We are going way beyond the antiquated buddy system on the next upgrade. Yes, there's more upgrades and torture to come, possibly as soon as this weekend. Moving forward, you'll be able to follow certain users and then go to a dedicated page to see all the latest posts from only those guys you follow. You'll still be able to ignore users as usual.
I've never understood the point of that to be honest with you, especially when the forum has hundreds or even thousands of members online. It just looks like one big-ass blob of pointless data.
the buddy system is useful because you could PM people who were currently online knowing that they likely could respond immediately to one's message. this is not an "antiquated feature" but a futuristic feature which made ET unique among chat boards by enhancing communication between members.
You'll be able to do that. All I was saying is that you'll be able to do a lot more with your buddy list than just see which of them are online when you are.