Forum function - Mark All Topics as Read

I've raised this point before, but people didn't seem to get me--or I, them.

I'll try again.

When I'm looking at a particular forum (board, section, whatever you want to call it--"Off Topics", for example, where this topic is posted), and I'm viewing the list of topics/threads.  The "mark all topics as read" function seems to take too broad a stroke.

I expect to have that function just mark the topics in that particular forum as read, not across everywhere.

Specifically, I'm talking about the situation where I:

1)  Log in, and am viewing the list of all forums
2)  Use the "new posts" link to open the list of topics with new posts since my last visit, for a particular forum (I typically do that in a new browser tab, to speed up navigation.)
3)  Read the new posts/topics on that forum, that interested me (or I had time for), and then want to go ahead and mark the remainder read--but just for that forum, not everywhere
4)  Hope to go back to my original browser tab, where I have the list of all forums, so I could pick the next one with new (to me) posts.
5)  Can't do step 4 because "mark all topics as read" reset everything on me

I know I can contrast that with the "mark forum as read" option.  But oddly, from what I've noticed, I only seem to see that option when there aren't any new posts on a particular forum, anyway.  So I wouldn't need to mark anything on that forum as read (they already have been, from my perspective).

I realize I'm by no means a Superuser, around here.  But I've used more than a few forums in my day, and navigating around them has never confused or surprised me, much.

Thanks for listening, even if this just ends up as a repeat of the last "conversation" I started on this subject.  If anyone can give me a better "primer" on this, it might help others, too.