ghide and then log out, it reliably keeps you hidden the next time you log in. BUT, if you then log in to a character that was NOT hidden, the new character will sometimes 'inherit' the hidden setting.