I guess I'm just a cranky old fart, but I don't see any value in the friends function or private messages for that matter. No offense to anyone, but it just seems silly to me. This is a discussion forum and discussions can take place on the forums. I looked for a way to disable "friends" because I really don't want to be bothered by it. I found a way to prevent emails to be sent requesting to be friends, but I don't know if that prevents requests completely. I disabled private messaging a while back. The appeal of the whole "social networking" thing just escapes me.