I would enjoy the buddy chat... But caution, it has already been suggested by Banjee:
http://forum.maniaplanet.com/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=1318
Maybe it's better to support Banjee's idea on his thread in order to avoid the giant mix.

(And to not open 10 times the same topic)
I'm less willing to support notifications... It could seem to that:
Kikoololdu71 is now a buddy of TheRevengerOfDarthVader54
Noobwhoplaysaloneonhisprivateserver drove a dedi top 1 on TheMapIDontShare
Kikoololdu71 removed TheRevengerOfDarthVader54 of his buddylist
Imofflinesinceoneyear added Test-server5624467 to his favorites
TheRevengerOfDarthVader54 says: "@ all: I'm sad because i lost a buddy. The TM Community sucks!"
TheRevengerOfDarthVader54 says: "@ all: I give up with Trackmania"
TheRevengerOfDarthVader54 left Trackmania
TheRevengerOfDarthVader54 launched Trackmania
TheRevengerOfDarthVader54 joined TheBadBoys group
TheRevengerOfDarthVader54 joined UselessBuddy34 on Test-server5624467
TheRevengerOfDarthVader54 is now a buddy of Imofflinesinceoneyear
Look at ManiaHome, it's already that. And i've been soft with this example: i didn't bother you with all nicknames or avatar changes and varied useless stuff.
According to me, the notifications system should be filtered in order to remove all the shit we don't care. At least:
- Enable the players to hide all the AUTOMATIC notifications (i.e each time the guy at the source didn't DECIDE to send something to all his buddylist).
- Enable the players to prevent the system to send such automatic notifications to all their buddylist
- Enable the players to hide the notifications or message who come from somebody who send too much ones.
- Give players some tools to find the information they need in this huge maze. For instance "When did TheRevengerOfDarthVader54 joined TheBadBoys group ?" (If this happened one year ago, impossible to find the date "by hand")
Would remain only news whose source believe they are important.
More interesting imho would be a clan management system, as suggested by Tcq:
http://forum.maniaplanet.com/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=178
Lots of useful features (way more useful than the shit i wrote before) are suggested in this topic... But it seems Nadeo isn't willing to implement them all in TM2. Since this talk is kinda old, maybe Nadeo changed its mind since then. It could be useful to relaunch this topic.
The examples of notifications are fakes, ofc. Sorry if a fake nickname seems to yours.