Module development and code questions

what version is this discussion forum module installed on this site?

the standard forum, or at least the one i installed doesn't work the same as this one, with topic coutns, link to new topics, etc.

and what version of drupal does this site run?

For the profile.module - the Install/Readme file says:

Requirements
------------
This module requires Drupal CVS version circa March 2001.

Is this why I can only see the profile module working in my admin interface, but it will not show up on the user-end?

i'm trying to add a wysiwyg kind of javascript formatting buttons onto the top of textarea fields in page, story, blog and comment entry... but nary a clue do i have...

I studied the project.module to see how I should send mails to my mailinglist subscribers. I found the _mail hook. So on, evberything goes okay.
At the end of the project_mail there is the following line:

$trans = get_html_translation_table(HTML_ENTITIES);

Is this required to send the mails in ASC II? So when I bypass this, people 'can' recieve mails in HTML-format?

The meaning is to let users choose if they want to recieve HTML mails or in ASC II format, using radiobuttons. The HTML mail will be using the default Drupal theme as a template for the mail.