Easy....certain forums I don't bother to look in. I look at the Cricsim stuff....subbies and off topic stuff. I go in look and see what's new look at the title and go nope not me at all. If it is something I want to go in I just go to the last page.
I automatically subscribe to all the threads I post in, and use "User CP" to see all the new posts from threads I've already posted in. And then when I run out of those, I use New Posts.
Found that out the hard way when I first signed up for CW, few days of posting, check my emails. 4083 unread messages.