There was a period of time when I kept getting 60-70+ notifications every time I visited website, sometimes even up 90+, but it's due to the fact that I usually visit forum only few times a day, so I have like two huge time gaps at least - during the day and when I sleep.
In fact, while I sleep usually only 4-5 hours a day, in the morning I get the biggest amount of notifications, cause all the fun always starts when I go to bed))) (due to geography)
So eventually I set at least half of my threads to "unwatch") Mostly those are threads with finished games.
And yeah, it bothers me too (red flags), I can't move on until I check all the notifications. So at the morning it usually toke at least an hour or even more just to go through all of these. Also I try to stay away from very crowded threads like BADIK, SG, BW etc. Otherwise I'd just go crazy I think)