I've just signed up and found that I got notifications of replies to forum threads I posted to in my email. I've never had this on any other forum, so I had to search a bit to change this setting. I don't think this should be the default setting. I've noticed the site is rather slow multiple times per day and that could probably be fixed by changing this default setting. Just a suggestion.
This is a matter of user preferences. I like email notifications. When site is running slowly I receive email notifications before PMs etc show up. I will certainly understand if Shawn feels the notification procedure is causing DigitalPoint to run slowly.
You can change the setting for your account here: http://forums.digitalpoint.com/profile.php?do=editoptions