I haven't even gotten the email yet but that's not really surprising. Yahoo likes to be a putz now and then. By now and then I mean like every day.
I use Yahoo and POP PEEPER set up to check my yahoo account seems to get them before I see them in the browser yahoo mail
Gmail has desktop notifications you can turn on under Settings. It will display a short popup when you get new e-mails.
PM isn't noticeable either here. I see people tell others "I sent you PM" in the forum because we don't look up there while browsing the forums. It needs more of a eye-catching notification. Maybe have it turn red or something.
Settings -> General Settings and turn on "New Private Message Notification Pop-up". You'll get a pop up notification when you receive a PM.
You would think those doing them would be questioning why the 'end of the batch' is going down slower than normal. Typically you get below 500 left and its gone in 30 seconds. LOL