Yeah, the forum thing will get a while to get used to, y'know? And aw, sorry about your buddies, but you know, you'll have loads of people that you could trade and battle with on here for sure! We have different sections for that, which are the trading board and the Battling board, where you can do that! So, welcome to the forums, and gooood morning to you! (:
And yup, if you want help to complete your dex, you can head on over to the Trade Section's Quick Trade thread, and if you have any specific pokemon that you want, you can make a thread about it there, and loads of people can help you out with whatever you need! And yup, I wish you luck on completing it! It'll take a while, but, I'm sure you can do it. :3
See you soon! Take care, and if you need a hand with anything, just give the staff team a holler! Hope we can see each other again sometime. <33