strypey, You know what I'd really like? Notifications categorised by "temperature".
Say I get a reply from a ranter whose misinformed post I do eventually want to correct. I want to rate their post (or the whole thread) as "hot", so all their posts in that thread (or all posts in the thread) are moved to a separate list of "hot" notifications. That way I can continue to browse and respond to "warm" or "cold" replies, without having more ranting shoved in my face if I'm not in the mood.