There's a lot that needs to be done with the VMs, PMs and the Statuses.

From what it feels like, the Statuses are meant to be a bit like a twitter feed, a place to just mention something silly and fun, or promote a Roleplay. What could be added is a system, similar to Facebook's feeds, where you can select your favourite users and their feeds will come up before others. Its not blocking, but it'll help promote your friend's statuses and if you don't like seeing the negative comments, just deselect them so their status messages go back into the normal rotation.

That way the side bar can be used for your friends, and clicking on a link will expand that out to the forum's listings.