Got to get a post in to prevent relegation.
Only users that had very few post were subject to banishment. You would not have been included in the exile.
I find it tedious to get rid of the green markers
Me too. I simply placed a bookmark to "all unread topics" to my shortcut bar, and it displays all the unread post nicely in a list so that I may choose which of are interest. When done, I simply click "mark as read" at the bottom so they don't show up next time.
I never get any email notifications, unless there is a reply to a post that I have participated in. This is a setting in your profile.