I have NO idea

I guess it's for people who get tired of seeing the new message count going up.

you dont have to, you can read them instead! as you read msgs, counts will go down.

once you mark as read only NEW messages will show up in responses and new plurks, making it easier to find fresh stuff.

if someone responds to and OLD plurk, it bumps up to fresh again~so even if you have

to cheat now and again by marking all unread,most hot topics will still be there for you to catch up on later...