First, thank you, I really appreciate the reply!
Second, I like this "mark all read" solution as well. However, if I do go down the right of keep entries of a user id read thread id, would I still want to have a combined index on my DB of userid+threadid even though each insert will require a re-index. But if I don't use that as my index it will be creating a full table search correct? I don't think there is any other way around creating that index for it even though inserts will be slower. Would love to hear your thoughts.