Mark all as read?

I believe when you return back to the forum, the new indicator will realize what's new since your last visit and not appear.  Is that what you're looking for?  Or something else?

If you join an established forum, or return after a period of absence, there may be a large number of posts that you don't want to trawl through to stop everything showing as new or having new replies....

yes, thats what i am looking for... a way to clear all "new" icons.

i think when you return to a forum with a bunch of new icons, leave the forum, then return in the future, it should remove the 'new' status.  So it's like an automatic 'mark as read' after you visit once.  Is that not true?

Yes, but the posts with new replies will still look like this :

ok, thanks, i'll add that to our feature wishlist.