I don't see a problem with "cluttering up" subscriptions, I've got over 14000 and don't have any issues - but then I only use them for this purpose (Brad has said before that it is a non-issue in terms of database size, etc).

I've got no idea what the default setting is for subscriptions, it may well be "no email notification" - but as you've been around for several years, perhaps that particular option wasn't available back then (I've always had email notifications), and when it became available your existing choice was respected.


One way or another, this feature has been available for many years - but perhaps at some point in the past you required email notification to enable it.