What does the "buddies" function do?

[downer]

I'm glad to have worked out the ignore function. Now I'm curious about buddies function. What does it do?

[polly_mer]

On the home page, I can see a notice near the bottom like "18 Guests, 19 Users (1 Buddy)".

Buddies I have marked show up in a slightly different color in the list of active users so I can click on their names, go their profile, and then click on most recent posts.

In the buddies list, I can also have a shortcut to the profiles that I want to read post-by-post instead of by topic or all new posts.

I don't know what else can be done, but I do appreciate being able to more quickly check on posts by people who are nearly always worth reading instead of wading through all the new posts on any given topic, especially once it's clear where a thread is heading and I'm only looking for the diamonds.

I can, of course, search for members, click to their profile from the search, and then click on "recent posts", but going by memory instead of the list means I sometimes miss people who are much less posty and therefore didn't immediately come to mind.

[paultuttle]

On the home page, I can see a notice near the bottom like "18 Guests, 19 Users (1 Buddy)".

Buddies I have marked show up in a slightly different color in the list of active users so I can click on their names, go their profile, and then click on most recent posts.

In the buddies list, I can also have a shortcut to the profiles that I want to read post-by-post instead of by topic or all new posts.

I don't know what else can be done, but I do appreciate being able to more quickly check on posts by people who are nearly always worth reading instead of wading through all the new posts on any given topic, especially once it's clear where a thread is heading and I'm only looking for the diamonds.

I can, of course, search for members, click to their profile from the search, and then click on "recent posts", but going by memory instead of the list means I sometimes miss people who are much less posty and therefore didn't immediately come to mind.

Good to know, Polly! Thanks much for the explanation.