Suggestions

It would be great to have the ability to private message people. 
Also, I can't seem to figure out how to customize the privacy settings, so it would be nice to make this more intuitive and easier to find.
I have tried to create a private buddy group, but received a message saying that I needed to make 15+ comments first. I have been replying to several threads (multiple times), why do my replies not count towards "comments" and why do I need to make so many comments before creating a private group?