1. Means the software will automatically find any links you may have put in your message and turn them into something that a person can click on. If you don't check this, the links will looks like just plain text and be unclickable.

2. Means exactly that -- smiley text will not be converted to its graphical representation.

3. Friendship requests usually show up as a new Notification, in the area that new private messages show up in the upper-right hand corner of every page (below the search box and the 2 navigation bars). If you miss it there, you should also find the new request at the bottom of your Friends & Contacts list (scroll down).

DocJohn