1) what does the buddylist does. ok u add someone and what? i tested and nothing happened. i didnt see any difference
2) where is this similar threads thingy ?
With the buddylist, if you added someone to it and went to the PM part of the forums, instead of typing out their name, you could just select it via a dropdown menu instead.
for your 2nd question:
ACP -> Board Settings -> Show Thread Options -> "Show 'Similar Threads' Table"
i turned similar threads but i dont see anything new showing when i read a thread like to display something similar
You need a lot of threads that have similar topics, then the topics will start to show.