instead of having friends, change/modify it to something similar to followers on twitter. call it fans instead or something. and then whenever someone you're a fan of posts a new chop/topic, you're notified.
just gives a bit more purpose to the idea, the whole 'friends' thing while a cool idea, doesnt really do much.

(note the difference between fans and friends are fans are not mutual, so for eg the elite choppers, whod have 100+ fans, dont get notified everytime one of them posts a new chop)

yes ive also thought of that idea but then it turns into devianart lol

Nice idea, makes sense.

I think its a very good and sensible idea. I'll look into it a bit further down the track. It'll work well when I get the new notifications system in place. Thanks for the input and sensibly thought out contribution Minds_eye.