You just don't remember anything anymore. IIRC, it was implemented around 2001. It was little more than a curiosity though, you may have just bypassed the little colored "pills" on comments, but aside from being angry about having foes, or happy about getting a new friend, nothing was really done with the feature.
I think that friends' posts had an extra point of moderation calculated for your display, though that feature might not have been present in early incarnations.
