Ignoring a thread

[Matt]

Maybe a silly question...

Does the messageboard have a way to ignore/automatically mark as read a topic?

In this case I am referring to the Word Association in off topic. I come to the forum and look at the notification of which areas have been updated since the last visit, the off topic area is always marked as updated - and more often than no its just the word association

I don't give two hoots about that topic - so is there a way to either get the system to ignore it, or to make the board not mark it as having unread posts?

[Murrayminor]

I just click on the "New posts" tab at the top of the page and scroll through.
If I want to see who has replied to a post I click on the "Your Posts" tab that way I can just ignore the posts I don't feel relevant