I’d like to add a question if you don’t mind.
Is there a way to return to a thread later and go right to where you stopped reading before? Some of the fast growing threads get me lost when I open them again.
If you post on the thread you can go to your history and start from there. That is why sometimes you see someone just post bookmark or read later.
Insert a ping (sfl, bfl and bttt are common), and then trackback through your self pings.
I don’t know if this will help you, but if you go to my account - preferences and pick the blank option it will open a new separate browser window for each thread you click on. If one is really interesting you can leave that window open and when you go back to look at new posts just refresh the page.
I hope that makes sense.
The easiest way is to open the link in a tab. You can do that by right-clicking on the link and selecting "Open in new tab", or if you have a 3-button mouse you can just click the link with the centre button. That way you can just go back to the original thread by selecting its tab in your browser.