Buddies are used mainly for private journal entries - where you can basically have your own threads that only you and your friends can see and reply to. The rest of the inbuilt buddie stuff, like the PMing and things is of dubious benefit or value.
I know it seems strange now, and I know it seems like there are loads of features, and so much stuff to switch on and off - but all those things are what will help to make RYL a better place for everyone, allowing people to ease privacy concerns, find what they want, and customise RYL to their liking.
v3 is so advanced that, if you so desired you can set RYL's forums to only display General and the two vets boards, and no others. This allows RYL to seem (and be) a smaller place for those who only use parts of it. If there is a thread that really winds you up, you can ignore it, meaning it vanishes from site, never to annoy you again (you can get it back if you want though!) and if peoples Sigs get on your nerves, you can turn them off.
Alot of the upgrades might seem like unnessesary bells and whistles - but when combined they mean less irritation and a better experience for visitors and members.
And RYL can be registered and used within minutes on a basic level, but probably takes some time to fully master. That's a good thing for a website that has members spending upwards of 4 hours a day on it. it means regular members can have RYL just the way they like it, and I don't think that fact that people haven't got the total hang of every feature within the first 24 hours is a bad or worrying thing :)
Harley
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