I just tried the "Mark all read" trick too and I'll see how well it works. It was still a little slow for me to exit the Off Topic forums today, but I'll check again tomorrow.

BTW, I finally went into the announcements section, which I never remember to look at. There I noticed Cris's wonderful post about the empeg wedding! Was that posted there originally or was it moved there? I feel bad for missing it, though even if I had seen it, it doesn't look like mere mortals are allowed to post to the announcements section... Anyway, congrats, Cris!