Something I'm curious about, SL:
If an alert that someone has posted in a thread I'm participating in appears, even if I go and post in it, let alone just read it, the alert remains unless I actually click on it.
IOW, navigating to participated threads from the "New Posts" window, which is my M.O. in most forums, doesn't clear alerts that refer to them.
Is this normal behaviour? If there's a setting in the software that you can toggle, I reckon it'd be worth investigating.