1. Go to your profile. On the left, under Modify Profile, click Notifications and Email. There will be a button where you can turn off that feature.
2. Apparently hiding yourself is an option, but Phillip is getting rid of it sometime this week (the 5th I think I remember reading).
3. I just discovered recently, at the bottom of the page when you are looking at either the whole forum (such as Chez Tremblay) or a specific thread, there is a drop-down menu that says "Jump to." Makes it easy!
Hope that helped!