For me the “Show unread posts since last visit” still returns a huge amount of posts, so that is why I first use the “Show new replies to your posts,” this reduces the numbers to a manageable number (for me).

So I use the Show new replies to your posts, which I believed required the notifications enabled) and having that enabled built up the huge total.

However, things are not always what they seem in the forums and that is why I’m trying the option I mentioned that you quoted, disable ‘all’ notifications and still click the “Show new replies to your posts,” link and would you believe it it still works, so I have absolutely no idea what the SMF software uses for a reference as to what topics I have contributed to and be able to list those that have replies ???