I was using Option 1 until about 3 days ago on my board and then switched to Option 3. I used to dislike the version here on vb.org, but now I really like it (thus why I changed my site). Option 3 allows me to go into my Admin CP (like when I help users here) and not have all the threads on my site marked as read afterwards. I am having to 'train' my users to Mark Forums Read though. I'm getting a bit of grousing about the change.