You can mark a whole forum read. Will that help? On the main forum page, where there are the arrows in the circles showing that you have new posts, click on an arrow, and it will go away. Or, on the thread listing in each forum, up near the top there's "Mark this forum read."
Phyllis in Ukraine, with Jaan (AO grad), Raia (AO grad), Asya (age 17), Bogdan (age 13)